Search Filter

Keywords:

 

Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) - Call for papers!

Engaged scholarship and lifelong learning through an educational farm in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand

(Thailand), Doctor of Philosophy in Extension Education (University of the Philippines Los Baños)

Dissertation Abstract:

This study analyzed how engaged scholarship facilitated lifelong learning skills in an educational farm managed by a higher educational institution. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, document analysis of historical and contemporary data, key informant interview, and survey of alumni were conducted to gather data. After the thematic analysis, a consultation and validation among academic staff key participants were facilitated to present and validate the data and the framework formulated to enhance the scholarship of engagement and development of lifelong learning skills in the educational farm.

Based on thematic analysis, the evolution of the educational farm was categorized in three phases, informal operational phase (1984-1987), formal operational phase (1988-2006), and integrated operational phase (2007-present). The informal operational phase emphasized the scholarship of teaching while the scholarship of integration was the focus during the formal operational phase. The informal operational phase emphasized the scholarship of teaching, while the scholarship of integration was the focus during the formal operational phase. The scholarship of discovery and the scholarship of application were added as critical parts of the learning process during the integrated operational phase. The four forms of the scholarship of engagement were evident in the integrated operational phase.

Throughout different operational phases, students developed lifelong learning skills in the four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. The alumni gave a high rating on the lifelong learning skills developed on the educational farm. An engaged university and lifelong learning framework was designed to illustrate a conceptualized intentional interaction among the four missions of Thai higher education and the scholarship of engagement paradigm in order to facilitate lifelong learning skills.