An analysis of the learning styles preferences of UK farmers, growers and industry stakeholders

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) undertakes activities in support of UK farmers and growers (collectively producers) that a single producer could not undertake themselves. This work often involves the uptake of ‘best practice’ involving either a technological or process innovation. The change in practice equates to a change in behaviour, i.e. I did not undertake this practice before, and now I do. To understand the producer as a customer, work was undertaken using Honey and Mumford’s (1982) learning styles assessment to analyse how UK producers prefer to access learning that supports behaviour change. The outcome demonstrated that UK producers are most likely (69%) to show strong preferences for a theorist style of learning and least likely (22%) to show a strong preference for an activist style of learning. The output of the analysis is to assess the implication for engaging UK producers in effective learning that supports behaviour change beneficial to the producer and the wider UK agriculture and horticulture sectors.