Attitudes and perceptions of Tennessee agriculture education teachers regarding various aspects of supervised agricultural experience programs

The purpose of the study was to describe the attitudes and philosophies of Tennessee agricultural education teachers regarding the importance of supervised agricultural experience programs, planning activities for supervised agricultural experience programs, and supervision strategies used with supervised agricultural experience programs. The study also identified the demographics of Tennessee agricultural education teachers and what factors influenced their philosophies about various aspects of supervised agricultural experience programs.

A questionnaire was developed to meet the research questions of the study. Data gathered for the study were analyzed using The University of Tennessee Computing Center IBM 3081 mainframe computer and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) release 4.1. Descriptive statistics and appropriate inferential tests were used in the analysis.

Findings

1. Agricultural education teachers who taught in multiple teacher departments had a more positive philosophy regarding the importance of supervised agricultural experience programs and planning activities for supervised agricultural experience programs.

2. Agricultural education teachers who subscribed to The Agricultural Education Magazine had a more positive philosophy regarding the importance of supervised agricultural experience programs and planning activities for supervised agricultural experience programs.

3. Agricultural education teachers had a more positive philosophy regarding the importance of supervised agricultural experience programs, planning activities for supervised agricultural experience programs, and supervision strategies used with supervised agricultural experience programs when they counted their students' supervised agricultural experience programs as part of their grade in agricultural education.

4. Agricultural education teachers had a more positive philosophy regarding the importance of supervised agricultural experience programs and supervision strategies used with supervised agricultural experience programs when they had a class period during the school day to leave and supervise students' supervised agricultural experience programs.

5. Agricultural education teachers who did not enroll in agricultural education courses while high school students had a more positive philosophy regarding supervision strategies used with supervised agricultural experience programs.

Implications

1. If economically feasible, local school systems offering agricultural education courses should consider having multiple teacher agricultural education departments.

2. Agricultural education teachers should be scheduled a class period during the school day to leave and supervise students' supervised agricultural experience programs.

3. Agricultural education teachers should consider counting their students' supervised agricultural experience programs as part of their grade in agricultural education. Prospective agricultural education teachers should be encouraged by teacher educators to count students' supervised agricultural experience programs as part of their grade in agricultural education.

4. Agricultural education teachers should consider subscribing to The Agricultural Education Magazine to keep up-to-date about changes with supervised agricultural experience programs. Prospective agricultural education teachers should be encouraged by teacher educators to subscribe to The Agricultural Education Magazine.

5. Teacher educators should continue to teach prospective agricultural education teachers about supervised agricultural experience programs.