Nurturing Basic Social Skills through Agricultural Education Based on Self-evaluation by High School Students Studying Horticulture

Abstract

We investigated whether basic social skills were developed in high school students studying horticulture in the agricultural department. A three part self-evaluation questionnaire was developed that had a learning evaluation table, a basic social skills evaluation chart, and an educational activity evaluation table. Basic social skills regarding 12 elements were measured in December in 3rd grade high school students. Scores for independence, abilities facilitating problem discovery, planning, transmission, and active listening were significantly higher those before high school entrance. Correlation coefficients between those for the 12 basic social skills elements and those for interests, attitudes, and knowledge/technology, in being the learning evaluation table were obtained. The results indicated that the teaching focused on increasing the students’ interests, attitudes, and knowledge/technology, being effective in fostering individuality, execution power, planning abilities, creativity, dissemination ability, and discipline. The wide range of agricultural education activities led to the well-balanced development of each basic social skill element except for stress control. Therefore, it was concluded that it is possible to nurture basic social skills through agricultural education at high school.