Analysis of linkages between the primary and junior secondary schools agriculture curricular in Botswana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the linkages that exist between the primary school and junior secondary school agriculture syllabi in terms of subject matter contents, goals, objectives and the cognitive domain of learning in selected topics. The study used mixed method whereby content analysis and a survey technique were used. The primary school and the junior secondary school agriculture syllabi in Botswana were analyzed, while 50 in-service agriculture students at Botswana College of Agriculture were surveyed using a pre-structured and validated questionnaire regarding linkages of curricular. The results of the study indicated that the primary school agriculture syllabus had 18 topics comprised of 127 instructional objectives while the junior secondary schools agriculture syllabus had 17 topics comprised of 445 instructional objectives reflecting that more topics were included in primary school syllabus as compared to junior school syllabus. However, the findings revealed that Biotechnology was not taught in secondary schools. The results also revealed that in primary school curriculum, the topic on soils has been broken down into several components while in the junior secondary education syllabus only one component is taught ‘soil fertility’. The majority of the objectives outlined in the syllabi were at lower level of the cognitive domains comprising knowledge, application and comprehension. It was concluded that the linkage between the two syllabi was not strong and therefore, a review of both the syllabi for proper alignment was recommended towards the enhancement of effective learning process.

Keywords: Agriculture curriculum linkages, primary schools, junior secondary schools, content analysis, instructional objectives, teacher’s perceptions, Botswana.