Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1961

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Agricultural Extension

Major Professor

Robert S. Dotson

Committee Members

C. L. Cleland, Lewis Dickson

Abstract

Program planning is an educational process of great importance. It is the responsibility of the extension staff to help the planning committee in carrying out the five phases of the program projection process. The extension educational process is conceptually based on the needs of the clientele. The quote mentioned below makes this position clears:

The Cooperative Extension Service is responsible for exercising the leadership necessary to determine the problems of the people, working through democratic processes. Its personnel, working cooperatively with the people determine family and community needs as the basis for developing programs of informal education.

Hence, the extension staff should have available to it facts which are reliable and representative so that unbiased data for determining the needs of the clientele may be used in developing extension programs. Therefore, the extension staff is faced with the problem of how to help the planning committee to arrive at decisions and develop programs which are sound and purposeful. Methods and techniques the extension staff adopts in solving this problem would influence the quality and success of the program developed. It is, therefore, important that both the extension agents who are involved directly in determining the needs of their clientele and those of the extension staff who are helping these field workers are equipped with the knowledge of methods and techniques that are helpful in their respective jobs.

Importance of this aspect may be illustrated by a case cited by the authors of the textbook on "Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences." This case concerns program changes to help the organizations– the Agricultural War Boards in the Great Lakes dairy states—achieve its objective more effectively. Hence, It seems appropriate to consider this case as an Illustration to show that the group responsible to lead a program needs full facts and reliable facts.

The X State Agricultural War Board members in 1941 while planning to undertake a compaign to Increase the production of milk were confident that they knew the situation In the state well and had planned the following measures:

1. To assure an adequate supply of feed grains and protein concentrates at a reasonable price.

2. To facilitate the building of additional barn space.

3. To increase the available farm labor for dairy operation.

This plan was based on their appraisal of the situation as: (a) that the state had larger numbers of cows than at any previous time and the bams were overflowing (state agricultural statisticians data) and their own farms and their neighbors Indicated this, so no further increase in number of cows was practicable, (b) The price of milk In relation to the price of feed made It highly profitable to feed milk cows heavily, Including grains and protein concentrates In order to Increase the milk production per cow. The members were following this practice and they knew that other farmers known to them also followed the practice.

However, the Division of Program Surveys was asked by the Department of Agriculture to help guide the War Board's campaign conducting a study. It undertook the survey In close consultation with the board. The board, though it wanted to get all help, was not sure that such a study could help. They were confident that their assessment of the situation was sound. Later, the study, which was carried to find out the extent to which farmers were producing the maximum amount of milk and the steps which could be taken to make possible a further increase in dairy production, revealed quite a different situation from what the board expected. The study revealed that lack of barn space, labor shortage, equipment, and price were not at all factors preventing expanding dairy industry. But they were apprehensive of a collapse in price, they lacked information about the actions of government and also lacked knowledge about the possibility of increased output through better feeding practices. These results were used by the board in revising their plans for the campaign.

This is an excellent illustration of the critical need for accurate facts for adequate analysis of a particular situation. In the above case, the Division of Program Surveys obtained information concerning resources, if any, the farmers felt they needed to increase their dairy production. They also obtained information useful in determining the extent to which dairy farmers in X state were motivated to attempt to produce a maximum amount of milk, what the influences were that were motivating them to increase dairy production and what the motivational forces were that were acting in the opposite direction. The interviews were conducted in a period of ten days (September 20 and October 1, 1941) with a sufficiently large sample—the design provided to treat the three major milk producing areas separately—and the results were made available immediately. The value of such study as a basis for planning was evidenced by a 6.7 per cent increase in milk production for the following twelve-month period; the highest recorded for the war period. The revised plan made it possible to conserve the scarce materials of steel, lumber, and cement called for in the earlier plan.

Thus, the importance of such studies to develop plans for action in the field of agriculture is demonstrated in the case cited above. The survey has been accepted as a method of collecting relevant facts needed for situation analysis in the process of program planning. Pauline V. Young discussing "The Social Survey in Retrospect and Prospect" states:

The survey initiated the idea of gathering and possessing facts as the only basis for sound planning. Interest gradually shifted from ready made programs, evolved in distant Central Headquarters to the development of plans made through surveys to fit the particular needs of the community concerned. (Italics in original.)

Young also pointed out that the survey method has been accepted by a wide variety of organizations "not only as a basis for planning but as a medium for educating the public relative to social questions, policies, needed new legislation, and so on."

This study, as stated earlier, is concerned with the selection and development of suitable research methods and techniques which could be employed for determining the needs of the extension's clientele. Survey, therefore, is one of the most important research methods which needs close study for its application in the extension educational process. Considerable work has been done In improving the techniques of survey in planning, conducting and evaluating programs. This study, therefore, attempts to examine many of these techniques as well as other research methods and techniques with a view to select and utilize them in the program projection process. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be helpful to all extension workers in their efforts to select methods and techniques that could be utilized by them in their task as educators to determine more effectively the needs of their clientele.

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