Practical Education for Rural Revitalization: A Socio-Technical Framework for Agriculture–Forestry Management Talent Training
Main article
Abstract
The rapid transformation of China's rural economy, driven by the Rural Revitalization Strategy and the "new agricultural science" initiative, has placed unprecedented demands on the talent training system of agriculture–forestry economic management undergraduate programmes. Despite growing recognition of the importance of practical education, the design and evaluation of performance appraisal systems for such education remain underdeveloped, particularly in terms of aligning curriculum outcomes with both disciplinary standards and social needs. This paper proposes a socio-technical framework that integrates institutional policy context, disciplinary characteristics, and social demand structures to guide the design of practical education systems and their evaluation. Drawing on primary survey data collected from 186 undergraduate students and 42 faculty members across six provincial-level agricultural and forestry universities in China, and employing factor analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), we identify four primary evaluation dimensions—practical education system, practical education process, instructor quality, and practical environment—and quantify their relative weights. Our empirical analysis reveals that the practical education process and systematic curriculum design carry the greatest influence on student competency outcomes. We further develop an optimization pathway that emphasises multi-stakeholder evaluation, personalised appraisal strategies, and dynamic index adjustment aligned with rural industry needs. The proposed framework offers actionable guidance for curriculum reformers, institutional administrators, and policy makers responsible for strengthening agricultural and forestry talent training for China's rural revitalization goals.
