The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the professional experiences of agricultural education teacher candidates during their internship, their sense of teacher self-efficacy, and their perceptions of their preparation. The population included the entire cohort (n=24) of teacher candidates during the 2007 fall quarter at The Ohio State University. Teacher self-efficacy was measured using the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Candidates reported high levels of teacher self-efficacy at the end of the experience. The candidates' perception of their level of preparation was similar to their sense of teacher self-efficacy. The largest discrepancy score was for the student engagement domain. Professional development experiences categorized as vicarious experiences revealed the strongest overall relationship with teacher self-efficacy. The experience of observing a first-year agriculture teacher had the strongest positive relationship with overall teacher selfefficacy. This variable explained 11 percent of the variance in overall teacher self-efficacy, and 14 percent of the variance in the instructional strategies domain. Verbal feedback that candidates received from their cooperating teacher was positively related to teacher self-efficacy. The number of courses teacher candidates taught was negatively related to their sense of efficacy in the classroom management domain.

Advisory councils are community-specific and are major components of agricultural education programs. This descriptive study was conducted to further strengthen what is known about advisory councils and provide a basis for continued improvement in local programs. The specific purpose of the research study was to describe how Idaho agricultural education teachers perceived and used agricultural education advisory councils. Findings included that 90% (n=85) of Idaho agricultural education programs currently had an advisory council. Overall, respondents had positive perceptions of advisory councils, but felt that the opportunity exists for the advisory council to have more influence on the program. The notion that the agriculture teacher is the leader of the program's advisory council was also expressed. Future research is recommended to investigate the barriers to increasing the advisory council's influence and ways to enhance the role of the advisory council in the program. In addition, professional development programs that share best practices on advisory councils should be developed to assist teachers in increasing the effectiveness of their local program advisory councils.

As our economy calls for improved employment skills, educational institutions must provide quality teaching to prepare students for success. Researchers purport that an important factor in determining student learning is the teacher, and that one of the most prominent factors in student achievement is teacher quality. The search for the attributes, dispositions, knowledge, and instructional skills that define effective teachers continues as scholars seek to discover the teacher variables that lead to student achievement. The purpose of the descriptive research was to identify themes present in the teaching philosophy statements of the United States Department of Agriculture Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences award recipients. Content analysis technique was utilized in reviewing the provided espoused philosophy statements of award winners from 2000 – 2010. Findings include identification of eleven emergent themes. Future recommendations would include a study to determine if a disconnect exists between the stated teaching philosophy of award winning professors and their actual teaching practice. Further application would be to analyze the classroom practice of award winning professors and the impact had on student learning

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument, the Principles of Teaching and Learning Assessment (PTLA) to measure the frequency of use of principles of teaching and learning (Newcomb, McCracken, Warmbrod, & Whittington, 2004) during class sessions. The following research objectives guided the study: operationalize the principles of teaching and learning by developing concrete classroom observation criteria for each principle; establish face and content validity of the PTLA as measured using qualitative data from a panel of experts; establish reliability of the PTLA as measured through analysis of test-retest data; and write foundational premises for developing the PTLA. Grounded in Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development (1961), the study was further guided by a conceptual framework for studying cognitive levels of teaching and learning (Ewing and Whittington, 2007). An instrument for measuring the use of principles of teaching and learning during class sessions is needed for documenting teaching effectiveness. The PTLA will be used to facilitate data collection regarding professor behaviors and their relationship to student variables in teaching environments.However, researchers have stated that the same instructional methods are still used to teach

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