| Problem. The study was designed to identify and verify the competencies for community development activities needed by teachers of vocational agriculture in the four southern Thailand border provinces. Additionally, the study was designed to compare the perceptions about community development activities of community development workers, agricultural officers, secondary school administrators, and vocational agriculture teachers and to compare the perceptions of the groups of subjects based on birthplace and years of work experience.;Findings and Conclusions. The following findings were based on the data collected and analyzed for this study: all groups of subjects rated the competencies studied to be moderate in importance; the ratings of the agricultural officers were significantly higher than community development workers, secondary school administrators, and vocational agriculture teachers; the ratings of the community development workers were significantly lower than the secondary administrators and vocational agriculture teachers; the groups of subjects when grouped on the basis of birthplace and years of work experience, showed no significant difference. Based on these findings, it was concluded that: agricultural officers expected greater competence than did the other groups; community development workers expected the least competence in the area; secondary school administrators and vocational agriculture teachers have similar expectations; the place of birth did not significantly influence expectations; the amount of work experience did not significantly influence expectations.;Research Method and Design. The population for this study consisted of the 38 head community development workers and the 38 agricultural officers at the provincial and district levels, the 50 secondary school administrators, and the 105 vocational agriculture teachers at the secondary level in the four southern Thailand border provinces. The design was ex post facto in nature using a mailed survey to collect the data. Responses were received from 200 of the 231 persons surveyed for an 86.6 percent return. Respondents were asked to rate 123 competency statements on a six-point Likert-type scale. An analysis of variance was used to compare the perceptions of community development workers, agricultural officers, secondary school administrators, and vocational agriculture teachers regarding the importance of competencies for community development activities. If significance was indicated, the post hoc analysis used was the Least Significant Difference Test. Null hypotheses were formulated and tested at an alpha level of .10. |
