An assessment of the agricultural mechanics component of the production agriculture curriculum in Texas

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess the status of agricultural mechanics instruction within the production agriculture curriculum in Texas high schools. Methodology. The population of 1,494 teachers of vocational agriculture teaching one or more production agriculture classes during the 1983-84 school year was randomly sampled to choose 225 teachers. A questionnaire was developed based upon the 68 agricultural mechanics topics listed in the basic curriculum guide for production agriculture in Texas. The questionnaire was field tested, revised, and mailed to the participants. There were 191 responses from the 225 teachers sampled for a return rate of 84.9%. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple or multiple correlations as appropriate. Major Findings. The mean years teaching experience was 12.6. Over 50% of the teachers had a master's degree. The mean number of semester credit hours in agricultural mechanics was 15.7, while the mean days of workshop attendance was 9.8. The teachers reported spending approximately the recommended time for teaching each topic. They also reported that 67 of the 68 topics were of at least "average" importance, they possessed at least "average" competence for all topics, and the adequacy of material resources was "average" or above for 57 of the topics. There were strong correlations between importance ratings and teacher competence ratings and between importance ratings and adequacy of material resources for all 68 topics. Importance ratings for topics were influenced more by teaching assignment than by years of teaching experience, university where certified, semester credit hours of agricultural mechanics course work, agricultural mechanics workshop attendance, or geographical area of the State. Teacher competence was most closely correlated with total semester credit hours of course work followed by agricultural mechanics workshop attendance and current teaching assignment. The adequacy of material resources was correlated most closely with the economic commitment per student. The adequacy of material resources and a school's average daily attendance yielded mostly negative correlations.