Session moderated by Kathryn Orvis

Presentation 1 - Creating an Incentive-Based Assignment to Better Prepare Students for Upper-Division Work    
David Anderson    
Utah State University    

The sophomore year for Landscape Architecture is rigorous and involves various studio-based courses. Students are tasked with learning a wide range of skills such as graphic communication, design theory, and site design. With the objective of refining student's skill set before they enter upper-division courses, a five-week, high-energy assignment was created in 2015. It is based around a design competition at the end of the spring semester. Students are divided into teams and given a hypothetical project grounded in the authenticity of a real client. The projects are juried by a prestigious group and the college Dean financially supports the competition, awarding prize money to the top three teams. The enthusiasm generated by the assignment has established a shared experience that connects student cohorts in a heightened way. Quantitative data is not possible for this type of assignment. However, qualitatively, faculty and outside jury members alike quickly observe improved professionalism, graphic communication, and design expression in the competition projects. Additionally, the competition generated mentoring from upper division students and is a successful method for helping students develop skills. The design competition assignment is now an annual event and is enthusiastically supported, both in participation and financially by the college Dean. It is highly anticipated by students and contributes to a spirit of collaboration, enhanced by friendly competition. Additionally, the projects selected for the design competition have a direct benefit to the university and surrounding community, and are juried by a group of professionals, administrators, and local leaders who have a sincere interest in the competition outcomes. The presentation will include a summary of the hands-on learning activity, examples of products, reaction and feedback from faculty and jury members, and discussion addressing how to implement a similar community engaged experiential learning opportunity in other disciplines.

Presentation 2 - Describing the Deficiencies in Agricultural Teacher Preparation Programs    
William Norris    
New Mexico State University    

For the past few decades, the shortage of agricultural educators has plagued the profession. Traditionally, the agricultural teacher education program has been the most fruitful source of qualified preservice agricultural educators. While the goal of the agricultural teacher preparation program has been to produce competent and effective graduates, many preservice and early-career educators reported feeling unconfident in their knowledge and skills to perform various duties of an agricultural educator. The purpose and objective of this study was to assess agricultural educators’ level of preparation on the various duties of a teacher when they were in the early stages of their career. A census of agricultural educators in four states was assessed (N = 1,075). The instrument evaluated three areas (FFA/SAE factors, Classroom Management factors, and Instructional factors) utilizing a Likert scale that ranged from 1 = “Not Confident at All” to 5 = “Extremely Confident. A response rate of 12.00% (n = 129) was achieved. Overall, the participating agricultural educators rated themselves as somewhat prepared or moderately prepared on all items when they were in the early career stage. Among the FFA/SAE factors, SAE Grants, Grants for FFA, and the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) were rated as the lowest areas. In the classroom management factors, the lowest rated areas were Implementing IEPs, Implementing 504 plans, and Managing bullying situations. Furthermore, the lowest ranked items among the Instructional factors are Utilizing Gamification as a Teaching Method, Utilizing Independent Study as a Teaching Method, and Utilizing Work Based Learning as a Teaching Method. The responsibility of providing support through meaningful professional development and teacher preparation program modification will largely fall on teacher educators because of their fruitfulness in producing education professionals. As teacher preparation programs evolve, meeting the needs of early-career educators will become increasingly vital.
 

Presentation 3 - Exploring the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Experience in an Animal Science Course    
Brianna Wardwell    
Purdue University    

Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA) play a vital role in assisting course instructors. They help facilitate, teach, supplementally instruct, and provide additional support to their peers. This study examines how a semester-long concurrent professional development training and teaching experience in an introductory animal science course affects UTA's content knowledge, individual interest, skill development, and perspective on teaching. Twelve UTAs participated in this study during Fall 2022 and each individual assisted in one of the five weekly laboratory sessions that consisted of a 2-hour session over a 16-week semester. The expectation of a UTA for this course was to attend one-hour weekly laboratory meetings where professional development activities took place, prepare quiz questions over the laboratory material, and teach a section of their session. The professional development activities included discussions about teaching philosophies, student motivation, student interest, and pedagogies. Data was collected at three different timepoints: the first week of the semester, after their last teaching experience, and the last week of the semester. During these timepoints, UTAs completed a 10 to 15-minute survey measuring their demographics, content knowledge, individual interest, teaching experience, and teaching skill development. UTAs demonstrated a higher level of content knowledge at the end of the semester; however, this was not statistically significant, possibly due to the small effect size. Overall, participants reported high levels of individual interest in animal sciences, confidence, improvement of soft skills, and a greater sense of belonging to the department. Although limited to a small population in one course, our findings suggest that structured teaching experiences for undergraduate students are beneficial in many ways. Future research should further explore the effects of implementing undergraduate teaching related professional development programs on the teaching experience as well as its effects on student outcomes.
 

Presentation 4 - Integrating Practice, Scholarship, Pedagogy and Engagement with Entrepreneurship Education in Agriculture    
Mark Gagnon    
The Pennsylvania State University    

Entrepreneurship education in agriculture should go beyond offering just the practical mechanics of starting a business. University entrepreneurship education should bring together the four elements of practice, scholarship, pedagogy and engagement to prepare a better-rounded entrepreneur and contributor to society. The objectives of this presentation include: 1) Discussion on practice and theory in entrepreneurship education, and 2) illustration of four themes to advance agricultural entrepreneurship education. Often entrepreneurship undergraduate education can be steered into one direction whether it is to the very applied or to the esoteric theoretical. This presentation calls for a balance of perspectives for undergraduate agriculture entrepreneurship education that balances practice and theory while bringing in best pedagogical and student engagement principals that have resulted in a balanced entrepreneurship educational experience. Four assigned themes along each of the above four complementary fronts will be provided from teaching agriculture entrepreneurship. Attendees will see the linkages from practice to theory to pedagogy and engagement with key concepts such value proposition. A value proposition in essence is the creation of a compelling product or service for a distinct group of customers. Students are to consider themselves as the target customer and identify and contrast features, benefits and prices of products that they consume. The value proposition concept is often applied in practice during product formulation and directly relies upon the resources that the entrepreneur assembles to create value which is a core tenet of resource based theory in strategic management. The value proposition concept is often explained using live experiential examples such as comparing the features, benefits and pricing of local pizza versus chain pizza or contrasting well-known brands of candy. Exercises like this make the value proposition concept tangible and relatable to students.
 

Presentation 5 - Communication on Cloud Nine: Using Word Clouds to Teach Communication Styles    
Parker Greene    
New Mexico State University    

When teaching speaking techniques, evaluating how individuals prefer to communicate is vital to building a connection. Many times, communication tendencies are driven by varying motivations and styles. Framed by assertiveness (fast- or slow-paced messaging) and responsiveness (relationship- or task-driven focus), Hartman and McCambridge's communication style assessment yields the following styles--driver, analytical, amiable, and expressive. The purpose of this innovative idea was to teach communication style preferences in a freshman leadership and oral communication course (n = 105) at [University]. Our objectives included: 1) describing words students used to describe communication styles; 2) describing distinguishing qualities from each style; and 3) describing how each style handles conflict. First, students completed the Hartman and McCambridge communication style assessment. We, then, broke participants into their respective communication styles and provided a contentious scenario where they had to assume a leadership position in an organization with fleeting membership. Each group prepared and presented their approach to the situation to the class and took notes on key words or phrases that they observed from each of the styles. Next, students entered their takeaways into an online, word-cloud generator to humanize individuals representing each style. Illustrated through the word clouds, students described analytical communicators as logical, thorough, critical thinkers, and holistic problem solvers. Amiable communicators were relationship-driven, accommodating, peaceful, team players, and service-oriented. Students listed expressive communicators as friendly, entertaining, people-focused, opinionated, and loud. Finally, students described drivers as direct, impactful, task-driven, goal-centric, abrupt, and efficient. This no-cost activity allowed students to verbally and visually compare and contrast communication tendencies. It also helped students humanize each style and enable dialog regarding conflict. We recommend training communication styles with word clouds to reinforce connections between styles as well as enable students to think critically about adapting to different communication needs based on their preferences.