Abstract:
Meat-animal and meat product evaluation and participation on intercollegiate judging teams have long been reported to instill critical thinking and decision making skills in students, but no known work has quantified this objectively. Students within the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida were given the EMI instrument to measure the Engagement, Cognitive Maturity, and Innovativeness of students at the start (Preintro; = 110) and end (Postintro; = 78) of the Introduction to Animal Sciences class, at the start (Preeval; =21) and end (Posteval; =21) of the meat-animal or meat product evaluation classes, and at the end (Postteam; =10) of participation on the intercollegiate meat or livestock evaluation team. Responses from Postteam students displayed greater ( 0.03) Engagement than students the other test groups and greater (0.03) Innovation than students from the Preintro, Postintro, and Preeval test groups. The results from this research objectively show participation on intercollegiate evaluation meat-animal or meat product teams improves students' critical thinking. The findings from this research further validate the efficacy of intercollegiate judging team participation
to university administrators, program donors and sponsors, and prospective employers.
Keywords:
meat-animal, meat product, critical thinking skills, decision making, intercollegiate judging team
 Miller_March 2011 NACTA JOURNAL-9.pdf | [ ] | 125 kB |
