D. Lambert | Post-primary | Science
I am currently writing a SLOP book for Leaving Cert Agricultural Science with another teacher. This is my first time dealing with the new course with its specification. We’ve unpacked the learning outcomes and are now trying to stich them back together in a coherent sequence that students can be successful with. There are a million blogs I can share on decisions we are making but for blog 1 it will be about the frustration in the process of planning what to teach.
Context is probably needed here. This September my school will offer Agricultural Science for the first time in its history. The school is in DEIS and located in an urban part of Dublin. I’m excited to start teaching it but there are 2 challenges I have to deal with. The first is there will be next to no prior knowledge available to students and the second, is how much time pressure Ag. Science teachers face finishing the course.
With this in mind I have to sequence the course really well. I have read Sarah Cottingham’s recent book on Ausubel's Meaningful Learning in Action and in it she talks about "students with relevant existing knowledge will better assimilate new information to form the new meanings...". So if they lack prior knowledge then I have to be really careful what order I teach the course in. This will slow the teaching right down, which is absolutely fine. But I am still under time pressure so what can I do to finish the course? Being the good teacher that I am told to be, I am going through the learning outcomes with a fine tooth comb to unpack any shortcuts I can take. In the process of doing this I have noticed a number of discrepancies. Now I know I am being pedantic but it’s only fair this document is watertight for teachers to plan and for students to be assessed (in the Leaving Cert). The learning outcomes are broad, vague and lack any depth of treatment but these discrepancies still exist and are a seperate issue in my opinion.
First up is a learning outcome that seems reasonable.
3.3.3 Harvesting - discuss harvesting techniques and storage methods for grass and another food crop (forage or for human consumption) and an energy or catch crop
So based off this I am going to cover -
1. Grass
2. Potatoes (human consumption)
3. Kale (catch crop)
See the word "or” there in that learning outcome, well that helps me decided to opt against doing something, so in this case forage crops and energy crops. I’d like to do both types of crops, but if I did it would only take away from other parts of the course so yeah I’ll leave it. Any Leaving Cert. exam question will have to specify grass / forage crop or human consumption crop / energy crop or catch crop for the students. Happy days.
So as you can see I am not doing anything wrong here. I am making a decision that is best for my students learning. They have no prior knowledge so it is a bigger tasks to do something like Miscanthus (energy crop) as well.
Now let’s look where problems start to appear. The opening paragraph on the animal strands says the following “In Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science, the study of animals includes traditional farm animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs, but also allows for the inclusion of other animals of agricultural importance and interest, for example horses and poultry.” I think this is fair, and it recognises the role horses and poultry play in rural Ireland. Let’s look at the learning outcomes...
4.1 Animal physiology - compare the ruminant and monogastric digestive systems, including the role of microorganisms
This seems fair, not sure on depth but look ruminant vs monogastric is a clear distinction so I can only really infer that they want general, structural differences. Cows and sheep are ruminant, and pigs, horses and poultry are monogastric (1 stomach).
4.2 Classification/identification - describe the characteristics of common types, breeds and crosses of cattle, sheep, and one of the following farm animals: pigs, poultry, horses
So now we see we have a clear choice. Know characteristics of one of the following pigs, poultry, or horses. But there is more... we get choice again.
4.3 Production - discuss the importance of nutrition and ration formulation to meet the protein, energy and performance requirements at different growth/development stages of cattle, sheep, and one of the following farm animals: pigs, poultry, horses
At this stage the teacher/student might be thinking well it looks like we have to know general differences in digestion between ruminants and monogastric, and of the monogastrics we need to only need to know one of these animals (pigs/horses/poultry) in detail. So far I think this is very fair.
4.3 Production - investigate the factors that determine the output and quality of produce from a chosen enterprise (breed variety, nutrition, housing, management)
So I see a learning outcome like this and think yeah I might do horses as my extra. A few students work in the local stables and it would be nice to link in with them. I know pig production is dense on knowledge so I might avoid that with this gang. But then again do horses fit this learning outcome? What is horse output and quality of produce? Remember horsemeat burgers? I am kidding but is it the production strong horses? I need to think about this. This learning outcome is probably for cattle and sheep (and probably pigs) but as we have seen above pigs has been all choice so far. So any “pig” question must be written so it can be answered with the equivalent horse and poultry information...
4.3 Production - use secondary data to determine the daily live weight gain (DLG) and the feed conversion rate (FCR) of a selected animal
The very next learning outcome throws us back into doubt. DLG and FCR are really cool to study but wait, we need to determine the DLW and FCR of a “selected” animal. So can I do horses here again? I suppose this is probably more procedural knowledge, and with students given the required information a well taught student could do this for any animal. Still it is not clear... What is next...?
4.3 Production - identify the potential hazards (physical, biological, health) associated with working with farm animals, and safe work practices/controls
Silly question but they can’t ask about poultry specifically here can they? I am studying horses with my gang... since cattle and sheep are compulsory I will 100% cover those angles but now I am starting to wonder why do they (NCCA) not state which animals they want use to teach here? Each animal has its own unique hazards despite some similarities.
4.3.1 System/enterprise - describe the scientific principles underlying the management of the lifecycle of a selected farm animal, including the dietary requirements at different growth/development stages
“...management of the lifecycle of a selected farm animal”... Selected farm animal as in one? Not farm animals, plural. So technically I only have to cover this learning outcome with say, I don’t know... horses? I might do sheep. I ain’t doing pigs... too much learning if when they technically only need to know it for “a selected farm animal”...?
4.3.3 Animal husbandry and health - discuss management practices for handling and housing farm animals
Ah here we are back to plurals, “... housing of farm animals”. I can understand this learning outcome as I wouldn’t just want to do just cattle but where do I stop? Sheep, pigs (shudders), horses and poultry? Will a question they generate from this learning outcome want students to know how to handle and house all of the farm animals?
Right I am broken now surely they can’t get any more confusing... they can and don’t call me Shirley...
4.3.3 Animal husbandry and health - identify the main diseases that can affect ruminant and monogastric farm animals, and discuss their transmission and control
Here we see the learning outcome making a distinction between ruminant and monogastric animals, but is that not all animals on a farm? Wait if that is all animals on a farm that means we have to study diseases from cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and poultry. That it is the straw that broke the camel’s ruminant’s back. Let’s say I followed the traditional approach and picked pigs as my “other” animal. Right here it says I have to teach diseases that affect poultry and horses even though I have done zero teaching on them. That makes literally zero sense.
From my reading of this, the learning outcomes are lazily written. It leaves a lot of open doors and confusion on what they actually want to be covered. The depth or detail is another story altogether. Why don’t they tell us what animals they want covered for each learning outcome? The only people who suffer are the students.
