11 Application of Learning: FFA
The superintendent of schools calls you to his office and says, “I’ve never been associated with agriculture and the FFA before. I know you say it is ‘intracurricular,’ but I’m not sure what you mean when you use that word. It seems to me it is simply another club like the Spanish club. I want you to explain to me what FFA is for, how it ought to be used, how it is a part of the agriculture curriculum, and what student abilities it is designed to develop.” If you encountered this situation, how would you respond?
This chapter presents the FFA the way it is best viewed and used to improve learning: as a laboratory for learning. The FFA, like the agricultural mechanics shop, greenhouse, or other facility, can be viewed as a laboratory. This laboratory is an integral part of the curriculum and its purposely designed learning experiences are necessary if students are to achieve the objectives of the agricultural instruction program.
OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you will be able to
- Explain how and why the FFA
- Discuss how to use the FFA as a place for applying leadership and personal development abilities.
- Have students apply technical agriculture skills through the FFA.
- Design ways to have students use FFA activities to apply leadership and personal development skills.
THE FFA AS A LABORATORY
Instruction in agriculture demands that students be taught the basic knowledge, skills, and understandings necessary for successful entry into the workforce. It is essential that this instruction be followed by application of what has been learned. In the area of psychomotor learning the basic knowledge is taught, the skills are explained and demonstrated, and then the learners apply their skills in a functional setting through directed laboratory experiences.
A Vehicle for Structured Learning
An essential component of the agricultural curriculum is the development of leadership and personal development abilities. These abilities must be taught in the classroom as well as in less structured settings and then applied in a functional setting. One of the laboratories for such purposeful practice is the FFA. Although FFA is analogous to the more conventional agricultural laboratories, it is more. The FFA has a built-in wellspring of motivation and rewards through its many incentive programs. These dimensions of FFA positively influence classroom studies, production or entrepreneurial projects, and placement programs. Of course, the same is true of laboratory and out-of-school occupational experiences. Teachers must remember that all parts of the agricultural instruction program are interdependent.
The effective agriculture teacher uses the FFA as a laboratory where leadership, career, and personal development abilities can be practiced. The teacher also uses the FFA for other purposes for which it is suited. One of these, for example, is using FFA activities to gain additional practice in applying the technical agriculture skills that have been studied.
If the FFA is truly to be used as a laboratory, it needs to be planned and organized. In other words, there needs to be structure. Classroom instruction is carefully planned and structured via a course of study and units of instruction. The conventional laboratory is planned as a part of the total course of study and structured through learning centers and specific activities within learning centers. The FFA is no exception.
The vehicle for planning and structuring the FFA as a laboratory for learning is the FFA program of activities. The planned activities in this program need to facilitate students practicing the leadership, career, and personal development abilities that they must possess if they are to enter and satisfactorily progress in the jobs for which they are preparing. The program of activities is then scheduled by month to be sure that all activities are spread across the school calendar. These FFA activities are the laboratory learning centers where leadership, career, and personal development abilities are practiced.
By bringing structure to the FFA as a laboratory, important learning experiences are likely to be acquired in a meaningful way. FFA activities provide real experiences at the site of directed practice. These readily available real experiences are superior to concocted simulations.
Types of Content for Which FFA Can Be a Laboratory for the Application of Learning
Certainly, teachers of agriculture who want students to learn basic leadership and personal development skills could set up mock situations wherein such skills could be practiced. This would be better than no practice at all. However, when real events can facilitate such practice, learning takes on added meaning and the results are better.
For example, agriculture teachers can teach their students how to greet others on social occasions, how to make introductions, and how to apply social graces in general. The students could then role-play these skills. However, if this is the end of the opportunity for planned and directed practice, the learning will be far too superficial. The FFA program of activities will undoubtedly include a parent-member banquet. This banquet is a perfect situation during which to teach the previously mentioned skills and at which to practice using them. These abilities could also be practiced at regular chapter meetings, at career development events (CDEs), on field trips, and at state and national conventions.
Agriculture students need to learn to speak in public. Classroom instruction must be given, and each student should practice giving a short speech in class. The FFA public speaking career development events can provide incentive to learn through the awards and recognition they offer. Of course, the public speaking career development events themselves (creed, prepared speaking, and extemporaneous speaking) are laboratories for practice. The ability to speak can also be practiced in chapter meetings, when giving oral reasons during a livestock judging career development event, when serving as a chapter officer, and when serving on committees in the FFA, as well as in the agriculture class and laboratory.
