The aim of this research was to devise and norm a test of verbal memory suitable for use with children aged 5-10 years. Subjects were 204 Canberra school children. They were divided into six age groups, 5-10 years inclusive. Each age group of 34 children contained equal numbers of males and females. The main memory test involved free recall of a word-list over several learning trials and two delayed recall trials. This format allowed the assessment of a range of memory functions including immediate memory, learning and delayed recall following an interference trial. These aspects of memory are of known diagnostic significance and are necessary for satisfying the basic requirements of a comprehensive assessment of memory functioning. In addition, given that this is a study of verbal memory, precautions were taken to maximize the likelihood that words included in the word-list would be encoded solely within the verbal modality. Results showed that tests of immediate memory and learning differentiated between age groups. There were no developmental differences in retention as measured by recall decrement following interference. Also, there was no convincing evidence of sex differences for any of these three measures, with the possible exception of the ten year old group. For practical and clinical purposes, the distribution of scores for each age group on each of these measures is described. In addition, expected scores of individual children of a given age measured in monthly increments and confidence intervals for these scores were presented for measures of immediate memory and learning. Measures of intelligence for this sample of children were also recorded.

The study presents a review of the establishment and operation of the Curriculum Consultancy Section of the ACT Schools Authority over the period of the first decade of its existence. It considers the move to establish a new and different education system; the important reports which gave impetus to that move; first the Currie Report (1967.), Report on an Independent Education Authority for the Australian Capital Territory and the three further reports which kept the spirit of the Currie Report alive, i.e. the Neal-Radford Report (1972.), the Campbell Report (1973.), and the Hughes Report (1973.). The study emphasises the haste with which the new system was finally established; that there was not time to develop a 'coherent, imaginative and suitable plan' (Currie, 1967, p.9.) and that staff resources were inadequate. As Beare (1978.) has noted, 'At no time in its first four years was the Schools Office given the manpower needed merely for maintenance functions let alone for development activities ... .' (p.80.) The curriculum issues that arose in planning this new system and the curriculum context within Australia are considered prior to a close examination of the development and operation of the section during the decade; the pressures which affected it and the changes which occurred This examination as the main body of the study falls easily into three periods; The First Years; The Middle Years of the First Decade; and the Final Years of the First Decade; each period coinciding with the period of tenure of one of the three principals the section has had in those ten years. Throughout this main body of the study the major recurring themes affecting the life of the section are closely followed, i.e. the conflict within the system, the diversity of demands and the difficulties of meeting those demands, the difficulty of defining role and function and the problems of leadership. In conclusion the study reflects on these recurring themes and examines the changes which have occurred over the decade, e.g. the changes in role and function, the shift in orientation to consultancy, the changes in selection and professional development of consultants, the concentration of consultants in priority areas and the developing cohesiveness of the consultancy section. Finally the study addresses the future; consideration is given to the stage in the life cycle of an organisation that the ACT Schools Authority is at currently and to the effect that this may possibly have upon the undoubtedly troubled future of the Curriculum Consultancy Section. The study draws on the documents available; on interviews with people who have worked in the area and also on the extensive body of literature which is available.

