An experimental evaluation of an instructional packet on leadership and FFA for beginning vocational agriculture students in Iowa

The purpose of the study was to evaluate an instructional packet on leadership and FFA for beginning vocational agriculture students in Iowa. The research procedure was experimental, with a posttest control group research design. The independent variable manipulated by the researcher was the degree to which teachers had access to an instructional packet on leadership and FFA. Three levels of the experimental variable were used: (1) teachers in schools who were provided the instructional packet and inservice on its use; (2) teachers in schools who were provided the instructional packet with no inservice on its use; and (3) teachers in schools who were instructed to teach what they normally would teach to their beginning vocational agriculture students on leadership and FFA (control treatment group);Four instruments were developed to collect the research data: (1) FFA Knowledge Inventory; (2) FFA Attitude Inventory; (3) FFA Chapter Activities Inventory; and (4) teacher/school questionnaire. School means were used as the experimental units, and the main statistical procedure employed was analysis of variance;Major findings of the study were as follows: (1) students in schools whose teachers were in group 1 (packet and inservice) had significantly higher attitude scores ((alpha) = .05) on the FFA attitude scale than students included in the control treatment group. When the effects of the variables, teaching days spent on FFA this year and FFA chapter activities score, were removed as covariates, a significant difference ((alpha) = .01) continued to exist between the groups. Significant differences occurred between group 1 (packet and inservice) and group 3 (control) at the .01 level, and between group 2 (packet only) and group 3 (control) at .05. Therefore, students whose teachers were provided the packet had a better attitude toward FFA than students in the control group. (2) The mean scores for the two experimental groups on the FFA Knowledge Inventory were higher than the control group; however, the differences were not significant ((alpha) = .05). (3) Results indicated that inservice on the use of the instructional packet should be provided to teachers in order to realize the maximum benefits of the materials;Findings indicated that the instructional packet was successful in assisting vocational agriculture teachers instruct beginning students in leadership and FFA