Effectively utilizing demonstration for Ag. Extension

Effectively utilizing demonstration for Ag. Extension.

“What a man hears, he may doubt; what he sees, he may also doubt; but what he does, he cannot doubt.” Seaman A. Knapp.

Peer teaching and learning is an important part of agricultural education. While volunteering with the U.S. Peace Corps in Paraguay, I noticed much resistance to adoption of new soil conservation practices that I was promoting throughout the community. As a foreigner, there was an aspect of distrust in me and in what I was promoting. This distrust was justified due to the farmers not knowing my background, and the fact that I had never ran a farm in that region of the world before. I eventually built relationships with some of the community members who were better positioned to take risks on new farming practices. After seeing positive results in the 1^st growing season, these growers shared their results with other growers, and the practices were slowly incorporated throughout the community.

This concept of using farmers land to demonstrate new technologies has been used since 1903. Seaman A. Knapp worked in agricultural extension at the beginning of the twentieth century. He believed that showing farmers new techniques on research farms operated at public expense was of little benefit. Alternatively he proposed and conducted well thought out demonstrations, based on research results, on land owned by farmers, in cooperation with the farmer. This model for disseminating useful and practical information has been wildly successful and a tool used by Extension ever since.

The process for conducting an on farm demonstration requires thorough planning. First off, a problem must be identified. The demonstrated practice must be something that is relevant for local area growers. This need can be identified through informal or formal grower survey and field observation. As a form of nonformal education, the use of demonstration as a teaching tool for growers must be relevant and engaging in order to effectively reach a large number or growers.

This planning should be conducted by a guidance committee. This committee should be formed of extension staff, concerned farmers, and local farm material dealers. The committee should work to fully plan all aspects of the demonstration and elect the cooperating farmer to host the demonstration. In depth planning ensures that the demonstration reaches as many growers as possible, that the demonstration is conducted successfully, maintaining a good relationship between the growers and Extension.

The planning committee then selects a cooperating farmer. This cooperator is usually part of the guidance committee. Cooperators should be volunteers who are dependable, honest, and who are community leaders. The cooperators should be “typical farmers” to the practice that you are trying to demonstrate. For example, if you are trying to promote a new practice for organic vegetable crops, the cooperating farmer should not be a conventional dairy farmer and visa versa.

On-farm peer demonstration has six goals for effectiveness;

1)      Audience interest. You topic should either arouse the learner’s interest or deal with something that people are already interested in.

2)      Understanding the purpose of the demonstration. The project should be widely publicized to that many stakeholders are aware of the project and what it is accomplishing.

3)      Simplicity. Demonstrations teaching one practice at a time are most effective.

4)      Repetition. Seeing similar results across several farms or several season reinforces confidence in the efficacy of a practice.

5)      Participation by observers. “A skill has neither been taught nor learned until the pupil can actually perform the task with his or her own hands.” (Hancock)

6)      Satisfaction. Habits are most easily formed when an act results in satisfaction, hence demonstrations are most effective when they present solutions that are possible, practical, and easy to implement.

Just as in the class room, thorough planning and concrete objectives are crucial for effectively sharing information and promoting techniques through on farm demonstration. Utilizing the farmer as the primary person sharing project results  is an important method for continuing this education and practice implementation. This concept of utilizing cooperative learning and resource people to reach a broader community of people is an important tool that should be widely utilized.

Hancock, J. 1997. Extension Education: Conducting Effective Agricultural Demonstration. University of Kentucky Extension Publication. Retrieved from  http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id111/ id111.pdf

Formal, Nonformal, or Informal Education for Ag. Extension?

The terms formal, nonformal, and informal are important for anyone working at any level of education to understand. As someone who strives to work in the agricultural extension field, I foresee myself drawing upon the distinctions between these levels of education for developing effective educational plans. In purposefully designing workshop and lesson plans to fit into these categories, we can reach learners in a more diverse way, ensuring that we utilize more of the modalities of learning, more frequently. 

Coombs (1973) defines formal education as “the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded educational system running from primary school through the university and including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialized programs and institutions for full-time technical and professional training”. Formal education is often in the forefront of most education based discussion.