Aims of the Study : This report aims to describe the central issues confronting education systems today, with reference to contemporary developments in the Australian Capital Territory, drawing attention, specifically, to the problems of Special Education sub-systems and tracing the development of this sub-system in the A.C.T. Background to the Report : Bureaucratic practices and role perceptions persist in systems which are attempting to solve problems emerging from increasingly demanding environments which are growing rapidly in complexity and turbulence. Where these practices are related to the servicing aspect of the organization they may increase efficiency in those functions which can be subjected to mechanistic control. Dysfunction can be avoided if safeguards are built into the organizational framework to allow adequate communication, co-ordination and co-operation in servicing the needs of those in primary roles. Special Education, Guidance and Counselling Services were established at a time when bureaucratic administrative practices prevailed in educational systems. Closed system structures were deemed then to be appropriate organizations for mechanistic approaches to human problems. This approach was apparent in the categorization of educational needs on aetiological and psychometric data. The growth of Special Education classes, aimed at securing homogeneous target populations for specialised programmes, characterises this period. The persistence of the bureaucratic model in an inappropriate environment has resulted in the fixing of certain aspects of the primary task and role. Further, it has placed some important aspects of decision making, namely, needs assessment and the determination of criteria for child placement as well as the actual placement of children, outside the scope of the school in the centrally administered sub-systems of Guidance and Special Education. This has resulted in instances of teachers in mainstream classes in the A.C.T. exhibiting reluctance to propose children for special placement at a time when the beneficial effects of specialized interventions could be maximised. It has also helped to institutionalise prevalent views of lock-step educational programming. This creates dilemmas for teachers as they attempt to integrate children who are developmentally or educationally retarded as judged by this criterion, and it presents barriers to the availability of specialized technical assistance to children with learning disabilities placed in mainstream classes. The climate of education in the A.C.T. is one of increasing openness. In mainstream education parents, teachers, principals and personnel within the Schools Office are beginning to assume new roles' as a result of confrontations and compromises. This process is also evidenced in the Schools Authority's Council and Standing Committees. This level of openness is not yet discernible in Special Education which in many ways appears to be operating in a closed system. Outline of the Study : The ensuing chapters expand these main points in the following manner: Chapter 2 describes major issues faced by education systems today as they attempt to develop organizational structures to maximise technological developments and pursue goals congruent with modern educational philosophies. It draws attention to contemporary developments in the A.C.T. with preference to problems faced by Special Education sub-systems. Chapter 3 traces the development of Special Education services in the A.C.T. It refers to the initial impetus and growth shared by all elements within the larger system. (i) up to the establishment of the Interim A.C.T. Schools Authority; (ii) Special Education since the establishment of the Interim Authority. Chapter if enumerates the main factors which have led to the dissipation of this impetus and describes some new initiatives and trends which have emerged. Chapter 5 overviews theoretical, organizational and technical solutions which have been proposed to overcome the problems identified in Chapter 2 and shared by all systems as they become increasingly open to rapidly changing environments, and indicates some principles on which a sound policy for Special Education in the A.C.T. might be based.

This study describes an evaluation of some aspects of the Australian Capital Territory Resource Teacher Program during 1985. The Resource Teacher Program was an Australian Capital Territory Schools Authority initiative whereby an additional specially trained teacher was allocated to a school to assist with fulfilling particular needs which the school had identified. The study used two techniques to collect information, questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire data was analysed and provided response frequencies of all 263 respondents in relation to students, teachers, parents and schools in each of the sixteen schools in the Program. Interviews were also conducted to allow for those involved in the Resource Teacher Program to make a direct contribution to the study's information base. Aspects of two theoretical education evaluation approaches were used as the basis of the study's theoretical framework. The TenBrink model was used, working from required judgements through to recommendations. Aspects of Stake's approach to educational evaluational were also used to enable identification of issues and to facilitate input of the Resource Teacher Program's participants. It was shown that students who had been involved in the Resource Teacher Program benefitted in the areas of academic progress, behaviour modification programs, previously unmet needs and gifted and talented programs. Teacher benefits were in the areas of in-school curriculum and advisory support. Parents who had been involved in the Program had benefitted by developing an increased understanding of current educational practice and how to help their children. Schools had benefitted through better use of school counsellors, increased parent participation and improved teaching resources. The identification of issues which required consideration in order to enhance the Program's effectiveness were of major importance in this study. These included the Resource Teachers' role definition, Resource Teacher stress, school commitment to the Resource Teacher Program, evaluation of the Program, the training program, the notion of secondary school resource teachers and the Australian Capital Territory's Schools Authority's commitment to the Resource Teacher Program.

