Cognitive Potential: How Different are Agriculture Students?

Abstract

Given the interest, research, and effort extended to help faculty in colleges of agriculture provide educational discourse at higher cognitive levels over the last few years, one would expect that students enrolled in colleges of agriculture would exhibit higher levels of critical thinking and need for cognition. This study thus aimed to discover if the cognitive potential of students enrolled in colleges of agriculture did in fact differ from students enrolled in other colleges. Findings suggest that students enrolled in agriculture had significantly lower GPA, critical thinking disposition, and need for cognition compared with students not in agriculture. Further research needs to determine how instructors are integrating critical thinking into the classroom, as well as instructors' level of cognition. Recommendations based on the findings include further work to increase college of agriculture students' cognitive abilities to help them be prepared for today's world.