ISHS Acta Horticulturae 672: IV International Symposium on Horticultural Education, Extension and Training
A REVIEW OF HORTICULTURE AS AN EVOLVING SCHOLARSHIP AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL PROVISION |
| Author: | G.R. Dixon |
| Keywords: | scholarship, knowledge, integration, course design, access |
| Abstract:
The discipline of horticulture covers a unique array of extensive and intensive knowledge and skills that is matched in few other areas of academic and practical activity. The discipline may be defined into three interrelating sectors: production, environmental and social. The objectives of each are defined by profit (production), aesthetic enhancement of macro and micro landscapes (environmental) and stimulation of human physical and mental well-being (social). At their core is the artificial control and manipulation of plant germination, growth and reproduction. Significant intellectual overlap between these activities means that scholars of horticulture require an understanding of a knowledge base emanating from all three. Each knowledge base is composed of information drawn from a combination of scientific and artistic topics. Identifying common general principles and processes across each knowledge base demands integrative abilities that are reflected in horticultural course construction. Education in horticulture requires the availability of specialised subject teachers across a huge range of topics and the capacity for teaching at all levels of student interest and achievement. Making such concentrations of teaching expertise available within single monotechnic institutions is becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to sustain. Consequently, horticultural education is evolving away from the traditional sole institutional approach. Institutions are uniting in manners that exploit their particular strengths and approaches to teaching while retaining their own entities. They are also importing course structures and qualifications from alternative sources. Key components for the future paths of this evolution are likely to be distance and electronic learning, more flexible course structures, specific allowance for learning in the workplace, the availability of part-time and wholly electronically supplied courses. As a result, learning will become extended throughout much longer parts of students' careers. | |
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