Teaching Agriculture In Secondary Schools
AEE 535


Class 1:
Research on Effective Teaching
Learning Objectives:
List the variables most closely associated with teaching effectiveness.
Identify the influence of the variables upon teaching effectiveness

Additional learning objectives for experienced teachers or those who have a baccalaureate degree in agricultural education:

Become familiar with the research in agricultural education regarding teaching effectiveness
Instructional
Activities:

Take the interactive pretest on teaching effectiveness. 
View the PowerPoint Presentation on Effective Teaching. (Use the back button to return here when you are done.)
Read the document "Behavioral Characteristics of Effective Teachers"
Characteristics of Effective Teachers were identified in Issue 79 of the Heart of Teaching by Joseph Hasenstab.  Review those characteristics found at http://www.plsweb.com/resources/newsletters/hot_archives/79/effective_teachers/.
Richard LeBlanc says there are 10 requirements for good teaching.
Sean Bulger, Derek Mohr, and Richard Walls encourage teachers to “Stack the Deck in Favor of their Students by Using the Four Aces of Effective Teaching.”  Read more about those four aces in this short article found at:  http://www.uncw.edu/cte/et/articles/bulger/.
Barak Rosenshine has written a summary of Advances in Research on Instruction in the Journal of Educational Research.  This article provides some of the foundation for the 6-point lesson plans utilized in North Carolina.  The article can be found in the electronic journals in the NCSU Library.  Access the article by:
1.    Go to www.lib.ncsu.edu/  (You may need a unity id and password to access the library).
2.    Click on: Find E-journals by Title
3.    Type in:  journal of educational research in the dialogue box and click SEARCH.
4.    Select:  Journal of Educational Research (1985-present) from the list of journals
5.    Click on 1995, then Volume 88, Issue 5
6.    The article should be the first on the list.  Click HTML Full Text to read the article

Read the research article from the Journal of Agricultural Education  "Factors Associated with Western Region Agriculture Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness" to learn what agricultural teachers thought contributed to their effectiveness as agriculture teachers. (you will need Adobe Acrobat to view the article)  
 
Assignments:

Assignment:
Rosenshine, in his article Advances in Reasearch on Instruction, identified two teaching functions that contributed the most to student achievement.  They were (1) presenting new material in small steps and (2) the use of guided student practice.  Write a one page paper that describes, in your own words, your opinions on these two teaching functions—was Rosenshine right or wrong, and why?  Also give an example of how you could use these principles in teaching an agricultural topic.

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