Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication, Department of
Date of this Version
2009
Citation
Journal of Agricultural Education Volume 50, Number 4, pp. 25 - 35 DOI: 10.5032/jae.2009.04025
Abstract
The specific objectives of this study were to identify the attitudes of U.S. agricultural education teacher educators toward using scientific inquiry as an instructional method and to determine their level of comfort and awareness with new information and teaching methodologies in science. A mailed survey was sent to all agricultural education teacher preparation institutions in the United States. One-half of the respondents who indicated that they presented scientific inquiry to their pre-service teachers during the methods of teaching course indicated they were very comfortable with teaching technical agriculture content, while one in eight said they were very comfortable with teaching technical science content. A majority of respondents who said they presented scientific inquiry also indicated that they felt comfortable or very comfortable with presenting the scientific inquiry teaching method. Respondents rated themselves less than knowledgeable on “general science content” and “current discoveries in science.” When asked their opinions of their comfort with various content areas and teaching methodologies 95% of teacher educators responded that they felt very comfortable or comfortable teaching technical agriculture content. Only 68% felt as confident when asked about teaching technical science content.
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Higher Education Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Other Education Commons
Comments
Used by permission.