Good practice guide: Threshold learning outcomes for agriculture

The Good Practice Guide: Threshold Learning Outcomes for Agriculture builds on the national Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement for Agriculture (AgLTAS), which was developed through an extensive consultation process among academics, students and industry personnel across Australia.

The AgLTAS facilitates the implementation of academic standards by the agriculture discipline community and informs curriculum design. It describes the nature and extent of agriculture and provides five key Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) that describe what a pass-level graduate will know, understand and be able to do upon graduation from a bachelor-level degree in agriculture or a related discipline. The TLOs are: Understanding agriculture; Knowledge of agriculture; Inquiry and problem-solving; Communication; and Personal and professional responsibility (Botwright Acuña et al., 2014).

Having set the learning outcomes for agriculture, the next step was to demonstrate that students achieve these TLOs through assessment. The Good Practice Guide provides academics with strategies for teaching and 55 case studies of aligned assessment for each TLO (Botwright Acuña et al., 2016).

A key distinguishing feature of agriculture is its multidisciplinary nature and the contribution of disciplines other than science, such as economics and the social sciences. The integration of these disciplines in the context of agriculture is important for student achievement of the TLOs.

Two common themes appear throughout the Good Practice Guide: 1) the interdisciplinary nature of agriculture; and; 2) the emphasis on transferable and applied skills that will allow graduates to contribute to the successful practice of agriculture in a wide range of roles.