| The purpose of this study was to identify important competencies, inservice training needs and preferred delivery methods as perceived by agriculture/agribusiness teachers in Maryland. This was accomplished by examining the perceptions of secondary and postsecondary agriculture teachers regarding the importance of selected competencies, inservice training needs and preferred delivery methods for inservice within each area of competency.;A mail questionnaire with 159 competencies and certain demographics was used to survey all 75 secondary and 22 postsecondary agriculture teachers with a response rate of 97 percent and 95 percent respectively. The reliability coefficients of the instrument ranged from 0.91 to 0.93 Cronbach alpha. Sampling procedures were not used, since the entire population was used.;Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, crosstabulations and Kendall tau correlation coefficients.;Analyses of the data revealed that: (1) Of the 159 competencies, secondary agriculture teachers perceived 132 (83 percent) as important and indicated need for inservice in 22 (14 percent) items with highest inservice need in three competencies: recruit students for agriculture/agribusiness programs, teach with the aid of a computer and identify sources of new technical developments in agriculture. (2) Postsecondary teachers rated 56 (62 percent) of the 159 competencies as important and indicated need for inservice in 8 (5 percent) items with highest inservice need in four competencies: identify sources of new technical developments in agriculture, motivate students, teach with the aid of a computer and evaluate instructional effectiveness. (3) Secondary agriculture teachers significantly (P ;Relationships between the perceptions of secondary and postsecondary agriculture teachers regarding the importance rating of competencies, inservice training needs and preferred delivery methods were discussed. The influence of certain demographic variables on the perceptions of the respondents was also examined in this study. |
