Experimental Studies of the use of Audio-Visual Aids in Vocational Agriculture

Abstract

THE USE OF audio-visual aids such as mov ies, slides, and film strips to aid in the teach ing of vocational agriculture has become a com mon practice with many teachers. The wide and general use of audio-visual aids by teachers of vocational agriculture has been due to a num ber of factors among which are the following: (1) the wide and favorable publicity which audio visual aids have received from many sources, including the armed forces which made exten sive use of audio-visual aids during World War H, (2) the availability of movies, slides, and film strips, (3) the availability of projection rooms and equipment in many schools, and (4) the broad and favorable generalizations regard ing the effectiveness of audio-visual aids in learning situations which are based in part upon experimental research in areas other than voca tional agriculture. The evaluation of audio-visual aids in voca tional agriculture has been largely subj e c t i v e and has been done by individual teachers, by those who prepare audio-visual aids advertising and catalog copy, and by groups of a g r iculture teachers working through their state ass ocia tions. Only one experimental study evaluating the effectiveness of audio-visual aids** in voca tional agriculture has come to the attention o f the writer. This study evaluated the effective ness of audio-visual aids on informational and applicational learning in the areas of home gardens, swine production, and pasture produc tion. In this study of the use of audio-visual aids in three projects, the only significant dif ference in favor of the experimental or audio visual aids group was found in the informational phase of the home garden project. No signifi cant differences were found between the exper imental and control groups in the applicational phase of the home garden project and in both the informational and applicational learning phases of the swine production project and of the pas ture production project. Th? results of audio-visual aids experiment al research^ in areas other than vocational ag riculture are also in conflict, that is, incertain instances the experimental or audio-visual aids groups were significantly superior to the control groups while in other instances the experimental groups were not significantly superior to the con trol groups. The results obtained from limited experiment al research designed to evaluate the effectiveness of audio-visual aids in vocational agriculture are not conclusive. It is important both with respect i to economy and efficiency in education to deter mine more specifically the conditions under which it is advisable to use audio-visual aids. Thus, in order to evaluate further the effectiveness of audio-visual aids in vocational agriculture two new experiments were designed. The first of these experiments was An Experimental Evalu ation of Certain Audio-Visual Aids in Teaching Soil Conservation. This experiment was de signed to evaluate the effectiveness of audio-vis ual aids in a typical teaching and classroom situ ation where students normally use reference ma terials that contain many pictures and illustra tions. The second experiment was An Experi mental Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in Teaching Permanent Pasture Pro ducation. This experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that audio-visual aids are effective in learning situations when they provide students with new audio-visual experiences, that is, ex periences they have not had or do not secure through other instructional materials included in the instructional unit. Following are reports of these two experiments and their implications for instruction in vocation al agriculture.