Abstract

Students are noticeably struggling with many issues that led them to leave agricultural program. Among the reason include negative perception that views the agriculture field is less attracted, related with elderly, live in rural areas, lack of exposure of using technology in agriculture and lack of social support especially from family and peers. Therefore, this study conducted to compare teaching strategy, student engagement and social support with student persistence in pursuing in agricultural program. The study conducted at two different type of schools which are academic school and vocational college. In addition, the study also identified the level of student’s persistence to pursuing study in agricultural program in tertiary education. The total number of samples are 285 students. These respondents were selected using random sampling techniques from both academic school and vocational college. The result reveals student’s self-reported that they persistence to pursue study in Agricultural program. Furthermore, the finding also shows that there was a significant main effect only between student engagement level (emotions, out-of-class engagement and academic performance) on student persistence level in pursuing their studies in the agricultural program. Overall, the findings show that the were no interaction effects of teacher teaching strategies, student engagement and social support on student persistence level in pursuing their studies in the agricultural program. These findings develop a better understanding of student persistence in agriculture program. Based on the findings, several recommendations are made in enhancing student’s persistence in agricultural science.

Key words: Agricultural education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Vocational college, Academic performance, Out-of-class engagement