A Study to Determine the Technical Abilities Needed in the Farm Mechanics Curriculum of Agriculture Education Majors in Pre-Service Training

Teaching vocational agriculture in our secondary schools today requires that a teacher be trained in the abilities dealing with the five areas of farm mechanics: farm shop work; soil and water management; rural electricity; farm buildings and conveniences; and farm power and machinery. How to effectively meet the pre-service requirements of vocational teachers is the general aim of this study. This study purposes to ascertain what teachers with varying lengths of experience feel should be taught in the pre-service farm mechanics curriculum to agriculture education majors at South Dakota State College. Such information could be valuable in determining the relative importance placed upon each ability in teaching farm mechanics to agriculture students in secondary schools by vocational agriculture instructors