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A case study of curriculum change : Hawker College, ACTChapman, Lance Edward Harold, n/a January 1980 (has links)
The Report of the Working Committee on College Proposals for
the Australian Capital Territory (Campbell Report, 1972) led to
far-reaching changes in senior secondary education. Hawker College,
opened in 1976, is one of eight resulting government secondary
colleges. The writer, a member of the Committee, has been Assistant
Principal (Curriculum) at Hawker since its inception. This field
study examines the dynamics, nature and achievements of curriculum
change at Hawker, from the planning year in 1975, to 1980. Data
includes student surveys and interviews; discussions with teachers,
administrators and counsellors; college curriculum documents; and
the writer's own observations.
The Campbell Report's educational philosophy was eclectic, and
"progressive". Strengths and weaknesses of the Working Committee's
analyses and recommendations are assessed. Seven curriculum aims
"clusters" are synthesized: four concerned with individual development,
and three with the student as an effective, contributing member of
society.
ACT systemic strategies and structures fostered and sustained
purposeful curriculum innovation, despite some problems and shortcomings.
In the optimistic, idealistic climate of 1975, enthusiastic,
pre-identified teachers planned Hawker's curriculum, often co-operating
with staff of other colleges. Course writers' aims were highly
congruent with those of the Campbell Committee. Teachers of some
subjects used course models from overseas and interstate. Others
developed ideas quite innovative for Australia as a whole, and sometimes
without known precedent anywhere.
Almost all the curriculum aims espoused by the Campbell Report
are reflected in written or "unwritten" course aims. In content,
a core of basic subjects are very similar to those offered for the
NSW HSC. Others offer students either greater breadth or depth than
does the NSW curriculum, or attend to the affective and psychomotor
domains. Most teachers had modified their pedagogy, moving to a
more progressive style.
Hawker has had significant success in promoting students'
individual 'development. It has been markedly less successful in
preparing students to function within, and contribute to, society.
The opening of ACT secondary colleges coincided with widespread
social innovation and with changes in educational administration,
funding, staffing structures and teacher education. All these
created a favorable milieu for curriculum innovation. By the early
1980s, teacher weariness, some disillusionment, and social, political
and administrative changes were apparent. These have slowed the
rate of educational change and caused Hawker teachers to re-evaluate
their aims, course content, and methods.
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Problems for teachers in the processes of educational change : an application of Berstein's theory of integrated and collection codes to the case of a new open space high schoolCashman, Maureen, n/a January 1982 (has links)
The context in which open space high schools were pioneered
in the ACT is examined in the light of Basil Bernstein's
(1971) theory of the reasons for changes in curricula and
of the organisational conditions necessary for the changes
which he considers to be taking place.
The context which is examined is derived from analyses of
the perspectives and views of the Australian Schools
Commission, of the planners of the new design high schools
in the ACT, of the Campbell Committee, which provided
the rationale for the restructuring of the ACT secondary
school system, and of the Principal and teachers of one of
the original open space high schools in the ACT.
From the analysis of the context of the establishment of a
specific open space high school, "Windy Hill", a number of
factors are seen to be significant in the process of
educational change. In particular, it is claimed that any
theoretical perspective on the reasons and conditions for
educational change, if it is to have much influence on
the change process, must take into account the perspectives
of the practitioners in schools. It must also take into
account the complexity of events which affect the process of
educational change in systems and in schools.
The relationship between imposed organisational structures
and the curricular goals of schools is examined. It is
claimed that changes to administrative structures must
emerge from the existing aims of the system and
the institution, rather than be imposed in order to
effect curricular changes.
Assumptions about the nature of educational change, made
by the planners for the open space high schools in the ACT,
are identified and related to the problems perceived by
the Principal and teachers at "Windy Hill". From this
analysis is derived a set of features of school settings
which need to be considered when innovations in education
are being contemplated.
These features of the process of educational change are
used to generate a number of recommendations which apply
to the adoption and development of changes in education
systems and schools.
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Identifying the health needs of refugees from the former Yugoslavia living in the Australian Capital TerritoryCoe, Christine, n/a January 1998 (has links)
Most health professionals are aware of the amazing diversity of the Australian
population, which is made up of people from over 140 different countries. Of these,
an increasing number have arrived as refugees under Australia's humanitarian
resettlement program.
