Curricular Resource Use and Pedagogical Design Capacity of Florida Agricultural Education Teachers

Abstract

A nationwide standardized curricular resource does not exist for school-based agricultural education. Teachers rely on several resources to develop instruction for students. Pedagogical Design Capacity (PDC) examines teachers’ capacity to perceive and mobilize existing resources to develop instructional episodes. The purpose of the study was to determine the curricular resources used by Florida school-based agriculture education teachers and examine the PDC of Florida teachers for the resources they use. A census of Florida agriculture teachers was employed using an online instrument developed by the researchers adapted from previous studies. A response rate of 49.6% (n = 248) was obtained. The instrument was developed to determine the resources used by Florida teachers and examine their PDC with each resource. Respondents indicated using a mean of 8.6 resources with varying degrees of frequency. Various patterns of curricular use for the resources were found. Correlations between the use of specific resources was not found above a moderate level. Florida agriculture teachers rely on a variety of resources to develop instruction. These findings point to the potential for the continued development of various types of resources including resources that generate ideas for teachers, resources that provide lesson structure, as well as scripted lesson plans. We recommend future studies to examine the design features of specific curricular resources that can inform the development of future resources. We also encourage instruction to help inservice and preservice teachers understand and develop their PDC.