Agricultural Education Teacher Education Preservice Program.

Overview & Synopsis

Intended to introduce a model, relevant preservice program for agricultural education teachers, this paper porposes a curriculum which for the most part meets the standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Divided into seven sections, it covers the following topics: (1) the role of the teacher; (2) an agricultural education preservice curriculum, consisting of general, technical, and professional education; (3) instruction of prospective teachers; (4) resources and facilities, stressing the need for a separate vocational agriculture building; (5) policies and criteria for admissions to preservice teacher education; (6) standards for teacher educators; and (7) evaluation, including an agricultural education teacher evaluation plan for both formative and summative evaluation. In the section on curriculum, a justification for early student teaching is provided as well as a justification for not meeting the national accreditation standard of courses in philosophy of education or educational sociology. Each section contains two portions: first, an overview of the topic, culling the opinions and suggestions of scholars in that area; and second, the author's views. The appendixes provide national standards for teacher education, professional instructional alternatives and their comparison, and a survey form for teacher effectiveness. A bibliography is also given. (ELG)