This study sought to document students' experiences on the use of advanced scholarship of teaching and learning (instructional methods) in agricultural technology. Agricultural technology aims to aid TVET students with sustainable developmental skills for agricultural sector. This includes gearing them towards productivity along the agriculture value chains and improve the economic growth. Hence, the study purposively sampled 50 agricultural technology students and each group contained 10 members. Furthermore, this study used slow scholarship and world café as a theoretical framework. Through a phenomenological approach, students revealed how the slow scholarship and world café methods have developed their ability to learn agricultural concepts and acquiring essential life skills. Thus, it was recommended that agriculture technology lecturers in TVET colleges should be trained more frequently on student centered approaches in order to align with the goals of agricultural technology curriculum.
TopIntroduction And Background
This study was developed in an attempt to compare and contrast on the instructional methods that are useful in the advancement of Agricultural technology knowledge and skills in TVET Colleges. Students were introduced to this advanced scholarship of teaching and learning after lecturers noted learning difficulties among students on their first semester (Naong, Zwane, Mogashoa & Fleischmann, 2009). So the lecturers had to change their ways of teaching agricultural concepts and students were used in order to reflect on the changes of classroom practices made by their lecturers. Students’ inputs were considered relevant since all the changes were made for them to strengthen their agricultural knowledge. Thus the focus on this study is on how student centered approach such as slow scholarship and world café was orchestrated in the second semester to improve students understanding. Consequently, this study strolled on global literature to understand how far these advanced scholarship methods have been used for the enhancement of knowledge and skills. Thus highlighted in this study are topics, among others, such as the scholarship of teaching and learning and the pedagogical strategies in TVET colleges.
Technical and Vocational Education curriculum had always been inseparable with economy. This is because of its emphasis on promoting economic development, expanding employment opportunities and improving the quality of livelihood (Ayonmike, Okwelle & Okeke, 2015). However, the past years have shown that a number of countries face significant skills gaps across a range of industries (Blom, 2016). These gaps persist despite the presence of TVET Colleges. In essence, it is the very TVET colleges whose products are questioned by most industries in having necessary skills for industrial benefit. According to Baatjes, Baduza and Sibiya (2014) the satisfaction of industries rest heavily on the resources that TVET Colleges hold. Thus this study maintains that human resource such a teaching personnel is paramount for the realization of skills that are economically sound.
The teaching capacity of TVET colleges has somewhat been dissatisfying the industrial demands. According to Ogbuanya and Okoli (2014) there are high levels of equipment incompatibility between TVET Colleges and industries. Also, the Department of Higher Education and Training [(DHET), 2011] posits that there are significant weaknesses in the current capacity of lecturers in the TVET college sub-system. Proofing this is Naiker and Makgato (2018) who argue that TVET colleges are saturated with lecturers who lack pedagogical understanding in the engineering fields. However, this challenge seems to be visible in all other disciplines in the TVET colleges including agriculture technology where lecturers are still attached to the traditional practices. Actually, most of the current pool of lecturers are recruited based on their industrial exposure than content knowledge and vocational capabilities. This therefore leaves a gap to understand how underqualified lecturers use advanced scholarship methods to assist students in understanding agricultural concepts that may ultimately benefit industries. Thus the position of this study is that lecturers need to have pedagogical qualifications in order understand advanced scholarship of teaching and learning (Cerbin & Kopp, 2006).
According to Taylor, Parker, Fry and Dockterman (2011) a majority of TVET lecturers in South Africa are ill prepared to deliver curriculum, and those who can, are stuck to conventional methods that are no-longer suitable for the current skills demand. This is a gap, particularly in the case of agricultural technology where food security is under threat. The advanced scholarship of teaching and learning is eminent for TVET College students so that they can improve agricultural value chain and transform the sector towards agriculture revival and income generation in commercial markets (Meenar & Hoover, 2012). Additionally, the need for instructional strategies that will embrace the development of the intended skills in Agricultural technology curriculum remain important. Thus this study will compare and contrast students’ experiences on the use of different types of advanced scholarship methods during agricultural technology lessons in TVET colleges.