Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
education and the need for conformity have forced this program to regress towards retaining
only a fraction of its original design, the entire process being described recently by its leader as
a 'cautionary tale' (Bawden 2000).
One opportunity for change in the curriculum is to challenge the sequence of courses in a
student's plan of study, and question the belief in a 'one size fits all' approach. The suggestion
of 'just-in-time education' compels the pattern of courses in the undergraduate curriculum to
be examined and to see where each fits in a logical continuum of acquiring knowledge and
skills to become a successful professional (Salomonsson et al . 2005). In contrast to the courses
designed only for the accumulation of more knowledge and practice of additional skills, it is
important also to include attitudes and visions for the future. When students are encouraged
to examine their attitudes toward the subject matter and how new information and skills can
be applied to real world situations, they can become enthusiastic and even passionate about the
topic and are able to translate their feelings into action. There is often a greater gap between
knowledge and action than between ignorance and knowledge (Lieblein et al . 2004), and the
properly designed educational curriculum can help to narrow that gap and provide stimulus
toward appropriate action. Further, it is important to build skills for visioning and long-term
planning, a step that prepares students to confront questions that have not yet been asked.
These capacities of students are not encouraged in a lecture situation, in which the instructor
becomes the major source of new information and the evaluation is based on students' capacity
to feed back answers on exams. The change in educational paradigm suggested here can be
challenging to professors as well as to students, each of whom may have grown up in a different
educational culture. The goal is to build on the concept of 'everyone a teacher, everyone a
learner' in designing new educational curricula in agroecology and ecological agriculture
(Francis and Carter 2000).
Two models can be used to illustrate the differences between our current agricultural uni-
versities that are designed around conventional departments and specialised activities and a
possible future active learning university. The current paradigm (Figure 16.1) has specialists
organised in departments around classical disciplines. The primary communication is among
Current university
Chem
Botany
Soc.
Math
Physics
Economics
etc.
etc.
Crop
science
Soil
science
Animal
science
Agricultural
engineering
Agricultural
economics
?
?
?
?
?
?
Informationand
recommendations
?
?
?
Nature and
natural
resources
Urban society
Farms - production agriculture
Figure 16.1 Current structure of an agricultural university, including the limited relationships
among departments, one-way transfer of information to clients in the landscape, and disconnection
between natural areas and farming areas and urban society (from Lieblein et al . 2000).
 
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