IMPLICATIONS OF INTEGRATING SCIENCE IN SECONDARY AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The purpose of this study was to determine how the National FFA AgriScience Teacher of the Year Award Program winners perceived the impact that integrating science has had on their agricultural education program. The target population consisted of all state, regional, and national winners of the National FFA AgriScience Teacher of the Year Award Program from the years I988 - 1995. Responses were collected from 131 teachers (71.98% response rate). A Jive point Likert-type scale (I = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree) was used to measure the teachers ‘perceptions toward integrating science into their agricultural education programs. The respondents perceived that integration of science was an effective delivery method for agricultural education, as over one-third of the instrument items received mean scores greater than 4.0 and 90% of the items received mean scores of 3.0 or greater. The findings of this study support the need to integrate science into agricultural education programs.