Use of Instructional Designs, Teaching Methods and Strategies by Professors in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the instructional designs, teaching methods and strategies used by professors in the college of agriculture and life sciences in Korea. The population for this study was 1,471 professors of agriculture and life science colleges. 307 professors were randomly chosen from the population for the study. The survey was carried out by e-mail or in person The major findings of this study were as follows: First, professors of colleges of agriculture and life sciences do not have many opportunities to improve their own teaching abilities. Also, they do not have many training experiences in taking pedagogy class, and attending seminars and workshops. Second, professors do not make an actual lesson plan or prepare enough learning aids materials on a class period base. Third, the professors rarely used the more learner-centered approaches. In addition, they usually emphasized on the body stage of each lesson which resulted in the unbalanced instruction in the and the stages of the lesson. Finally, professors execute the course evaluation, but the results of these evaluations are not being used for improvement of teaching and learning. Based on these results, some recommendations were made: the field-related education in agriculture, proper systematic design of the course teaching, use of more learner-centered teaching methods, building the constructive environment for the professors by reducing mandatory lectures and the balanced teaching from the opening to the closing in every instruction.