The objective of this study was to identify factors that may be related to
performance of prospective teachers of agricultural science on the TExES. The purposes
of this study were to 1) identify demographic characteristics of pre-service agricultural
science teachers, 2) describe academic performance and reading abilities of pre-service
agricultural science students, 3) describe relationships among demographics, academic
performance, reading abilities, and perceptions about their reading, 4) determine if
differences existed between students who chose to take the TExES versus those who
chose not to take the TExES test, 5) identify relationships between students’ reading
abilities and their performance on TExES, and 6) explore relationships between
performance on the TExES and rival variables (predictors of TExES performance in
addition to reading ability).
Pre-service agricultural science students from six Texas universities were
administered a Reading Placement Appraisal (RPA) which indicates grade equivalent
reading levels, reading rates and vocabulary levels. One hundred sixteen students completed the survey, the reading appraisal, and the TExES exam and participated in the
research. These students were either in their final semester of school or in their student
teaching semester. These students took their Professional Development TExES test
during this semester or in the semester following.
The instruments used to collect information were a two page questionnaire
created by the researcher and a computerized reading appraisal provided by Taylor
Associates. The results from the TExES were evaluated on a pass/fail basis instead of a
numerical score.
The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient revealed a low but positive
relationship between gender, age or ethnicity and passing the TExES; however, there
were interesting trends observed. Positive relationships were found between reading
levels, vocabulary levels, and self perception of students’ reading ability. Additionally,
a relationship was detected when reading and vocabulary varied by more than two grade
levels. The higher discrepancy was found to be indicative of failure on the TExES
exam.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1887 |
| Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Creators | Woodward, Carol Ann Cohea |
| Contributors | Briers, Gary, Smith, James H. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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