Agricultural Sciences Pre-Service Teachers’ Awareness of the Concepts of Nanotechnology and their Various Applications in the Colleges of Education – "A Diagnostic Study"

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the level of Agricultural Sciences Pre-Service Teachers’ awareness of the concepts of Nanotechnology and their various applications in the colleges of Education in the Arab Republic of Egypt using a measurement of awareness which are included in three components: cognitive component, that includes (4) domains, applied component (performance related) that includes (4) domains, and emotional component which also includes (4) domains. The validity of the measurement was confirmed in two ways; face validity and the Pearson’s coefficient correlation calculation. In addition, the reliability of the measurement was calculated and chieved (92) on Cronbach's alpha coefficient. This study utilized two samples; the first is a pilot sample consisting of (30) fourth year students (males and females) at the Agricultural Sciences department in the College of Education – Menoufia University, and the other is an experimental one which consisted of all fourth year students (males and females) in the Agricultural Sciences department in the College of Education - Kafr el-Sheikh University for the academic year (2011/2012) which consisted of (97) students ( 44 males and 53females) divided on 4 branches: (30) students at the Plant Production branch, (25) students at the Animal Production Branch, (20) students at the Food Manufacturing branch, and (22) students at the Agricultural Mechanization and Reclamation branch. The study depicted a lower level of awareness of the concepts of Nanotechnology and its various applications in addition to the three components of the Agricultural Sciences pre-Service teachers have shown. The study concluded that there was no difference in the level of awareness due to specialization and gender variables. The study recommended working on the development of information and skills of pre-service teachers regarding Nanotechnology and its applications through the inclusion of these concepts and applications in the academic programs to prepare them in the colleges of education.