Recipient Organization
DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY
1200 NORTH DUPONT HIGHWAY
DOVER,DE 19901
Performing Department
Agriculture and NR
Non Technical Summary
The primary goal of the sabbatical is to enhance the applicant's expertise in teaching, program design, and effective integration of experiential learning in to teaching agricultural sciences through collaborations with international and US partners both in the public and private sector. The proposed sabbatical is for six months during the summer and fall semesters of 2017 working with researchers in Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and Max Agrigenetics in India and the College of Agriculture Science and Education (CASE) in Jamaica as well as US Land Grant Universities. The objectives are: 1) To experience and learn effective integration of experiential learning and research into undergraduate teaching; 2) To learn innovative curriculum design and content delivery and strengthen the international partnerships. The first part of the program will enable the PD to participate in the rural agricultural work experience (RAWE) program at PJTSAU and student internship in seed production techniques at Max Agrigenetics and learn the design, implementation and assessment of these innovative experiential learning programs. The second part will focus on working with researchers and faculty at CASE to learn innovative methods of teaching agriculture through senior research projects and intensive field based course work. Collaborations with domestic land grant universities will also be incorporated in to the program. Building faculty capacity in teaching will help strengthen our agriculture programs at DSU along with initiating research and exchange opportunities with our international partners. It will prepare the applicant to develop and implement new teaching programs at DSU and assist partner institutions.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The primary goal of this professional development application is to enhance the applicant's expertise in teaching, program design, and effective integration of experiential learning in to teaching agricultural sciences at DSU through collaborations with international partners both in the public and private sector.The specific objectives are: 1) To experience and learn effective integration of experiential learning and research into undergraduate teaching; 2) To learn innovative curriculum design and content delivery and strengthen the international partnerships.
Project Methods
1. Sabbatical preparationThe sabbatical program will be for six months duration starting in July 2017 and finishing in December 2017. The sabbatical will be hosted by PJTSAU and Max Agri-Genetics in India and CASE in Jamaica. The tentative program for the sabbatical has been discussed with partners and agreed upon. Pre-sabbatical trips to finalize the programmatic details with institutions in India and Jamaica will be worked in to the plan.2. Sabbatical tentative program PJTSAU Program (http://www.pjtsau.ac.in) (Approximately 10 weeks during July, August and September 2017): The program begins with the PD spending one week with faculty and administrators charged with curriculum development at PJTSAU (support letter attached) to learn about the different programs and content delivery methods employed to teach agricultural sciences at the university. The next two weeks will be spent in the classroom to experience course content delivery, assessing how faculty define learning goals and learning outcomes within the context of crop production and pest management courses. Three weeks duration is dedicated to participate in rural agricultural work experience program (RAWEP) at an affiliated Agricultural Research Station, an innovative, semester long experiential/service learning program for students majoring in agricultural sciences. Program participation is mandatory for students in their senior year fall semester. Students are paired up with host farmers so that they work together for one cropping season. Students are paid a small stipend to cover the cost of living in the rural community. This is a pioneering program in teaching agriculture utilizing the concept of "Learning by Doing" and also "Earning while Learning". The last two weeks at PJTSAU will be with faculty and administrators involved in developing and implementing these experiential learning programs, get insights into the philosophy, theoretical framework, implementation, assessment and evaluation of program effectiveness and impact of these programs beyond graduation for the students involved. The PD will spend two weeks with researchers at Max Agri-Genetics to learn the different techniques of certified seed production, interact with students who are part of a public-private partners-internship program.CASE Program (http://case.edu.jm/html) (Approximately 8 weeks in October, November and December 2017): Spend two weeks with administrators and faculty at CASE and their sister institutions learning about agricultural curriculum design, integration of research into undergraduate curricula, assist in developing and implementing senior research projects for students and study assessment methods used to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these programs on student learning. Spend four weeks in the classroom with teaching faculty and students, participate in the teaching and implementation of senior research projects, and evaluate the process of learning that takes place and get feedback from students. Spend two-three weeks with prospective employers both in public and private sector on how the industry perceives the state of teaching and the readiness of students for employment. Provide feedback to faculty and researchers involved in program design and development and together explore the avenues to improve program design and content delivery.The remaining time will be utilized to visit four US Land-Grant Universities to gain insights in to their experiential learning programs, explore and develop ways to translate the expertise gained into experiential learning opportunities for DSU students as well as prepare final trip reports and manuscripts for publication. The findings will be presented at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) or similar conference in the following year and will be published.