In Greece, sheep farming (SF) constitutes a major branch of the primaryproduction sector with significant contribution to the country’s economy, especiallyfor the less privileged regions. Due to the uniqueness and quality of its products, SFshows considerable dynamics, even under the tough antagonism and the restrictionconditions imposed by the European Union. As a result, SF attracts more and moreyoung people who, faced with economic crisis, seek out alternativeentrepreneurships.As other production sectors, modern SF aims at maximizing economic efficiencyby best exploiting all the available knowledge, information and technology. Despiteits major importance, SF seems, however, to be characterized by a serious lack ofrecent knowledge and technology. Thus the training needs of people involved in thismajor production activity appear nowadays more urgent than ever before.The current study has been motivated from the previous conclusion. The aims ofthe present study were to: a) evaluate the training needs of sheep farmers in one ofthe least privileged regions of Greece (Epirus), b) develop instructional materialbased on farmers’ instructional needs and c) compare the learning effectiveness oftwo instructional strategies both based on Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICTs) in a typical class learning environment. The first strategy wasbased on the most widely training tool used i.e. the «classic» digital multimedia presentation (MP) approach, while the second one employed a modern strategyapproach known as the concept maps (CM). CMs are based on proceduresrepresenting and visualizing concepts and their (inter)relations, having the form of adiagram where concepts are presented clearly and succinctly.The current study is structured by two parts.In the first part, data were collected, through personal interviews from 65 sheepfarmers located on Epirus region during May 2009 to October 2010. These sheepfarmers had prior experience(s) of collaboration with geotechnicians and most ofthem are or were involved in animal recording programs in the region of interest.Data recorded here regarded previous types of acquired information, attendance of instructional programs, as well as attitude with regard to qualitative characteristicsthat future instructional programs should comprise (eg. content, organization,participation, frequency of attendance, structure etc). Familiarity level as well aspotential use of ICTs with emphasis on computers in sheep production and the levelof knowledge in various production subjects (genetics, reproduction, performancecontrol, animal feeding, management, hygiene and husbandry issues) have also beenrecorded.Analysis of the data of the first part included description statistics and chi-squaredtests. Results showed that sheep farmers mainly prefer to be informed onprofessional issues by unofficial sources such as discussion(s) with other farmers,TV programs and agricultural press followed by agricultural co-operatives andinstructional programs. Despite the generally low level of participation ininstructional programs, sheep farmers who had previously attended relevantprograms highly appreciated the instructors’ interest as well as the organizationallevel of the instructional programs. Furthermore, they seem to have successfullyapplied some of the newly acquired practices/knowledge in the practice whileshowing interest in participating future instructional programs, especially when theseare provided for free. Among various instructional subjects, sheep farmers ratedanimal breeding, animal nutrition and health, reproduction and information on sheepbreeds of highest interest for future instructional programs. Finally, further analysis of the questionnaires showed a lack of knowledge and malpractices, in a lesseror/and greater degree, in almost all subjects examined. Despite farmers’ positiveattitude towards the use of technologies in farm management, familiarity with the useof computers and ICTs was, in general, insufficient.During the first phase of the second part of the study, an instructional materialentitled: ―Selection of replacement animals in sheep farms‖ was developed. Thismaterial was developed following a detailed analysis of the perceived as well as thelatent instructional needs of the sheep farmers participating in the first part of thestudy. Then, two instructional strategies were employed; one based on a typicalPowerpoint Presentation (MP) and the other exploiting Conceptual Maps (CMs).Both instructional ways contained the same quantity and quality of (non)multimediaobjects (text, images, videos, web site links). Instructional interventions using thetwo instructional tools on a total number of n=187 students, making up a total of 15classes, in 9 different cities and communities of West Greece during October 2012 toJuly 2013, followed.Evaluation of the trainees’ knowledge was assessed using the SOLO (Structure ofObserved Learning Outcomes) taxonomy. Prior and posterior to each intervention, trainees were asked to answer five questions pertaining to the instructional subject.Answers comprised multiple-choice as well as open-ended type questions of gradeddifficulty. Each answer was classified into one of the following five hierarchicalcognitive levels: 1) prestructural, 2) unistructural, 3) multistructural, 4) relational and5) extended abstract. The learning efficiency of the two instructional strategies defined as the scoringdifference in total (TD) and per question (D1,…,D5) was then statistically analyzedusing a stepwise multiple linear regression analysis (SMLR). Here the scoringdifference(s) (individual and total) were used as the dependent variable(s) andvarious variables (trainee groups, education level, instructional strategy etc), weretreated as the independent factors. Results of SMLR analysis showed that the twoinstructional strategies (MP and CM) displayed equal effectiveness both at total andindividual (per question) level. Furthermore, statistically significant differences inTD were observed between: a) students of the Dairy School when contrasted to newand purebred farmers and 2) university vs. the primary school graduates. This findingsupports the conclusion that previous participation of farmers to training programsenhances their training acceptability and familiarity and increases learningefficiency. Based on the present results, it was concluded that CMs could be used asan alternative instructional strategy when designing training programs for sheepfarmers. More research is warranted with regard to the learning efficiency of MPs inthis target group as well as in other groups of the primary sector.In conclusion, tracing the instructional needs of sheep farmers has proved to be alaborious, time consuming and costly procedure. Proper analysis of farmers’ trainingneeds, development of instructional material using ICTs and knowledgedissemination to numerous sheep farmer groups enhanced overall level of knowledge. Taking into account the indirect and/or the long-term benefits of training,reflected in terms of improved productivity and financial effectiveness of the sheepfarms, the overall advantages of the training programs are far more significant forvarious groups (farmers, co-operatives) and the society, in general.
National Documentation Centre (EKT)
