26. Providing and managing a dairy 46. Exercising cows. barnyard. 27. Controlling flies. 28. Cleaning the stock. 29. Eradicating lice. 30. Milking by hand. 31. Milking with a milking machine. 32. Cooling the milk. 33. Storing the milk. 34. Cleaning milking equipment. 35. Finding a market. 36. Shipping the milk. 37. Testing the milk. 38. Serving the cows. 39. Caring for the cow at the time of parturition. 40. Drying up the cows. 41. Managing kicking cows. 42. Treating injured, sore, or blem ished teats. 47. Exercising the bull. 48. Ringing the bull. 49. Training the calf to lead. 51. Improving the dairy herd. 54. Registering purebred stock. 55. Marketing surplus stock. 56. Marketing calves. 57. Caring for the feet of stock. 58. Getting rid of tuberculosis. 61. Removing an apple or a potato In making an analysis of this sort it should be noted that no attempt has been made to designate the teaching objective for each job. Some of the jobs, such as cleaning milk equipment, are obviously operative units for which definite standard practice can be learned. Jobs like cooling the milk might be taught with either an operative training objective or a managerial training objective. A job like selecting the cows would usually involve both operative and managerial ability and in teaching it would be handled as two separate units; one, a managerial unit, involving the making of decisions and the application of management factors; the other, an operative unit involving practice in the manipulative activities required in judging and in the making of sensory judgments as to quality of the animal selected. For the sake of completeness, all of the jobs in each of the enterprises occurring in a course of study should be considered, but not all of them may need to be taught. A job analysis in this connection may be used as a check list. On the operative side a farm boy's experience is usually extensive. He can do many of the operative jobs with a fair degree of proficiency, especially where purely mechanical abilities are involved. Many of his experiences, however, have not been particularly significant to him for the reason that they have not been organized. In many cases also he will need additional practice in making sensory judgments as to quality of stock, produce, or materials with which he must work. In management jobs, particularly in the major enterprises, most boys will need instruction. The possession of operative ability is in many cases a prerequisite for the acquisition of managerial ability. The teacher's decisions as to teaching objectives should be based upon a consideration of the following factors: (1) The learner's present ability; (2) the learner's capacity; (3) the learner's immediate needs for training; (4) the learner's ultimate vocational objective; (5) teaching facilities; (6) the teacher's ability; (7) seasonal demands; (8) the economic importance of the job; (9) the learning difficulties; (10) the possibilities as to transfer of training; (11) other opportunities for training. Those jobs should be taught in which the learner most needs training and in which he can not secure training readily from other sources. Whatever jobs are selected should be taught effectively as measured by the attainment of such a stage in his learning as will enable the learner to continue his training himself until he reaches the desired occupational proficiency. The time required for so teaching a given job depends on a number of factors such as the learner's experience, his learning capacity, the nature of the job, and the teaching facilities. In any case the number of jobs to be taught should not be set up arbitrarily and the time apportioned between them without regard to the effectiveness of the teaching. The order in which the jobs should be taught depends more upon seasonal requirements than upon other factors, such as logical order or learning difficulty. Seasonal requirements may be either specific or relative. With some jobs the material to be used and the opportunity for doing the work are available for only a short period of time. With other jobs the facilities for teaching may be available over a longer period. Operative jobs are particularly subject to seasonal demands. Management jobs may be done at any time before the plans are to be put into execution, provided working data can be secured. Since many jobs in the different enterprises are similar, the teacher may save much time by making use of the most typical situations in his teaching. Every vocational unit, however, should be based on a specific job in a specific situation. Such a specific job becomes a type job when these other situations are considered. If a pupil has been taught to do such a job, he usually can do other similar jobs with little difficulty. This is a great time saver in teaching. The supervised practice should be adapted to the teaching and not vice versa. It is a means and not an end in itself. Ideally, the pupil should have supervised practice in every job taught. As a practical measure, however, the use of type jobs in supervised practice is justified just as it is in the rest of