Professional development for County Extension agents is essential to Texas Agrilife Extension Service's County Programs administrative priorities related to improving recruitment and retention. It has been historically recognized that professional development is essential to the success of Extension. Prawl, Medlin, and Gross (1984) reported that Extension faculty training and development is critical because the effectiveness of educational programmatic outreach efforts is linked to the abilities of the Extension agent.
Program excellence is predicated on the fundamental principle that agents have the capacity to effectively identify issues, prioritize these issues, develop sequential learning experienced designed to address these issues, evaluate program efforts and utilize the results of these evaluations to refocus and redirect programming efforts to ensure program relevance.
In order to more effectively equip agents to implement the program development process that is paramount to effective programming, an innovative professional development activity will be implemented statewide entitled the Texas AgriLife Extension Service Program Excellence Academy. The first of two sessions will be held on April 26-30 at the Texas 4-H Conference Center in Brownwood. This professional development course focuses on principles, theories, techniques, and applications for program development within educational programmatic environments. Program development strategies, focusing educational programming in relation to issues identified by clientele, and program planning to assist people and organizations succeed will be the focus of this course.
It is expected that by the time a county Extension agent has completed the Texas AgriLife Extension Service Program Excellence Academy, the agent will be able to...
- Define and use terminology associated with Extension Program Development.
- Demonstrate the core competencies critical for agents as they are related to the program development process.
- Understand the importance and necessity of planning and program development within programmatic environments.
- Use planning and program development principles, theories, techniques, and applications to assist Texas Agrilife Extension Service achieve strategic objectives.
Resources that will assist middle managers in the on-boarding process can be found at the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, New Agent On-boarding Web Site. This web site includes...
- On-boarding flowcharts and time-lines.
- District Extension Administrator and County Extension Director Orientation Agendas.
- 4-H Regional Program Director Orientation Agenda.
- 4-H Specialist Orientation Agenda
- Agriculture and Natural Resource Regional Program Director Orientation Agenda.
- Family and Consumer Science Regional Program Director Orientation Agenda.
- District Extension Administrator and County Extension Director Task Check List.
- First Step Journal.
- New Agent Study Guide.
- New Agent Note Pages.
- Mentoring In Extension Guidelines.
- Extension Fundamentals educational letter series.
http://extensiononboarding.tamu.edu
These systematic trainings are designed to provide the sequential learning experience that will enable new agents to...
- Gain knowledge of the organization.
- Gain knowledge of organizational processes.
- Develop skills.
- Adopt best practices.
- Refine best practices.
Reference
Prawl, W., Medlin, R., & Gross, J. (1984). Adult and continuing education through the Cooperative Extension Service. Extension Division, University of Missouri, Columbia.
.jpg)