Many students undertaking courses at tertiary institutions find that lack of basic mathematical skills, or lack of confidence in these skills, is impeding their progress. This can arise with students in science, administration, geography, nursing, computing, education and many other courses. The problem can be anticipated with mature age students who are often admitted to courses lacking formal entry qualifications, but younger students are increasingly involved. The problem is not a static one but has been developing rapidly in recent years. This Field Study commenced by analysing the extent of the problem at CCAE, its past development and possible further developments in the near future. A search was then undertaken for instances of recognition of, and response to, the problem in other institutions. Instances of responses elsewhere, and of theory relating to adult learning and mathematical learning, were assessed for relevance to the CCAE situation. A response appropriate to the CCAE situation was designed, implemented, and its initial success evaluated. This response was based upon an individualised approach, involving diagnosis of individual problems and needs, self-learning materials in modular form, one-to-one tutorial assistance in a "Maths Lab", self-paced learning, testing for mastery of modules using criterion referenced tests. The evaluation undertaken indicates that this response is basically successful in the CCAE situation. However, some recommendations for the future development of the response follow from the evaluation; the most important of these involves a requirement upon students with weaknesses in their basic mathematics, to use the Lab.

In 1983 a programme was initiated by the School of Education, Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE) and the Australian Schools Commission to enable parents to assist their own children in literacy. The children had previously been identified as experiencing difficulties in acquiring the skills of literacy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the parents' intervention on the children's achievements in literacy, and to assess the quality of the programme by examining particular subskills taught in the course. The methods of assessment were also evaluated for their appropriateness for the circumstances. The thirty nine children in the study were the sample of fifty two children for whom there was complete information. Parents of these children began the programme in July 1985 or in March 1986. They attended a course of ten sessions over thirteen weeks in a semester. The following semester they were allocated to a teacher who was a post graduate or fourth year degree student in education, and given individual assistance from six to ten sessions, and longer if necessary. Aspects of oral reading, comprehension, writing and spelling were tested at the beginning of the programme and again in November 1986, and the results compared. Observational records were also kept and changes evaluated. In addition, oral reading was measured at the end of the parents' course, and before individual assistance commenced. Case studies were built up for every child, and the findings grouped to observe the effect of the intervention on the population. The results showed that the programme achieved its aim of giving parents the skills to assist; their own children in the acquisition of literacy. The content of the course and the subskills taught were also justified by the outcomes. Furthermore, the method of evaluation revealed specific and succinct information on which to base the intervention and to monitor progress. The research took place over 18 months, during which time teaching and progress were continual. A longitudinal study over several years would confirm the results of the research.

The Instructional Media Centre at the Canberra College of Advanced Education has been developed in the belief that teaching and learning are performing arts - particularly when they take place together - and that they are greatly enhanced by an understanding, and appropriate use, of the media. This Centre was established to provide media services to the whole College, and to teach media courses in its School of Teacher Education. Its development entailed the procurement of equipment, the employment of staff, the organization of administrative procedures, the devising of courses, the production of materials, and later the design of a building to house the operation. In the absence of any comprehensive, coherent and cogent theory this development was essentially pragmatic. Factors such as the availability of money and material resources determined its lower limits; the skills and beliefs of the people involved its upper limits. Designing, producing and delivering media materials, teaching, and evaluating the outcomes of those activities are however susceptible to theoretical examination, if not completely to prediction and control. Media producers, managers, teachers and students require an artistry that goes beyond theoretical insight and technical competence. Traditional theoretical frameworks have not adequately encompassed this quality. The study examines the development of this Centre and the complex of factors which have influenced it, in the light of the available theories. It pays particular attention to the ways in which theory informs practice in each of the Centre's areas of activity, and also to the personal preferences and attitudes of the people involved. Educational media is seen as a field governed more by convention than by formula. Its unpredictable and uncontrollable aspects are seen as signs of its artistry. And artists have ultimately to be left to their own devices and their own genius. Perhaps the most important outcome of the study is that it translates some knowledge from someone's head to a more objective and accessible form of record.