the teaching. LESSON PLANNING A teacher should have some kind of a plan for every unit of instruction. The teaching plan should be made out on the basis of a complete farm job unit regardless of whether or not the instruction may require one class period or a series of them. The teaching plan should include a definite statement as to the farm job to be taught and the farm enterprise in which it occurs. The teaching objective should be selected far enough in advance to insure that proper teaching materials and facilities are available. It is extremely important also that the teacher should take time to formulate definitely the ideas in the teaching base upon which he intends to build the new teaching content in the lesson under consideration. The plan should be based on an analysis of teaching content. One of the chief purposes for which a lesson plan is made is to indicate the methods to be used in preparation, presentation, supervision of practice, and testing, together with a tentative time allotment for the whole lesson and for the respective phases of the instruction. In the beginning, at least, the plans should be worked out in careful detail until the teacher forms the habit of running over in his mind each of the important features of the plan. Later the plans can be reduced much more to outline form and an experienced teacher may need merely some specific notes on important phases of the work. It is particularly important, however, that the ideas to be developed as a teaching base should be carefully considered and definitely stated beforehand. This is the first step in the adaptation of the teaching content to the needs of the particular individual or group of individuals to be taught. In the preparation, the teacher tries to sell his teaching objective to the class. The degree to which he is successful in doing this will largely determine the success of his teaching provided, of course, he is reasonably well prepared to carry out the teaching. Following is an example of a detailed lesson plan for a comparatively simple unit of operative training. This particular job might be done in connection with any farm enterprise where carpentry work was required or might be regarded as a job pertaining to the work of the farm as a whole. A detailed lesson plan for an inexperienced teacher. Preparation: The teaching base— 1. The idea of a saw in bad condition. a. Have pupils seen a saw which cuts slowly? a rough cut? c. Do some saws bind and pinch and run hard? 2. The idea of a saw in good condition. a. Have pupils seen a saw which cuts fast? 3. Desire to learn how to put a saw in good working Methods-Questions and discussion. Presentation: Methods-Demonstration by the teacher. 1. How to joint. 2. How to shape teeth. 3. How to set. 4. How to sharpen. 5. How to side dress. Each demonstration is to be preceded by a brief statement of the name and purpose of the operation, but each operation is to be carried through at normal working speed without interruption. Likewise, the name and purpose of each term, tool, or part is to be described. When an operation is finished the pupils are to closely examine the condition of the saw as indicated by the teacher. After each operation has been completed, respectively, the pupils are to be referred to the analysis of training content. Supervision of practice: Testing: Methods. Each pupil is to perform all of the operations on a saw after observing the respective demonstrations and consulting the analysis of content, the teacher noting where his presentation has been ineffective and repeating all or parts of it where necessary and also calling the pupil's attention to the analysis as a work sheet. Methods. Each pupil is to file and set another saw unaided. Time allotment: Total time, four double periods First day.-Developing ideas in preparation, demonstration, and practice of jointing. Second day.-Demonstration and practice of shaping teeth and setting. Third day.-Demonstration and practice of sharpening and side dressing. Fourth day. Testing of filing and setting another saw. A skeleton lesson plan for an experienced teacher. Preparation: The teaching base 1. The idea of a saw in bad condition. 2. The idea of a saw in good condition. 3. How to put a saw in good working condition. Methods Questioning. THE USE OF ANALYSIS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE An analysis of any sort is merely a classified inventory of parts or elements of something. An inventory on merchandise might be taken in terms of the contents of different rooms in a warehouse or goods on certain floor sections or shelves. The goods themselves might be listed in general terms, such as boxes of groceries, bales of dry goods, or cases of hardware. Again, the contents of each box, case, or bale could be further analyzed and inventoried in convenient classifications. The analysis could be carried further in terms of the mechanical parts of one of the machines or in terms of the component threads in a fabric. A mechanical or chemical analysis might even be resorted to in order to determine the nature of the compound in one of the cans. |