An Innovative Model of Agricultural Educationand Training in Guinea: Trending Toward Self-Sustainability

Exploringlocally-designed Agricultural Education and Training (AET) programs provides opportunitiesfor the entire system of AET to improve. Recognizing this potential, researchers conducted a case study of the Centre d’Apprentissage et de Formation Professionnelle Post-Primaire (i.e.,Center for Post Primary Professional Training [CAFPPP]) located in Macenta, Guinea.The case study was completed in conjunction with a comprehensive program review and participant-engaged strategic planning process. Results illuminate CAFPPP facessignificant challenges, including (a) limited funding, (b) insufficient teacher and administrator training,(c) limited curricular scope,and (d)systematic challenges. Additionally, three critical strengthswere identified at CAFPPP,(a)utilization of an effective, practice-based educational model, (b) stakeholder support, and (c) access to fertile agricultural land. Considering bothstrengths and weaknesses, researchers and CAFPPP stakeholders co-created a model to propel CAFPPP toward itsstatedgoal of becomingan “autonomous center of excellence.”The dynamic model envisionsa school leveraging its strengths to systematically address identified weaknessesvia intersecting approaches to funding, teacher and administrator development, and graduate support. Presentation of the model is supplemented with a discussionof, and recommendationsfor, application of themodel at CAFPPP. Furthermore, opportunities for all AET programs to reflect upon, and evaluate, current strategies in light of the proposed model are discusse

We’ve Crossed a Line: A Philosophical Examination of Systemic Implications Surrounding SBAE Teachers’ Attempts at Boundary Setting

This philosophical paper situates the system of School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) in light of teachers’ attempts at boundary work. We define the system of SBAE through a Social Ecological Resilience approach, particularly by examining publications in the Journal of Agricultural Education (JAE) from 2021 to explore what SBAE demands of its teachers. Having worked with SBAE teachers over the last three years as they have struggled with attempts at boundary ownership, we question what this personal struggle indicates about a broader system. We argue for a bounded system by which respect for boundary ownership is reciprocated as an expected norm. We conclude by situating solutions oriented around the factors of Social Ecological Resilience theory. This work engages individuals across the system, rather than just the teachers, toward systemic accountability and transformation

Leadership, Mathematics, and Science Integration in Secondary Agricultural Education

Research exploring methods to improve student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science in the United States is critically important. In this study, I sought to delve into the potential for student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science within the context of school-based agricultural education. Recognizing the teacher as a gatekeeper to the contextual learning within agricultural education, this study explored potential factors influencing the intentions of agriculture teachers to integrate leadership, mathematics, and science within their curriculum. In order to accomplish this research aim, relevant data were collected from a simple random sample of secondary agriculture teachers in the United States during the 2015-2016 school year. The potential predictors to the intentions of secondary agriculture teachers to integrate leadership, mathematics, and science were identified from the theory of planned behavior. Within the theory of planned behavior, an individual's attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are posited as predicting the intentions of an individual to perform an identified behavior. In addition to these predictors, I included teachers' self-reported leadership, mathematics, and science knowledge as a potential predictor of their intention to integrate each of the three respective content areas. Each of the three predictive models (i.e. predictive model of leadership integration, predictive model of mathematics integration, and predictive model of science integration) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. In total, secondary agriculture teachers indicated intentions to integrate leadership content into 28.49% of their agriculture curriculum, mathematics content into 24.51% of their curriculum, and science into 39.91% of their curriculum. Within leadership integration, attitudes toward leadership integration and subjective norms regarding leadership integration were identified as statistically significant, positive predictors of their intentions to integrate leadership content within their curriculum. Within mathematics integration, perceived behavioral control was identified as the only statistically significant, positive predictor of intended mathematics integration. And, within science integration, only self-reported knowledge of science was identified as a statistically significant, negative predictor of intended science integration within agriculture curriculum. This research expands the current understanding of leadership, mathematics, and science integration within school-based agricultural education. Additionally, this work pinpoints the need for additional research into the attitudes and subjective norms of secondary agriculture teachers regarding leadership integration, perceived behavioral control integrating mathematics, and the unexpected relationship between self-perceived knowledge of science and the level of science integration intended among secondary agriculture teachers. The need and nature of these potential explorations, along with specific recommendations for practice, are also discussed

