Presented By: Farish Mulkey, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Co-Authors: Elle Carter, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Grace Dooley, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Sallie McHugh, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

Due to the volume of material taught in teacher preparation programs, it can be challenging for students to be engaged to gain the most knowledge from the courses. Activities that closely simulate the upcoming roles of teachers help the preservice teachers better understand the course material presented and the expectations of their future workload. By using these activities in preservice teacher programs, the students receive hands-on experience. In two of the senior cohort classes, Agriculture Practicum and Early Clinical Experience in Ag Education, students follow a model where they receive experience from going into classrooms, team-teaching, completing 10 “pick 10” events outside of class time, and facilitating events for current middle and high school level agriculture students. Following the simulations that the students complete, they must reflect on what they have learned, along with ways to use the knowledge they have gained from the simulation in their future classroom. One simulated activity the students did was developing and coordinating a Youth Ag Challenge for over 800 students. This simulated teaching style has proven to be effective as the graduating students are more prepared as first-year teachers for how to handle the different varieties and levels of tasks that they will be facing during their time in and out of the classroom than those of programs with little or no simulated teaching style. The education field employs 95% of the students from the 2023 cohort (n=43). “Research documents a positive connection between teachers' subject matter knowledge and their performance in the classroom; it has been established that teachers with advanced preparation (in addition to typical coursework and fieldwork experiences) in teaching methods and strategies have a greater chance of successful longevity in the classroom (Landon-Hays et al., 2020).