An Examination of the Curricular Resource Use and Self Efficacy of Utah School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

There has been a large variety of curricular resources utilized by School Based Agriculture Education Teachers. These resources vary in many ways, including structure, organization, depth of knowledge, and flexibility. The purpose of this study was to explore the Pedagogical Design Capacity of Utah SBAE teachers’ through a close examination of the relationship between a teacher’s level of self-efficacy and the types of curricular resources they utilized in their classroom. A sample of 114 was drawn from the population of 146 in Utah. Of the 13 curricular resources identified, the curriculum provided by Utah State FFA had the highest frequency of use with 94.1% (f =32.0) of teachers reporting use. It was reported that the mean self-efficacy for Utah SBAE teachers was M = 3.80 (SD = .41). A positive correlation with teacher self-efficacy was reported for five of the resources, seven resources reported a negative correlation, and one resource was found to have a negligible correlation. Each of the resources which produced a positive correlation with self-efficacy were expertly developed curricular resources. Because teachers use several curricular resources, materials should be designed to be used in concert with other sources.