IMPACT OF AGRICULTURE MECHANICS INSERVICE TRAINING ON MONTANA VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE PROGRAMS

The purpose of this project was to determine the impact of three years of agriculture mechanics inservice training on Montana vocational agriculture programs. To accomplish the purpose and objectives of this project, a four-page questionnaire was developed, tested for face validity and used to gather data from 46 Montana vocational agriculture teachers who were currently teaching, had a minimum of one year of teaching experience and who had not changed schools during the years 1978 to 1981. One hundred percent of the population returned the questionnaire.;The three major objectives were tested using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, and the major findings included: (1) Inservice training in agriculture mechanics can and does influence what Montana's vocational agriculture teachers teach in their mechanics programs. Generally, inservice training will result in major instructional changes within instructional topics. (2) Inservice training in agriculture mechanics will result in major changes in instructional units taught, curriculum organization, instructional methods, or time allocated to an instructional topic. (3) Instructional techniques used during inservice training will influence the instructional technology used by vocational agriculture teachers. (4) Vocational agriculture teachers in Montana are likely to incorporate the agriculture mechanics inservice training into their programs within one year of the training session. (5) Teachers who chose not to participate in inservice training on mechanics indicated that Future Farmers of America agriculture mechanics contests have more influence on their mechanics curriculums than do teachers who participate in the inservice training. (6) Changes in teaching techniques can result from inservice education in a technical area.