A COMPARISON OF THE INSERVICE EDUCATION NEEDS OF TWO COHORTS OF BEGINNING MINNESOTA AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

This study sought to identify the common and unique in-service education needs of year 2000 and 2001 cohorts of beginning agricultural education teachers who had completed one semester of teaching. The study assessed the perceptions of beginning teachers regarding the importance of, and their competence with 59 professional competencies using a revised instrument originally designed by Garton and Chung (1996). The in-service education needs for each cohort were determined using the mean weighted discrepancy scores for each competency and categories of competencies. The results revealed the beginning teachers from both cohorts viewed the listed competencies as important for their survival and success, although they believed they were only somewhat competent in implementing the competencies. The program design and management and teaching and classroom management categories of professional competencies were the categories with the highest need for in-service education for both cohorts. Further analysis revealed that except for the program and design category of competencies, the two cohorts had differing in-service education needs for the professional teaching competencies within the teaching and classroom management, leadership and SAEP development, and technical agriculture categories. Therefore, it was recommended that assessments of teacher in-service needs continue to be conducted with each new cohort of beginning agricultural education teachers.