Factors Influencing the Utilization of Research Findings by Agricultural Education Lecturers in South-East Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The study determined factors influencing the utilization of research findings by Agricultural education lecturers in South-East Nigerian Universities. Five objectives guided the study, five research questions were posed and five hypotheses were tested for the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population of the study was 56 persons made up of 34 male and 22 female lecturers of Agricultural Education in 6 public universities in South-East Nigeria. The study used universe or census; hence there was no sampling. A structured questionnaire titled: Factors Influencing the Utilization of Research Findings Questionnaire (FIURFQ) was used as instrument for data collection. This instrument was adapted by the researcher from review of related literatures. The internal consistency of the FIURFQ was determined at an acceptable reliability index of .87 using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient method. Data collected for the study were analyzed using descriptive statistic such as mean and standard deviation. Mean was used to answer research question while standard deviation was used to determine degree of responses. Independent Sample t-test was used to test the 4 stated hypotheses at 0.05-level of significance. The study identified 7 economic factors, 4 environmental factors, 12 lecturer-related factors, 3 political factors and 12 research-related factors influencing the utilization of research findings by Agricultural education lecturers in South-East Nigerian Universities. It was recommended among others that government through the Ministry of Education and University administrators should ensure the establishment of enab ling academic environment and policies that would facilitate utilization of research findings by lecturers to facilitate teaching and learning.