An assessment of Texas Agriscience teachers' self-perceived knowledge and importance of eighteen specific agribusiness topics to identify in-service training needs /
The report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence, 1983) called for agricultural education to increase the science basis of its programs and emphasize the quality of teaching in the classroom. In 1988, Texas adopted statewide-standardized curricula for agricultural education. All cou...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2002.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765051171&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence, 1983) called for agricultural education to increase the science basis of its programs and emphasize the quality of teaching in the classroom. In 1988, Texas adopted statewide-standardized curricula for agricultural education. All courses in Texas are now based upon Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). These standard skills became law September 1, 1998, (TexReg 4953). The Instructional Materials Service (IMS) at Texas A&M University modified agribusiness curriculum materials to address these mandated essential skills. The courses developed for Texas to meet these essential skills are AGSC373, Agribusiness Management and Marketing; AGSC374, Advanced Agribusiness and Marketing; and AGSC375, Entrepreneurship in Agriculture (Texas Education Agency, 2000). The primary purpose of this research was to establish baseline agribusiness topic data regarding the knowledge and importance possessed and prioritized by Texas Agriscience teachers. A secondary purpose of the research was to identify demographic variables that may explain or predict differences in teachers' in-service needs in agribusiness topic areas. This information will allow in-service programs to be designed for specific audiences. The overall importance for agribusiness topics was high compared to the perceived knowledge levels of the same topics. Correlations of factors such as number of times teachers offered agribusiness courses, previous training, or involvement in agribusiness CDE events to their importance or knowledge in agribusiness was minimal. However, teachers' knowledge in agribusiness was correlated with their previous training in agribusiness. Teachers' previous training in agribusiness also had the highest correlation to in-service needs using the discrepancy scores as a surrogate variable for the MWDS. This study found that all 18-agribusiness topics had negative Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores, which identifies in-service needs in all the identified agribusiness topics. This is a major finding, as no research to date has identified the discrepancy rankings of topics in agribusiness. The ranking of in-service needs using Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores (MWDS) was also found to produce different ranks than using either knowledge or importance rankings. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Agricultural Education". |
| Physical Description: | xiii, 160 leaves ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-145). |