Supervised Agricultural Experience Instruction in Agricultural Teacher Education Programs: A National Descriptive Study

Abstract

Faculty in agricultural teacher education programs are responsible for preparing future teachers to lead effective school-based agricultural education programs. However, agriculture teachers are having difficulty implementing supervised agricultural experience (SAE), even though they value it conceptually as a program component. In an effort to improve SAE instruction in teacher education, the American Association for Agricultural Education has adopted a guiding philosophy and competencies for teacher preparation in SAE. Using these documents, the purpose of this national descriptive study was to identify where and to what extent SAE instruction was included within agricultural teacher education curriculum and describe the level of SAE instruction occurring in agricultural teacher education programs in the United States. Findings of this study indicate that there was a broad range in the level of instruction occurring for each of these competencies among teacher education programs. These results provide a snapshot of onemoment-in-time and serve as a starting point for a conversation about how supervised agricultural experience should be taught in agricultural teacher education. It is recommended that supervised agricultural experience competencies be taught using inquiry-based or problem-solving methods guided by the experiential learning process.

Supervised agricultural experience instruction in agricultural teacher education: A national descriptive study

“…As part of the student teaching experience, preservice agriculture teachers were frequently required to assist SBAE students with recordkeeping as well as in completing award and degree applications. The prevalence of record book simulations and experiences in student teaching support the findings reported by Rank and Retallick (2016) regarding the perception of agricultural teacher educators that recordkeeping was being taught at an applied level in agricultural teacher education programs. Although recordkeeping was often taught as a concrete experience, no evidence was identified within the documents that indicated the transformation of the experience through reflective observation or active experimentation.…”

“…SAE is included at varying points throughout the agricultural teacher education curriculum (Rank & Retallick, 2016;. The need exists to identify the SAE content and its placement within agricultural teacher education course materials to provide evidence about how and where SAE instruction is included within agricultural teacher education.…”

“…In an effort to provide guidance for SAE instruction in agricultural teacher education, the AAAE has developed a Philosophy on SAE Instruction in Agriculture Teacher Education Programs (AAAE, 2013a) as well as Competencies for Agriculture Teacher Preparation in SAE (AAAE 2013b). Among agricultural teacher education programs, there is a broad range in the level of instruction occurring within each of the SAE agriculture teacher preparation competencies (Rank & Retallick, 2016). Within agriculture teacher education, "SBAE preservice programs should work to promote authentic experiences for preservice teachers to develop, implement, maintain, sustain, evaluate, supervise, and communicate an SAE program" (Rubenstein, Thoron, & Estepp, 2014, p. 81).…”

Assessing School-based Agricultural Education Teacher Familiarity, Knowledge, and Perceptions of Supervised Agricultural Experience Categories

“…Wolf went on to recommend professional development for SAE management and an increased concentration on the SAE domain for pre-service teachers. Rank and Retallick (2017) found that participants indicated teacher education programs train their students on how to categorize SAEs, but teachers were still not implementing them. Determining if changes in current SAE definitions and categories are providing clarity on the subject may help determine if current attempts to improve the implementation of project-based learning are effective.…”