Determination of Technical and Pedagogical Enhancement Needs of Secondary School Agricultural Science Teachers in Zaria Educational Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria.

The study evaluated Agricultural Science teachers’ competency in teaching. Survey research design was adopted in the distribution of a structured questionnaire that comprised technical and pedagogical skills areas. The instrument was validated, and a pilot study that yielded reliability coefficient value of 0.87, using Cronbach Alpha was established. A population of 50 teachers were used in the randomly selected public and private schools. Data were subjected to confrontation index on 4-point rating scale, means and need gap analysis. Results revealed positive gaps in Animal, Crop, and Soil science skills, indicating teachers’ improvement needs Agricultural Engineering showed a zero gap and implied improvement not needed. In contrast, the negative gaps in Agricultural Economics and Extension, Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating skills proved the competence of teachers, hence do not need improvement. However, some skills in Animal, Crop, Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Extension, Soil Science, Planning, and Implementation of instructions gave mixed positive and negative results, unlike in evaluating instructions, where teachers exhibited proficient skill. Generally, teachers performed better in pedagogy than in technical skills. The significant correlation coefficient (p≤0.05) in Animal Production, Agricultural Engineering, Soil Science, and Evaluating skills indicated wider gaps between teachers’ needs and performance. Hence, there is a need for training and retraining of teachers in technical skills, through pre-service and in-service programs, workshops, seminars, and conferences sponsored by stakeholders. Subsequently, for a thorough and general exploration of teachers’ technical and pedagogical skills, replication of the study using an extended sample size will compliment the study.