Instructional Practices for 21 st Century Agricultural Education Teachers.

1. Instructional Practices for 21st Century Agricultural Education Teachers. Kayla Lamb

2. Observe your students • Are your students critical thinkers? • Are they acceptable problem solvers? • How well do your students interact with their peers? (Group work, Peer teaching)

3. Reflect and Change • Typical classroom set up: • Students enter a classroom, take a seat, listen to a lecture and leave without engaging in higher order thinking skills • Students usually remain unmotivated, disconnected, and cognitively disengaged during the lecture • Change the classroom for your students to help promote learning • Start by engaging the student in the lesson, projects or activity. • Promote and implement new teaching/learning practices (Inquiry based learning, games, self questioning and evaluation, Peer teaching) • (The Agricultural Education Magazine Vol 83, Iss 6)

4. Give them the reins… • Studies show that student are more motivated to engage in activities/lessons in a “student centered” classroom. • Encourage students to be better problem solvers and critical thinkers will give them the skills to help not only in the Ag. Classroom, in FFA, or in real life scenarios. • Inquiry based learning promotes problem solving and critical thinking skills in students.

5. Cont. • Other teaching methods, such as peer teaching and self questioning/evaluating are beneficial. • Have a regulatory checklist, a strategy to improve problem solving skills, enhance self questioning, and peer teaching. • That way the students can visually see what they have accomplished and/or still need to do. • Through these practices the students have a more active role in the teaching process

6. Examples: • Most Ag. Classes are student centered. The teacher is merely not lecturing, but going outside of the classroom and allowing the students to apply the skills learned • Welding, woodworking, Judging, Mechanics etc. • Problems can be from everyday life or even other classroom problems, incorporate the lessons on the math or science teachers into your lesson plan. • Contests in FFA promote leadership skills, problem solving skills, thinking skills. All can benefit the student later in life with the career of their choice

7. Studies shows that students with higher GPA’s and older students are more likely to engage in critical thinking or have more enhance problem solving skills. • Change It up. • Make students have higher GPA’s by endorsing those skills in your everyday class. • Challenge them. • Students who participate in Self evaluations and questioning not only have better grades, but have higher test scores. • Theses practices force the individual to go beyond his “current state and strike out in new directions, discuss ideas, and eventually reach a cognitive equilibrium “. As believed by Jean Paiget.

8. How it is all ties together

9. For More information. Journal of Agricultural Education Volume 53, Number 2, pp 1–14 DOI: 10.5032/jae.2012.02001 The Impact of Preparing Agriculture Faculty to Influence Student Critical Thinking Disposition Mark E. Burbach, Associate Geoscientist . Gina S. Matkin, Assistant Professor . Courtney E. Quinn, Graduate Assistant University of Nebraska–Lincoln Travis P. Searle, Seminary Instructor The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints Journal of Agricultural Education Volume 52, Number 1, pp. 40–49 DOI: 10.5032/jae.2011.01040 40 Cultivating Change Through Peer Teaching Jonathan J. Velez, Assistant Professor Oregon State University Jamie Cano, Associate Professor The Ohio State University . M. Susie Whittington, Associate Professor The Ohio State University KattlynJ. Wolf, Assistant Professor University of Idaho Journal of Agricultural Education Volume 52, Number 1, pp. 72–84 DOI: 10.5032/jae.2011.01072 72 Effects of Regulatory Self–Questioning on Secondary–Level Students’ Problem–Solving Performance Michael L. Pate, Assistant Professor . Utah State University . Greg Miller, Professor . Iowa State University