METHODS OF TEACHING AS APPLIED TO

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN

AGRICULTURE.

The Use of Farm Job Analyses in the Selection and Organization of Teaching Units in Agricultural Instruction

INTRODUCTION

It is to be expected that specific methods in any given field of Vocational education will vary with different teachers, depending on differences in taste, ability, training, and working equipment; but such variation should, of course, not be expected in objectives or in the content of instruction for given situations. Hence any presentation of method should be evaluated in terms of objectives and content and not in terms of abstract technique.

The conceptions of vocational education in agriculture of less than college grade which have governed the specific studies and interpretations of methods contained in this bulletin are set forth in the following paragraphs. These conceptions include a statement of objectives in terms commonly used in referring to selection and organization of teaching content and to choice of teaching methods and devices.

The ultimate objective of agricultural vocational education of less than college grade is to train persons who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm for proficiency in specific farming occupations.

In addition to training in the vocational activities which occur in a farming occupation, a prospective farmer should be taught the ideals which should govern the activities of the occupation. These ideals may be classified as follows: (1) Pride of a skilled worker in his products; (2) regard for his occupation as a calling; (3) consciousness of service to society by means of his occupation; and (4) appreciation and enjoyment of the activities and living conditions encountered in the pursuit of his occupation.

A farming occupation consists of the performance of one or more of the functions of a farming business, namely, ownership, management, and operation. Furthermore, the activities involved in any

particular farming occupation are largely determined by the requirements of the type of farming in which it is carried on. (Examples: The occupation of a resident farm owner, the occupation of a tenant farmer, the occupation of a hired farm manager, and the occupation of a farm laborer.)

A type of farming is usually understood to refer to certain common characteristics which may be recognized in the farming pursued by a certain group of farmers, usually within a locality but sometimes under similar conditions in other localities. A type of farming may be identified by the enterprise or enterprises conducted and particularly by the major source or sources of income and the intensity and stability of the practices. (Examples: Dairy farming, general stock and crop farming, cotton farming, and specialized poultry farming.) A farm enterprise consists of a series of jobs in the production and disposal of a farm commodity together with by-products, if any. The enterprise should always be designated in terms of the principal commodity or product and not in terms of the by-products. Enterprises may be rated either as major or minor, depending upon their relative importance in the type of farming with respect to extent and net returns. An enterprise may also be contributory, depending upon whether or not its product is consumed in the conduct of one of the other enterprises.1 (Examples: Producing market milk, growing silage for dairy cows, growing corn for grain, producing market pork, and growing vegetables for home use.)

A farm job is a natural unit of farm work which is distinguished from other farm jobs by its special purpose, its particular setting, and the special equipment required, if any. Most farm jobs have to do with individual enterprises, in which case the job is identified with the given enterprise. (Examples: See p. 34.) There are also farm jobs which have to do more with the business of the farm as a whole than with any one enterprise. (Examples: Financing the farm business, draining the farm, installing a water system; see also Federal Board for Vocational Education, Bulletin No. 88, "Analysis of the Management of a Farm Business.")

Hence, vocational education in agriculture is regarded as a preparation for specific farming occupations rather than just for "farming." It is education in terms of specific types of farming. The content of instruction should be drawn from the activities involved in the enterprises and farm jobs occurring in these different types of agricultural pursuits.

Since a farm job is a natural and basic unit of work in a farming occupation, it serves as an excellent basis for setting up corresponding teaching units. By teaching unit is meant a portion of instruction

1 See also Federal Board for Vocational Education Bulletin No. 98, "Principles in Making the Vocational Course of Study in Agriculture in the High School," by Dr. T. H. Eaton.

which can be handled more or less independently of other portions and which can be completely taught as one "teaching job." Moreover, each teaching unit should be organized on the basis of a farm job because such an organization insures a direct and effective application of the instruction to the type of farming for which preparation is being given.

Although the term "farm job" is frequently used in a generic sense for the sake of brevity or general reference, it should be used only in a specific sense in reference to teaching units. From the standpoint of teaching situations, a farm job may be classified either as an operative unit or as a managerial unit, depending on the type of activity or ability involved. (See lesson types, pp. 7 and 25.)

If the pupil is to be taught to do a given job according to some more or less standard practice resulting in a concrete product, the job may be regarded as an operative unit. By standard practice is meant a procedure commonly followed by farmers in a locality or tested and recommended by agricultural experiment stations; in short, some established practice.

If the job which the pupil is to be taught to do requires the exercise of managerial ability the job may be regarded as a managerial unit. Managerial ability is required whenever facts must be assembled, functioning facts selected and evaluated, and decisions made and carried out. Hence the teaching objective in such cases is to promote constructive and effective thinking.

Operative training centers on the ability to do a specific job as an end in itself. Managerial training centers on instruction and practice in a thinking procedure and regards as a by-product the conclusions which are reached for the particular job which is used as a basis for the teaching. It is really a training in the application of a general mental procedure to a wide variety of specific problems.

Operative ability is acquired by practice of the job operations according to standard practice and with intelligent application of any technical knowledge of materials and working conditions. The operations are merely convenient subdivisions of the job unit. Managerial ability is acquired by practice in making decisions involving the consideration of managerial factors, ways and means, equipment and materials, and working conditions.

In making an analysis of managerial training content, the job itself may be regarded as the making of a major decision which can be made quite independently of other decisions occurring in the farm enterprise under consideration. This major decision, for the sake of convenience, is usually resolved into several minor decisions just as an operative job is analyzed into its successive operations. Determining the kind of decisions to be made is the first step in a managerial analysis. For example, the working out of a managerial job of

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Buying seed corn" resulted in the decision to buy a particular lot of corn, but in order to arrive at this final decision a number of minor decisions had to be made, namely, "What variety to grow,' "From what source to get the seed," "When to buy," "How much to buy," and "Where to buy." (See pp. 26 and 27.)

The next step is to determine the factors which should be considered in making each of the decisions. A factor is an element, condition, or influence affecting a result. Since, as in any other business, the amount of net return is the measure of success in farming, and since a net return is possible only when costs are less than income, practically all of the factors appearing in the analysis of managerial training content are either direct cost factors or are factors which affect the ultimate cost of the product.

Regardless of the extent to which a given farmer in practice performs both operative and managerial jobs in any order, or in any combination, the learner can profitably center his attention on only one type of job at a time. Hence training for operative and managerial jobs should be separated during the learning period. This distinction merely points to the desirability of centering the attention of the learner on the specific type of training which he is undergoing at a given time rather than confusing him in a vain attempt to master everything at once.

From the standpoint of vocational education, the teaching of operative ability or managerial ability or both are justified wherever needed. In most cases, managerial ability can be more readily acquired if the learner already possesses considerable operative ability as an apperceptive base. Furthermore, it will be seen later in the examples given in this bulletin that the classification of the teaching content of farm jobs into "operative" and "managerial" is a very broad one and includes several different types of activity in connection with farm jobs for all of which training should be given.

In addition to the specific training content for particular jobs, there is also a considerable amount of related knowledge which has. value to the extent that it explains and interprets on a scientific basis the facts upon which standard practice is based and through which specific experience is generalized. In this way, this more generally related knowledge contributes interest and enables the learner to apply certain specific elements of experience derived from a job in which he has had training to other jobs of the same general character in which he has not been trained. In all cases, however, these scientific generalizations are to be regarded as supplementary to the specific job training content. Such related science as well as ideals and appreciations should, in most cases, be developed from the specific job activities. Here, again, the farm job basis of organization is emphasized in this bulletin as the soundest basis for the organization of vocational teaching content for farming occupations.