The Relationships between Agriculture Knowledge Bases for Teaching and Sources of Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the agriculture knowledge bases for teaching of agriculture teachers and to see if a relationship existed between years of teaching experience, sources of knowledge, and development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), using quantitative methods. A model of PCK from mathematics was utilized as a framework to guide the study. On the job teaching experience, teacher preparation program, high school agriculture experience, previous agriculturally related jobs and internships, internet and other media, and professional development were all reported as effective sources of content knowledge. All six of the PCK knowledge constructs were perceived by teachers as possessing them to a fair extent. The content knowledge constructs were rated higher on average than the PCK constructs. Stepwise multiple linear regressions were utilized to determine if linear relationships existed between perceived PCK bases and sources of content knowledge. Four of the PCK knowledge constructs yielded statistically significant predictive models. Six of the seven sources of content knowledge were significant predictors for at least one of the constructs. Future research should include going beyond teachers’ perceptions and measuring PCK and examination into the process from the sources of content knowledge to the development of PCK.