Teacher licensure standards in home economics : classroom use and teacher competence

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceived degree of use and the level of competence in the 32 home economics items of the Standards for Licensure of Tennessee Teachers. Perceived use and competence was measured by an instrument developed by the researcher and composed of the knowledge and skills taken from the Tennessee Licensure Standards.

The population for the study consisted of 464 Consumer and Homemaking teachers in Tennessee. Fifty three teachers participated in the study. Use and competency items were presented with means and standard deviations. The relationship between the perceived use and competency of teachers was computed using the Pearson r. Data were further analyzed using Analysis of Variance to determine whether there was a significant difference between perceived use of the knowledge and skills and the demographic variables of years of teaching experience, size of school, and geographic location of school.

Findings of the study indicated that, as a group, teachers rate themselves competent in each of the knowledge and skills and that they use the knowledge and skills in their classroom teaching. Individually, some teachers rated their own use and competence low for some of the knowledge and skills. The highest percentage of low use responses were in the content areas of consumer education and resource management and textiles and apparel. The highest percentage of low competency responses were also in the content areas of consumer education and resource management and textiles and apparel. The content area of nutrition and food had the highest percentile of use and competency ratings. The demographic factor of years of teaching experience affected use in some knowledge and skill content areas.

Based on these findings, it is recommended that the knowledge and skills perceived as adequate or below should receive increased emphasis at both the preservice and inservice levels of teacher training. Prior to the 1995 review process, the state should closely examine teacher competencies to determine if the knowledge and skills should remain as established or be revised. Teacher education programs should examine new teacher preparation and assess the needs of teachers in the field in order to provide preservice and inservice programs to meet their needs.