The primary objective of the study was to identify the professional inservice education needs of agriculture instructors in postsecondary area vocational schools, and determine if differences exist among instructors and adminstrative personnel regarding perceived instructor inservice needs. The population consisted of all of the Iowa community college and vocational-technical school agriculture instructors and their department heads: (1) Full-time instructors in either agricultural production, agriculture supply and service, agricultural power and machinery mechanics, or horticulture; (2) area school instructor-program coordinators; and (3) department heads with primary responsibility for administering and staffing agricultural programs. Data were collected by administering a survey, which included demographic data and a list of 105 professional competencies arranged by competency groups, allowing the determination of inservice need for each competency and each group of competencies, and also allowing comparisons among participants grouped by their staff title and by their agricultural program assigned. In this description of the study, analyses of data (primarily in tabular form) are presented under the following headings: Characteristics of postsecondary areas vocational school instructors and department heads, importance ratings of professional education competencies needed, and of competencies for inclusion in an inservice education program, inservice need indicator of professional education competencies, and ratings of methods for delivering professional inservice education. (SH)