Theses and Dissertations Collection

Federal funding supports Career and Technical Education (CTE) and allows educators to give students the hands-on experiences they need to be successful later in life. Students have the opportunity to learn about trades and gain real life work experiences while in the classroom. This study is descriptive-relational and examines non-cognitive tasks/ task motivation in a population of high school agricultural mechanics students. In this study, self-efficacy, followthrough, teamwork, self-regulation, commitment, communication, positive outlook, and completion are described for the population and these factors are examined for differences based on the population’s demographics. The results indicate no strong relationship between noncognitive skills overall and task completion for psychomotor or cognitive tasks, indicates differences between self-efficacy and school, school and followthrough, and hints at differences between self-efficacy and gender. The authors make recommendations for future research in the area of self-efficacy and gender, self-efficacy and school as it relates to non-cognitive and psychomotor tasks.