This study provides a framework and definition to the notion of talent management process and describes how it fits the human resources architecture of agricultural higher education system in Iran. This qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews for data collection and systematic grounded theory methods for data analysis. For this study, we selected and interviewed 15 experts of agricultural extension and education and human resources management by snowball sampling. Furthermore, we transcribed and analyzed the interviews and literature using the MAXQDA software. Using the systematic Grounded Theory Method, our findings suggest that equal treatment with talents and other staff was the main concern of the experts. Based on the results, organizational factors and human factors were involved to resolve this concern. In addition, with regard to the contextual and individual factors, the talent management process can play an important role in improving workforce and the organizational performance in agricultural higher education system. Manuscript profile

Teaching and learning processes in universities have not achieved expected outcomes. The mismatch between learning and teaching styles is a challenge in the education process. Instructors should strive to incorporate their teaching style with students’ learning styles in order to ensure effective teaching and learning process in higher education. The present descriptive-survey study aimed to explainthecompatibility of students’ learning styles using Witkin’s (1976) Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and teachers’ teaching style using van Tilburg and Hamilich’s (1990) test. The target population consisted of students and faculty members at the agricultural college at Razi University, Iran. Results revealed that the majority of males were field-independent and the majority of females were field-dependent learners. Concerning four teaching styles (expert, provider, facilitator and enabler), the instructors tended to use the enabler teaching style. Instructors should consider the characteristics and needs of both field-dependent and field-independent students and use different teaching methods. Recommendations about matching learning and teaching styles are provided based on the results. Manuscript profile

Sustainable agricultural and rural development requires knowledge and information, skills, attitudes and technologies, which run through a network of actors to produce, distribute and use it in a particular place. The model of the Agriculture Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS) is designed based on this recognition. In Iran, There are about decades of experience in the development of this system. The purpose of this Delphi study was to develop a listing of those challenges facing Iran's Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS). Panel of experts consisted of extension offices, natural-level researchers, faculty members of Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), and university faculty in agricultural extension and education. The panel identified 86 challenges of AKIS in Iran that were classified into 8 categories consisting of Participatory-institutional, Policy-legal, Information broadcasting-communicational, Monitoring and evaluation, Actors competency, supportive-motivational, management-structural and infrastructure-environmental. Manuscript profile