Influence Of The Relationship Between The Student Teacher And Cooperating Teacher On Student Teacher'S Decision To Enter Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine if student teachers' perceptions of the student teacher/cooperating teacher relationship were predictive of their decisions to enter the teaching profession. The target population of this study consisted of preservice agricultural education students atTexasA&MUniversity. The accessible sample consisted of student teachers in agricultural education atTexasA&MUniversity in fall 2004, a group of 33 student teachers. Multiple regression was used to build a model that explained the greatest amount of variability in the student teachers' decision to enter teaching, based on the student teachers' perceptions of the cooperating teacher and other suspected predictor variables. The typical student teacher in agricultural education was a 22 year old white female completing an undergraduate degree. The majority of student teachers had no full-time agricultural employment experience. The majority of student teachers had at least four semesters (two years) of high school agricultural science courses. It was concluded that the student teaching/cooperating teacher relationship is not predictive of decision to teach. However, semesters of high school agricultural sciences courses completed was predictive of one's decision to teach. The best model explained 18.3% of the variance.