Abstract:
Pre-service Agricultural Education departments should evaluate their academic programs to determine if the courses being taught and the instruction in these courses are adequately preparing their students to be able to perform desired program outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of recent graduates (previous five years) related to the stated objectives of the Agricultural Education program from the perspective of the graduates as they exited the program, from the perspective of the school administrators in their initial employment as teachers, and from the perspective of the alumni after they had been teaching. The data collected and presented in this review show that, on the whole, recent graduates of the undergraduate Agricultural Education program in this study were well prepared to enter teaching careers in the secondary schools. Graduates of the program show strengths in pedagogical skills overall, with less confidence in the areas of teaching students with special needs, managing student behavior in the classroom and performing written communication. Program revisions were made based on these findings. The iterative cycle of program review using outcome-based assessments in pre-service Agricultural Education should continue to be a priority of the profession.
Keywords:
evaluating, outcomes-based assessments
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