Another important area for leadership development involves learning how to conduct meetings. Most of the organized classroom instruction for this occurs through learning parliamentary procedure. This is practiced in class. However, the more meaningful practice occurs in chapter meetings, in committee meetings, and through the parliamentary procedure career development event.
Leaders must be able to plan and organize effectively as well as to evaluate the success of projects and programs. Although some rudimentary skills can be formally taught, most of these abilities need to be developed experientially. The FFA provides many opportunities for students to truly learn by doing. Students get practice at planning the FFA program of activities, planning and conducting specific projects, and evaluating the effectiveness of all FFA activities. Such learning is fostered through involvement in FFA and contributes significantly to the total development of the students.
Planning for Practice through the FFA
It must be pointed out that this ideal of using the FFA as a laboratory where leadership, career and personal development abilities, and technical agriculture skills are learned and applied does not automatically happen. The FFA can fit into the total agriculture program only if the teacher sees it in this context and then purposely plans for the FFA to be used as such. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that this planning and follow through occur.
The teacher’s first task in moving toward the ideal is to identify the appropriate leadership, career, and personal development abilities to be taught and to be applied through FFA as a laboratory. The teacher also needs to be alert to opportunities to apply technical agriculture skills. The basic abilities that employers believe are needed have been identified by Hampson, Newcomb, and McCracken.[1] These competencies are presented later in this chapter.
Using such a source listing, agriculture teachers must determine which abilities they desire their students to possess on exiting the agricultural instruction program. Perhaps a diagram will help in visualizing how teachers can best conceptualize the process they need to follow in planning for the development of these abilities (see Table 11-1). Teachers and students will first assess, using questionnaires and purchased instruments, the students’ current skill package and level of skill development. Notice that all students enter agricultural courses with some leadership and personal development abilities. These abilities have been acquired through previous schooling, parental instruction, religious instruction, and participation in other organizations. However, it is not often that students enter agricultural instruction with nearly the total array of abilities or the level of mastery that will be needed by the time they enter post high school opportunities. If one subtracts the abilities possessed on entering agricultural instruction from abilities needed on graduation, the difference represents the abilities that must be developed in agricultural courses and through other experiences in and out of school prior to graduation. Expressed algebraically, the formula for determining what leadership, career, and personal development skills need to be developed in agricultural instruction is Y=Z-X,
Y = the leadership, career, and personal development abilities to be learned in studying agriculture
Z = the abilities and level of mastery students need to possess on graduation
X = the level of ability with which students enter the agricultural instruction program
| X (Leadership, career, and personal development abilities possessed by students as they enter agricultural instruction) |
Y (Leadership, career, and personal development abilities to be learned in agricultural instruction) |
Z (Leadership and personal development abilities needed upon graduation) |
|---|---|---|
| The same concept expressed algebraically: X+Y=Z | ||
Table 11-1: Conceptualization of how teachers determine which leadership, career, and personal development abilities to include in agricultural instruction programs
Once teachers determine Y, or the leadership, career, and personal development abilities they wish students to develop through agricultural education, they are well on their way to planning successfully for the development of such abilities.
Agriculture teachers then need to examine the abilities they wish their students to develop and determine which abilities can be taught in formal units of instruction in the agriculture classroom. For example, you can teach parliamentary procedure, social graces, good grooming, duties of officers, and public speaking. These abilities should be grouped into units of instruction and arranged in the course outline. However, there are other important abilities, such as being consistently dependable, demonstrating good judgment, being punctual, cooperating with others in group activities, providing service to the community, and developing self-initiative, that cannot readily be taught as formal lessons. These abilities have to be provided for in more informal ways through FFA activities, supervised experiences, observations of the teacher as a role model, and laboratory experiences. However, any of the abilities that can be developed through participation in FFA, laboratory, or experience programs must be planned. In the case of FFA, the teacher identifies appropriate activities which, when participated in by students, aid in the development of given abilities. The teacher then ensures that such activities are in the FFA program of activities. The teacher may also use laboratory or supervised experience programs in order to facilitate the development of these important abilities.
