Paper presented at the 52nd CFCS Annual Meeting, Guadeloupe, July 10-16, 2016
INTEGRATING FIELD-BASED RESEARCH INTO SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDUCATION: COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNDERGRADUATE CLASS Wendy-Ann P. Isaac1, Gaius Eudoxie1, Michael Gloster1 and George Legall1 1
Department of Food Production, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago Keywords: Field-based research, competencies, self-assessment, sustainable crop production
Abstract Undergraduate science students experience difficultly in relating science principles to field practice. A field-based, science and practice, sustainable crop production course was developed to expose level two undergraduate students to the underlying scientific basis of principles and concepts of sustainable crop production using an agroecological approach. Students met twice per week for 12 weeks with instruction centered on the field as a classroom thus allowing students to learn through hands-on participation. The major focus of the course was providing a kinaesthetic approach where the scientific method was used to answer testable hypotheses. Students developed testable hypotheses, designed an experiment, determined sampling protocol and sample analysis, conducted statistical analysis and reported results in a peer-reviewed format. The study identified and assessed students’ competency development at the beginning and end of the course. The results showed that using specific competency-based frameworks, students’ competency levels were improved. Field-based courses and student-driven research projects are excellent ways to introduce research methods to undergraduate students. Student learning was enhanced during the experiential learning process by allowing the students to follow the scientific method. Horizontal and vertical synergy of such approaches into the curriculum may prove beneficial to students and University. Introduction A 3-credit course titled: “Principles of Sustainable Crop Production: Science and Practice” was developed and taught during the first semester of 2015 to introduce students to field-based agroecological/sustainable crop production research methods approach. The course objective was to teach field-based methods to students that they could use for current or future research by using the methods for structured class assignments. The course was conducted every Monday morning for 4-hours on the field and on Tuesday afternoons for 2-hours for 12 weeks. Student enrolment was 58 students and majors represented Agriculture special, Agriculture Technology, Landscaping and Environmental and Natural Resources Management. Students used the demonstrated methods, which provided them real experience in the field and a better understanding of the rewards and pitfalls of field-based methodologies for sustainable crop production based research. Field Research Projects The research project was designed to deepen students’ understanding of crop growth, development and yield, and the influence of crop, environmental and management factors on crop performance. Crop production is a complex activity that relies on knowledge from different disciplines, therefore, the project was multi-disciplinary in content, and required that they integrate what they learnt from several courses, namely soil fertility management and research and statistical skills in agriculture. The research approach was taken to assist them to develop the habits of inquiry and informationbased decision-making for crop production through training in relevant skills including proper data collection, analysis and interpretation, as well as other research skills. Materials and methods For this course, competency development was assessed in two ways: (1) students were asked to complete a competency self-assessment survey at the beginning and at the end of the course. Completing the competency self-assessment survey involved students first determining the “level of development” they identified with at the time then secondly identifying the activities and assignment that helped them develop that competency and finally indicating whether their understanding of the competency itself changed over time. The survey was divided into four sections: Section 1 examined their social and personal background, section 2 detailed all course related information including their study habits, while section 3 detailed the self-competency evaluation using a Likert scale, where 1=Very incompetent/very unable; 2=Somewhat incompetent/somewhat unable; 3=Not sure; 4=Somewhat competent/somewhat able and 5=Very competent/very able. The final section was a general course evaluation using a Likert scale and was only administered at the end of the course (1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=mixed feelings; 4=agree and 5=strongly agree). For the data analysis, the level of development was quantified and the means of each were determined for each competency in the self-assessment for each period of assessment (beginning and end). The survey instrument was presented electronically to students using Google forms and intensely followed up to retrieve the completed forms. There was a 60% and 75% response rate respectively and data were coded and analysed using SPSS and presented as descriptives.
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