In a country such as Australia which claims adherence to democratic values, it would appear important that policies and laws on such a controversial and value laden issue as active voluntary euthanasia (AVE), need to have at least some basis in public opinion and in that of relevant professional groups. It has been argued that public opinion may be of limited value due to the public's lack of experience and exposure to this issue. The opinions of people with more exposure to and reflection on the ethical issues surrounding euthanasia need to be ascertained. Nurses are one group who have prolonged involvement with the care of dying or suffering people and their families. Nurses in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) could be a particularly well informed group because of the ongoing open debate resulting from four proposed laws on AVE in this Territory since 1993. The overall purpose of this thesis was to identify the attitudes of nurses in the ACT towards AVE. This thesis was supported by a study which provided information on four aspects of nurses' attitudes towards AVE. Firstly, the attitudes of registered nurses in the ACT were compared to those of other nurses, medical practitioners and members of the general public in Australia. Secondly, the associations between characteristics of the nurses and their attitudes were investigated. Thirdly, the legal conditions which nurses believe should be in a law allowing active voluntary euthanasia were identified. Finally, the arguments nurses put forward to support their attitudes towards AVE were analysed This thesis does not attempt to evaluate the ethical arguments proposed, merely to reflect the views put forward. A postal survey was carried out in late 1996 of 2000 randomly selected registered nurses from the Australian Capital Territory. Responses were received from 1218 nurses (61%). Attitudes of Nurses: A majority of nurses who responded, supported AVE as "sometimes right", be it homicide by request (72%) or physician assisted suicide (71%). A slightly smaller majority of nurses believed the law should be changed to allow homicide by request (69%) and physician assisted suicide (67%) under certain conditions. If AVE were legal, 66% of the nurses indicated they were willing to be involved in the procedure. Only 30% were willing to assist patients to give themselves the lethal dose, while 14% were willing to administer the lethal dose to the patient. Comparing these results with previous surveys, it appears that nurses are less in favour of AVE than the general public but more in favour than medical practitioners. Associations between Characteristics of Nurses and Attitudes: Those nurses who were more likely to agree that the law should allow AVE, were under the age of 40 years, agnostic, atheist or of the Anglican religion, to have less contact with terminally ill patients, to work in the area of critical care or mental health, and to take less interest in the issue of AVE. Palliative care nurses were the only subgroup without a majority in favour (33%). There is other evidence in the euthanasia literature indicating that nurses and doctors are less in favour of AVE than the general public. Taken together with the present findings, it may be concluded that attitudes towards AVE are more favourable in people who have less contact with the terminally ill. Legal Conditions in an AVE Law: The conditions most strongly supported in any future AVE law were "second doctor's opinion" (85%), "cooling off period" (81%), "patient must have unbearable protracted suffering" (80%), "doctor must inform patient about illness and treatment" (78%) and "patient must be terminally ill" (63%). There was only minority support for "patient not suffering from treatable depression" (42%), "patient administers or assists to administer, the fatal dose themselves" (32%) and "patient over a certain age" (7%). Support for a change in the law to allow AVE was 38% for a young man with AIDS, 39% for an elderly man with early stage Alzheimer's disease, 44% for a young woman who had become quadriplegic and 71 % for a middle aged woman with metastases from breast cancer. Arguments Supporting AVE Attitudes: The most common argument in support of AVE was that people should have the right to control their own lives and thus be able to decide for themselves when and how they wanted to die. The most common argument against AVE was that of the slippery slope in which it is feared that the boundaries which society puts on killing will be extended. Conclusions: This inquiry pinpoints the discordance between attitudes towards AVE and the legal status of AVE. Parliamentary representatives need to consider the current attitudes of their constituents, and especially those of relevant health care professionals towards AVE. It is important that a nursing perspective is represented in any law legalising AVE and that the role of the nurse is clearly described in relevant legal acts. Future research would also be beneficial to investigate further the association between the experience of nurses working in a palliative care setting and AVE attitudes. There needs to be further debate about the legal conditions required in any future AVE bills. given the lack of support from nurses for some conditions which have been included in proposed AVE laws. Furthermore, it would be valuable to carry out surveys of the opinions of other health practitioners in order to inform legislators. These results form a baseline to examine the changes in attitudes towards AVE over time and change in the legal status of AVE.

This investigation was prompted by a personal concern about what I perceived to be unacceptable practices and outcomes in senior secondary schooling in the Australian Capital Territory. For me, an unacceptable practice and/or outcome is one which could be said to contribute to social control by dominant elites. Liberation, in the sense of the acquisition of personal autonomy based on reason, and equality, in the sense of parity of esteem or the right of people to develop differently but within the parameters of concern for others, are the goals I seek in relation to education and schooling. They are goals which are ascribed to by many teachers, and which partially underpin the major reports which prompted and continue to influence supposedly reformist or progressive moves in secondary schooling in the Australian Capital Territory in the 1970's. However, an examination of the framework of these reports suggest that they concealed - non too deeply - contradictions and invalid assumptions which wider examination shows to be common also to what we can call the dominant or liberal educational framework. This framework of ideas, beliefs, assumptions, values and practices, has come under strong attack in recent years by those educationists, sociologists, historians and philosophers whom we can call Marxian. That is, those people who seek to understand and transform their world within a consciousness largely informed by those theories and insights which were first given major prominance by Karl Marx. It is a consciousness which I share. In my investigation of schooling, and of my part in it, as a teacher, I have come to the point where I think that the beliefs, assumptions, and practices associated with the dominant educational ideology do contribute to the formation of a distorted consciousness; that is, people in schools do not perceive that they are oppressed, and that public schooling does not work in what I consider to be the interests of most people. I believe, therefore, that radical change is needed. If we assume that the capitalist mode of production and, consequently, its concomitant set of social relations, are likely to persist in Australia, we can also assume that radical change will be very difficult, and a long term goal. However, I believe that teachers can play a significant role in the development of a more liberating and egalitarian form of schooling for all children. First, teachers have to develop a more critical view of the schooling process and in this way enable themselves to move beyond the limits set up by the traditional and dominant, liberal ideological framework. They have to develop a pedagogy based on the concept of consciousness-raising or critical thinking. This study represents the efforts of one teacher to do just that.