Thus the teacher identifies the work to be done (abilities to be developed) and develops a means of accomplishing it. The result is that Y = FFA + Lab + SAE + Other Learning, where:
Y = the leadership, career, and personal development abilities to be developed by the time the students graduate
FFA = the abilities included in the FFA program of activities
Lab = the abilities developed through participation in the conventional lab
SAE = the abilities developed through experience in the student’s supervised agricultural experience program
Other Learning = the abilities developed in various other ways as a part of agricultural instruction and through instruction in courses other than agriculture (i.e., in the rest of the school curriculum and other experiences)
Teachers of agriculture must involve students in planning for the application of leadership, career, and personal development abilities. As students work together to plan the program of activities, the teacher will provide them with a copy of the course outline and a copy of the leadership, career, and personal development abilities that graduates need, and will encourage them to devise activities that will help students develop and practice these essential abilities.
Much of the remaining planning for practicing leadership, career, and personal development abilities must be of a sixth-sense nature. That is, teachers have to be alert to identify every situation possible in which students can apply these abilities or have experiences that further the overall goal. For example, the teacher uses group leaders in laboratory; elects class officers for each class; sends students to leadership conferences; has students speak to civic clubs or at a board of education meeting; and allows students to sponsor, plan, and implement impromptu events.
The Teacher’s Responsibility for Guiding the Practice of Leadership, Career, and Personal Development Abilities in the FFA
An important concept for teachers to accept is that they are the directors for achieving all sought-after learning outcomes. This means that teachers must accept responsibility for directing formal and informal learning. Formal learning is learning that is planned for in very precise terms, such as learning that results from the study of specific units of instruction in the classroom. Informal learning is learning that takes place through participating in an activity that may have been planned but was not specifically designed solely to produce a given learning outcome. For example, a teacher takes a group of FFA members to a career development event, they win the competition , and the teacher decides to treat them to a meal in an exclusive restaurant where two students enjoy their first experience with formal dining. Informal, yet very valuable learning takes place in this scenario. The teacher who recognizes and accepts the responsibility for directing such learning will help students to get more from every experience than a teacher who is indifferent to or unaware of such opportunities for learning.
Now, given that leadership, career, and personal development skills can be applied through FFA activities, and that teachers need to be alert to opportunities for promoting and guiding such application, one needs to consider the kinds of skills that may be applied. The only way for teachers to use FFA as a laboratory for the application of leadership, career, and personal development skills is to be ever mindful that FFA affords this needed opportunity and to search constantly for situations that lend themselves to this kind of practice.
For example, teachers should realize that a community service project is not merely an FFA project that helps their community. They should also realize it is a way to:
- Learn and practice the community development process
- Develop and practice cooperation skills
- Develop and practice citizenship values
- Develop and practice committee skills
- Develop and practice technical agriculture skills
- For example, if the project is restoring a trout stream, students develop skill in chain saw operation, dredging, laying riprap, and establishing erosion cover. Also, they will
- Learn how to work with community leaders
- Develop pride in their community and environment
The same notion applies to most career development events. There are opportunities to practice technical abilities and also to cooperate with teammates, express one’s self orally, develop social skills, foster school pride, be dependable, and much more.
Using the Program of Activities to Provide the Structure for Practice
Because of the breadth and depth the FFA provides in teaching agriculture, it is easy to miss many opportunities, or fail to fully exploit the available opportunities the FFA provides to students. The best way to combat this problem is to plan the program of activities with these added dimensions and goals of the FFA in mind. The program of activities needs to be correlated with the course of study so as to provide the optimum chance to use FFA events to apply previous learning.
As teachers guide agriculture students in planning their FFA program of activities, they should encourage the students to consider activities that allow the students to practice and develop essential leadership, career, and personal development abilities. Every teacher needs to work diligently to ensure that goals are stated in clear and measurable terms and that the ways and means for accomplishing the goals are so specific, sequential, and clear that students can follow the methods in a step-by-step fashion without needing very much specific direction from the teacher. Thus, the methods for completing planned activities in the FFA are quite analogous to the step-by-step directions provided to a group of students when they are assigned a job to complete in the conventional agricultural laboratory.
APPLICATION OF TECHNICAL AGRICULTURE SKILLS THROUGH THE FFA
Let’s explore the many ways in which an agriculture teacher can use the FFA to provide students with additional opportunities to apply technical agriculture skills. We examine three areas within the structure of the FFA that provide a majority of these opportunities.
Applying Technical Agriculture Skills through FFA Career Development Events
Many of the FFA career development events are specifically designed to encourage agriculture students to develop specific technical agriculture skills. When students prepare for these CDEs, they are practicing or applying previous learning from the classroom and laboratory. Obviously, when students compete in career development events at all levels (local, district, area, state, regional, national), they are further applying previous learning as well as developing additional proficiency.
