| The purpose of this study was to develop basic meat science topics and standards for secondary agricultural education. A Delphi panel was used to develop the instrument. The Delphi panel was composed of four members from academia and industry and four from the top ten national meat FFA Career Development Events coaches from 2000 to 2005. Two Delphi rounds were used to develop the survey instrument. The modified Delphi started with an outline of basic meat science topics developed by an expert panel from 16 university basic meat science syllabi. The Delphi panel added or deleted topics, topics were consolidated into an outline, and a Likert-type scale added. Topics with a mean < 2.5 were removed. Standards were added to each topic, standards were combined, and a Likert-type scale added. The initial 136 standards were reduced to 100, by removing duplicate, similar and those not clear. Agricultural education teachers from six southern states were asked to validate each standard using a Web-based survey with a drop-down menu of 4 = high, 3 = moderate, 2 = low, and 1 = not a priority. The study found 17 topics (38%) having moderate to high priority with a mean > 3.0, eight (32%) topics having low priority with a mean of < 3.0 but > 2.0, and no topics were rated not a priority. All topics had a SD ≤ 1.0 confirming a high level of agreement among agricultural education teachers, giving a basis for developing a basic meat science curriculum for secondary agricultural education.;Keywords: curriculum, Delphi, education, standards, topics... |
