Catherine A. DiBenedetto

Catherine A. DiBenedetto is a teacher educator in the Agricultural Education teacher preparation program at Clemson University. She teaches courses focused in the areas of instructional methods, curriculum design, and teaching in agriscience laboratories. She is passionate about advising, mentoring, and working with pre-service teachers to prepare them to be effective instructors in school-based agricultural education programs. Her research agenda is focused on the study of student readiness in the 21st century to effectively prepare students with the employability skills needed to become career ready. Her research is centralized around inquiry-based instructional methods, self-efficacy, and interdisciplinary STEM education. She is the Executive Director of STEM it Up, a professional development program that provides content focused strategies to agriscience teachers to enhance effective teaching practices, and design innovative instructional materials and curriculum specifically for plant science career pathways. She disseminates her research to practice by supporting pre-service and in-service agriscience teachers with resources and education to increase their instructional self-efficacy and highlight inquiry-based instruction and STEM concepts in their agricultural education classrooms and laboratories.

Publications

Education Needs of School-Based Agriculture Teachers to Prepare Students for the 21st Century
Education Needs of School-Based Agriculture Teachers to Prepare Students for the 21st Century
Catherine A. DiBenedetto. © 2024. 22 pages.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a summary of and recommendations for pre-service and in-service education needs of secondary school-based agriculture teachers to...
Designing the Curriculum and Developing a Course
Designing the Curriculum and Developing a Course
Catherine A. DiBenedetto. © 2022. 15 pages.
The purpose of this chapter is to describe various types of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs and explain the process to develop a comprehensive agriscience...