IDENTIFYING CONTENT FOR AN OPEN COURSEWARE PRE-SERVICE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM PLANNING COURSE

Abstract

This study focused on the development of a pre-service agricultural education “Program Planning” course that could be utilized nationally for preparing high school agricultural science and business teachers. The researchers created a course that would meet the needs of agricultural education students, teachers, and faculty across the United States in the form of open courseware. Using the Tyler Rationale, the subjects of the study were teachers (learners), teacher educators (subject specialists), and 22 university program planning course syllabi collected from agricultural education teacher preparation programs. A collective list of content items was derived from the course syllabi. Outstanding high school agricultural education teachers and university teacher educators were asked to rate the importance of each item. Only those items rated as important by both groups were incorporated into a new curriculum framework for the course. Overall, 59 content items were considered important by both groups and recommended for inclusion in the program planning course. The 59 items were grouped into twelve categories. The categories included Introduction to Program Planning, Program Goals, Program Evaluation, Program Needs Assessment, Professionalism, Curriculum Planning, Program Budgeting/Funding, Advisory Committees, Recruiting and Marketing, Summer Programs, Legal and Safety Issues, and Total Agricultural Education Program.