Professional instruction in agriculture: innovation based on the teaching for understanding framework

Abstract

The College of Agricultural Sciences (Universidad Nacional de Rosario, UNR) offers a degree in Agricultural Engineering, following Rule N°1254/2018 which establishes the activities restricted to the professional degree, Rule N° 1537/2021 from the Ministry of Education, and the UNR Curriculum Ordinance N° 759/2022. This regulatory framework highlights the duty to train graduates with a strong commitment to hygiene, safety and environmental impact issues involved in their professional practice. The Teaching for Understanding (TfU) framework offers an adequate pedagogical approach to achieve the construction of knowledge, skills and values contextualized in the complex, uncertain and risky agricultural reality, as well as to reach a deep understanding of the discipline in relation to professional practice. The objective of the research was to evaluate the benefits of a pedagogical-didactic innovation implemented in the Animal Anatomy and Physiology course during the year 2023, based on TfU and focused on strengthening professional training as required by the regulations. The qualitative methodology, framed in the hermeneutic and socio-critical paradigms, combined two techniques: content analysis of documents (student productions) and qualitative survey (semi-structured questionnaire administered through ‘Comunidades’, the Moodle-based learning platform used by UNR. Data were analyzed and interpreted applying the Grounded Theory method. The results corroborate that TfU not only improved disciplinary and pedagogical aspects, but also strengthened training in relation to hygiene, safety and environmental impact. Nevertheless, there was evidence which points to the need to reinforce general instruction aimed at building the citizen values indispensable for living responsibly on our planet.