Examine the national FFA career development events in Table 11-2 to get an idea of the specific ones that are available in the various specialty areas of agriculture through the national FFA career development events program.
| National FFA organization career development events (CDEs) | |
|---|---|
| Agricultural communications | Floriculture |
| Agricultural issues forum | Food science and technology |
| Agricultural mechanics | Forestry |
| Agricultural sales | Horse evaluation |
| Agronomy | Job interview |
| Creed speaking | Livestock evaluation |
| Dairy cattle evaluation | Marketing plan |
| Dairy cattle handlers | Meats evaluation and technology |
| Dairy foods | Nursery and landscape |
| Environmental and natural resources | Parliamentary procedure |
| Extemporaneous public speaking | Poultry evaluation |
| Farm business management | Prepared public speaking |
Table 11-2: National FFA organization career development events (CDEs)
Of course, at the state and local level there are additional career development events such as forestry, game and waterfowl, tractor troubleshooting, animal care, wool, crops, and others. In addition, there are activities that focus on product marketing and sales and service.
Hence, the FFA provides motivation to master many areas of the agricultural curriculum through its use of awards and recognition. The career development events offer structure for the application of this knowledge and skill, and by preparing for and participating in the career development events, students have additional opportunities to master the skills that are associated with each competition.
Using the Proficiency Awards Program to Foster the Application of Technical Agriculture Skills
The proficiency awards program was designed to motivate students to become occupationally proficient in the areas aligned with their career choice. This program is directly connected to the students’ supervised agricultural experience programs and the classroom and laboratory learning that the students use as a basis for developing proficiency in an area. The proficiency awards program recognizes excellence in numerous specific areas.
Teachers need to be familiar with the wide range of awards available to their students. The proficiency awards listed in Table 11-3 are currently available nationally.
| FFA proficiency awards | |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Communications—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Forage Production |
| Agricultural Mechanics Design and Fabrication—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Agricultural Mechanics Energy Systems—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Forest Management and Products—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Agricultural Mechanics Repair and Maintenance—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Fruit Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement |
| Agricultural Processing—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Grain Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement |
| Agricultural Sales—Entrepreneurship | Grain Production—Entrepreneurship |
| Agricultural Sales—Placement | Grain Production—Placement |
| Agricultural Services— Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
Home and/or Community Development—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Beef Production—Entrepreneurship | Landscape Management—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Beef Production—Placement | Nursery Operations—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Dairy Production—Entrepreneurship | Outdoor Recreation—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Dairy Production—Placement | Poultry Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Diversified Agricultural Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Sheep Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Diversified Crop Production—Entrepreneurship | Small Animal Production and Care—Entrepreneurship |
| Diversified Crop Production—Placement | Small Animal Production and Care—Placement |
| Diversified Horticulture—Entrepreneurship | Specialty Animal Production—Entrepreneurship |
| Diversified Horticulture—Placement | Specialty Animal Production—Placement |
| Diversified Livestock Production—Entrepreneurship | Specialty Crop Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Diversified Livestock Production—Placement | Swine Production—Entrepreneurship |
| Emerging Agricultural Technology—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Swine Production—Placement |
| Environmental Science and Natural Resources Management—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Turf Grass Management—Entrepreneurship |
| Equine Science—Entrepreneurship | Turf Grass Management—Placement |
| Equine Science—Placement | Vegetable Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* |
| Fiber and/or Oil Crop Production—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Wildlife Production and Management—Entrepreneurship |
| Floriculture—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | Wildlife Production and Management—Placement |
| Food Science and Technology—Entrepreneurship/Placement* | |
| *Entrepreneurship SAE programs to compete with placement SAE programs in these categories. | |
Table 11-3: FFA proficiency awards
Teachers must study the specifics of each proficiency award application in order to best facilitate their students’ success in a given area. The following categories are represented in the various proficiency award applications: (1) scope of supervised agricultural experience program, (2) earned income, (3) inventory, (4) financial statement, (5) related activities, (6) marketing experience, (7) proficiencies attained, (8) skills and competencies, (9) improved practices, (10) achievements and accomplishments, (11) experiences gained, (12) safety, (13) leadership development, (14) other information, and (15) supporting evidence.
Using the FFA Degree Program to Promote Application of Technical Agriculture Skills
An FFA program of long standing designed to promote the application of technical agriculture skills (as well as leadership, career, and personal development skills) is the degree program. From the very outset FFA members are challenged to attain the greenhand FFA degree, chapter FFA degree, state FFA degree, and American FFA degree.
An analysis of the requirements for these degrees reveals that they are firmly grounded in students’ supervised agricultural experience programs, where students must properly apply the knowledge and skill they have learned in order to meet the minimum requirements for the degrees.
As students seek to attain the higher degrees, the competition becomes more keen and the scope and quality of their performance must increase; as it does, so does the amount and quality of application of their knowledge of and skill in their particular area of technical agriculture.
APPLICATION OF LEADERSHIP, CAREER, AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES THROUGH THE FFA
If FFA is to serve its role as a laboratory where students gain important practice in using the leadership, career, and personal development abilities needed for success in life, it must offer many opportunities for many students. One important key to using the FFA successfully in this manner is to be sure that opportunities are available to and used by many students. If the FFA is only for the chosen few, it will not adequately serve as a learning laboratory. Perhaps an examination of a number of facets of the FFA that can be used as learning centers where leadership, career, and personal development abilities can be applied (and developed) will help the reader grasp the full extent of possibilities for using the FFA as a laboratory.
In order to gain an overall perspective of the capacity of the FFA to provide an opportunity for students to apply (and develop) leadership, career, and personal development abilities, study Table 11-4. This table consists of the leadership, career, and personal development abilities Hampson and colleagues recommended that agriculture students develop. For each ability there is an indication of whether that ability can be practiced (or developed) through the following aspects of the FFA: chapter meetings, committee work, career development events, chapter banquet, parliamentary procedure, public speaking, community service, or participation in state and national activities. Following is a general explanation of how some of these types of specific applications are secured.
| Desired leadership, career, and personal development abilities by area of classification | Chapter meetings | Committee work | Career development events | Chapter banquet | Parliamentary procedure | Public speaking | Community service | State and national activities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area 1: Leading individuals and groups | ||||||||
| Follow democratic procedures | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Keep group progressing toward goals and objectives | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Demonstrate tact and diplomacy | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Involve others in group decisions and actions | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Be consistently dependable | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Make and substantiate decisions | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Collect and evaluate necessary information | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Set meetings, date, and place | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Develop meeting agenda | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Demonstrate good judgment | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Provide constructive criticism | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Inform individuals of their roles and responsibilities | x | x | x | |||||
| Area 2: Developing good work habits | ||||||||
| Attend work regularly | x | x | x | |||||
| Complete assigned work to best of one's ability | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Work cooperatively with others | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Follow business rules and policies | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Demonstrate speed and accuracy in work | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Provide work instructions to others | x | x | x | |||||
| Identify unsafe and inadequate work habits | x | x | ||||||
| Work under pressure | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Area 3: Participating in social activities | ||||||||
| Extend courtesies to others | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Participate in conversation appropriate for the occasion | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Meet and greet people | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Use proper manners in a restaurant | x | x | x | |||||
| Demonstrate correct eating etiquette with various types of food in various situations | x | x | x | |||||
| Dress appropriately for various occasions | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Maintain good posture | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Be punctual for social events | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Area 4: Participating in committees and groups | ||||||||
| Serve as committee chairperson | x | x | x | |||||
| Participate as a committee member | x | x | x | |||||
| Select members of a committee | x | x | x | |||||
| Present a committee report | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Identify committee objectives | x | x | x | |||||
| Delegate responsibilities to other committee members | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Give recognition and thanks for work done | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Serve as an officer | x | x | x | |||||
| Use proper parliamentary procedure | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Maintain satisfactory group membership | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Area 5: Participating in professional, business, and civic organizations | ||||||||
| Participate as a member of an organization at the local, state, or national level | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Assume responsibility for the operation of the organization | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Identify the principles and purposes of the organization | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Interpret the constitution and bylaws of the organization | x | x | x | |||||
| Vote on organizational concerns | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Area 6: Managing financial resources | ||||||||
| Prepare a personal budget | ||||||||
| Set financial goals for the future | ||||||||
| Write checks and maintain checkbook register | ||||||||
