Assessment of Arizona Agricultural Educators and Applications of Agricultural Mechanics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how Arizona secondary agricultural educators value agricultural mechanics examining their perceived importance of teaching the competencies from current agricultural mechanics courses offered at the University of Arizona. This study was conducted as a census of the 111 active Arizona secondary agricultural educators and collected descriptive individual data to determine the perceived importance of the competencies. An online questionnaire was developed and distributed to the study population via Qualtrics Survey Software. At the close of the questionnaire response period, the questionnaire yielded a final response rate of 78.4% (n=87). Of the 87 responses, with one response being a respondent who opted out, 43 responses (50.0%) came from female Arizona secondary agricultural educators and 43 responses (50.0%) from male Arizona secondary agricultural educators. Arizona secondary agricultural educators found the Laboratory and Woodworking and Project Construction as the most important constructs and Mechanized Power Technology as the least important construct.