The acquisition of knowledge and skills largely depends on the availability of resources and equipment to practice agricultural programmes. Providing quality of knowledge and skills is challenging for lecturers offering agricultural programmes in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. Therefore, practicing agriculture using appropriate resources and equipment have a crucial role to play in ensuring that lecturers are able to practice agricultural programmes in TVET colleges. The considered challenge is that lecturers are unable to practice agricultural programmes due to a lack of agricultural resources and equipment. The qualitative research approach applied in this chapter was through semi-structured interviews used to collect data of 15 individual agriculture TVET lecturers. The study was analyzed using Mitzel's theoretical framework, and presage variables were used as a lens to understand the challenges experienced by lecturers about instructional practices on agricultural programmes. Content knowledge and skill, teaching skill, teaching style, and personal traits and those themes were used as categories to present the lecturer's interview. The key finding was that although most of the lecturers were able to integrate content knowledge and practical skill and has good personality traits, they were unable to show their teaching skills and teaching style due to a lack of resources and equipment. The authors conclude that a lack of resources and equipment derail the practice of agricultural programmes in TVET colleges.
TopIntroduction
Instructional practices on agricultural programmes in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are intended to provide knowledge and skill which play a major role in the lives of people across the world. Hence, skill acquisition and enhancement have great positive effects on students in high education and training (Maclean, Jagannathan & Panth, 2018). Agricultural programmes in TVET colleges are formally offered to provide relevant knowledge and skill needed throughout many sectors (Osidipe, 2017). In the same footing, Terblanche (2017) believe that these TVET colleges are mainly established to provide knowledge and skill needed to enhance responsiveness to industry needs and requirements in labour market. Besides, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET, 2012) states that knowledge and skill are useful at the time of creating employment or working in various industries and companies. Furthermore, these agricultural knowledge and skill present opportunities for students to work in the agricultural sector, farms and educational institutions like TVET colleges, agricultural colleges and universities (Beilock, 2015). Therefore, instructional practices on agricultural programmes remain the focal point in this study. Besides, agriculture remains the leading sector in creating various jobs and business opportunities across the nations (Agonise, Moriarty, Mustyakimov, Sobolev, Terwilliger, Turk & Adams, 2015). Therefore, students need to be empowered with relevant knowledge and skill which are highly recommended by various labor markets (Glover & Kusterer, 2016). Hence, skilled and professional personnel who are well equipped with both agricultural knowledge and skill are vital to empowering young people.
However, there are a lot of challenges that are experienced by lecturers about instructional practices on agricultural programmes. For instance, Modebelu and Nwakpadolu (2013) found that most agricultural institution has challenges with regards to lecturers' qualification and the majority of lecturers are non -degree holders; non-professionals qualified without a proper method of teaching. In the same line, Kyle, Konyango, and Nkurumwa (2018) reported that most lecturers were found to have a deficiency in terms of technical knowledge and practical skill and insufficient support for professional development. Furthermore, Ammani and Ogunyinka (2011) found that there is a shortage of qualified lecturers and inadequate availability of teaching resources, materials, equipment, and tools for the effective teaching of agricultural programmes as a vocational subject. This chapter was designed to understand the challenges experienced by lecturers about instructional practices on agricultural programmes in TVET colleges. This study extends research on challenges experienced by lecturers by focusing on lecturer’s integration of content knowledge into practical skill, lecturer's teaching skills, the use of strategies and methods of teaching practical and on the way lecturers encourage, motivate and support students when studying agriculture. To understand the challenges experienced by agricultural lecturers in TVET colleges, the present study focused on four fundamental questions:
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How do lecturers integrate integrating content knowledge into the practical skill of teaching agricultural programmes?
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What are teaching skills do lectures display when using agricultural resources and equipment during practice?
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What is the teaching style that agriculture lecturers use when teaching the practical lesson?
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What are personality traits do agriculture lecturers possess?