Research indicates that at least 30% of the 12,000 or so people arriving in Australia
under the humanitarian assistance programmes each year have been exposed to
physical and emotional torture and trauma. They also have well documented health
deficits relating to the health standards in their countries of origin, the level of
deprivation experienced prior to arrival in Australia, and the time they have spent in
transit before arriving in Australia.
The purpose of this study was to review the health status of refugees from the
former Yugoslavia, and to identify the perceived needs of this group, which
represents one of Canberra's largest communities of recently arrived refugees.
Utilising both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, findings showed that the
cohort had significantly lower levels of both physical and mental health than the
wider ACT and Australian population. The difficulties of socialisation of the refugees
into the Australian lifestyle are highlighted. In particular, findings from the study
have demonstrated the lack of appropriate information given to some refugees on
arrival, and the struggles experienced by most of the group with learning a new
language, and coping with unemployment and inadequate housing. The problem of
covert political harassment in Canberra was also described during the interview
process.
Recommendations for improving the situation for these refugees were that
information for refugees prior to, and following arrival in Australia needs to be
consistent and readily available, and there needs to be provision of a formalised
support system from the time of arrival, including a review of language facilities. The
study also recommended that culturally sensitive health promotion and treatment
programs should be incorporated into current health service provision. Nurses are
identified as the appropriate health providers to take a leading role in developing
such programs for refugees, although findings from this study indicate that current
nurse education programs need to place more emphasis on a transcultural
framework for the provision of care.
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Planning for a changing society in the national capital : a planning system for the Australian Capital TerritoryCohen, Paul D., n/a January 1984 (has links)
This Report examines the history of the planning of Canberra
with emphasis on the systems devised for determining land use,
development control and public participation. Part One covers
the periods during which various authorities and Departments
have been responsible for planning and development. The
long term effect of autocratic attitudes of the early planners
and the subordinate position of the employee/tenant/lessee
on the ordinary rights of the community to participate in
planning is considered. The single minded objective of creating
a monumental city, the determination to preserve at all costs
what each generation of planners regarded as the original plan,
the overriding concern with physical planning and construction,
and the determination of the bureacracy not to share power or
responsibility is noted.
Part Two examines those places in Australia and elsewhere which
have developed democratically and have devised systems to make
planning responsible to the community. A number of common
characteristics are noted. The limitations on the extent of
public participation is acknowledged.
Part Three examines a statutory planning system for the ACT. The
conclusion is reached that the existing system, relying as it
does on antique NSW laws adapted fifty years ago when the town
was in its infancy are totally inadequate for a medium size
city. The existing legislation is particularly defective in
providing for the town planning process and development control
needs of the Territory. The deficiencies of the latest planning
review are noted, and although the retention of the existing
planning authority is supported, its compulsory democratisation
through a Planning Act providing statutory requirments for plan
making and public participation, is advocated.
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'Walking back along the thought' : a heuristicCousens, Elizabeth Veronica Eve, n/a January 1988 (has links)
This study deals with the writing of senior students in the subject
English from two ACT secondary colleges. Whilst the written work
analysed is from students enrolled in courses accredited for
tertiary entrance, the ACT'S high retention rate and students'
tendency to avoid 'non-tertiary' courses, ensures that the scripts
analysed are wide-ranging.
Broadly, this study rests on the theoretical approach to language
and learning that came out of Dartmouth: that which is associated
with James Britton. Its focus is twofold. In Volume I it presents
a heuristic, describing its development and discussing the thinking,
and learning students appear to do - and the writing they do - as a
result of using it.
The heuristic is called 'streaming' by the students who use it and
is based on Vygotsky's notion of 'Inner Speech'. A key phrase that
expresses a powerful or rich idea about the subject being studied is
used as a starting point for student thinking. Students explore the
layers of cognitive and affective meaning encapsulated in the idea,
and perhaps extend the idea, in writing. The writing is very rough,
and an act of thought whereby the meaning of the phrase is
accommodated, rather than a communication to others.
Students are asked NOT to think prior to setting pen to paper, but
to let their writing 'bring their thought out of the shadows' by
giving words to it. This avoids superficial or cliched response
because the process of 'thinking out loud in writing' allows an
interplay of cognitive and affective meaning that seems to lead
students in to abstract thinking, generally by way of poetic
abstraction. The 'streaming' that students do becomes the basis for
further discussion or writing in a variety of forms.
