LESSON

2 EXTENSION AS AN EDUCATION PROCESS

8 HOURS

The primary task of every extension worker is teaching. Thus, it is important for him to understand
fully the teaching – learning process. The extension worker needs to bear in mind that when planning an
extension program, or a teaching activity within that program, the type of behavioural change he wants to
bring about on the part of the learner must be looked into. More importantly, he needs to acquire a good
understanding of and appreciation for certain principles or generalizations about learning to become
effective in his educational task.

Teaching and Learning

The extension field officer often performs multi-faceted role of an adviser, a leader, a teacher, an
organizer, a co – worker, a liaison officer, a friend and a sympathizer in the group he works with. These
expectations are so interlinked that the performance of one would also touch that of another. But the
extension worker’s main task is teaching.

Definitions:

1. Teaching is the art of stimulating, directing and guiding the learning process. Teaching is more
than merely imparting knowledge. Teaching is a process of guided interaction between the
teacher and the student. It is the function of the teacher to guide the learner through
experiences that will enable him to develop his natural abilities. Teaching starts and ends with
students. Subjects matter is only a means, not and end.
2. Extension teaching is a process designed to help people develop and become capable of
guiding successfully their own destinies. It is essentially a way of providing effective learning
situations that create new learning experiences for people. In this manner new skills, knowledge
and attitudes are acquired which help them solve their problems in the home and on the farm.
3. Learning refers to any change in behaviour due to experience and training. It is a process by
which an individual adopts some new skill or idea because it satisfies a personal need. Learning
not only involves the knowledge of things but also the meaning of that material. All learning is an
individual effort.
 4. Learning Experience. A learning experience is a series of activities and appraisals form which
one gain meanings that can be used in facing new problems and planning new experiences.
Effective learning takes place through the experiences of the learner or through the reaction he
makes through seeing, hearing, and doing what he has to learn.
5.
6. Education may be defined as the process by which desirable changes are produced in the way
people behave. These combination of the following:
a. Changes in knowledge or things know such as the kind and amount of fertilizer to use.
b. Changes in skills or things done such as the ability to castrate a pig.
c. Changes in attitudes or things felt like becoming positive rather than negative.

Steps in Teaching

1. Getting the attention of the learner. Until the individual’s attention has been focused upon the
desired change, there is no recognition of a problem to be solved or want to be satisfied.
Attention is the starting point of interest.

2. Stimulating the learner’s interest. Once attention has been captured it becomes possible for the
teacher to appeal to the basic needs or urges of the individual and arouse his interest to further
consider the idea.

3. Arousing the learner’s desire for information. The teacher is, concerned with the continued
stimulation of the learner’s interest in the new idea or better practice until the interest becomes a
desire or motivating force sufficiently strong to compel action.

4. Convincing the learner that he should act. Action follows when desire, conviction, and the
prospect of satisfaction impels the person to act rather than not to act.

5. Getting action by the learner. Unless conviction is converted into action the teaching effort is
fruitless.

6. Making certain that the learner obtains satisfaction from his action. Follow-up by the extension
teacher helps the learner to evaluate the progress made and increases his satisfaction.

Motivating Rural People

People are motivated to learn if they satisfy a basic need through learning. Basic needs, wants,
desire, motives, incentives, or urges have been classified in a variety of ways. According to some
psychologists they are:
 1. The desire for security – economic, social, psychological and spiritual.
2. The desire for new experiences – adventures, new interests, new ideas, new friends, new ways
of doing things.
3. The desire for affection or response – companionship, gregariousness, social mindedness, or
belongingness’.
4. The desire for recognition – status, prestige, achievement, being looked up to.

As extension makes use of persuasive power, those in extension education must stimulate people
to want technical knowledge, to use it and develop a progressive mind toward change. An extension worker
must present in incentive which will prompt the clientele to act in consonance with the educational program
which they are following. Motivation therefore should aim at the welfare of the farm family as its end
product.

Some of the factors that motivate people to accept new knowledge and practices are the following:

Psychological factors –

New experience Better life for children

Recognition Greater efficiency
Job security Emergency needs
More leisure time
Sociological factors –

Higher social status Sociability

Greater prestige Hobbies
Role expectancy
Economic factors –

Education for children Higher level of living

More consumer goods More earning power
Better homes Better occupational efficiency

Timeliness of introducing change is very important

Observations and past experiences have shown that innovations were accepted by barangay
people because they were introduced at the proper time. Here are examples of some cases.

