Developing indicators for measuring the agricultural sciences Students’ Engagement

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PHD student Agricultural Education Agricultural Extension and Education Group Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Molla Sani, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan , Molla Sani, Iran.

3 Professor and faculty planning in higher education Group and Institute for research & planning in higher education

Abstract

Student Engagement is a phrase that was first proposed to understand and explain academic failure and was
considered as a basis for reforming the process of education. This study is an applied research and in terms
of data collection method is a survey research. To achieve the research goal, fuzzy hierarchical analysis and
factor analysis methods were used. Research participants in the fuzzy hierarchical analysis section included
20 agricultural higher education professionals who participated to extract and evaluate the relative importance
of indicators for measuring student engagement. Findings of fuzzy hierarchical analysis showed that peer
learning, Work Integrated Learning, and experiential learning with professors were of greater importance in the
engagement of agricultural students. In the survey section with a statistical population including 1000 third and
fourth year students of Iranian universities and colleges of agriculture, based on the Krejcie and Morgan table,
278 students (128 male and 118 female) were selected as the sample size of the research using Stratified sampling
with proportional assignment. Findings of factor analysis indicate that from Students' opinions, components
such as combination of specialized experiences in learning, reflective and integrated learning, participatory
learning, effective teaching methods, learning strategies and Higher Order learning are the most important in the
student engagement of students in universities and colleges of agricultural sciences, respectively.

Keywords

References

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