Determining the agricultural inservice needs of Utah Technology, Life, and Careers teachers

The focus of this study was to identify and prioritize the agricultural inservice needs of all Utah Technology, Life, and Careers (TLC) teachers in the state of Utah (N = 261) during the 2005-2006 academic year. The lack of agricultural literacy is a growing problem among today's students. In Utah, the TLC course taught to all seventh-grade students is their first career exploration experience. Agriculture is a growing industry that will continue to require qualified applicants to fill open positions. Students must be aware of these careers and understand the industry beginning at the middle school level. In order to provide this training for students, teachers must be up to date on agriculture and agricultural careers. The best way to do this is by providing current, meaningful inservice according to what teachers perceive as important and the topics they perceive themselves less able or prepared to teach.;A two-part, web-based survey was used. Section I collected demographic information. Section II asked teachers to rank 20 competencies included in the Utah TLC Standards and Objectives, by their perceived ability to teach them and their importance. This instrument was based on the Borich needs assessment model. All inservice needs were analyzed and ranked using mean weighted discrepancy scores (MWDS). Using MWDS for core competencies, the area in which TLC teachers were most in need of inservice was the new and emerging technologies in agriculture standard. This included competencies dealing with exploring and identifying careers in bio-energy, environmental monitoring, biotechnology and cloning, and GIS/GPS applications.;Teachers had a positive attitude about the importance of teaching agriculture, which should be used to promote any inservice planned and offered using this study as a reference.