5 pages., Article #:3TOT1, via online journal., Higher education resources are increasingly limited due to declining budget revenue and other challenges. Thus, it is vital for Cooperative Extension to synergize efforts of disseminating education to the public. Promoting public scholarship in and beyond Extension is a promising initiative that can foster collaborations by leveraging existing resources in advancing the Extension mission. We highlight a new program aimed at encouraging a culture of public scholarship across academia. The program is intended to increase knowledge about public scholarship and awareness of its benefits to stakeholders, identify barriers to public scholarship, and provide concrete examples of ways Extension and non-Extension faculty can collaborate on research and programming efforts.
18 pages., via online journal., Meeting the demands of a proficient scientific workforce depends on students’ communication skill preparation. To describe students’ self-perceptions of their communication skills, we surveyed 315 students in Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Participants noted they were most proficient in their ability to listen effectively and least proficient in asking effective questions. Each communication skill characteristic showed a statistically significant difference before and after college engagement, but we found no statistically significant difference in the overall communication scores of students. Therefore, we recommend: 1) interviewing employers to understand their perceptions of entry-level employees; 2) investigating when students transition from false sense of confidence to actual confidence; 3) conducting a longitudinal study to investigate students’ perceptions of communication skills throughout their college experience; 4) evaluating faculty’s communication
teaching methods across disciplines; and 5) investigating the influence of self-reflection on students’ attained communication skills. Conducting such studies could lead to stronger connections between the academy and the industry, especially as faculty strive to align their teaching with needs of the industry.
O'Neil, Maureen (author / International Development Research Center, PO Box 8500 Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H9, Canada) and International Development Research Centre , Ottawa, Canada
Format:
Speech
Publication Date:
2004
Published:
Canada
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 139 Document Number: C21064
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes4 Document Number: C12430
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Summary report of the Southern Regional Work Conferences for the Improvement of College Teaching in Agriculture. Sponsored by Danforth Foundation, Farm Foundation and Sears-Roebuck Foundation. 19 p.
Case report about public service activities in the human dimensions program of the Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
