Abstract:
Relationships between agricultural background and academic performance in college-level introductory agricultural courses were investigated with 268 students enrolled in the School of Agriculture at Tennessee Technological University. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire that indicated whether they had been reared on a farm and had taken agricultural courses in high school. Results indicated that there was limited overall effect of farm background or high school agricultural course background on grades made by students in introductory Animal Science, Plant Science, Agricultural Engineering Technology, Agribusiness Management, or Soil Science college courses. Comparing effects of pre-college agricultural background at each grade level within each introductory course showed small and inconsistent differences. In general, the conclusion was made that some pre-college agricultural background may increase the probability of students making 'B's' or 'C's', depending on the level of difficulty of the individual course. There did not appear to be a strong relationship between background and students that made 'A's', and there appeared to be an inconsistent and limited relationship between background and students making 'D's' and 'F's'. English and composite ACT scores were slightly higher for students that did not have a farm background.
Keywords:
pre-college background, student performance
 Download Article | [ ] | 447 kB |
