Technical Skills Improvement Needs of Agricultural Science Teachers in Animal Production for Effective Teaching of Students in Senior Secondary School in Gombe State
The main purpose of the study was to determine the technical skills improvement needs of agricultural science teachers in animal production. The study was carried out in Gombe State. The population for the study was 85 teachers of agricultural science in senior secondary school in Gombe state. There was no sampling; therefore the entire population of the teachers was involved in the study due to the manageable size of the population. A 55 items questionnaire developed from the animal production aspect of the current agricultural science curriculum for senior secondary school was utilized to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three (3) experts from faculty of Education, Federal University Kashere. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.86 was obtained. The researchers and four (4) research assistants collected data for the study. Data collected were analyzed using need-gap analysis. It was found out from the study that teachers of agricultural science in senior secondary school in Gombe state needed improvement in 17 technical skills items in cattle production, 13 technical skills in pig production, 14 technical skills in poultry production and 11 technical skills in rabbit production. It was therefore recommended that these technical skills in animal production be packaged by the state government into training module to re-train teachers of agricultural science in senior secondary school through in-service training programme.
Keywords: agricultural, animal, effective, gombe, improvement, production, school, science, secondary, senior, skills, state, students, teachers, teaching, technical