Effectiveness of and factors related to the use of questioning by Northwest District OSU Agricultural Extension Agents teaching pesticide re-certification classes

The purpose of this study was: (1) to investigate the effectiveness of and factors related to the use of questioning by Northwest District OSU Agricultural Extension Agents who taught Private Pesticide Applicator re-certification classes related to the independent variables: knowledge of questioning, the teaching beliefs of inclusion and sensitivity, highest degree attainment, college major of the highest degree attained, employment classification, tenure with Extension organizations, and years of formal non-extension teaching experience; (2) to investigate relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable, knowledge gain; (3) to investigate relationships between the intervening variable, use of questioning, and the dependent variable; and (4) to investigate the relationships between the independent variables and the intervening variable, use of questioning.; The target population for this descriptive-correlational study was OSU Extension Agricultural Agents in Ohio who taught Private Pesticide Applicator re-certification classes. The accessible population was 19 OSU Extension Agents in the Northwest Extension District. The convenience sample was 11 agents volunteered to take part in the study by being observed while teaching. Instrumentation for this study included a professional attributes three part questionnaire, a questioning rater's worksheet, and two pretest-posttest instruments.; The frequency distribution of the individual scores for 1171 farmers, 569 for Crop Disease and Soybean Cyst Nematode and 602 for Weed Control, completing the pretest-posttest instruments indicated scores ranging from +12 gain to -7 loss for 14 questions on the instruments. Overall, posttest scores increased by 10.03%.; Findings of the study were: (1) agents made minimal use of questioning, asking a question every 2.6 minutes; (2) agents' teaching behaviors were not congruent with their teaching beliefs; teaching behaviors were characteristic of an Expert on the Van Tilburg/Heimlich Teaching Beliefs Scale; their scores were indicative of the beliefs of an Enabler; (3) agents acted as brokers of information transferring knowledge from State Extension Specialists to farmers without applying teaching techniques suggestive of adult educators; (4) 6.6% of the variance in knowledge gain was explained by the independent variables and 4.3% by the intervening variables; and (5) 23.6% of the variance in use of questioning was explained by the independent variables.