Presented By: Rachel Hendrix, West Virginia University

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) content is a vital part of agricultural education in the 21st Century. Unfortunately, many secondary agricultural educators report low levels of efficacy towards these subjects, resulting in shallow coverage of STEM topics, a decreased ability to encourage struggling or diverse learners, the implementation of fewer active learning strategies, and an inability to interest students in the material or in related careers. In order to better identify where STEM teaching can be improved, and the role of the educator in the process, this study explored the STEM outcome expectancy efficacy of agricultural educators in two southern states. Participants completed an online version of the Outcome Expectancy Efficacy T-STEM instrument developed by the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University. Outcome expectancy efficacy involves a teacher's belief in their ability to influence student achievement, learning, and interest in a given subject despite outside factors. Results of the study found respondents possessed generally high levels of outcome expectancy efficacy toward all STEM subjects, with slightly higher levels for science and mathematics. Respondents felt most powerful regarding their ability to improve student learning in STEM by providing extra time and effort, and by identifying and implementing alternate learning approaches where necessary. Despite believing good teaching could overcome a student's inadequate background in STEM, respondents felt student learning was not completely correlated with teacher classroom performance. This, tied with a lower willingness to accept responsibility for negative learning outcomes, indicates respondents believed students' personal ability and persistence were foundational factors underlying STEM mastery. Teachers believed they had power to influence all student learning, but that it was most effective when working with students displaying reciprocal effort.