This field study is concerned with the development and implementation of a formative evaluation of an innovative aspect of program development in the Language/Reading Centre at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. In 1983 a parent training dimension was added as part of a developing concern to assist school pupils who are experiencing difficulties in language and reading. The Language/Reading Centre programs are designed to provide this assistance within an 'integrated systems' approach. The group of people who participated in one of these parent training programs within the Language/Reading Centre in semester 2, 1983, were the focus for this evaluation. The program is called the Parent Training Evening Group Seminar Program in the evaluation. This study was set up in response to a request from the Director of the Language/Reading Centre for an external evaluation of this parent training component. The eva1uation developed within the framework of naturalistic inquiry and the design has been based on the work of Robert Stake. The evaluator undertook a responsive evaluation plan with an adaption of the briefing panel component, to gather and organise the perceptions and judgments of the people concerned with the program. The information collected in this process was focused on a number of Issues for consideration. This case study format was intended to gain some measure of program effectiveness as formative information for the client to use in the ongoing development of the program.

The present study attempted to answer two questions: do academic library users have a distinctive and useful input to make to library strategic planning? If they do, what mechanisms will permit them to participate effectively in this planning process? To address these questions research was carried out in two stages at a single institutional site, the Canberra College of Advanced Education. The first of these utilised a structured group discussion process, Nominal Group Technique (NGT). This was used both as an indicator of user planning priorities and as a pilot research technique contributing to the design of a subsequent survey. This survey obtained a response rate of over 90 percent from a sample of 379. The study attempted to establish that academic staff and students do have a worthwhile input to make to planning by testing for congruence between the rankings of library planning priorities of these user groups and the rankings of planning priorities of Library staff. No strong positive correlations were established between the priorities of student groups and Library staff, although in the survey the priorities of academic staff and Library staff were found to be related. These results suggest users do have a worthwhile input to make to library strategic planning. Other tests for congruence were also applied between and within respondent groups, because if a group was found to have different priorities there would be a prima facie case for consulting members of that group as part of the planning process. Both mechanisms used in the present study were considered successful. User surveys have been employed for planning in previous studies with a future-oriented component. However, it appears that this may have been the first formally reported application of NGT to library management. Experience in the present study suggests it is a highly suitable technique for situations such as strategic planning, where generation of ideas or comment on priorities is required. However, an attempt to establish congruence between the results obtained using NGT and those obtained from the survey yielded inconclusive results. It is believed that major changes in the institutional environment were principally responsible for this, although a methodological limitation may also have contributed. The study concludes with suggestions for further research.

The study is concerned with the process of socialisation of teachers in the teaching profession. Drawing on socialisation theory the study sees the process of secondary socialisation in teacher preparation as building skills and enabling personal development. It was predicted that in the transition from the training institution to the first years of teaching, the degree of job satisfaction and commitment to teaching would be related to the degree of conflict experienced and that job satisfaction and commitment would be less for beginning teachers compared with that anticipated by trainees. Conflict was seen as appropriately measured by the difference between personal professional attitudes and occupational values one the one hand and the professional attitudes and occupational values perceived to be held by senior teachers on the other. Seventy-three final year trainee teachers at the Canberra College of Advanced Education and 47 beginning teachers in their first two years of teaching in Canberra primary and secondary schools, were selected as the sample. Previously validated instruments were used in a questionnaire. The findings clearly showed the existence of conflict between personal professional attitudes and occupational values and the perceived professional attitudes and occupational values of senior teachers. The difference in conflict between trainees and beginning teachers was small and tended to decrease. However, there was a marked increase in variance of conflict scores for women conpared to men. For women also, conflict was highly related to job satisfaction. Thc findings suggested that men tend to be more homogeneous in their adaptation to teaching and are more inclined to be satisfied and committed despite holding professional attitudes and occupational values which conflict with those of senior teachers. The study discusses some of the imlications of the findings for the training institution and the importance, particularly for women teachers, of coping with conflict in the teaching situation.