Identifying the Technical and Teacher Skills Needed by In-Service Teachers to Effectively Teach an Agricultural Mechanics Course in West Virginia

Agricultural mechanics remains one of the largest content sections in school-based agriculture education (SBAE). Therefore, in-service and pre-service teachers need to be effective in teaching agricultural mechanics to their students (Burris et al., 2005; Hainline & Wells, 2019). A number of studies (McKim & Saucier, 2011; Saucier et al., 2014) have identified the importance of safety in agricultural mechanics laboratories, but not the content skills specifically needed to teach the courses. The only areas of content that most new in-service teachers possess are those of basic woodworking and basic metal working. This study bases its theoretical framework off of the Roberts and Ball (2009) content-based model for teaching agriculture. More specifically, how it impacts the teaching of pre-service teachers in teacher preparation programs under the model’s knowledge domain. Using a modified Delphi approach, this study identified the technical and teacher skills needed to effectively teach an agricultural mechanics course. A panel of four agricultural mechanics experts identified 35 items that included 19 technical skills (e.g., welding, etc.) and eight teacher skills (e.g., conditioning tools, etc.). It was concluded that West Virginia SBAE educators should be well versed in all aspects of teaching agricultural mechanics. This is a replication study of Hainline & Wells (2019), Identifying the Agricultural Mechanics Knowledge and Skills Needed by Iowa School-based Agricultural Education Teachers