Extension Teaching Methods and Other Factors That Influence Adoption of Agricultural and Home Economics Practices

1964

National Agricultural Library

Extension Service Circular

495

FOREWORD

This bulletin is concerned with improvement in the use of extension teaching methods. It is intended primarily as a reference manual for inservice extension workers, prospective extension workers and graduate students in extension education.

The extension worker's job is presented as an educational undertaking. The essential steps in the adult learning and teaching process are outlined. Important factors which affect the adoption of improved farm and home practices are discussed. The
various teaching methods are compared on the basis of relative effectiveness and extent of use. Each individual method is examined critically. Essential elements, principal advantages, and limitations are identified. "How-to-do-it" instructions are left to other publications listed in literature cited or in the selected bibliography.

The authors have drawn upon pertinent research relating to formal education, psychology, and salesmanship. Greatest emphasis is placed on the findings of studies in extension education conducted over a 30-year period by the Cooperative Extension Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the State Agricultural Colleges.

This publication replaces The Effectiveness of Extension in Reaching Rural People (Dept. Bull. 1384), Extension Methods and Their Relative Effectiveness (Tech. Bul. 106), and Relative Costs of Extension Methods Which Influence Changes in Farm and Home Practices (Tech. Bull. 125). now out of print.

Federal Extension Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture