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Multidimensional Approaches in Autotutorial Teaching of the Crop Science Laboratory 1
Author(s) -
Burger A. W.,
Everly J. C.,
Steele J. C.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1971.00021962006300010047x
Subject(s) - curriculum , mathematics education , medical education , psychology , agricultural science , mathematics , pedagogy , medicine , environmental science
In the summer of 1968, an undergraduate instructional award was granted for two courses in the Department of Agronomy at the University of Illinois (Urbana‐Champaign campus). Introductory Crop Science, a 4‐semester hour credit course was converted from 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory to 2 hours of lecture and up to 2 hours of scheduled, programmed independent study per week in a constantly supervised carrel‐science laboratory environment. The crop science laboratory procedure incorporates bi‐weekly, 1‐hr discussions, completion of each student's assigned experiment reported in publishable form, and opportunity for bonus credit by completion of an open‐end experiment. Favorable student reaction to autotutorial instruction, the use of taped comments by a writing consultant to give the student sugestions on improving writing skills before submitting final report, and publication of every student's research report during three semesters involving 269 students were recorded. Freshmen, majors in agricultural communications, agricultural science (graduate training), and agronomy, and students earning grades of A and B, respectively, devoted more time to independent study than upperclassmen, students in other curricula, and students earning grades below B.