Abstract:
Many universities, especially in Sub-Sahara Afri
ca, cannot afford to offer more than one
agroforestry course due to limited funds, skille
d personnel, and/or physi
cal facilities. They
have to make tough decisions on the breadth and
depth of topics to
be covered in a time-
constrained one-semester agroforestry course.
In this paper we present the theoretical base
and an example of the applicat
ion of an AGROforestry
COurse DEcision Model
(AGROCODEM)
as an aide in de
ciding whether a time-constrai
ned one-semeste
r cou
rse has
adequate breadth and depth. AGROCODEM consists
of six factors: knowledge, attitudes,
skills, aspirations, inspirations, and intentions
with each fa
ctor havi
ng seven elements that
serve as decision-making criteria. A
n agrofor
estry course has adequat
e breadth and depth if,
and only if, it has pote
ntial to cause positiv
e agroforestry knowledge, attitude, skill,
aspiration, inspiration, and intention (
PAKASAII
) changes in the learner. The
AGROCODEM decision model is intended to prov
ide educators with new ideas and serve as
a decision criterion for topics and details to be
covered under each topic and hopefully it will
help to impr
ove sy
llab
i for tim
e-constrained one-semester agrofo
restry courses being
offered
in colleges and universities in Sub-Sahara
Africa and other regions of the world.