Games in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education

Educational games provide learners with team-based, experiential, and problem-centered learning opportunities. Therefore, educational games are recommended to encourage learner success in an increasingly complex and collaborative world. Research exploring interventions to increase teacher affinity toward games is needed to inform expansion of games within classrooms. The current study leveraged the input, environment, and outcomes model to analyze perceptions of games held by school-based agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) educators before and after a professional development experience focused on educational games. Results indicate teachers held a favorable perception of games before engaging in the professional development. Engagement in the professional development was related to only minimal increases in the perceptions held by teachers regarding educational games. Importantly, individual items within the construct illuminate an expanded view of educational games and their utility within AFNR classrooms as a result of the professional development experience. Specifically, respondents saw educational games as being valuable to engage learners in new content, not just as a review tool. Findings suggest a professional development experience related to games may help expand teacher conceptualizations of educational game utility. Specific recommendations are included to expand teacher understanding and use of educational games

Land-Based Learning: A Learning Paradigm for Building Community and Sustainable Farms

Mitigating complex problems is increasingly essential to sustaining life on Earth. Empowering current and future generations to address these problems requires rethinking traditional education approaches. This article serves as a primer for land-based learning—defined as a pedagogical approach in which learners collaborate with community members to implement place-based interventions within agricultural systems to increase the sustainability of their community. As an introduction to land-based learning, the article (a) describes critical checkpoints within land-based learning, (b) illuminates the role of Extension educators in facilitating land-based learning, and (c) introduces a case study of land-based learning in Michigan\u27s Upper Peninsula

The cost-effectiveness of domiciliary non-invasive ventilation in patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:a systematic review and economic evaluation

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic progressive lung disease characterised by non-reversible airflow obstruction. Exacerbations are a key cause of morbidity and mortality and place a considerable burden on health-care systems. While there is evidence that patients benefit from non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in hospital during an acute exacerbation, evidence supporting home use for more stable COPD patients is limited. In the UK, domiciliary NIV is considered on health economic grounds in patients after three hospital admissions for acute hypercapnic respiratory failure. Objective: To assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of domiciliary NIV by systematic review and economic evaluation. Data sources: Bibliographic databases, conference proceedings and ongoing trial registries up to September 2014. Methods: Standard systematic review methods were used for identifying relevant clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies assessing NIV compared with usual care or comparing different types of NIV. Risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane guidelines and relevant economic checklists. Results for primary effectiveness outcomes (mortality, hospitalisations, exacerbations and quality of life) were presented, where possible, in forest plots. A speculative Markov decision model was developed to compare the cost-effectiveness of domiciliary NIV with usual care from a UK perspective for post-hospital and more stable populations separately. Results: Thirty-one controlled effectiveness studies were identified, which report a variety of outcomes. For stable patients, a modest volume of evidence found no benefit from domiciliary NIV for survival and some non-significant beneficial trends for hospitalisations and quality of life. For post-hospital patients, no benefit from NIV could be shown in terms of survival (from randomised controlled trials) and findings for hospital admissions were inconsistent and based on limited evidence. No conclusions could be drawn regarding potential benefit from different types of NIV. No cost-effectiveness studies of domiciliary NIV were identified. Economic modelling suggested that NIV may be cost-effective in a stable population at a threshold of £30,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio £28,162), but this is associated with uncertainty. In the case of the post-hospital population, results for three separate base cases ranged from usual care dominating to NIV being cost-effective, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of less than £10,000 per QALY gained. All estimates were sensitive to effectiveness estimates, length of benefit from NIV (currently unknown) and some costs. Modelling suggested that reductions in the rate of hospital admissions per patient per year of 24% and 15% in the stable and post-hospital populations, respectively, are required for NIV to be cost-effective. Limitations: Evidence on key clinical outcomes remains limited, particularly quality-of-life and long-term (> 2 years) effects. Economic modelling should be viewed as speculative because of uncertainty around effect estimates, baseline risks, length of benefit of NIV and limited quality-of-life/utility data. Conclusions: The cost-effectiveness of domiciliary NIV remains uncertain and the findings in this report are sensitive to emergent data. Further evidence is required to identify patients most likely to benefit from domiciliary NIV and to establish optimum time points for starting NIV and equipment settings. Future work recommendations: The results from this report will need to be re-examined in the light of any new trial results, particularly in terms of reducing the uncertainty in the economic model. Any new randomised controlled trials should consider including a sham non-invasive ventilation arm and/or a higher- and lower-pressure arm. Individual participant data analyses may help to determine whether or not there are any patient characteristics or equipment settings that are predictive of a benefit of NIV and to establish optimum time points for starting (and potentially discounting) NIV. Study registration: This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42012003286. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme

