RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ATTITUDES OF PRE-SERVICE AGRICULTURAL TEACHER EDUCATION MAJORS AND VARIABLES RELATED TO EARLY FIELD-BASED EXPERIENCE (FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA (FFA), AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION SOCIETY (AES), COOPERATING TEACHERS, PROGRAM QUALITY)

The purpose of this study was to describe the attitude of pre-service teachers toward themselves as teachers and toward teaching vocational agriculture and to determine if relationships existed between selected individual factors and student attitude toward themselves as teachers and toward teaching vocational agriculture at the end of early field-based experience. The study was descriptive survey research of a comparative nature.;Participant and non-participant groups held positive attitudes toward teaching vocational agriculture and toward themselves as teachers. The analysis of data indicated no statistical difference between the attitudes of participants and non-participants in early field-based experience.;The cooperating teachers of participants held positive attitudes toward teaching vocational agriculture. A negligible relationship was found between the attitudes of cooperating teachers and corresponding pre-service teachers.;A moderate relationship existed between perceived program quality where the experience was completed, as determined by the 1983-1984 Ohio Joint Agricultural Education Staff, and the attitude of participants toward teaching vocational agriculture.;The early field-based experience at The Ohio State University is a three week experience in the public school with a cooperating vocational agriculture teacher in September prior to the beginning of Autumn Quarter. The population of the study consisted of all pre-service teachers who participated in Agricultural Education 280.01 (Early Field-Based Experience) Autumn Quarter 1984, all of whom had completed Introduction to Agricultural Education at The Ohio State University, Columbus campus. Data on a comparison group of non-participant agricultural education majors who had completed Introduction to Agriculture but not early field-based experience were collected to determine attitude change and increased generalizability.;The quality and depth of the early field-based experience as indicated by the extent of professional activities completed had a low relationship with the attitudes of participants toward teaching and toward themselves as teachers.;The demographic variables, extent of Future Farmers of America and Agricultural Education Society participation and years of high school vocational agriculture had low relationships with the attitude of participants toward teaching vocational agriculture. The same demographic variables had negligible relationships with the attitude of participants toward themselves as teachers.