Examining the Commn Core State Standards in Agricultural Education

Abstract

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent a shift in the American education system. Included in the CCSS are opportunities for agriculture teachers to integrate math and English language arts content into their curriculum. Using the theory of planned behavior, we sought to identify Oregon agriculture teachers' attitudes, familiarity with, current level of integration, and professional development needs related to the Common Core State Standards. Our research identified the majority of responding teachers were somewhat familiar with the CCSS. Additionally, teachers had varying levels of agreement that the CCSS would help their teaching, yet the majority of agriculture teachers in our study reported they had somewhat implemented the CCSS. In an effort to identify the professional development needs of teachers concerning these standards, we used the CCSS to develop 11 needs assessment competencies related to math, reading, and writing. Respondents identified the highest professional development need areas in topics related to developing students' abilities to write and do mathematics problems in the context of agriculture. These findings are discussed using the theory of planned behavior; recommendations for practice and future research are also highlighted.

Core Academic Offerings in Michigan Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education Programs

“…One area of potential growth relates to ELA credits being obtained through AFNR coursework. Existing research notes teachers support the integration of ELA within their AFNR coursework (McKim et al, 2015); this integration, however, requires resources and professional support to make this overlap a reality. This presents a tremendous opportunity for AFNR education faculty, for example, to collaborate with ELA Education faculty to create resources to be implemented within AFNR to enhance ELA learning through AFNR courses, laying the foundation for expanded ELA credit offerings in AFNR education.…”

The State of the Profession: STEM in Agricultural Education

“…The theory of planned behavior served as the theoretical foundation for this study (Ajzen, 1991). This theory is routinely used to understand human behavior and has been used within agricultural education to explore the attitudes and beliefs of students (Osborne & Dyer, 2000;Thompson Jr. & Russell, 1993), preservice teachers (Thoron & Myers, 2010), and inservice teachers (McKim, Lambert, Sorenson, & Velez, 2015).…”

Teaching and Learning about Biomass Energy: The Significance of Biomass Education in Schools

“…Both theories provided robust explanations on informational and motivational behavior changes [70]. TPB has guided studies related to agriculture teachers' instructional decisions [52,71,72]. Ajzen's TPB depicted people's behavior is driven by intentions and determined by perceived control; intentions are led by an attitude towards behavior, subjective (social) norms, and perceived behavior control [64][65][66].…”