If agricultural education programs are to survive, they must be dynamic and able to adjust to new situations and environments that help to improve the on-the-job effectiveness of future graduates. The purpose of the study was to identify appropriate modifications for the agricultural education curricula being offered by the Department of Agricultural and Extension Educaion at The Pennsylvania State University. Data for the study were colleced via a focus group technique. Four focus groups consisting of 42 people participated in the study. The findings indicated that employers in the agribusiness industry recognized the need for changes in the agricultural education curricula to include the inccorporation of an agriculturala industry option. The most mentioned business skills included human relations, organizational, managerial, and analytical thinking. The respondents also recognized the need for employees to work together in teams and the critical need for leadership skills. The results of this study suggest that there is potential for an agricultural industry option to be incorporated into the major. Participants felt that students prusuing a major in agricultural educaiton should have the opportunity to select between preparation for formal educaitonal settings or non-formal educaitonal jobs in agricultural industry.in education in a formal sense, their jobs still require them to organize and communicate complicated
This study compared students choosing agriculture as a career to those choosing other occupations. Previous research conducted by Conro y (1996) identified predictors of occupational choice among rural youth. An examination of those predictors, comparing the two groups of students, revealed that there were few differences between students whether they chose agriculture as a career option or some other career. Differences did exist, however, based on gender and father's occupation, a variable considered to be a proxy for socioeconomic status. Findings supported prior research which suggested that family interactions are keys to vocational identity development (Steinberg, 1989; Erikson, 1963, cited in Herr, 1972). Therefore, to be effective, career awareness and educational programs must not only provide factual information about careers, they must also provide activities to reduce stereotypes commonly held about certain occupations (Steinberg, 1989; Harter, 1990). Programs that do not do this may not achieve their goals of successfully recruiting students into agriculture. Research Council (1988) in Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education the majority of secondary programs continue to have a production emphasis attracting fewer students. Recruitment into secondary agriculture programs, therefore, remains a key issue going into the 21"' century. Scanlon, Hoover and Yoder (1994) and
Chapter participation in the FFA proficiency awards program for Pennsylvania has been alarmingly low in comparison to other states in the Eastern Region of the United States. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teacher attitudes and selected variables on chapter participation rates in the FFA proficiency awards program. North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were selected for the study based on state FFA structure and overall proficiency award participation. North Carolina and Ohio judge proficiency awards on local, district, and state levels where as Pennsylvania only judges proficiency awards on the state level. Because of the close relationship between proficiency awards and supervised agricultural experiences (SAE), teacher attitudes toward SAE were also to be studied. Two sub-populations were identified: 1) teachers in North Carolina and Ohio with district winners and teachers in Pennsylvania with state winners for 1990-1992; and, 2) teachers in North Carolina and Ohio without district winners and teachers in Pennsylvania without state winners. The findings indicated a significant relationship between teacher attitude toward proficiency awards and teacher attitude toward supervised agricultural experience programs. In addition, the number of awards is significantly related to teacher attitudes toward proficiency awards and supervised agricultural experience programs.
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