13 pages, Much is known about the benefits of interacting with animals for learners. However, little is known about the animals’ potential influence on the communication ability of the presenter/educator. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of undergraduate students who used live animals (baby chicks, turtles, salamanders, and non-venomous snakes) during in-class and outreach presentations and the animals’ role in influencing their communication ability. The influence of an instructor who teaches with such animals was also examined. A purposive sample of students enrolled in an introductory environmental education course open to all majors was obtained and five students agreed to participate in semi-structured interviews. Once audio was recorded and transcribed, the constant comparative method was used to analyze the data. Six reoccurring themes emerged. Presenting with a live animal (1) helped students feel less nervous while teaching, (2) increased presenter confidence, (3) promoted flexibility while teaching, (4) encouraged audience analysis, (5) helped create a positive, comfortable learning environment, and (6) influenced student career decisions. These themes aligned with Bandura’s triatic reciprocality model. Pre-service teacher education programs may consider using small, live animals, when relevant, with apprentice teachers as they can equally benefit the presenter and learning environment.
24 pages, The central research question that guided this study was: how does the framing of written content on Facebook influence public perception of information regarding the management of wild horses and burros? This research was conducted using content analysis to examine 136 Facebook posts of six organizations communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy and 8,295 comments made by individuals to the organization’s posts. There were eight major themes that emerged from the data, organized by the interaction of three frames: organization frame, audience frame, and organization-audience interaction frame. Organization frame themes included: organization positionality and its influence on framing posts for emotional appeal and audience action, and organization post style, post frequency, and response frequency and its influence on audience reception of the issued. Audience frame themes included: action-oriented responses, emotional responses, government responses, and management-related responses. Organization-audience interaction frame themes included: the influence of organization comments on audience’s perception of the issue, and misinformation concerns.. These themes provide insight into how organizations and individuals are communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy using social media and illuminate opportunities for further research into social media communications to positively impact agricultural literacy. Recommendations for practice include: supplying necessary information to social media instead of relying on the audience to click links, keeping the perceived-cost and investment of requested audience participation low to encourage activism, and strategic planning regarding the frequency and types of post to maximize audience engagement.
13 pages., While work on agricultural messaging is abundant, the way that audiences form perceptions of messages is not well understood and little research has examined the cognitive effects of image and word associations in an agricultural context. Previous knowledge gap research has shown that socioeconomic status and access to information could be one contributor of perception formation. We propose that these variables could also impact cognitive processing. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how components of cognitive dissonance and knowledge gap theory apply in the context of a contentious agricultural issue. Data were collected from 1,049 United States’ residents through an online survey with an embedded experimental design. Respondents randomly received one of two image and word association pairings. After viewing the treatment, measures of cognitive conflict, demographics, and desire to learn more were collected. The results showed that the cognitive conflict instrument performed differently in the context of a complex agricultural issue than in prior research. Additionally, the message pairings had a stronger influence on cognitive conflict components than demographic characteristics. Finally, the desire to learn more was impacted by the message treatments. Future research on cognitive conflict and advanced modeling is recommended.
Rose, Chelsea (author), Stephens, Carrie A. (author), Stripling, Christopher (author), Cross, Tim (author), Sanok, Danielle E. (author), and Brawner, Shelby (author)
Format:
journal article
Publication Date:
2016-06-30
Published:
USA: PKP Publishing Services
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 208 Document Number: D13315
13 pages, The study sought to identify the benefits of FFA membership based on the fulfillment of three basic human needs: love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The study focused on the fulfillment of FFA members’ basic human needs as defined by Abraham Maslow. The three needs on which this study focused are: love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The study found a majority of FFA members’ three basic human needs are met due to their involvement in career development events, leadership positions, and other FFA activities. Of all research questions, the highest concentration of members claimed to have a more enjoyable high school experience as a result of their membership in the FFA. Future research should focus on determining how the FFA improves the high school experience. This research could be helpful to other career and technical education organizations and future success within the FFA. Moreover, linking the relevance of meeting Maslow’s basic human needs with active participation in student organizations could assist teachers and program advisors as they recruit and retain members.
15 pages, Using a semi-structured interview approach, ten mentors from a leadership development program focused on building leaders in Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences across the nation provided insights regarding their mentoring method, process, and experiences. Mentors interviewed agreed the mentoring process was beneficial for themselves as well as their mentee. However, clear thematic differences were evident depending on whether a previously existing relationship was in place between mentor and mentee. Specifically, mentoring relationships that were extensions of previous relationships tended to have less formal structures and more subjective outcomes than newly established mentoring relationship counterparts. Nevertheless, both categories of mentoring relationships indicated a desire for a formal set of mentoring expectations as well as access to program curriculum to help guide and inform the process.