This study researched three major areas of the school Principalship within the Australian Capital Territory government school system. The three major areas of research concern related to school Principalship were: 1. Changes in the role and responsibilities of the Principal 2. Skills Principals require to perform effectively within the role and responsibility. 3. How the education department may best facilitate and support effective performance of its Principals. An outline of the history of administrative and organisational restructuring within the A.C.T. government education system during the past two decades has been presented to provide the context of the study. A review of the literature also contributed to the contextual understanding of the study by examining specific issues and understandings within the literature. The specific issues and understandings related to: context and the role of the Principal concept of the role of the Principal instructional leadership and the role of the Principal administrative and organisational devolution and the role of the Principal The research methodology used to examine the issues central to this study is qualitative or descriptive in nature, reflecting a phenomenological perspective. The data was collected through personal interviews conducted with senior administrators of the A.C.T. government school system and written questionnaires completed by Principals of the A.C.T. government school system. The data comprises the perceptions, ideas and beliefs of the two defined groups targeted in the study. The analysis of responses presented the major findings regarding the perceptions, ideas and beliefs of the Principals and senior administrators of the A.C.T. government school system relating to the key research areas of this study. The major findings show that the role of the school Principal has changed, with Principals requiring a broader array of skills to effectively meet the challenges of the new role. The major findings discuss how the education department may best facilitate and support effective performance in the Principalship. The conclusions of the study discuss how changes to the role of the Principal have increased the Principal's workload, with Principals now required to utilise a broader scope of often new skills to effectively perform their changed role and responsibilities. The Principal respondents and senior administrator respondents suggest best ways that the education department may facilitate and support effective performance of the Principalship. It was also suggested that the amount of professional development and training was inadequate to facilitate the performance of effective Principalship. Respondents indicated that incentives such as sabbatical leave for Principals be facilitated by the education department to ensure Principals' professional renewal. Finally, the implications of the conclusions of the study address the ways in which the education department may best assist Principals to acquire the necessary new skills to effectively perform their changed role. The implications of the conclusions of the study also address the ways in which the education department may best facilitate and support Principals' professional renewal. The implications of the conclusions of the study state that the responsibility for Principals' professional development and renewal should be a shared responsibility between the school Principal and the education department.

This study attempts to identify any patterns of decision making behaviour evident from the formal meetings of the Council of the Interim Australian Capital Territory Schools Authority up to the end of its second year of operation, In an analysis of the minutes, the topics mentioned in them were grouped into fifteen broad categories, six of which - professional staffing, policy making/procedures, central staff and services, boundary maintenance, school buildings and curriculum Matters - were found to have been given the greatest attention by the Council. The study reveals that decision making was associated with only slightly more than half of the issues discussed and that three quarters of those decisions could be termed effective, in that they might lead to a change in the education system's operations or in relationships with another body or in that they appeared to finalize the discussion on an issue. It also demonstrates changes over time in both the types of issues discussed and the ways in which the Council operated as a decision unit. Some attention is given to variables which might account for the observed patterns. The decision making strategies used are explored as are the methods of policy determination. An attempt is made to identify stages in the Council's history which might correspond to those postulated in organizational growth models. Finally, there are some suggestions for further research, particularly in relation to pressure group theory, to change in organizational structure and to growth models.

This Field Study is an attempt to present an wholistic portrayal of the institution, Melrose High School. It consists of an Historical Overview of the school's past, and a Statistical Description, formed from a survey of perceptions of the institution. These two forms of evidence were seen by this writer to be complementary, and that together, they would provide the wholistic portrayal sought.

This field study examines the acceptance of role behaviours by teacher librarians in A.C.T. government schools and what influences that acceptance. Acceptance of behaviours is measured by an instrument compiled and developed through factor analysis for this field study. The influences examined are a series of environmental (context) and personal (presage) variables. Data are gathered through survey and questionnaire. Hypotheses are tested initially with product moment correlations, and examined in more detail with partial correlations designed to control the influence of extraneous variables. The attitudes of teacher librarians to classroom teaching practices are also related to both acceptance of role behaviours and the presage and context variables. Results indicate that context variables are least important in influencing acceptance of role behaviours, while the education and library training of the teacher librarian are the most important of the presage variables examined. Teacher librarians are found to be particularly reluctant to accept leadership behaviours.