Title: CASE: Positioning Agricultural Education as a Solution for School-Wide Challenges
Abstract: How do we make agricultural education reach its full potential as a solution to school reform mandates and increased its utility as an alternative or enhancement to core academics such as science? The suggestions of models vary greatly from state to state, but RIGOR seems to be the common thread for positioning agricultural education as an important CTE subject area for our diverse school system of today. The operational definition of rigor, in the context of academic rigor, requires students to demonstrate indepth mastery of challenging tasks to develop cognitive skills through reflective thought, analysis, problem solving, evaluation, or creativity (International Center for Leadership in Education, 2012). Agricultural education provides tremendous real-life connections for students to find relevance for studying science. Whether it is career-focused outcomes, unfamiliar topics within engaging lessons, or the enhancement of core academic subjects presented in a rich context for students to grasp easier, students can easily find the motivation to learn in agriculture classes. The question should be asked if the level of rigor is at high enough thresholds to provide help for school districts to meet school-wide goals of providing enough opportunities for students to meet the ever-growing demand of academic proficiency largely brought on by the STEM movement. One of the big shifts that CASE promotes is the proper use of content. In today's age of technology, teachers have a wealth of content readily available. So do students for that matter. In fact, it can be argued that because of the diversity of agricultural education topics, there is too much content or stuff available. Therefore, the challenge in front of the teacher is to prioritize the concepts that are important and then sift through the mountains of content to find the necessary and important materials to bring the subject matter to life in the agriculture classroom. Too much stuff' is problematic for instruction. If the teacher is not cautious of his or her design of curriculum or chooses resources promoting quantity over quality of information then serious threats to learning can result. Too much content promotes teaching concepts miles wide but only an inch deep. Shallow instruction encourages rote memorization of facts and figures rather than inquiry and problem solving. Students never investigate content areas deep enough to understand intricate connections to inspire critical thinking. Another problematic outcome of content overload is too much information that is crammed into short very disjointed modules that confuse students as they try to figure out how what was taught last week fits with current lessons. Disconnected modules will result in outcomes that do not lead the learner to a clear overall picture. This reduces the potential of students transferring concepts learned in the agriculture classroom to similar situations in other contexts. In either scenario the opportunity to increase rigorous learning outcomes are jeopardized or nonexistent. CASE Program of Study Model Program of study sequences are not just stacking courses together but providing overlapping instruction to promote higher level learning outcomes and engage students in a clear path of learning. CASE courses gradually take the student through a logical progression of instruction and in this progression gradually increase rigor. Each CASE course and Program of Study pathway has a big picture for students to discover as they work through the various pieces of that bigger puzzle. CASE is not about just developing progressive courses in a logical pathway. The design detail for CASE courses starts with the daily activities and from the daily activities, careful thought is used in crafting the layout of the lessons, units, and courses fitting together in a Program of Study pathway. …
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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