This study sought to identify the common and unique in-service education needs of year 2000 and 2001 cohorts of beginning agricultural education teachers who had completed one semester of teaching. The study assessed the perceptions of beginning teachers regarding the importance of, and their competence with 59 professional competencies using a revised instrument originally designed by Garton and Chung (1996). The in-service education needs for each cohort were determined using the mean weighted discrepancy scores for each competency and categories of competencies. The results revealed the beginning teachers from both cohorts viewed the listed competencies as important for their survival and success, although they believed they were only somewhat competent in implementing the competencies. The program design and management and teaching and classroom management categories of professional competencies were the categories with the highest need for in-service education for both cohorts. Further analysis revealed that except for the program and design category of competencies, the two cohorts had differing in-service education needs for the professional teaching competencies within the teaching and classroom management, leadership and SAEP development, and technical agriculture categories. Therefore, it was recommended that assessments of teacher in-service needs continue to be conducted with each new cohort of beginning agricultural education teachers.

This study examined the nature and impact of teaching events and selected forms of assistance provided by local school district personnel to beginning agricultural education teachers. The initial five forms of assistance that had a major impact on the beginning teachers included: parental support of students for their program; adequate supply of materials, textbooks, and workbooks are provided; planning time was available before school started; curriculum guides are available for the program area; and principals provide helpful evaluation and feedback. Initial events or experiences that had a major or critical impact, and occurred often or always were: feeling in control of their program, students are respectful toward the beginning teacher, beginning teacher has self-confidence in their teaching, satisfaction is experienced after successful activities, and they see their students succeeding in their classes. The beginning teachers were experiencing elevated levels of stress and moderate amounts of job satisfaction during the early weeks of the school year. Less than 40% of the teachers were participating in districtsponsored teacher induction programs. It was concluded the initial teaching experiences of beginning teachers were, indeed, impacted by selected forms of assistance and events. Additional research was recommended to determine how the nature and impact of the measures change with teaching experience.Are the experiences unique, or is there some reason to believe that all individuals entering a new profession after a college education experience similar issues and challenges as they transition from one role to another in their journey

The Minnesota Farm Business Management Education Program provides business management education to farmers. Over 100 instructors currently provide instruction that assists 4,000 to 4,350 farmers annually in meeting their financial, family, and personal goals. This evaluation study sought to determine how the contemporary students viewed selected instructional activities, elements, and program outcomes. The results show that individualized instruction and telephone communications were the highest-ranking instructional methods and instructional media, respectively. Instruction relating to the practice of keeping and analyzing records, and making management decisions were highly desired. The effectiveness of the FBM program in delivering selected instructional topics, activities and/or benefits was highly related to the level of importance placed upon each topic, activity, and benefit by the students. The students were very satisfied with the program as evident by the positive nature of their recommendations to potential students and their belief that they receive an annual improvement in net farm income of nearly $5,000.

This study compared the nature and impact of teaching events experienced by 64 beginning agricultural education teachers from three cohorts. Initial events or experiences that had a major or critical impact upon the teaching experiences were: feeling in control of their programs, receiving respect from students, feeling support from their principal, experiencing self-confidence in their teaching and successful teaching activities, and observing students succeed in their classes. Events within the peers, students, curriculum, and system categories of the Teacher Proximity Continuum (Camp & Heath-Camp, 1992) ranked highest in impact. The author concluded the frequency and impact of the teaching events differed by cohort. As a result, recommendations were made to administer questionnaires and conduct interviews to identify the events perceived to influence the teaching of the entry-level teachers. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND

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