Determination and Utilization of Mentoring and Scaffolding Mechanisms by Lecturers for Teaching Vocational Agricultural Education to Students in Tertiary Institutions of Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was to determine the utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques by lecturers for teaching Vocational Agricultural Education to students in Tertiary Institutions in Taraba State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Four research questions guided the study. The areas of the study were the Tertiary Institutions in Taraba State that offer Vocational Agriculture. The institutions include; College of Education, Zing, Taraba State University Jalingo, College of Agriculture Science and Technology and Federal University Wukari. The population of the study was 200 lecturers of Vocational Agriculture from which a sample of 132 were drawn by stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire named “Mentoring and Scaffolding Utilization Mechanisms Questionnaire” (MSUQ). Five experts in vocational agriculture validated the instrument for data collection and was trial tested. A Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.80 was established after analyzing the trial testing of the instrument. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.80 was high enough and indicates that the MSUQ was reliable to elicit information for the study. One hundred and thirty-two copies (132) of the questionnaire were administered on the respondents with the help of research assistant in each of the institutions. The research assistants were able to retrieve 100% of the questionnaire administered. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation to answer the four research questions. The result revealed that the ten mentoring techniques presented were accepted by the lecturers as mechanism for teaching Vocational Agriculture. So also, the seven scaffolding techniques were accepted by them. Furthermore, the result showed that the utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques were not impressive as the utilization falls below 30% of the techniques presented to the respondents. Techniques not utilized for mentoring among other include: friendliness to learners, approachable to learners, give feedback to learners while those techniques not utilized for scaffolding among others include; activate prior knowledge, learner participation, provide support as learners learn, pre-teach vocabulary. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that lecturers of Vocational Agriculture should sustain the techniques of mentoring and scaffolding while proprietors of the institutions are to motivate the lecturers to attend seminars, conferences and workshops on utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques to bring about the required learning of vocational agriculture by students in the tertiary Institutions in Taraba State.