Agriculture and the Undergraduate (1992) / Chapter Skim
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19 Toward Integrative Thinking: A Teaching Challenge
19 Toward Integrative Thinking: A Teaching Challenge
Pages 158-164
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From page 158... ...
I have discussed the issue with several of my colleagues in industry, however, and have woven their thoughts into this discussion. The NRC committee also noted several factors that influenced their thinking and that are equally important to this discussion: · the rapid changes in several sciences critical to agriculture, such as human nutrition, forestry, and food and fiber processing; · the future uncertainty of public- and private-sector investments in agricultural sciences and technological development; · the economic adjustments, social and demographic changes, and institutional reforms; and · the lack of information on how current educational policy and programs affect the quantitative dimensions of doctoral scientists.
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From page 159... ...
My entire professional career has been spent in the industrial world, even during an initial period at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BT1) , where 1 was a Union Carbide industrial research scientist working in an academic environment.
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From page 160... ...
· short-term profit horizons, usually within lo years, but sometimes within one or two quarters; · little energy directed toward new knowledge, which is usually accidental if it is discovered and is generally difficult to develop; ~ susceptibility to economic dislocations; · continuous process of refocusing and restating objectives; · small or narrow discipline base; and · integration of several disciplines. Trends in Industry In addition to the more or less generalized characteristics of industrial research, there are certain trends taking place in industry that also influence the nature of the marketplace: · consolidation for example, in the past 20 years, the agrochemical business has gone from 36 to less than 12 major research and development-driven companies; · new start-ups-entrepreneurial enterprises are often based on a new discovery or technology; · integration of several disciplines for example, biotechnology, which is multidisciplinary; · new dimensions for example, biotechnology, which includes ethics, strategic planning, economics, and communications; · increasing costs and regulations; · increased environmental awareness (costs)
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From page 161... ...
Whereas schools were formerly called colleges of agriculture, today they are known as colleges of agriculture and natural resources, among other names. The logo Farm Bill shows environmental awareness at an increased level over that in the 1985 Farm Bill, and production agriculture has gone from being chemically intensive to being knowledge intensive.
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From page 162... ...
The advent of biotechnology may be one of the most significant events of recent times, not only because of the new opportunities it creates but because of the potential impact on training, because it demands an integration of disciplines and skills that transcends the past tendencies to become compartmentalized. The changes in the constituent relationship from an industry based on chemical inputs to a knowledge-intensive industry one that is perceived as the solution to the nations environmental concerns will place extensive demands on communications skills.
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From page 163... ...
Participants shared the following as being successful teaching approaches for the development of students" integrative thinking skills: · freshman-level issues course in which students work with several different paradigms; · introductory general education courses; · small discussion groups involving students with widely disparate interests and perspectives; · the broadest possible diversity in courses by including students with various backgrounds and majors; · coupling of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural courses that students take in pairs, with opportunities for group discussion of contrasting perspectives; · capstone courses in each major; a senior core course for students of all majors, focusing on the views of "adopted thinkers" on specific topics or issues; · industry visitations and executive in the classroom-type programs for real-world exposure; · internships, with advance preparation, monitoring, and followup reporting and discussion; · mathematical models, which are integrative in and of themselves; · decision-case approaches, by which the teacher lists a set of assumptions and calls upon the students to respond to those assumptions; · goal-setting exercises; · writing assignments; · emphasis on listening skills (active listening)
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From page 164... ...
These included the following ideas and statements from participants in the discussion: · problems in understanding what we mean by integrative thinking; Herrett's observations regarding different approaches to thinking in universities and industry are indicative of the problems of common definition and understanding; · most of us are from "cells" (i.e.> disciplines) that are becoming more specialized; · disciplines were created by us, and we're comfortable with them; · we are unable to achieve integrative thinking in students unless we display it in the classroom and are rewarded for doing so; · we tend to focus on science, while many of our students are more oriented to agribusiness; · most college faculty have had no formal preparation for teaching, but they are expected to be innovative; we have not been taught nor have we observed effective approaches to teaching integrative thinking skills; and · large student numbers present a particular challenge for many of the integrative thinking approaches to teaching.
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