Fundamentals of Rural sociology and Educational Psychology

Psychology is a part of agriculture extension. Agricultural extension is a multi-disciplinary subject which has the sole objective of improving the agricultural practices as well as the well-being of the farmers in the rural areas. It is a challenging discipline as it demands the understanding of complex social structures, culture and value system of the rural life. while at the same time the person engaged as an extension worker has to be well equipped with latest developments in the field of agriculture and finally transact the suitable knowledge/technology in the most effective manner to the rural stakeholders. Thus, agricultural extension is informed by sociology, educational psychology as well as agriculture.

COURSE LAYOUT

Weekly Plan

Week 1:
1. Sociology and Rural sociology, extension education, agricultural extension –meaning and definitions.
2. Importance of rural sociology in agricultural extension and their interrelationship 3.Characteristics of Indian rural society differences and relationships between rural and urban societies 4. Social group(s) – classification – formation and organization of groups and roleof social groups in agricultural extension 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 2:
1. Social stratification – meaning – forms – class system and caste system.
2.Culture and different cultural concepts and their role in agricultural extension 3. Social values, social control and attitudes – types and their role in agricultural extension 4. Leadership – meaning – classification of leaders – roles of a leader and different methods in selection of a leader 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 3:
1. Training of leaders – lay and professional leaders2. Leadership and agents of agricultural extension3. Fundamentals of Educational Psychology and its relation to agriculture extension.
4. Intelligence – meaning – types – factors and importance in agricultural extension. 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 4:
1. Personality – meaning – types – factors and importance in agricultural extension 2. Perception, emotions and frustration – meaning – types – factors and importance in agricultural extension. 3. Motivation – meaning and its relationship to agricultural extension 4. Teaching, learning, learning experience and learning situation5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 5:
1. Principles of learning and their implications in teaching – steps in extension teaching 2. Communication and models of communication process 3. Elements of communication and their characteristics 4. Types of communication – Verbal, Written and non-verbal 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 6:
1. Some concepts relating to communication 2. Extension teaching method: Meaning and definition 3. Individual contact methods: Farm and home visit 4. Group contact methods: Farm and home visit 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 7:
1. Group discussion – meaning – purposes – procedure 2. Mass contact methods: Campaign – meaning – objectives – procedure advantages and limitations 3. Radio – meaning – purposes – advantages and limitations 4. Information Sources: Internet-Meaning-Purposes-Benefits and Limitations 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 8:
1. Call centres – Farmers Call Centre in Manipur and Kisan Call Centres 2. Adoption - Diffusion – Innovation 3. Innovation decision process – meaning– stages – concepts of dissonance and Rejection
4.Factors influencing adoption process – social, personal and situational 5. Interaction/Discussion


Week 9:
1. Farmers’ Training Centre (FTC) – objectives and trainings organized 2. Visit to a village to list out the taboos, folkways, rituals and social values in the Village 3. Administering psychological tests by students to assess the personality types of human beings. 4. Conducting role play technique by the students to exhibit different leadership styles. 5. Interaction/Discussion

Week 10:
1. Exercise to create a learning situation under village conditions for a specificteaching activity. 2. Exercise on training need assessment of farmers of a village 3. Visit to a village for conducting a training programme 4. Exercise on identification of potential agricultural technologies for enterprise set up. 5. Interaction/Discussion