| Scope and Method of Study: This study included pre-service agricultural education teachers (N = 58) enrolled in the course MCAG 3222 -- Metals and Welding, during the fall semester 2009 at Oklahoma State University. The purposes of this descriptive correlational study were to determine pre-service agricultural education teachers' knowledge of welding and perceived self-efficacy and importance of teaching selected welding skills standards in secondary agricultural education. Additionally, this study sought to identify welding skills standards most needed by pre-service agricultural education teachers at Oklahoma State University.;Findings and Conclusions: It was found that over one half of study participants (58.62 %) had no former welding employment experience. Prior to enrolling in MCAG 3222 -- Metals and Welding pre-service teachers rated their self-efficacy to teach welding skills standards as "Below Average," after instruction pre-service teachers rated their ability as "Above Average." Also, pre-service teachers enrolled in the study witnessed nearly a 12 % increase in knowledge test (mean) scores prior to instruction (58.41 %) and (70.21 %) at the end of instruction. In addition to measurements of self-efficacy and knowledge, the researcher sought to identify welding instructional needs of pre-service agricultural education teachers' utilizing the Borich Needs Assessment Model and mean weighted discrepancy scores (MWDS). After instruction it was determined that pre-service teachers were most in need of additional instruction in the areas of "welding equipment settings, such as wire speed, temperature and polarity" and "shielding gas selection and usage."... |
