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Field
Abstract
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Before
Ineffective agricultural extension systems and low-quality learning in schools are two important issues in developing countries. School-based agricultural extension (SBAE) has been shown by Lee (2025) to be a cost-effective platform to overcome the lack of extension officers and motivate school attendance. This study extends one step further to explore SBAE's potential to improve learning via using practical, experiential student experiences in agriculture as a teaser for scientific learning, thereby feeding back into agricultural households' understanding of agricultural technologies and adaptation to their needs. Specifically, we exploit the randomized scaling of SBAE to study the impact of adding an intervention, called "Learning to Learn" (LTL; Nourani et al, 2025). Using a sample of 135 schools, this study will estimate the impact of SBAE alone (versus control schools) and the impact of SBAE plus LTL, focusing on students' academic performance, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, attitudes towards learning and experimentation in agriculture, agricultural technology adoption in students' households and communities, and cohesion among agricultural households and communities in the exploration of new opportunities opened up by new agricultural technologies.
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After
Ineffective agricultural extension systems and low-quality learning in schools are two important issues in developing countries. School-based agricultural extension (SBAE) has been shown by Lee (2025) to be a cost-effective platform to overcome the lack of extension officers and motivate school attendance. This study extends one step further to explore SBAE's potential to improve learning via using practical, experiential student experiences in agriculture as a teaser for scientific learning, thereby feeding back into agricultural households' understanding of agricultural technologies and adaptation to their needs. Specifically, we exploit the randomized scaling of SBAE to study the impact of adding an intervention, called "Learning to Learn" (LTL; Nourani et al, 2025). Using a sample of 135 schools, this study will estimate the impact of SBAE alone (versus control schools) and the impact of SBAE plus LTL, focusing on students' academic performance, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, attitudes towards learning and experimentation in agriculture, agricultural technology adoption in students' households and communities, and cohesion within agricultural households and communities in the exploration of new opportunities opened up by new agricultural technologies.
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