Volume II is given over to an explication, and use, of Graham
Little's development and refinement of an analytical model for
investigating language use. Based on the variables of situation,
function and form, it enables the empirical analysis of 237 examples
of writing from students who had used the heuristic presented in
Volume I.
The analysis indicates that students who use the heuristic write
differently from students who do not. Their writing shows a wide
range of function and form and achieves unusually high levels of
abstraction. The thinking and writing that students do when using
the heuristic is usually realised poetically and used as a basis for
further writing. The range within the student writing indicates a
high degree of language competence whereby students are able to
write in different forms.
Little's analytical model is a simple and powerful means of
quantifying elements of school language in order to make qualitative
judgements that are sensitive to the complex and holistic nature of
language development and use.
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Mathematics in transition : the post-compulsory years : the transition from high school to college in the Australian Capital TerritoryCoutts-Smith, Raymond J., n/a January 1995 (has links)
This study commences with the assumption that action can be taken to lessen the
disruption to the mathematical progress of Year 11 students in the Australian Capital
Territory senior secondary colleges. If students are to perform their best in
mathematics they need their transition from high school to college to be as smooth as
possible. Nevertheless, many students change their mathematics enrolment soon after
commencing college.
The study relies particularly upon The Theory of Reasoned Action to determine
whether students have the intention both before and during the transition of performing
well in mathematics at college. Although this measure provides a predictor of the
intention, it does not necessarily follow that the conditions allow the student to comply
with the prediction.
Statistical instruments were also used - to determine whether students initially enrol in
appropriate courses and whether they perform as well in their first semester at college
as in Year 10. A small sample of students was interviewed to elicit whether there was
supporting evidence for some conclusions drawn from the results and the literature
survey.
Analyses of the predictor of intention indicate that during the transition period a very
high proportion of students intends to perform well in mathematics at college. Analysis
of the components of the measure pinpoints some small differences between high
schools.
The statistical analyses show that a significant proportion of students completes
Semester 1 in mathematics courses other than those of initial enrolment and that
performance by the Year 11 students correlates well with Year 10 performance.
Discussion centres around actions of intervention and their focus. Parents and
guardians are possible recipients of further information since the evidence suggests they
are the most influential advisers in the lives of this age group. College teachers are
possibly the best current providers of that information, although, high school teachers
and careers advisers could take a more prominent role following appropriate training.
Recommendations are made concerning the enrolment procedure and the beginning of
Year 11 routine. Other conclusions and recommendations concern action by classroom
teachers that could ensure more students succeed in the course of initial enrolment,
whether they are in the course most suited to their previous performance or are
attempting a more difficult course.
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Social welfare professionals as managers : a feminist perspectiveCrosland, Gerri, n/a January 1992 (has links)
The dissertation presents the argument that the formal training of a professional social
worker is relevant but not equivalent to the training needs of a professional manager in the
social work field. Social work professionals as managers do not, without management
training, have the same credibility and/or skills as professional managers of social work.
Within the general topic of welfare, research is first directed to the Australian welfare
experience in its historic sense. Selecting relevant philosophical and ideological frameworks
the writer a) critically explores traditional and contemporary theories, with special
reference being made to bureaucracy, organization, and management; b) investigates
theories and practices of social workers and social work managers to ascertain their
relevance to contemporary Australian society, using the A.C.T. Family Services Branch as an
example of a social welfare agency. This assists in explaining the context, functions and
obligations of a welfare agency, as it responds to the needs of the community and of the staff
it employs.
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The development of an integrated humanities programme at an open space high school in the A.C.T.Cumming, Kenneth Ward, n/a January 1980 (has links)
This field study attempts to analyse the development of an integrated
humanities programme at a recently built open space high school in the
A.C.T. during the first three years of its existence.
The school opened shortly after the beginning of the A.C.T. Educational
System and the staff were imbued with the idealism and innovative climate
that prevailed at this time. There was an absence of system constraint
that co-incided with the political proclamation of school based curriculum
development.
This field study is the story of what can happen when a staff is plunged
into the deep end of innovation without the necessary support systems.
Nevertheless some of the innovations have stabilised, with some promise
of permanency, during these first three years.
