The United States is currently facing a shortage of qualified teachers; specifically, agricultural education has recorded shortages for several years. A high percentage of agriculture teachers will leave the profession well before retirement. Those teachers who leave the profession are often dissatisfied with their chosen career and exhibit low levels of teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The purpose of this census study was to describe the current level of teacher selfefficacy and job satisfaction among all early career agriculture teachers (within the first 6 years in the profession) in Kentucky (N = 80) and to determine if a relationship existed between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction among these teachers. Teacher self-efficacy was measured through three constructs: student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom management. Early career agriculture teachers in Kentucky are efficacious and satisfied with teaching. A variety of relationships exist between each construct and overall job satisfaction between each group of teachers.

The purpose of this experimental study was to determine the effects of order of abstraction and type of reflection on student knowledge acquisition. Students were assigned randomly to one of four treatment combinations in the completely randomized 2x2 design which included either abstraction prior to or directly after an experience, and either reflection-in-action or reflection-onaction. A Lab-Aids® inquiry-based kit, centered on the principles of biofuels, served as the content for the treatment. The findings of this study indicate that order of abstraction does not have a statistically significant effect on knowledge acquisition scores, but that reflection-in-action did have a statistically significant effect on increasing students’ knowledge of the selected biofuel concepts. It is recommended that teachers at both the secondary and university level focus on effective strategies of reflection-in-action to draw deeper, more enduring learning from students’ experiences in agricultural education. The study was exploratory in nature, and recommendations were suggested for full-scale replications of the study.

This longitudinal trend study sought to compare the perceptions of preservice agricultural education teachers, enrolled in a Metals and Welding course at a land grant university, on their welding related skills at the beginning of the semester to their final course grade at the end of the semester. Preservice agriculture teachers (N = 240) who completed the course between the Fall 2006 and Spring 2012 semesters served as the population for the study. Although the course is designed, specifically, to facilitate learning in metal fabrication, not one preservice teacher in any semester perceived an excellent ability in performing the welding related skills. However, skills related to shielded metal arc welding and gas metal arc welding were rated higher than those related to gas tungsten arc welding or oxyacetylene welding. The course instructor should be made aware of this discrepancy and encourage students to seek additional experiences in metals and welding. Further, the course instructor should continue to collect these data at the beginning and end of the course to determine the impact these changes have on students' ability to perform and teach the skills as future instructors. Similar studies should be conducted in other areas of agricultural mechanics, such as small gasoline engines, plumbing, and agricultural structures.

Historically, education abroad has been designed to provide students a full immersion experience by way of semester or year-long study at a foreign university. However, this traditional format has been redefined to include a variety of non-traditional international experiences, such as international service learning projects, internships, and short-term international experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to develop a deep understanding of the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students participating in a short-term international experience. The overarching question that guided the study was: What were the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students during a short-term international experience? As a result of the short-term international experience, students did not progress fully through all levels of development needed to be considered proficient in cultural competence. However, students demonstrated significant gains in cultural awareness and some gains in cultural understanding and cultural sensitivity. Finally, participating students verified some progress toward building cultural communication competencies as a result of their experience.

In spring 2018, nine agriculture students from Louisiana State University traveled to Nicaragua for a study abroad course. During this experience, students explored agricultural industries and engaged in cultural tours as well as in a service-learning project. Evidence has demonstrated that such experiences can transform students' intercultural sensitivity, global knowledge, and views on agriculture. To facilitate such an experience, however, requires educators to design experiences that challenge students' existing values and worldviews-a concept known as dissonance. Mezirow theorized that when individuals reflect critically on dissonance, it spurs a transformational learning (TL) process. However, knowledge of the types of dissonance that initiate TL in study abroad programs is insufficient. This study, therefore, sought to understand the multiple ways that students experienced dissonance during a study abroad course. Through our analysis, four forms of dissonance emerged: (1) environmental, (2) sociocultural, (3) intellectual, and (4) personal. When viewed through the lens of TL theory, the forms of dissonance appeared to shape and influence how students experienced TL as well as their resulting perspective changes. As a consequence, this study provided important insights into how study abroad courses could be designed and delivered to better encourage the maturation of students' perspectives on global issues and problems.