Nonformal education is more learner centered than formal education. The learner educator relationship in nonformal education is less hierarchical and is often set up in a way that allows learners to leave when material is not relevant or engaging for them, at no risk of consequence. Teaching content in nonformal educational settings is often directed to unique needs or interests of the student. This type of education most often fits under programs such as 4-H, scouts, and extension.

Informal education is used to define learning from everyday experiences. It is unplanned and not organized. This learning method has the potential to be extremely engaging and effective for learning new material. By definition, if learning from everyday experiences was utilized in a lesson plan, it would then become non-formal, but no matter the definition, it has proven to be a very effective method of learning.

Many of my own times of rapid and concrete learning have come while at the work place. As we see in the learning pyramid, student content retention rates are dramatically higher from practicing or doing something than from hearing a lecture about a topic. Practice doing is often the informal type of education that happens with hands-on experience at the workplace, during discussions with friends and strangers, and when children play. The mechanisms for learning that are so effective from informal learning, can be easily and purposefully incorporated into nonformal and formal education. This is frequently seed in secondary vocational programs that utilize all three forms of education.

Extension education is usually targeting learners who are not used to sitting in a class room. They choose to come to workshops and meetings that they think will be useful for bettering their business. The time that they take away from their business is a sacrifice. As educators we should do our best to make that sacrifice worth the while. This should be done by intentionally developing exercises with demonstration, discussion, and hands-on experiences. While all of these teaching tools are important for reaching our audience, flexibility is perhaps the most important tool or attribute to use in extension education. In order to effectively share information with learners it is important to be observant of what they are interested in learning and observing to see if your teaching methods are engaging. This flexibility, observation, and willingness to adapt is crucial for any educational setting, whether it be formal, nonformal, or informal.

Etling A. 1993. What is Nonformal Education? Journal of Agricultural Education. 34:4, 72-76.

Retrieved from http://www.jae-online.org/attachments/article/667/ Etling,%20A_Vol34_4_72-76.pdf

Teaching Philosophies

The Schreyer Institute of Teaching Excellence at PSU recently held a Teaching Philosophy writing workshop. The workshop was an excellent opportunity to begin the process of reflecting upon and articulating what experiences I draw upon for my pedagogical practices. This one hour workshop was an open forum in which each participant had the opportunity to discuss what experiences have been successful and unsuccessful in their teaching and learning pasts.

The creation of a teaching philosophy is an excellent way to not only show possible employers the techniques that a teacher uses for effective teaching, but is an excellent way to contemplate, develop, and improve upon one’s personal goals, values, and beliefs as a teacher. In reflecting upon past learning and teaching experiences that were either successful or not, a teacher is able to further investigate what about those practices led to the given outcome. If applied appropriately, this practice has the potential to improve an educator’s effectiveness in the classroom.

This short (1-2 page) document should be very concise. A teaching philosophy should include concrete examples of successful teaching practices, avoiding generic terms and emotion based statements. These evidence based examples should portray effective implementation of stated values, beliefs, and goals. It is important to convince the reader of unique practices that the writer uses, in order to be distinct and memorable. Often times applicant reviewers will look through 50 or more documents. Every aspect of the document should be unique, creative, and full of examples as to why the teaching practices of the writer are worth the attention of the reader.

Teaching philosophies should be filled with confident language that is factual, not emotional. By exchanging terms such as ‘I hope to’, and ‘I am striving to’, with terms like ‘I utilize’, and ‘I implement’, the document becomes a better description of the writer’s actual practices and beliefs. An effectively written teaching philosophy is essential for convincing employers of your effectiveness as an educator. As students at PSU, we are fortunate to have the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence for guidance. By visiting the institute at 301 Rider Building or going tohttp://www.Schreyerinstitute.psu.edu , we can get help with editing and revising our teaching philosophy. You can also visithttp://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/career-development/put-your-qualifications-writing/teaching-philosophy-statement for more tips on writing an effective teaching philosophy.

The practice of creating a document that portrays ones philosophy on teaching is an important process that can show an employer that one strives to be the best educator they can. The process of creating this document also serves to help the writer hone in on the skills that can improve their effectiveness as a teacher. This document is always to be considered a working document and should be revisited and revised often as new techniques are learned and utilized. Doing this will ensure that we continue to strive towards excellence, being as effective as possible, allowing our students to reach their full potential.