Teaching Practice for the Harvesting of Wood Products in Technology Education for Agriculture and Forestry

Abstract

Teaching contents regarding the harvesting of forest trees were investigated; teaching materials in technology education for agriculture and forestry were examined for their effectiveness based on high school agricultural department textbooks and field surveys related to the harvesting wood products. Furthermore, practice lessons were attempted based on the extracted teaching contents. The results showed that the teaching contents for forest tree harvesting included seven steps from logging to shipment; these steps represent the production of wood in a narrow sense. Regarding teaching practices concerning the harvesting of forest trees, guidance was conducted according to the extracted teaching contents; additionally, a comparison with the process of harvesting rice was made. Students also studied carbon fixation, which is advanced by appropriate afforestation and wood utilization. From the results of the questionnaire survey on the effectiveness of the practice lessons, it was not only found that students recognized the importance of crop cultivation, mainly for food production, but they also gained a wider understanding of the importance of material production based on wood utilization. To this end, guidance and systematic instruction about the harvesting of forests along the extension line of the cultivation of crops was helpful.