ASRB Extension · Unit 4 of 10

Unit 4: Training & Human Resource Development

How extension personnel and farmers are trained: needs assessment, designing a programme, delivering it, and finding out whether it worked.

What this unit covers

Unit 4 is short, self-contained and reliably scoring. The whole unit hangs off one idea: a training need is a measurable gap, and everything from curriculum design to evaluation follows from how well that gap was identified. Kirkpatrick's four levels, the classification of training types, and farmer field schools are the parts most often asked, and none of them requires much reading.

The unit is broken into 10 syllabus areas, listed below. ASRB has set 11 descriptive questions from it that are on record, and there are 85 practice questions for it on this site.

Syllabus areas in this unit

  • Concept, principles and importance of training in extension
  • Training needs assessment and the training gap
  • Types of training: induction, orientation, refresher, on-the-job, in-service
  • Designing a training programme: objectives, curriculum, schedule, budget
  • Training methods: lecture, discussion, role play, case study, simulation, field practical
  • Evaluation of training and Kirkpatrick's levels
  • Human Resource Development concepts in extension organisations
  • Capacity building of extension functionaries
  • MANAGE, NIAEM, EEIs and the national training institutions
  • Farmer field schools as a training approach

Key concepts

Training need. The measurable gap between the knowledge, skill or attitude a person has and what the job actually requires. Everything else in a training design follows from it.

Farmer Field School. A season-long, field-based group learning approach where farmers observe, experiment and draw conclusions themselves rather than being told.

Kirkpatrick's levels. Four levels for evaluating training: reaction, learning, behaviour and results.

Previous year questions from Unit 4

Descriptive questions ASRB has actually set from this unit, with the year in brackets.

  • Training need assessment methods (2014)
  • Approaches in Training Needs Analysis. Steps in conducting/identifying TNA (2021)
  • List out training methods used to bring changes in knowledge, skill and attitude (2016)
  • Explain different training methods used in extension (2016)
  • Differentiate between training and development (2016)
  • Describe Krikpatric model of training evaluation (2023)
  • Describe 360 appraisal method of performance appraisal (2023)
  • Describe different phases of project management (2023)

11 previous year questions from this unit in total. The full list is on the PYQ page.

Practice for this unit

  • 85 descriptive practice questions across 5, 10 and 15 marks, in the Mains section.
  • Objective practice for this unit in the MCQ section, with ASRB marking and full analysis.
  • Full-length tests that draw on this unit alongside the other nine, in the mock tests.

The other units

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Unit 3: Information Communication Technologies The previous unit Unit 5: Research Methodology in Extension Education The next unit All unit notes Study material for every unit ASRB NET Extension hub Pattern, strategy and resources