Open View began with a radical curriculum from the beginning:
i) a child centred curriculum
ii) vertically integrated teaching groups
iii) non-streaming of students
iv) open access curriculum
v) an individualised teaching programme
vi) little traditional class group teaching
vii) staff participation in decision making
viii) a mini-school structure based on a strong pastoral system
ix) non competitive continuous assessment
x) a large degree of subject integration
All of these innovations can be viewed in the humanities programme.
A controversial programme such as humanities has had a radical effect
upon the rest of the school. Hence in tracing the development of the
humanities programme, the field study indirectly traces the development
of the total school.
The innovation that has particular relevance to educationalists is
the development of the mini-school structure and the combination of
the pastoral and the academic through the teaching teams of the minischools.
The principal theme of this field study is the effect that
the mini-school and subject integration has had on traditional roles
such as that of the subject seniors and the assistant principals.
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"A gleam in the eye..." : An investigation : self-esteem of high school teachers in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government SchoolsDavid, Veronica Anne, n/a January 1988 (has links)
This study attempted to investigate the
self-esteem of high school teachers in the Australian
Capital Territory (ACT). Its purpose was to measure the
self-esteem of high school teachers in the ACT, identify
perceptions of life-stage factors that might contribute
to teachers' self-esteem and to identify teachers'
perceptions of job-related factors that contribute to
their self-esteem.
The sample consisted of 219 teachers (94 male,
124 female, one of unidentified sex) in 12 of the 17 high
schools in the ACT. A questionnaire based on that used
by Swafford Jolley (1985) was used. It consisted of 4
parts - Part 1 demographic data, Part 2a Barksdale
Self-Esteem Index No. 69, Part 2b Life-stage
Characteristics, Part 3 Job-related characteristics, Part
4 - three related questions for open responses.
Data were analysed using the SPSSX data recording
and analysis system (Norusis 1983). Means and
differences between means were computed to establish
discrepancies. Pearson product moment correlations were
employed. Multiple linear regression analyses were used
to isolate the best predictors of self-esteem from among
the 34 work-related factors. A rank discrepancy index of
affect on self-esteem was also computed.
Findings show that eighty per cent of the
teachers may be hindered by low self-esteem. There is no
difference between male and female average age (39) nor
between the male and female average self-esteem index
(62.2). Younger teachers were found to be just as likely
to have low self-esteem as older teachers. The factors
which most affect teacher self-esteem and which are
closest to the ideal were found to be feelings of
competency as a teacher, pride in one's work,
establishment of specific personal goals and the
opportunity to determine one's own teaching methods. The
factors with the greatest discrepancies were found to be
the opportunity to advance professionally, positive
representation by the media and prestige of the teaching
profession.
It was concluded that in no one area are the
self-esteem needs of high school teachers in the
Australian Capital Territory being adequately met.
Responsibility lies with the individuals themselves and
with the ACT Schools Authority to work out joint ways of
enhancing teacher self-esteem and development. It is
argued that this cannot be left to chance by the
organisation but must be planned for as a matter of
urgency. Recognition of the individual is seen as the
key in any such planning but organisational objectives
also need to be considered.
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The use of Coopersmith self-esteem inventoryDawson, Caroline, n/a January 1987 (has links)
This study investigated whether the conditions in which the Coopersmith Self-Esteem
Inventory was administered had any effect on subjects' scores on the Inventory. The
study also examined normative and reliability scores in the ACT, the effect of various
demographic variables and the relationship between happiness scores and self-esteem.
The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was administered to groups of year seven
students from a Canberra high school under two different conditions: friendly and
impartial. After five weeks the Inventory was readministered to rearranged groups under
the different conditions. No significant differences were found in the scores from the
students in the different conditions. No significant differences were found on an
indication of student happiness under each condition.
A normative value was calculated combining scores from the first testing sessions and
a test-retest reliability correlation calculated from combined scores from the first and
second testing sessions.
The validity of the lie scale and the use of the Inventory in Australia are discussed.
With a few reservations it appears that the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory measures a
relatively stable trait and is a reliable measure of overall self-esteem. A summary of recent
literature using the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory is included.
Mean self-esteem scores on the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were compared
with students grouped by sex, socio-economic status, birth order, whether they came
from a single parent family or whether their mother worked. Significant differences were
found with SES and birth order but recent literature shows that these variables are often
interrelated and results may be instrument dependent. New self-concept tests (based on a
sound theoretical framework) are being developed which acknowledge the
multidimensionality of self-concept and appear more able to detect variation in facets of
self-concept.
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