Leaders in the business community often talk about the "skills gap," the gap between the skills needed for good jobs in the economy and the skills that prospective employees possess. Though there is debate as to whether or not such a gap actually exists, the idea of the "skills gap" can be a helpful way to frame instances where…

Agricultural mechanics instruction is a long-standing and significant part of secondary agricultural education. Similar to the broader agricultural industry, agricultural mechanics instruction is in a constant state of dynamic change. Educators must be proactive to ensure agricultural mechanics curriculum retains its relevance within this changing…

An Iowa project working with elementary students' attitudes toward people with disabilities could be effectively revamped as a teacher inservice program involving discrimination activities, group discussions, films, orientation and observation videos, an overview of Public Law 94-142, and information about support service agencies. Includes 11…

The attitudes of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers toward career education were evaluated in relation to an inservice training program using a television series on career education titled "Bread and Butterflies." (LS)

The document presents a discussion and evaluation of the training workshop program developed by the Iowa Educational Broadcasting Network and the Iowa State Department of Public Instruction to help teachers incorporate the Bread and Butterflies television series on career development into fourth, fifth, and sixth grade curricula. The Bread and…

Reports on the effect of commercially and locally produced televised science materials used in an inservice program on attitudes of 138 elementary teachers toward science teaching. Indicates materials are more effective for teachers with few college science credits or little participation in previous inservice programs. (DS)

This study analyzed changes in attitude or behavior of Iowa industrial technology teachers concerning hearing conservation in their classes, between 1985 when a hearing conservation program was implemented and several years later. Results showed that small inroads have been made but the majority of teachers were still not using hearing…

Mandated multicultural education in Iowa grew out of a strong commitment to education, a large influx of Southeast Asians, and a concern for the homogeneous nature of educational materials. The mandate stated that the Iowa Board of Education was responsible for the design, implementation, and evaluation of a multicultural/nonsexist education…

A study assessed the effectiveness of the delivery and content of the Human Relations course and the technical updating activities for postsecondary, full-time preparatory program instructors in Iowa. Faculty members from 15 community and technical colleges were asked to identify how necessary they feel each competency is to the teaching process,…

The report describes an Iowa project designed to identify reasonable accommodations for learning disabled students in regular secondary classrooms and to develop strategies for implementing classroom modifications. Project activities consisted of: a review of the literature on mainstreaming and classroom modifications; development of a descriptive…

These proceedings contain 48 presentations and 15 poster abstracts. Papers include "Computer Tasks Required in Selected Undergraduate Agriculture Courses" (Johnson, Ferguson, Vokinnns, Lester); "College of Agriculture Faculty Perceptions of Electronic Technologies in Teaching" (Dooley, Murphy); "Steering Through Turbulent…