Abstract:
Students enrolled in courses offered through an off-campus professional agriculture degree program were more likely to possess a field-independent cognitive style. Furthermore, the agricultural distant learners were relatively more field-independent than the original GEFT norm group (Witkin et al., 1971) and a college of agriculture norm group (Torres, 1993). Both field-independent and field-dependent learners were satisfied with the distance delivery options provided through the off-campus professional agriculture degree program. The most notable difference between the field-independent and field-dependent learners was the more positive response of field-independent learners regarding the likelihood of enrolling in additional agriculture courses delivered through distance education technologies. Besides issues of diversity, knowledge of cognitive styles of agricultural distant learners may have implications for selecting instructional strategies. Theoretically, instruction that is harmonious with an individual's learning style will improve the student's performance. shorten study time, and improve the student's attitude toward learning (Chinien and Boutin, 1993). Further research is needed to test the effect of style- specific instruction in agricultural distance learning programs. A variety of delivery tools, methods, and social support structures should be used in agricultural distance learning programs.
Keywords:
cognitive styles, distant learners
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