| Calculate interest on savings account | ||||||||
| Identify the cost of ownership of a car | ||||||||
| Identify the value of real estate in the local community | x | |||||||
| Area 7: Developing communication skills | ||||||||
| Present information to group | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Communicate clearly in written form | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Function as a spokesperson for a group | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Introduce a speaker at a meeting | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Participate in conversations and discussions | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| Use correct telephone procedures | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Write letters correctly when appropriate | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Area 8: Developing citizenship skills | ||||||||
| Cooperate with others in group activities | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Respect national symbols | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Respect, maintain, and improve the environment | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Stay well informed of state, national, and local issues | x | x | x | |||||
| Provide service to community (i.e., local, state, and national) | x | x | ||||||
| Vote on issues and in elections | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Help authorities in specific cases when needed | x | x | ||||||
| Stay informed about the law | x | x | ||||||
| Area 9: Developing personal skills | ||||||||
| Complete a personal inventory of strengths and weaknesses | ||||||||
| Demonstrate personal integrity | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Determine future courses (lifestyles) | x | |||||||
| Maintain positive attitude | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Develop self-initiative | x | x | x | x | ||||
| Manage use of time | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Respect the rights of others | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Demonstrate sincerity | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Demonstrate enthusiasm | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Demonstrate confidence | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Exhibit receptiveness to suggestions | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Demonstrate the ability to work with others | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Demonstrate patience | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Be a good sport | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Be responsible for personal actions | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Table 11-4: Aspects of FFA that may provide for practice and development of given abilities
EXAMPLES OF HOW SELECTED ABILITIES ARE APPLIED THROUGH VARIOUS ASPECTS OF FFA
Chapter Meetings
By participating in chapter meetings, students have the opportunity to learn by doing what they have studied in the classroom. The chapter meeting is a somewhat realistic replica of a democratic society and its government. At a chapter meeting students follow democratic procedures, work cooperatively with others, extend courtesies to others, meet and greet poor students and guests, serve as officers, and respect the rights of others.
In preparation for a good chapter meeting, students need to complete assigned committee work to the best of their ability, develop a meeting agenda, and be informed of the issues.
Of course, if all the abilities indicated in Table 11-4 are to be developed, such development will not be left to mere chance. Rather, the agriculture teacher will point out opportunities, encourage students to participate, and offer the instruction needed for students to be successful.
Committee Work
Committee work provides opportunities for students to apply and develop specific leadership, career, and personal development abilities. In many ways committee work is a learning center for FFA as a laboratory. Not only are there standing committees provided in the program of activities but there are also opportunities for students to acquire abilities through many special committee assignments.
Through committee work a student learns how to be patient, progress toward goals and objectives, serve as a committee chairperson, participate as a committee member, participate in conversations and discussions, and manage the use of time, among other things.
Although every student cannot be a chapter officer, every student can serve on a committee, and a majority of students can, in fact, chair a committee or subcommittee. Take the case of a chapter that has 100 members. Through standing committees, activity committees, and special projects, such as a community service or an agricultural literacy project, plus additional ad hoc committees, all 100 members are needed to properly run the organization. Teachers can also effectively use committees as a part of their classroom structure, and for all practical purposes group work in the conventional laboratory is committee work. Thus, teachers who sincerely want their students to develop the leadership, career, and personal development abilities needed for success in life will make good use of committees in developing such abilities. By doing so every student can actively serve in several distinct ways during each year he or she is enrolled in agricultural education.
Career Development Events
While most career development events are primarily concerned with testing students’ mastery of technical skills, the very nature of participating in them contributes to the development and application of leadership, career, and personal development skills. For example, students who try out for the soils team must show that they are dependable, can make and substantiate decisions, can work under pressure and cooperate with others in group activities, and can be good sports, to name only a few abilities.
When students travel to a forestry competition, horse judging CDE, or horticulture CDE, they have to practice social skills and human relations skills in addition to the technical skills. Thus, prudent career development event participation can add to the development of agriculture students in a variety of dimensions.
Chapter Banquet
The chapter banquet is the social event of the FFA year. It is also the place where much student recognition is received and where students and guests alike are able to see the cumulative work of the FFA chapter for the year. Because it is a student activity, it is planned by students and conducted by students. Thus the chapter banquet is a real problem to be solved that gives students a felt need to learn some rather specific skills.
For example, the students who are to introduce guests or award winners need to learn how it is properly done, and then practice the skill, so they can successfully make such introductions and presentations at the banquet.
