On Youth's Apathy : Multimedia effects on Senior High School student's interest in Agriculture
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Date
2024
Authors
Francis Roi G. Fernando
Jophanna Kate D. Andres
Marjorie G. Garma
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Abstract
The Philippines is known to be an agricultural country. However, previous study shows that the average of Filipino farmers was 53 years-old, and the country is yet to experience a shortage in farmers in five years’ time. To combat this problem, a need to empower the youth sector to engage in the field of agriculture was seen. The role of the youth in the agricultural continuum of the Philippines carries significant weight. A vital role for the youth's contribution to more sustainable agricultural production is their training and education. One way to deal with the problem is to deliver and expose the youth with various multimedia materials and channels to help educate and inform them about the current agricultural programs and possibly attract them to engage in innovative practices. The study examined the effectivity of multimedia intervention in increasing the level of interest towards agriculture of the senior high school students.
The study investigated and explored the relationship between media exposure and media intervention towards implicating a change in the attitudinal and behavioral outlook measured towards curiosity, engagement, knowledge, attitude, and practice, or the level of interest among high school students towards agriculture in the Philippines. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions: What is the socio-demographic profile of the respondents (age, monthly income, sex, and parent’s profession)?; What are the existing information and communication materials being distributed to the students regarding agriculture?; What is the current level of knowledge of the respondents on the country’s agricultural program?; What is the level of knowledge and the level of interest of senior high school students in agriculture before and after the given multimedia intervention?; To what extent does exposure to multimedia materials, such as leaflets, posters, audiovisual and social media materials, affect the senior high school student’s interest in agriculture? The study followed an experimental design with both pre-test and post- test surveys, and a control and an experimental group. An appraisal for the selection of the respondents yielded a total of 68 students who are not interested in taking agriculture, out of the 115 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students at Muñoz National High School - Main - Senior High School. A self-made survey questionnaire consisting of multiple choices and Likert-scale questions served as the instrument for data collection. Self- made multimedia materials were created for the treatment in the experimental group. Data analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean scores, frequency, and percentages were analyzed. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests and Spearman’s Rho correlation was used to analyze the Likert- scale data.
Majority of the respondents from both the control and experimental groups are 17-year-old female students from STEM. Most of them falls under the middle-class category, which corresponds to their parents’ professions. Data from the pre-test surveys reveals that social media posts are the most common type of multimedia material that the students already have access to. The study also revealed and confirmed that the current knowledge of senior high school students on agriculture is fairly low, with majority of the respondents indicating neutral answers on the Likert-scale questions.
From the data collected in both the pre and post-test surveys, the researchers conclude that multimedia (leaflets, posters, audio-visual presentations, and social media publications) positively affects students’ interest. The majority of the senior high school students in the experimental group exhibited a positive increase in knowledge, awareness, curiosity, and a positive change in their attitudes and practices about agriculture after undergoing the five-day multimedia intervention. The use of multimedia to communicate, inform, and educate the youth sector, especially senior high school students, is an effective way to encourage them to pursue agriculture as a course in college or as a career in the near future. Enough exposure to various IEC materials led to a positive change in their interest. Hence, this method of implicating behavioral and attitudinal change helps eliminate the youth’s disinterest or apathy towards agriculture. Playing audio-visual presentations, providing well-planned print materials, and gathering success stories of agriculture graduates gave the senior high school students a good impression of agriculture, as shown in the results.