Performing Department
Agricultural Education and Communication
Non Technical Summary
Although it is important for agricultural educators to be able to discuss the application of principles from all aspects of STEM, the science and math concepts in the context of agricultural education have garnered the most attention in the literature base because of their direct application to agriculture. Therefore science and math will be the primary focus of this project. Myers and Thompson (2009) conducted a study to determine what teachers needed in order to successfully emphasize STEM concepts in their classrooms. The responses of the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy participants were categorized as the following: 1) curriculum, 2) professional development, 3) teacher preparation programs, 4) philosophical shift, and 5) collaboration. Teachers in the study desired an agriculture curriculum written to be aligned with state and national standards for science and math along with a national data base of lesson plans containing explicit emphasis of STEM concepts made available to teachers. Teachers also desired continuing instruction on how to highlight science and math principles found in the agriculture program. The teachers in the study believed the pre-service teachers should be required to take coursework at their university to strengthen their knowledge of such a curriculum. The teachers also reported desiring a shift in philosophy regarding agricultural education. Teachers in the study believed transforming the view of agricultural education would help teachers of all disciplines understand the role agriculture can take in increasing student achievement. The teachers also valued collaboration, and believed team-teaching across disciplines would help to reinforce the importance of agricultural education and make the agricultural educators a valuable part of the education community (Myers & Thompson, 2009).Guidance on how STEM education science education in particular should be designed has been provided by the recent publication of A Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012). In this report, it is recommended that science education be built around three major dimensions: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Any model for secondary school agriscience programs that emphasize STEM content must take this framework and the Math Common Core (NGAC, 2010) into consideration.Knowing the importance of preparing teachers to emphasize the science and mathematics of agriculture within a curriculum, it is important to understand what the practices entail. Crawford (2000) conducted a case-study of one high school biology teacher in the Pacific Northwest. This teacher had been noted for his outstanding use of inquiry-based learning when designing lesson plans. The aim of the research was to gain qualitative data that described what made this teachers lessons so effective. The results identified six characteristics of the teacher that allowed for successful use of inquiry-based instruction. Those six characteristics were: 1) situating the instruction in authentic problems, 2) grappling with data, 3) fostering collaboration between teachers and students, 4) connecting the students with their community through the lesson, 5) teacher modeling the behaviors of a good scientist, and 6) fostering student ownership in the project and the results.The profession needs to develop a model of effective practices emphasizing STEM concepts to prepare a future of agricultural scientists who are highly trained. If the profession is to develop a curriculum framework and further prepare teachers of agricultural education to explicitly highlight STEM principles in agriculture, the current teaching practices that are most effective for accomplishing this goal in secondary school agricultural education need to be identified.The Concerns-Based Adoption Model, a research-based model, was designed to help facilitate change and provide diagnostic means of measuring implementation of an innovation (Hall and Hord, 2006) and provides a framework to guide this project. The model consists of the environment, the user system culture, resource system, change facilitator team, interventions, users and nonusers, and three diagnostic measures: stages of concern, levels of use, and innovation configurations (Hall & Hord, 2006). Hall and Hord (1987) define an intervention as any action or event that influences the individuals involved or expected to be involved in the process (p. 143). Interventions can range from training workshops to short conversations about the innovation called one-legged interviews (Hall & Hord, 2006).
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Identify practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas to be included in a secondary school agriscience program.
Identify teaching methods, resources (facilities, equipment, materials, etc), and techniques currently utilized by exemplary teachers.
Develop an innovation configuration for implementing an agriscience program.
