Abstract:
Graduate students are a critical component to the agricultural education profession and it is necessary to ensure that conferences provide valuable professional development to its future leaders. The purpose of this descriptive research was to assess Agricultural Education graduate students' perceptions of and to determine the factors influencing attendance at American Association for Agricultural Education conferences. Sixty-six graduate students
responded to a national online survey in the fall of 2009 for a 55% response rate. Results of this study indicated networking and employment opportunities were the most important reasons why graduate students attend professional conferences. The majority of graduate students attending conferences were PhD/EdD students pursuing higher education faculty positions. Research paper sessions and professional development workshops were the two highest rated conference activities, while the graduate student meetings and special interest group were ranked the lowest. Qualitative comments indicated the need for additional networking opportunities and more structured needs-based graduate student meetings. These findings offer useful information for AAAE faculty coordinators to plan valuable graduate sessions, programs, and activities at future conferences.
Keywords:
AAAE Professional conference, agricultural education graduate students
 Arnold_ JUNE 2011 NACTA Journal-5.pdf | [ ] | 148 kB |