Some students are not sure about their social graces, including proper etiquette. Therefore they want to know how to handle themselves properly. This is a great opportunity for the teacher to teach a unit of instruction on social graces.
Many students will have to serve on committees. They will have to arrange for facilities, food, and decorations; secure awards; generate interest in attendance; and invite guests—they will even have to learn to keep secrets because many of the awards are surprise announcements during the banquet. All of these duties provide additional opportunities for students to practice leadership, career, and personal development abilities. The teacher must direct this informal laboratory learning.
Parliamentary Procedure
In studying parliamentary procedure, students develop many important leadership abilities, such as developing agendas, serving as officers, making decisions, giving reports, contributing to discussions, involving others in group decisions, assuming the responsibility for the operation of the organization, and following democratic procedures. Then students apply these abilities as they serve on committees, attend chapter meetings, compete in the parliamentary procedure CDE, and attend and participate in state and national activities.
Public Speaking
The basic ability of public speaking is taught in the classroom. The ability to speak in public is also practiced in the classroom. However, it is also practiced in the public speaking CDE and when oral reasons are given in various other career development events. Public speaking skills are also used in chapter meetings, committee meetings, class discussions, and at state and national activities.
One’s public speaking also leads to the opportunity to practice other leadership, career, and personal development abilities, such as collecting and evaluating information, completing assigned work to the best of one’s ability, extending courtesies to others, meeting and greeting people, and functioning as a spokesperson for a group.
The real challenge for the teacher is to ensure that the great majority of agriculture students develop the aforementioned abilities associated with public speaking. If only those who compete in the public speaking career development events develop these abilities, much will have been lost. Teachers of agriculture can foster these abilities by selecting teaching techniques that lend themselves to using such abilities and by causing all students to serve in roles and complete tasks for which they use these kinds of skills.
Community Service
A comprehensive community service project, such as restoring a historic structure like a one-room school or a covered bridge, can provide numerous opportunities for students to apply basic leadership, career, and personal development skills.
In order to complete such a project successfully, students study the community development process, cooperate with civic and government leaders, cooperate with other clubs, plan technical work, raise money, work as a team, share the recognition, and improve the environment. The result is that students practice technical and leadership, career, and personal development skills. Thus, another laboratory learning center will have significantly contributed to the total development of the agriculture students’ lives.
State and National Activities
When students participate in state and national activities, they almost always have to travel, eat in restaurants, and stay in hotels. Traveling provides a great opportunity for contributing to the personal development of students. They also learn that they are a very small part of a much bigger organization, but they can develop much pride in themselves and their local chapter while at the same time being challenged to improve themselves. Participation at this level provides many opportunities to be courteous, to cooperate, to observe rules and regulations, and to lose and win graciously.
Thus, FFA as a laboratory provides many ways to help students apply the leadership, career, and personal development abilities the teacher deems important. The real situation is not as clear-cut as the preceding categories suggested because all of those activities are interrelated, not only one with the other but also with the agriculture classroom and laboratory experiences and with the students’ supervised agricultural experience programs as well.
SUMMARY
Too many agriculture teachers view the FFA as the purpose for the existence of agricultural instruction. Whenever such a perspective governs their use of FFA, the results are invariably disappointing.
When the FFA is viewed as an integral component of the curriculum, a tool for teaching, and a laboratory wherein students can both develop and apply leadership, career, and personal development abilities needed by all citizens and agricultural employees, it will make its maximum contribution to the agricultural instruction program. For FFA to be used in this manner, teachers must purposely use the organization to bring about the kinds of change in learners that are described in this chapter.
Teachers should not simply insist that members go to career development events to stroke their own egos and strive to win every award available whether it fits the course of study or not. Rather, they carefully select activities and avenues for using FFA to aid in the accomplishment of predetermined educational goals.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
- Study the program of activities of a local FFA chapter and determine how many of the leadership, career, and personal development activities in Table 11-4 are included.
- Visit with a local FFA advisor and discuss how he or she monitors which students have experienced various activities.
- Accompany local FFA members on an activity and determine how many leadership, career, and personal development abilities and technical agriculture skills they are able to practice.
- Examine an agriculture teacher’s course of study and determine how many formal leadership, career, and personal development topics are included.
- Hampson, M. N., Newcomb, L. H., and McCracken, J. D. Essential Leadership and Personal Development Competencies Needed in Agricultural Leaders in Ohio (Summary of Research Series No. SR12). Columbus: The Ohio State University, 1977. ↵