Project Methods
Objective 1:Part 1. Four national panels will be appointed to propose a set of practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that could be included in the agriscience curriculum. The panels include the following groups:Agriscience teachers who have participated in the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassadors Academy (N=50), selected randomly from all past program participantsAgricultural education teachers who have not completed the NATAA (N=50), nominated by state supervisors and selected proportionately by geographic regionAgriculture teacher educators (N=50), selected randomlyState supervisors (N=25), selected randomlyPart 2. A national panel of 10 purposively selected experts from among teachers, teacher educators, state supervisors, and business and industry representatives will be convened at a central site to participate in the second phase of the study. The Delphi methodology will be utilized. Panelists will engage in dialogue regarding the lists of practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that were generated during Part 1. In a two- to three-day period, panelists will discuss, refine, and agree upon the final set of items that are proposed to be included in the agriscience curriculum. Specific locations will be dependent on future funding opportunities for this component of the project. A timeline according requirements of funding sources will be established, and efforts will be made to hold the panel in tandem with natural gathering events and locations, such as the NAAE Conference or National FFA Convention, if at all possible. If hosting the panel during a relevant simultaneous event is not feasible, funding will be utilized to bring all panel members together to a university campus in a central location based on where the national panel members are located. In the absence of funding, the panel will be hosted electronically through Blackboard Collaborate, a virtual meeting room in which panel members can communicate, utilize a whiteboard, and share documents.Part 3. A panel of 20 experts representing science teachers, math teachers, science and math teacher educators, and science and math state education agency consultants will be selected from nominations by the national science and math teacher organizations, universities, and state education agencies. Participants will verify that the science and math practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas established in Part 2 are consistent with the national standards for science and math practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. The panel will meet at a central location to conduct the verification of items task. Panel location selection will occur in a similar fashion to that in Part 2. Naturally occurring events to serve as gathering places for consideration will be the National Math and Science Partnership Conference and the National School SciencePart 4. An electronic, survey-based study will be conducted of agricultural education instructors nationally. A random sample of 600 instructors will be asked to participate in the study. Participants will be instructed to indicate the importance of, their knowledge of, and their ability to teach each of the practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that were established in Part 2 and verified in Part 3 of the project. Using the Borich Model for conducting a needs assessment, the items will be rated by the instructors to determine the practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas that teachers indicate a need for in-service education, such as workshops, webinars and e-materials. The Dillman Total Design Method will be utilized to help ensure an acceptable response rate, typically after six contacts. Non-response follow-up will be conducted to reduce error attributed to non-response.Part 5. The final part of this effort will include local school educators (e.g. principals, CTE directors, other administrators) in schools where agricultural education programs exist. A random sample of 100 participants will be selected. Participants will complete an electronic survey instrument regarding their opinion of the extent to which the practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas are and should be part of a total agriscience education instructional program.Objective 2:Part 1. Exemplary secondary agriscience educators within the United States will be identified and selected to participate in electronic survey research. The teachers to be identified for the frame of the study are those who have been known to participate in STEM development in three different categories. The first category includes participation in professional development including the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy. The second category of secondary agricultural educators identified as exemplary by their peers through winning National FFA Agriscience Teacher of the Year Award. The third category is those teachers who train exemplary students and have been identified with students who have been past National Agriscience Fair Winners and National Agriscience Proficiency Winners. A five-year census of teachers in the established categories will be polled. Once frame error has been controlled for, the number could decrease.Part 2. From the broader population (N = 12) participants will be chosen for maximum variation within the STEM fields. Researchers will then examine participant teaching methods within the selected secondary classroom settings as participant observers. This will allow the research to gain an in-depth analysis of current methods of STEM content integration as exhibited by the selected population. Data collection will include researcher observation journal; semi-structured interview protocol for teachers, students, other teachers, administrators, and academic counselors; photo documentation of educational facilities; and video-taped instructional techniques of each participant. Photo-documentation will also allow for alignment with objective 3 and identification of facilities. A constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) will be used to code the interview and observations.Objective 3:The Concerns-Based Adoption Model presented by Hall and Hord (2006) contains three diagnostic instruments to measure implementation of an innovation. Each instrument addresses a different aspect of the change process. Innovation Configurations (IC) clarify what full implementation should look like. Levels of Use (LoU) chart individuals' behaviors in regard to the change. Stages of Concerns (SoC) measure people's feelings and perceptions of change. These three diagnostic instruments can be used separately or in combination with others to assess the status and success of implementation of an innovation (Hall & Hord, 2006).