 Generally, an innovation may be easily accepted after a delightful event, like winning in a game
or selling some produce
 A housewife may be very receptive to family planning immediately after delivery.
 After experiencing some disasters like floods, typhoons, and other natural calamities, barangay
people are likely to be responsive to change.
  A person may be ready to adopt changes after an emotional stress. He might try an innovation
to relieve him ho his state of mind.
 When there is some kind of virus disease infestation from which the farmer has suffered
damages, a farmer may easily respond to change to the rice variety being introduced by the
extension worker.
 When children are often sick and parents are in great anxiety, practices like child care and
nutrition may be easily introduced.
 After a good harvest when families have the feeling of financial security, innovations are easily
followed.

Some acquired skills will inspire adults to tackle others which may be more difficult.

If extension workers would devote more effort in creating a desire for information, rural people
would come and ask for it, rather than wait for it to be brought to them. Motivating rural people thus
becomes a phase of extension work worthy of careful study in any area.

Principles of Learning

Listed below are some principles of learning which the extension workers need to look into when
teaching this target clientele.

1. Principle of active response or self – activity. Learning is an active process on the part of the
learner. The extent to which he changes his behaviour depends on how actively he responds to
the learning situation.

2. Principle of practice or repetition. This principle of learning means that “learning activity
participated in many times tends to be remembered longer and to be recalled easier.

3. Principle of association. Learning that is organized and related to other things so that similarities
and differences can be seen is more likely to be remembered.

4. Principle of timing “Learning takes place more readily when a fact or skill is taught either at the
time or just before the time when it can be used in some serviceable way.

5. Principle of satisfyingness or the principle of effect. Learning is more apt to occur if the effect is
pleasant and satisfying rather than annoying.

6. Principle of readiness. “The more fully a person is in readiness to act in a certain way, the more
satisfying it will be for him to act in that way and the more annoying if prevented”.
 7. Principle of motivation. “The ease of learning varies directly with the meaningfulness of the
material presented.”

8. Principle of individual differences. Learning varies with the individual differences in learners if
they are to achieve maximum learning.

9. Principle of recency. “The more recent the experiences, the more readily it can be recalled.”

10. Principle of intensity. “Intense, dramatic or vivid experiences are likely to make an impression on
the learner by capturing this attention and deepening the fact.”

Adult Education vs. Education for Youth

People in the field frequently talk of adult education as something unique and different from
education of children. They also say that good teachers of children don’t make good adult teachers. This is
not to say that they malign the elementary teachers. It is just an admission of the fact that the child and the
adult are quite different intellectually, psychologically, and professionally and therefore, the good
elementary teachers cannot be expected to also be good working with totally different population in a totally
different institutional setting

Who is the adult? Several definitions of the term “adult” have been formulated. These definitions
take into consideration chronological age, the psychological maturity, and the social role of the adult. The
following are representative definitions.”

“An adult is any person 18 years or older”.

“Adult student refers to any persons who has quit or finished formal school and is engage in full time
adult responsibilities such as full time job, and voluntarily undertakes study and continues his education for
whatever he may feel he needs.”

“An adult is a person (man or woman) who has achieved full physical development, and who
expects to have the right to participate as a responsible homemaker, worker, and member of society.”

“An adult is a person who has come into that stage of life in which he has assumed responsibility for
himself and usually for others, and who has concomitantly accepted functionally productive role in his
community.”

“Adults are not merely tall children; they differ from the young in so many ways that influence their
learning. They have different body characteristics, different learning histories, different reaction speeds,
attitudes, values, interests, motivations, and personalities.”
 Young and adult differences. These definitions sum up the differences between the young and
adult. The implication for the adult education is that pedagogical approaches and techniques that work well
with children won’t work well with their parents. Consideration then of these differences is important in the
planning of educational experiences.

The following will show some ways that adults differ from children in their educational activities and
learning processes:

1. Differences in self – concept. Society defines the role of the child and the adult quite
differently. The adult is expected to be engaged in an occupation, while the child is
expected to participate in school as an occupation.
When and individual defines himself as an adult, he begins to see his role in society
as a producer or does and not a full – time participant in school. He sees himself as being
able to make his own decisions, face the consequences and manage his own life.

2. Differences in experience. Children do not have the same kind of experiences of adults.
They have limited experiences. The teacher’s experience serves as the primary resource
for learning. A child tends to identify himself in terms of who his parents are, or who his
older brother or sister is. His identity is derived from external sources. Adults, on the other
hand have varied life experiences which are resources for learning. An adult defines
himself in terms of his experiences and achievements, i.e., “I am a rice farmer” or a
Samahang Nayon member.

