Abstract:
This study was carried out to determine the professional competency capacity – building needs of teachers of agricultural science for effective instruction in secondary schools in Ondo State. Ten research questions were answered and nine hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted survey research design. The population of the study was 422 made up of 376 teachers of agricultural science at the senior secondary school in the state and 46 lecturers in tertiary institutions. The entire population was involved in the study because of the manageable size. A – 130 professional competency item questionnaire (PCQ) was used for data collection. The questionnaire was face validated by five experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items. The reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. 422 copies of the questionnaire were administered on the respondents with the help of nine research assistants. 406 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and analyzed. Weighted mean and Improvement need index (INI) were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance and relevant degrees of freedom. It was found out from the study that teachers of agricultural science needed the 130 professional – competency items for effective instruction and needed capacity building in the same 130 professional competency items. The teachers of agricultural science needed capacity building in planning (10 items) organizing (12 items) implementing (15 items) and evaluating instruction (13 items). They also needed capacity building in managing farm practicals (27 items), maintaining teacher-student relationship (13 items) maintaining teacher community relationship (10 items) and guiding the students in career choice (11 items). Teachers of Agricultural Science needed capacity building in instructional facilities management (19 items). Findings from the hypotheses tested revealed that there were no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of lecturers in tertiary institutions and teachers of agricultural science in all the nine instructional areas as mentioned above. It was recommended that the teaching service commission of Ondo State should make use of the findings of this study to organize capacity – building intervention programme for teachers of agricultural science in order to make them more effective in instruction.
