FFA Career and Leadership Development Event Team Training Plan
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Abstract
Competitions within The National FFA Organization, once named Future Farmers of America (FFA), an agricultural youth organization, started even before its establishment in 1928. (Jones, 2019) School Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) provides a competitive application for knowledge and skills learned within the classroom and laboratory setting as well as through supervised agriculture experiences. This three-component model consisting of Classroom and Laboratory Instruction, Supervised Agriculture Experiences, and the FFA work as an intra-curricular structure that SBAE programs adopt as their programmatic structure. These competitive events offered through the FFA are called Career and Leadership Development Events, commonly known as CDEs and LDEs. Through participating in these competitive events, FFA members in grades 7 through 12 will “… develop critical thinking skills and effective decision-making skills, foster teamwork and promote communication while recognizing the value of ethical competition and individual achievement”. (National FFA Organization, 2020) The National FFA Organization has twenty-six Career and Leadership Development Events that cover all sectors of agriculture and incorporates a variety of career-based skills. Each competitive event varies in its design but events commonly consist of all, or a combination of, the following: 1) a team activity 2) practicums 3) identification 4) evaluation/grading 5) written assessment. These competitive events are hosted in all fifty of the United States, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The roles SBAE teachers fill are many with one of them being a Career and Leadership Development Coach. “SBAE teachers spend approximately 10% of their time preparing CDE teams”. (Bowling, 2020) There are certain teaching techniques and motivations used in a classroom as a teacher but when transitioning to a coach some of the same can be utilized but many new training techniques and motivations need to be implemented.