Exploring how an integrated skills acquisition activity impacts the teaching ability and perceived self-efficacy to teach agricultural technical skills of preservice teachers

Abstract

School based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers are required to have expertise in pedagogy and a complex array of agricultural content areas. This study integrated an experience with agricultural technical skills and pedagogical experimentation for preservice teachers in a teaching methods course. An integrated skills acquisition (ISA) treatment based on an experiential learning cycle and specific to each skill was developed to provide guided instruction for technical skills demonstrated in a microteaching. Treatment and control groups were compared and measured on their self-efficacy to teach an agricultural technical skill and their ability to teach an agricultural technical skill. The treatment group received guided instruction for skills and the teaching method while the comparison group were only guided through the teaching method. The treatment group participants increased their self-efficacy to teach and ability to teach agricultural technical skills. The comparison group had no statistically significant changes in self-efficacy or ability to teach agricultural technical skills.