A COMPARISON OF PEDAGOGICAL CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONAL PROBLEMS PERCEIVED BY BEGINNING AND EXPERIENCED MICHIGAN VOCATIONAL PRODUCTION AGRICULTURE TEACHERS

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare pedagogical classroom instructional problems perceived by beginning and experienced Michigan vocational production agriculture teachers.;Fifty-two questionnaire forms were mailed to both beginning and experienced Michigan vocational production agriculture teachers and 48 questionnaire forms were returned by the respondents. Descriptive statistics--frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations; chi-square; and t-tests-- were used in analyzing the data.;The major conclusions of this study were: (1) Neither beginning nor experienced teachers perceived major levels of difficulty in any of the seven general areas of classroom instruction. (2) Both groups of teachers perceived moderate levels of difficulty in the general area of Planning for Instruction. (3) Beginning and experienced teachers perceived minor levels of difficulty in the general area of Establishing Classroom Climate. (4) With the exception of two areas, Planning for Instruction and Establishing Classroom Climate, the beginning teachers perceived greater levels of difficulty than experienced teachers. (5) Beginning teachers perceived a significantly higher degree of difficulty than experienced teachers in four pedagogical classroom instructional areas: Establishing Classroom Climate, Selecting and Using Instructional Materials/Aids, FFA and SOEP. (6) There were significant differences between beginning and experienced teachers' perceptions of level of difficulty in only 13 of the 66 (19.7%) specific instructional areas included in the questionnaire. (7) There was a significant difference in the area of Selecting and Using Instructional Materials/Aids for teachers who perceived "non-existent to moderate" administrative support when compared with those teachers who perceived "supportive to very supportive" administrative support. The teachers who received "non-existent to moderate" administrative support perceived relatively more problems when compared with those teachers who received more administrative support. (8) The only pedagogical classroom instructional area in which beginning and experienced teachers had obvious need for pre-service and in-service education respectively, was Planning for Instruction.;The study investigated the problems of beginning and experienced teachers, areas of classroom instruction causing major problems for the teachers, differences in the problems between beginning and experienced teachers and differences among the teachers with respect to the problems they perceived in some areas of classroom instruction that are attributed to teachers' characteristics.