Modeling the effectiveness of urban agriculture education courses

Urban agriculture can provide food security that is essential to sustainable development goals. Citizen education plays a vital role in urban agriculture formation. The present study examined the effectiveness of urban agriculture education courses in the three levels of the Kirkpatrick model and estimated a structural equation model to obtain the direct effects of the studied factors. This study consisted of citizens (N = 80) who participated in the urban agricultural education courses in flowering centers of the 2nd district of Tehran, Iran. According to the results, 55, 46.25 and 48.75% of the respondents evaluated the education courses as “good” in the reaction, learning, and behavior levels, respectively. In addition, 58% of participants believed these courses had a great impact on their understanding of urban agriculture. Attending education courses was well explained by the three levels of the Kirkpatrick model (P   0.05], RMSEA = 0.02, SRMR = 0.065, NFI = 0.91, CFI = 0.92, and GFI = 0.90) showed the model provided an excellent fit for the data. There is limited information about urban agriculture among the citizens. According to the results the training courses can increase the citizen’s knowledge on urban agriculture which improve food security and urban environmental management.