Student learning is a matter that is influenced by numerous factors. Apart from internal student factors, such as personal commitment and the ability to generalize and absorb new knowledge, the learning process is significantly affected by the teacher. In particular, the most significant factor is the teacher’s pedagogy and content knowledge. Rice and Kitchel (2018) define it as “a teachers’ knowledge of content merged with knowledge of how to teach that content” (p. 50). In the context of agriculture science, specifically regarding secondary education, the particular reasons for pedagogy and content knowledge impact may vary from other science fields and education levels. Consequently, the current research provides evidence as to why pedagogy and content knowledge is important in the teaching of Agricultural Science at the secondary level.
NMSS. (2022). S1071: A framework for secondary schools agriscience education programs that emphasizes the STEM content in agriculture. Web.
This webpage illustrates a multistate effort in the development of the agriculture science education curriculum. Firstly, this effort facilitates and adopts science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content in secondary education. Secondly, it allocates various pedagogy methods, resources, and teaching techniques and combines them within a single agriculture science curriculum. Thirdly, it promotes the professional development of educators in the agriculture science field. Overall, this framework has a five-year implementation plan which includes constant data gathering and analysis for potential improvements.
The current source’s strongest side is its universality in terms of knowledge coverage. It presents the prior and current research state on the topic, defines concrete goals and methods for their achievement, and comments on the ways of measuring progress. Moreover, this framework was developed under the authority of the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, which includes agriculture institutes from 11 states. I believe it might be the most valuable source for my research since it manages to comprehensively cover all the topics related to pedagogy and content knowledge of agriculture science education. In particular, two-thirds of the data relates to the pedagogy’s current and advisable practice as well as the curriculum content knowledge.
Pauley, C. M., McKim, A. J., Curry Jr, K. W., McKendree, R., & Sorensen, T. J. (2019). Evaluating interdisciplinary teaching: Curriculum for agricultural science education. Journal of Agricultural Education, 60(1), 158-171. Web.
This article provides curious and unexpected findings in the comparison of agriculture science certified and non-certified teachers. In particular, Pauley et al. (2019) focused on an interdisciplinary approach to agriculture science education in the form of agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) education. Among the methods of education belongs the CASE framework – Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education. This framework provides certification to agriculture science teachers that confirms the interconnection of disciplines in their teaching content. In this context, the authors’ expectations were that certified teachers would first showcase higher perceived scientific knowledge and, second, would display higher science teaching intentions. However, the second assumption was proved wrong by the study’s results (Pauley et al., 2019). The possible explanations for lower overall intentions to teach agriculture science among certified teachers, as opposed to their non-certified counterparts, were attributed to a better grasp of content knowledge and, thus, more narrow teaching goals.
The article’s obvious strong side is the controversial study outcome. This conclusion is inconsistent with previous studies in the agriculture science field, which draws attention to and, thus, revives the topic of the appropriateness of the interdisciplinary approach. However, due to a non-experimental research design, the study’s outcomes cannot be considered causal, rendering them inapplicable to the general teaching population. The article is nonetheless beneficial to my future research since it sheds light on the “content” part of pedagogy and content knowledge research topic.
Rice, A. H., & Kitchel, T. (2018). Agriculture teachers’ integrated belief systems and its influence on their pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Agricultural Education, 59(1), 50-69. Web.
This article elaborates on the impact of teachers’ professional experience within agriculture science education on the way they teach. On the assumption that subjective teachers’ beliefs can shape the teaching practice, Rice and Kitchel (2018) analyzed their various manifestations in the teaching practice of plant science. For instance, if the school greenhouse was used as a means of making a profit, it resulted in reduced teachers’ attention to students and their outcomes. Another finding states that plant science, of all agriculture science courses, requires higher levels of prior knowledge in order for students to successfully absorb new content. Apart from particular, narrow examples from the plant science field, the article contains findings relating to agricultural science education in general. The most important finding portrays teachers not as the original source of knowledge for students but rather its reflectors. In other words, teachers should always remain learners themselves, participating in knowledge exploration, analysis, and reflection together with their students.
Overall, the article does a great job of summarizing the impact of professional experience on pedagogy and content knowledge. Firstly, its content can be considered highly relevant to the topic of agricultural science education due to a thorough data validation process, starting from the interview participants’ choice and ending with the trustworthiness check of results. Moreover, the research has been peer-reviewed within the Journal of Agricultural Education’s framework, which contributes to the authority behind the included statements. The article’s only downside can be attributed to the potential interpretation bias due to the study’s qualitative nature and slight objective alterations after the data collection. Nevertheless, I believe this article will become a worthy asset to my research specifically due to the generalization of main teachers’ expertise contributions to the pedagogy content knowledge in agricultural science practice.
Vickrey, T., Golick, D., & Stains, M. (2018). Educational technologies and instructional practices in agricultural sciences: Leveraging the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework to critically review the literature. NACTA Journal, 62(1), 65-76.
This article provides a comprehensive systematic review of current studies of TPACK – technological pedagogical content knowledge – framework in secondary and postsecondary learning settings. The authors concluded that the majority of prior research on educational technology integration has been overemphasizing the connection between technology and content, whereas pedagogy did not receive sufficient attention. In this context, Vickrey et al. (2018) stated that the role of the latter has a unique role in agricultural sciences education. Thus, the article gathered information on numerous student-centered pedagogical theories and approaches that increase student participation while fostering cooperation, inquiring feedback, and supporting self-study. The review findings showcase that, by influencing students’ perception of the content, pedagogy promotes learning and the use of technology in the process. Therefore, it becomes essential to TPACK formation and to the overall agricultural science teaching practice.
The research presented in the article has various strong sides. First of all, the information obtained during the systematic review is well-organized into respective categories of TPACK content and associated stakeholders, such as students and teachers. In this context, the second strength of the article is its dualistic approach toward the education process since it reviews both the giving and receiving sides. Finally, the journal that posted the article is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to agricultural science, which not only speaks for the article’s content relevance but also for authority. The article would prove to be a great asset to my research due to its focus on the theory of pedagogy and its potential impact on agriculture science education, which will allow me to establish the theoretical background.