Selected Virginia Cooperative Extension Services\u27 Professional Personnel\u27s Perceptions of Concepts and Competences in Extension Program Development.

The purpose of the study was to determine the perceptions of Extension Agents, Unit Chairmen and District Staff relative to selected concepts and competences dealing with Extension Program development in the local unit. A conceptual model of Extension Program development that was developed in 1974 was used as the basis for this study. These six concepts were further used as categories for the 120 items identified for the questionnaire. The instrument was pretested prior to submitting to the population of 423 personnel of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. Two-hundred and ninety five, or 70 percent, who responded indicated their perceptions via a 5 point Likert-scale. Each concept and competence was responded to twice, (1) the perceived importance of the concept (or competence) to Extension Agents in Extension Program development; and (2) the perceived degree of understanding needed of the concept (or competence) by those local individuals formally involved in developing the local unit\u27s Extension Program. The major findings were described in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. Some of the major conclusions and implications are presented in the following statements. Based upon the perceptions of Extension Agents, Unit Chairmen and District Staff relative to the importance of the concepts and competences, it is concluded that there was a consensus of agreement as to the importance of the concepts to Extension Agents in Extension Program Development. Ironically, the relationship of the Extension Agents\u27 or Unit Chairmen\u27s indicated time spent in a given program emphasis area increases, the more likely they are to perceive similar concepts and competences to be of less importance to Extension Agents in Extension program development. Based upon the perceptions of Extension Agents and Unit Chairmen from urban and rural units relative to the importance of the concept categories, it is concluded that there was a consensus of agreement that the concept categories are important to Extension Agents located in urban and rural units. The findings based on the perception of the respondents relative to these concepts and competences as to the degree of understanding needed of each by local (non-Extension) individuals formally involved in developing the local unit\u27s Extension program were reported in Chapter 6. Based upon the perceptions of Extension Agents, Unit Chairmen and District Staff relative to the degree of understanding of the concepts and competences needed by local (non-Extension) individuals formally involved in developing the local unit\u27s Extension program, it was concluded that there was not a consensus between the respondents by position groups