Fundamentally, agricultural teacher education programs and their faculty are tasked with preparing competent teachers capable of teaching students enrolled in public schools. As part of their design, an important facet of these programs is ensuring pre-service teachers are ready to provide educational opportunities in aspects of school-based…

Cooperative Extension employees and primary volunteers have opportunities to improve agricultural literacy among community members, yet little is known about the agricultural literacy proficiency of these community educators. It is generally assumed that Extension workers and volunteers are agriculturally literate; this study sought to provide…

Researchers have reported that participation in agricultural education reinforces STEM concepts. The use of projects is common in agricultural education. However, the foundational understanding of certain tenets of project use is not clear. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to test the effects of project authenticity on learning. AFNR…

The purpose of this study was to determine students' perceived confidence in mechanics skills increases through exploration and enlargement of the college education experience. This paper describes the relationship between West Virginia University first-semester agricultural education pre-service teachers' perception of their confidence in…

Preparing college students with the skills to engage in multidisciplinary problem solving, especially as it relates to the wicked problems of agriculture, has been called for by scholars for nearly two decades (UNFAO, 2006; Boyer, 1998; NRC 1998). Our nation's Land Grants, with the mission to provide practical education, and particularly…

Career Development Events (CDEs) have been part of the National FFA Organization since its beginning and are still an integral component of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs. A priority of the organization is to "Expand equitable opportunities for all students to develop their potential for premier leadership, personal…

Agricultural teacher education programs are designed to prepare competent teachers who are ready to teach students in public schools. One aspect of agricultural teacher education is ensuring teachers are ready to lead instruction in various aspects of school-based agricultural education (SBAE), such as teaching students various technical…

Recent trends in agricultural education have demonstrated that the number of middle school programs and students has been increasing. Despite this, middle school agricultural education students, teachers, and programs have been underserved. For example, middle school agricultural education teachers lack the training and resources to meet the needs…

A historical portion of many school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs, agricultural mechanics remains popular in schools across the nation. As such, pre-service and in-service teachers should be prepared to effectively deliver agricultural mechanics instruction (Burris, Robinson, & Terry, 2005). Agricultural education researchers…

A priority of agricultural teacher education programs is to develop technically competent, prepared school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers. SBAE teachers should be knowledgeable in various agricultural subject matter, such as agricultural mechanics. Using Roberts and Ball's (2009) Content-based Model for Teaching Agriculture as the…

The United States economy is requiring employees to have knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Researchers have identified agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) education as a context in which STEM concepts can be formally taught and highlighted. Additionally, researchers have identified where,…

This longitudinal trend study sought to compare the perceptions of preservice agricultural education teachers, enrolled in a Metals and Welding course at a land grant university, on their welding related skills at the beginning of the semester to their final course grade at the end of the semester. Preservice agriculture teachers (N = 240) who…

The National Research Council's (NRC) Report (1988), Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education, called on secondary agricultural education to shift its scope and purpose, including students' supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs). The NRC asserted that this shift should create opportunities for students to acquire supervised…

This study assessed needs, knowledge, and interests of agricultural professionals who were likely to enroll in an online extension course in sustainable agriculture. The objectives of the study were: to (1) describe their demographic characteristics, (2) identify their concerns and interests related to farming, (3) evaluate participants' knowledge…