Students’ Approaches to Learning in Agricultural Higher Education
Dhumantarao Thammi Raju *
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Pedaprolu Ramesh
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Rupan Raghuvanshi
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Basavapatna Subbanna Yashavanth
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Bharat S Sontakki
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Pandian Krishnan
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Balasani Raghupathi
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Sudhir Kumar Soam
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
Cherukumalli Srinivasarao
ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad,500030, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
An Expost facto research design was adopted to understand the learning approaches of agricultural students (deep, strategic, and surface) and the data were collected randomly from 1514 students of Indian agricultural higher education institutions using the ‘Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST)’ instrument. The predominant learning approach adopted by the agricultural students was found to be ‘strategic’ (41.1%), followed by ‘deep’ (40.3 %) and ‘surface’ (15.5 %) approaches. No significant association (Chi-square statistic = 24.106, p=0.156) was found in the student learning approaches across the disciplines, while significant difference (t-statistic=2.248, p=0.028) was found between graduate and undergraduate students in case of ‘deep approach’. Gender had a significant association (Chi-square statistic =14.817, p<0.001) with the students’ learning approaches, especially in ‘strategic’ and ‘surface’ approaches. The paper calls for more systematic and effective teaching-learning and assessment strategies to enhance agricultural higher education quality.
Keywords: Agricultural education, students' learning approaches, higher education