Subject Content-efficacy and Skills Proficiency of Trainee Agriculture Teachers Holding National Certificate in Agriculture, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which trainee agriculture teachers,with a National Certificate in Agriculture qualification, were confident in their ability to teachwith respect to subject content and practical skills. This was achieved by examining howthese trainee teachers perceived their subject content-efficacy and practical skills proficiencyrelated to the Zimbabwe ‘O’-Level Agriculture Syllabus 5034. Forty-six trainee agricultureteachers from a technical teachers’ college participated in the study. Data was collected usinga questionnaire with items weighted on a 5-point Likert scale. Data analysis was done usingSPSS Statistics 17.0. The trainee teachers were least efficacious in the laying out ofexperiments and Agricultural Economics but were rather efficacious in crop science andproduction. In practicals, trainee teachers were least efficacious in laying out experimentalsites and farm machinery but rather efficacious in animal science and crop production.