AN IDENTIFICATION OF THE MAJOR HOME ECONOMICS TEACHER COMPETENCIES NEEDED TO PROVIDE QUALITY LIFE MANAGEMENT SKILLS COURSE

The purpose of this research was to identify the major home economics teacher competencies needed to provide quality Life Management Skills courses. The study was also designed to determine if the competencies differed with teachers of varying backgrounds. The demographic (independent) variables included were: rural-nonrural community, district with-without a home economics supervisor, amount of inservice training received, age of the teacher, years of teaching experience and highest education degree achieved.;The objectives of this study were accomplished through the use of a questionnaire. The survey instrument included questions on teachers' backgrounds and it addressed teachers' attitudes toward the 53 identified teacher competencies for Home Economics Life Management Skills courses.;The instrument was mailed to a simple random sample of 200 teachers representing the 370 Florida home economics teachers teaching Life Management Skills in the school year 1984-85.;Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the data to meet the stated objectives. To meet the first and second objectives, the mean ratings of competencies were used. A one-way analysis of variance was used to test the significance of the effect of each of the six independent variables on the ratings of the 53 competencies.;The results of the study showed that home economics Life Management Skills teachers perceived 11 teacher competencies as major in providing quality Life Management Skills courses. Descriptive statistics showed that the teachers mean scores of competencies differed negligibly. Statistical tests of significance at the .01 alpha level revealed no statistically significant effect of each of the six independent variables in the study on teachers' perceptions of competencies.