Examining the Level of Content Knowledge of Recent Business Education Graduates

The majority of studies regarding the preparation of teachers in the area of content knowledge indicate there is a lack of deeper understanding of the subject matter in which teachers are licensed to teach (Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2001). The purpose of this Delphi research study was to identify the perceptions of recent business education graduates in regard to their preparedness to teach the content areas in which they were licensed to teach, and the university coursework and clinical and field experiences that were most helpful in preparing them for their first year of teaching. Based on 30 recent business education graduates from a Midwestern university, results from this study indicated the respondents were most prepared to teach Computer Applications, Keyboarding/Word Processing, and Personal Finance/Consumer Education. The participants perceived they were unprepared to teach Computer Programming, Web Page and Interactive Media, and Economics. Participants also believed that student teaching was the most beneficial component of their teacher preparation program, followed by business education and Methods courses. Implications of this study call for business teacher educators to examine the perceptions of their graduates regarding their preparation to teach in order to revamp curricula to equip their graduates with the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be effective teachers for the 21st century classroom.