An ever-changing world of education has led to growing demand for teachers to remain competent educators. For school districts to enhance teacher effectiveness, professional development workshops must be tailored to the specific needs of educators. To further complicate the issue, in-service needs of teachers are ever growing and changing based on experience. The theoretical foundation of this study was Knowles Theory of Andragogy. Per the theory, adult learners are motivated to learn when they feel intrinsic value or realize the personal gain from the learning activity. The central drive for this study was to determine what Louisiana agriculture teachers desired in terms of classroom-based professional development, thereby giving these adult learners a hand in planning professional development activities. The results from this study indicate that there are dissimilar professional development needs based on years of teaching experience. Per the conclusions, we recommend the results of this study be shared with state agricultural education staff, university faculty, and the Louisiana Agriculture Teachers' Association. Professional development organizers should also consider years of teaching experience when planning professional development seminars.

For decades, teacher education programs have suffered from teacher shortages in many content areas. Due to high teacher turnover rate there has been an increase in the number of teachers who are entering the field through alternative certification programs. It has been noted that the professional development needs of traditionally and alternatively certified teachers may differ drastically. The purpose of this study was to identify the professional development needs of agriculture teachers in Louisiana based on certification type. Data were collected at each of the three Louisiana FFA Leadership Camp sessions during the Louisiana Agriculture Teacher's Association meeting held on the first day of camp. In all, 190 agriculture teachers registered for camp and 164 completed the instrument, representing an 86.0% response rate of camp attendees and 62.8% of the total agriculture teacher population. The results from this study indicated that professional development related to Program Management was the only statistically significant difference between the two groups. Specifically, the traditionally certified teachers felt a greater need for professional development in this area. Based on this research, there may be less difference in the professional development needs of teachers based on certification type in Louisiana than expected compared to previous research.

Purpose: This study, which investigated the relationship between veteran secondary school teacher perceptions of evaluation feedback and self-efficacy of instructional practice, was driven by the research question: What is the relationship among evaluation processes, teacher perceptions of evaluation feedback, and veteran secondary education teacher self-efficacy toward personal instructional practice? Method: Participants were recruited from two school districts in west central Florida. The study tested two hypotheses. Hypothesis 1: Veteran secondary teachers self-efficacy of instructional practice will be related to both evaluation system type (standard vs. nonstandard) and specificity of feedback (high vs. low specificity). Hypothesis 2: Veteran secondary school teacher perceptions of the characteristics of evaluation feedback will predict teacher self-efficacy toward personal instructional practice. The study instrument included the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001) and additional feedback-related questions. Teachers were recruited through gatekeepers at the two districts and invited to take the online survey. Results: In a test of Hypothesis 1, analysis of variance revealed that teachers who reported receiving specific evaluation feedback also reported higher teacher self-efficacy compared with teachers who reported receiving nonspecific evaluation feedback, although there were no differences related to standard versus nonstandard evaluation systems. To test Hypothesis 2, multiple regression analysis showed the perceived value of feedback to be the strongest predictor of teacher self-efficacy. Conclusions: These findings, which link teacher perceptions of evaluation feedback to teacher self-efficacy of instructional practice, have the potential to inform the creation of improved professional development practices.

No abstract

Before Oliver Hart’s arrival in Charleston, the Southern colonies had produced none of their own indigenous ministers, having always looked to the Northern colonies or to Great Britain to supply their pulpits. One of Hart’s most significant contributions was to address this need. He personally trained in his home many young Baptist men called to gospel ministry and led the Charleston Association to found the minister’s education fund, the first cooperative education effort by Baptists in America. Hart actively recruited young ministers from other regions to fill the empty pulpits of the South and counseled other novice pastors on a variety of issues in his extensive correspondence. This chapter uncovers the greatest crisis of Hart’s pastoral career, the near-usurpation of the Charleston Baptist pulpit by one of his own trainees, Nicholas Bedgegood. It also recounts the story of the conversion and ministerial call of one of Hart’s most significant protégés, Edmund Botsford.