When and adult finds himself in a situation where his experiences and achievement are not
being used, or recognized, he feels rejected as a person. Therefore, and adult educator must
consider the following:

a. Adults have contributions to make to the learning of others as well as themselves.

b. Adults have a richer foundation to relate to the new experiences that are taking
place.

3. Readiness to learn. Adults and children have different relationships towards the kinds of
activities and the kinds of readiness factors that enable learning to take place. Adults
know what they want to learn. The facilitator helps adult learners diagnose learning needs.
On the part of the children, curriculum is set by the teacher (what to learn and how
learning will take place).

4. Time perspective/orientation to learning. Adults have different time perspectives

compared to children and thus are motivated by different techniques. The adults are much
more aware of the time factors and are faced with calls upon their time to much greater
extent than are children. Adults seem to be aware that time is limited and this becomes
 more apparent as one grows older. Adult are therefore interested in learning experiences
which have immediate application. They are also interested in experiences which improve
their ability to deal with life’s daily problems facing them.

5. Motivation to learn. Internal motivators like aspirations, self-esteem are more potent
motivators for adults while external motivators like grade, praise, etc., work best for
children.

Other differences between the adult and the young learner which the adult educator
has to reckon with are summarized follows:

1. In working with adults there is no automatic acceptance of the leader as an authority.

The person in charge of and adult learning situation must find his place within the group
in the first one or two meetings. Participants in an adult group may know more about
some parts of the subject matter than their leader, and some may even know more about
the entire subject matter than their leader. This is very unlikely with children.

2. There is no automatic age differential between the leader and the adult learning group,
so one is working with age peers. This is not true in working with youth.
3. In most adult education endeavours there is no compulsion on the part of the participant
to attend, only the promise of learning keeps him going.
4. Tests are not only frightening to adult learners but tend to pollute the learning situation.
The adult participant has no concern for how well he seems to be doing with reference to
his co – learner, but only whether he, himself is learning.
5. There is no secondary group (parents) involved with the adult learner. He is the sole
participant in the learning situation, and there is no one else to go to for explanation,
motivation, or discipline.

Adult Teaching

To make teaching more effective, it must be clearly understood, learned, remembered and used.
Relative to this, the extension worker should have some guidelines on how to be successful in teaching his
target clientele most especially the adults. Sumayao lists a number of guiding principles in adult teaching
based on sound principles of learning. Some of these are:

1. Learning capacity starting at about age 6 increases rapidly until age 20, then it tends to level off
remaining generally so until possibly longer rate of learning declines after about 35 years.

2. Learning is growth – like and continuous.

a. Begin where the learner is not where you think he is nor where you expect him to be.
 b. The new idea must be related to the old.

c. The pace must be adjusted to the learner’s capacity

d. The idea must be brought to the attention of the learner repeatedly and over

time.

3. Learning is purposeful.

a. Learning must make sense to the learner – the best time to learn something is at the time it is
needed.
b. Progress must be constantly appraised and redirected.
c. Objectives must be clear to the learner and to the instructor.
4. Learning involves appropriate activity by the learners that engage a maximum number of senses:
seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling.

a. Learning results through self – activity – it is an active process on the part of the learner.
b. Use activities appropriate to the specific learning situation.
5. Learning must be challenging and satisfying.

a. Teacher motivation of the student is essential in making learning more challenging.

b. Give appropriate and timely recognition to students’ achievement.
c. Demand standards that are suitable to the learner ability.
d. Focus all teaching materials and effort by building in the mind of the learner a mental picture of
himself in a new situation that has satisfaction and value to him.
e. Maintain a friendly atmosphere.
f. Subject matter content must be significant for the learner.
6. Learning must result in functional understanding.

a. Memorization alone is temporary unless reviewed or put use in a practical situation.

b. Program content should be organized into meaning units.
c. Content is useful only as it contributes to the chosen objective.
d. Effective learning requires that learners not only acquire knowledge but also the meaning of
knowledge.
7. Learning is affected by the physical and social environment.

a. Suit the physical environment to the kind of learning taking place and to the activities selected
for learning situation.
b. Recognize and utilize the effects of the social environment on learning.
8. Learning ability varies widely among individuals.

a. Recognize individual differences.

b. Suit level of communication and level of difficulty of content to the learner’s ability.
9. Learning, in general, is a gradual process usually requiring several exposure over time before extensive
change results.
 a. Plan the use of several methods over time

- for review of content and process.

- To show relationship between what has been learned and what is being taught.
10. Learned behavior that result in changed farm and home practices is attained through the following four
steps and in about the order mentioned

a. Developing Interest
b. Creating Desire
c. Ensuring action