UPHESC Assistant Professor Agricultural Extension PYQs

Concept: A campaign is an intensive teaching activity on one problem, carried out for a short, definite period with many media at once, so it reaches a very large number of people quickly.

1. Demonstration and training reach small groups.
2. An exhibition reaches many but only those who visit it.

Short trick: Campaign = many people + short time + one theme.

Concept: Extension education was first taught as a subject at undergraduate level in 1950 in the College of Agriculture, Calcutta University.

1. Post-graduate teaching of extension began in 1955 at Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour.
2. PAU Ludhiana was founded only in 1962, so it cannot be the answer for 1950.

Short trick: UG 1950 Calcutta → PG 1955 Sabour.

Concept: In Leavitt & Mueller's classic experiment four feedback situations were compared: zero feedback, visible audience, yes–no feedback and free (fire) feedback.

1. Free feedback = receivers may ask any question without restriction – most accurate communication, though slowest.
2. (A) zero feedback, (B) visible audience, (C) yes–no feedback.

Short trick: Free/fire feedback = 'ask anything'.

Concept: Agenda-setting theory (McCombs & Shaw, 1972) says the mass media (channel) decide which issues the public thinks about by the prominence they give them.

1. It is a media (channel) effects theory, like the hypodermic needle, two-step flow and media dependency theories.
2. Receiver-related theories include selective exposure, uses & gratifications, cognitive dissonance.

Short trick: Media set the agenda → channel theory.

Concept: Feedback is the response of the receiver sent back to the source; its purpose is source-oriented – it tells the communicator how the message was received.

1. (b) True – feedback differs from face-to-face (immediate) to mass media (delayed, little).
2. (c) True – feedback lets the source modify the message.
3. (d) True – feedback improves fidelity (accuracy) of communication.
4. Thus at most statement (a) can be called incorrect; no code lists a pair of two incorrect statements, so no option is correct as printed.

Short trick: Feedback: from receiver, for the source; it improves fidelity.

Concept: The Socratic method (seminar) uses open-ended questioning and dialogue so that learners reason and think for themselves instead of memorising right answers.

1. RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) is a writing strategy.
2. Fish bowl – an inner circle discusses while an outer circle observes (a discussion format).
3. Paideia seminar is a later derivative of the Socratic idea, but the classic term for 'think for themselves' is Socratic.

Short trick: Socrates asked, never told.

Concept: A delayed lead opens with a scene, anecdote, description or question to set the mood, and brings in the main news a few paragraphs later.

1. Direct/summary lead – gives the main facts (5 Ws and 1 H) in the first sentence.
2. Suspended-interest lead holds back the climax till the end of the story.

Short trick: Delayed lead = 'story first, news later'.

Concept: Leagans' effective learning situation has five elements: learners, instructor, subject matter, teaching materials/equipment and physical facilities.

1. Apart from the learners, the listed key elements are instructor, subject matter, physical facilities and teaching equipment – option (A).
2. Facilitator is the same role as instructor (duplicate); budget and 'training infrastructure' are not separate elements.

Short trick: L-I-S-T-P: Learner, Instructor, Subject matter, Teaching material, Physical facilities.

Concept: A beat reporter is assigned to a fixed 'beat' – a place or source where news occurs regularly (police station, courts, mandi, legislature, agriculture department).

1. Stringer – part-time reporter paid per story.
2. Free-lancer – independent, not attached to one paper.
3. Correspondent – reporter posted at a distant station.

Short trick: Beat = fixed round, like a policeman's beat.

Concept: Extension teaching is horizontal: teacher and learners are co-equals, learning is two-way, on the farm, and spreads across all sections of the community.

1. Formal education is vertical – teacher above students, fixed curriculum, step-by-step classes.
2. Extension programmes are flexible, need-based and voluntary.

Short trick: Formal = vertical (ladder); extension = horizontal (spread).

Concept: e-Readiness is the degree to which an individual/community is prepared to use ICTs – affordability, skills, access, infrastructure and policy support.

1. e-Extension is the use of ICT to deliver extension services.
2. e-readiness is measured before planning e-extension or e-governance projects.

Short trick: Ready to use 'e' = e-Readiness.

Concept: Colour has three properties (Munsell): hue (the colour name), value (lightness/darkness) and intensity or chroma (brightness/purity).

1. 'Contract' (contrast) is a principle of design/layout, not a property of colour itself.

Short trick: H-V-I: Hue, Value, Intensity.

Concept: In Kolb's experiential learning cycle, the move from Concrete Experience (CE) to Reflective Observation (RO) corresponds to the diverging style.

1. Diverging = CE + RO; Assimilating = RO + AC (abstract conceptualisation).
2. Converging = AC + AE (active experimentation); Accommodating = AE + CE.

Short trick: Feel + Watch = Diverge; Watch + Think = Assimilate; Think + Do = Converge; Do + Feel = Accommodate.

Concept: Pedagogy (Greek paid = child, agogos = leader) is the art and science of teaching children.

1. Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles) – teaching adults; extension work follows andragogy.
2. Heutagogy – self-determined learning.

Short trick: Ped = child (as in paediatrics); Andr = man/adult.

Concept: CPM (Critical Path Method, DuPont 1957) is activity-oriented: it uses deterministic time estimates for each activity to find the longest (critical) path.

1. PERT (US Navy, Polaris project 1958) is event-oriented and uses three probabilistic time estimates.
2. CPM also deals with time–cost trade-off.

Short trick: CPM – Activity; PERT – Event.

Concept: Kerlinger: research design has two basic purposes – to provide answers to research questions and to control variance.

1. Control of variance follows the 'MAX-MIN-CON' principle: maximise experimental (systematic) variance, minimise error variance, control extraneous variance.
2. So (c) 'minimise variance of variables' and (d) 'maximise variance of extraneous variables' are wrong.

Short trick: Design = Answer the question + Control variance (MAX-MIN-CON).

Concept: A focus group should be small enough for everyone to talk yet large enough for varied views – about 6 to 10 participants (5–10), with at least 2–3 groups per category so that patterns can be compared.

1. 10–15 or 15–20 members make the group unwieldy; 1–5 is too small for group interaction.
2. A single group is never enough – findings must be cross-checked across groups.

Short trick: FGD: 'single-digit' group size, a few groups.

Concept: Luther Gulick: organisation is the formal structure of authority through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined and co-ordinated for the defined objective.

1. SHG, co-operative society and enterprise are particular kinds of bodies, not the general term defined here.

Short trick: Structure of authority = Organisation (the 'O' of POSDCORB).

Concept: Span of management (span of control) is the number of subordinates a manager can supervise effectively.

1. V.A. Graicunas showed relationships rise steeply with the number of subordinates; classical writers suggested about 5–6.
2. Chain of command – line of authority from top to bottom; departmentalisation – grouping of jobs.

Short trick: Span = how wide a manager's 'arms' reach.

Concept: Extension aims at changes in knowledge (things known), skill (things done) and attitude (things felt).

1. Knowledge – things known (cognitive).
2. Attitude – things felt (affective).
3. Skill – things done (psychomotor).

Short trick: K-S-A: Known, Skilled/done, Attitude/felt.