Experiential learning has proven to be a valuable component of the Landscape Contracting curriculum in Penn State's Department of Horticulture. Implemented in four classes, two with design orientation and two with construction orientation, experiential learning has been utilized to stimulate and encourage critical thinking among students, both individually and in group situations. This teaching method serves to ignite student interest in further exploration of both concepts and process. Students involved in experiential projects have taken initiative to go beyond problem statement requirements to expand project scopes and elevate the quality of finished products. Indications of exceptional student motivation include requests by course enrollees for additional work to further develop design concepts, and organization of work sessions outside of class time to accommodate expanded work objectives. Successful integration of experiential learning into course outlines requires instructor skills that differ substantially from those employed in traditional lecture or studio formats.
Capstone courses generally target undergraduate students who are nearing completion of their studies. They are designed to build on skills acquired in earlier courses and emphasize situations and challenges that exist in the real world. Specific learning goals and course objectives vary across disciplines and institutions, but most capstone courses provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate a range of professional competencies and communication skills. By incorporating computer simulations, case studies, or research projects, students are better able to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, a learning goal frequently adopted following curriculum review. A brief overview of the development, current popularity, and widespread offering of university capstone courses is presented. The goals and organization of `Quality, Ethics, and the Global Environment,” the capstone course in the horticulture major at Ohio State Univ., is compared to other capstone courses.
The Clemson University Communication Across The Curriculum program is coordinating a creative response for learning (CRL) project to provide students with creative learning and critical thinking opportunities relevant to course content while creating a learning community. Faculty representing numerous disciplines asked their students to respond with creative projects (e.g., drawings, poems, posters, multimedia, sculpture, music, etc.) to the subject matter of the course. Students in Horticulture courses responded by writing poems in a Landscape Appreciation class, designing creative solutions to environmental problems in a Landscape Design Class, and installing an Ethnobotany Garden in a landscape implementation class. The landscape design and implementation classes used a service learning methodology to identify and solve problems in local communities. Following a four-part process of preparation, action, reflection, and celebration, students in the design class completed plans for thirteen theme gardens constituting a Children's garden in the South Carolina Botanical Garden. The following semester, landscape implementation students built the first of the series, an Ethnobotany Garden, using teamwork and university/community partnerships. They also practiced individual creative thinking and building skills through the design and installation of creative projects including a bat house, a stained glass and a broken tile birdhouse, four container gardens, artistic stepping-stones, and a dramatic metal sculpture of a butterfly representing the sustainable wildlife habitat aspect of the Children's garden. College students and faculty working on the Ethnobotany Garden project alone contributed over 1,000 hours to their community while learning more about both the art and the science of landscape design and implementation.
A 200-level course at Iowa State Univ., Principles of Horticulture, has included a communication across the curriculum assignment for the past seven semesters involving ≈425 students. Each undergraduate student develops and writes an individual student newsletter on topics and for an audience of the student's choice. The semester-long project motivates students to practice a professional communication task, and teaches technical horticultural material and writing skills. The newsletters contain at least two separate articles for an intended audience, providing the students with an opportunity to learn technical information in subjects in which they are intensely interested, but may not be taught in a principles course. Drafts of the articles and newsletter project are peer-reviewed by the students to model the professional review process, provoke critical thinking, and provide students with more feedback than they would otherwise receive from the instructor alone. Additionally, peer-review facilitates writing intensive courses for the instructor who wishes to focus course activities on writing, but has limited time or resources for reviewing writing assignments. Student newsletter articles are selected to be included in quarterly department and extension newsletters, providing students with a real-world use of a communication across the curriculum assignment.
. Set one is general educational outcomes consisting of written and oral communication, and critical thinking skills. Set two relates to horticulture core competency outcomes and includes 1) acquire, integrate, and apply knowledge of plant science to
Diverse job markets coupled with increased competition have generated an increased demand for college graduates possessing transferrable proficiencies in critical thinking and communication skills. In addition, ever-increasing interconnected global
changing students’ attitudes toward science ( Ornstein, 2006 ), facilitating the knowledge acquisition process ( Maletta et al., 1999 ). Furthermore, by participating in research, the students develop critical thinking, originality, independent learning
. The “farmer” is given a scenario before the encounter to ensure the situation is real, and is asked to respond to questions the way an actual farmer might be expected to do. This promotes critical thinking while not placing the questioner at risk of
.” Further, the National Research Council recommended college faculty in agriculture to collaborate and offer multidisciplinary courses engaging students in the complexity of problem-solving and critical thinking inherent in addressing agriculture and natural
framework Educ. Technol. 35 31 38 Van Der Zanden, A.M. 2005 An integrated approach to enhance critical thinking skills in a landscape construction course N. Amer. Colleges Teachers J. 49 53 55