The teacher efficacy of early career agriculture teachers in five western states

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between three teacher development experiences and early career agriculture teachers' efficacy. Additionally this study sought to define the relationship between five teacher efficacy constructs and career commitment among early career agriculture teachers in five western states. A census of all agriculture teachers in their first five years of teaching school-based agriculture in California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington was attempted. Early career teachers' perceptions of the impact of three teacher development experiences, agriculture teacher preparation, student teaching and professional development experiences, were measured. Five areas of teacher efficacy were measured: classroom management, instructional strategies, leadership of students, ability to teach science and ability to teach math. This study found that math and science teaching efficacy were the lowest efficacy areas for these early career agriculture teachers. The perceptions of the impact of teacher development experiences were significantly related to teacher efficacy in the majority of teacher efficacy areas. Additionally, this study found that the five teacher efficacy areas measured were all significantly correlated with career commitment. These findings led the researcher to conclude that increased efforts need to be made to improve early career agriculture teachers' efficacy in math and science teaching. Additionally, the researcher concludes that agriculture teacher preparation, student teaching and professional development experiences are significant to the development of these early career agriculture teachers' efficacy. Lastly, classroom management efficacy, instructional strategies efficacy, leadership of students efficacy, ability to teach science efficacy and ability to teach math efficacy are all significant components to the retention of these early career agriculture teachers; therefore, future research should investigate specific experiences that related to increased agriculture teacher efficacy in those five areas

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Agricultural Education: An Exploration of Challenges Faced by Teachers

Exploring the challenges faced by agriculture teachers during the Spring 2020 semester brings to light the reality of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, understanding the challenges faced by teachers empowers the profession to make agricultural education more resilient to broader, social forces in the future. In this study, a national sample of agriculture teachers were asked to identify the three most pressing challenges they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using qualitative research methods, eight challenge themes emerged: (a) Communication, (b) FFA (National FFA Organization, a student leadership organization previously named the “Future Farmers of America”), (c) Instructional Quality, (d) Program Facilities and Activities, (e) Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE), (f) Student Motivation, (g) Technology and the Internet, and (h) Work-Life Balance. Using quasi-statistical methods, the most commonly reported challenges were identified - Instructional Quality, FFA, and Student Motivation. Analysis of all the challenges suggested permeation across each aspect of the three-component model of agricultural education. Furthermore, many challenges appeared to be related to each other. Finally, analysis of the results illuminated responding teachers, and their students, each experienced the challenges brought about by COVID-19 differently, including evidence of exacerbated educational inequality for students from lower income households

Urinary Tract Infection Diagnosis and Response to Therapy in Long-Term Care: A Prospective Observational Study

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities is high, and is a source of inappropriate antibiotic prescription. OBJECTIVE: To establish symptoms and signs associated with a positive urine culture, and to determine whether antibiotic therapy is associated with functional improvement. METHODS: A total of 101 LTC patients were prospectively observed after submission of urine for culture. RESULTS: The culture positivity rate was consistent with the expected asymptomatic bacteriuria rate. Change in mental status and male sex were associated with culture positivity. Treatment decisions were not consistent with culture results. Treatment did not lead to improvement in activities of daily living scores at two days or seven days. DISCUSSION: Significant growth cannot be well predicted based on clinical variables; thus, the decision to submit urine is somewhat arbitrary. Because urine culture testing and treatment does not lead to functional improvement, restricting access to the test may be reasonable. CONCLUSION: Urine culture testing in LTC facilities does not lead to functional improvement

Exploring Student Retention in Postsecondary Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education Programs

The current analysis foregrounded postsecondary agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) education programs through an analysis of learning community, social community, general self-efficacy, and major commitment. Analysis identified statistically significant differences in major commitment perceived by year in school, with students earlier in their program reporting statistically higher major commitment than those later in their program. In congruence with the theoretical framework of student learning and persistence, the outcome variable general self-efficacy was modeled with year in school, learning community, and social community as predictors. In total, the model predicted 16% of the variance in general self-efficacy with social community as the only statistically significant predictor. Similarly, major commitment was modeled with year in school, learning community, and social community as predictors. In total, the model predicted 27% of the variance in major commitment with learning community and year in school being statistically significant predictors