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Description:
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It has always been the initiative of agricultural education to provide our American society with the educational "needs of the day" (Meyer , 1999 ) . As our nation and state enters a new era , it is fitting for an examination of the future needs of agricultural education teachers . In Texas , the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC ) currently has no assessment of the agricultural systems knowledge of agricultural education teaching candidates . This study examines the future agricultural systems competencies of beginning agricultural education teachers . Two groups , agricultural education professionals and administrators of agricultural education programs , were asked "what the future agricultural systems competencies of beginning agricultural science teachers should be ."
Two independent panels , the first composed of eleven (11 ) educators and the second composed of twelve (12 ) school administrators , were identified to serve as experts . A three -round Delphi was used to collect the data . Each round allowed the expert panelists to converge to a consensus of agreement that identified future competencies for beginning agricultural science teachers . Panelists were asked to provide competencies associated with the five powerful and fundamental conceptual areas of biological , physical , social , informational , and other integrative science which underpin agricultural education (Paul , 1995 ) .
The study revealed a three -fourths consensus with one -hundred (100 ) future competencies necessary for beginning Texas agricultural science teachers . Among these competencies twenty -three (23 ) were associated with the biological sciences , twenty -seven (27 ) were associated with the physical sciences , twenty -five (25 ) were associated with the social sciences , twenty (20 ) were associated with the informational sciences , and five (5 ) were associated with other integrative sciences .
The study found seventeen (17 ) "highly recommended" topics and six (6 ) "recommended" topics related to the future agricultural systems competencies identified by the expert panelists . Cooper and Layard (2001 ) reveal that our future society will be much more technologically and sociologically advanced requiring teacher preparation institutions and state agencies associated with teacher preparation to develop new , innovative programs to better prepare tomorrow's educator . This study recommends that new agricultural systems standards be developed to adequately prepare future beginning agricultural science teachers . |