Thesis (M. Mus. (Mus. Ed.)--University of Sydney, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed 19 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music (Music Education) to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print format.

Throughout the 1980s, there was a trend in Australia towards increased participation rates in post-compulsory education. This study examines factors that influence Year 12 retention rates in four Government secondary schools within the Wollongong Sub-Region. Factors that were thought to influence students to continue to Year 12 and sit for the New South Wales Higher School Certificate Examination included those related to Gender, Socio-economic (relating to occupation of parents, government financial assistance, and language background), Educational and Career. The study involved surveying over 400 Year 10 students in four schools by questionnaires. These schools were chosen for their geographical location and to include two schools with a history of high retention rates and two schools with low retention rates. The questions in the survey were incorporated with a larger survey conducted in 1989 by the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong under the coordination of Dr. Noeline Kyle ("Everyone expects you to know; A report on careers advice and industry attitudes towards female students in non-traditional study and work in the Illawarra", 1990). The questionnaire was piloted in 1988 and after seeking recommendations from students, teachers and the NSW Department of School Education Research Group, the survey was administered in 1989. The study used descriptive research methodology, and Chi-square analysis was used to establish significance levels in the data. With regard to gender, the data clearly demonstrated that female students were more inclined than male students to stay on to Year 12, and have positive reasons for their decision. Concerning Socio-Economic factors, the results of this study showed that students whose parents have a professional background are more likely to stay on to Year 12. In addition, the achievement of the Higher School Certificate as a preIV requisite for further study was a strong motivating factor for students staying on to Year 12. However, students in receipt of Austudy did not appear to relate in a statistically significant manner with any of the factors that influence the student to stay on to Year 12. As well, no statistical inference could be drawn from intention to sit for the HSC and the language most used at home by parents. With regard to educational factors, the responses from each of the four schools surveyed showed a high percentage (82 to 85%) of students intending to stay on to Year 12 and sit for the HSC examination. None of these schools had an appreciably higher proportion of students intending to sit the HSC exam. However, it was found that students from one particular school were more likely to undertake further study and students from this school had a high percentage of both parents with a professional occupation than any other school. The findings relating to career factors showed that students who have a professional career in mind are more likely to proceed to Year 12. It was also found that students who had school work experience in a professional occupation were more likely to proceed to Year 12. The study relates the survey findings to the research literature in Australia, and also includes a discussion of the limitations of the survey.

As a teacher of the New South Wales Higher School Certificate Geography Syllabus in the 1970s, I became aware of problems of interpretation and implementation of syllabus documents dealing with models and theories of human aggregate behaviour. A positivistic underpinning allowed explanation in human geography to employ deductive - nomological methodology. This field study investigates a defined literature of academic geography including journals, and both secondary and tertiary documents to identify the extent and quality of nomothetic and idiographic traditions from the late 19th century to the mid 1970s. The literature prior to the late 1950s revealed a dominant regional tradition and idiographic methodology with an emphasis on description of uniqueness of areal phenomena. But underlying currents of a nomothetic nature, running parallel to this regionalidiographic tradition,exerted a noticeable challenge to gain acceptance in geographic circles. This kind of nomothetism was in the form of environmental determinism which held that physical laws operating in nature were also at work to shape and direct human societies. Environmental determinism contained generalised assertions, enjoyed some appeal, but lacked rigorous justification. Even within regional frameworks, authors used environmentally induced determinants to explain the unique character of regions. Not until the 1930s did environmental determinism lose its appeal, after which time the regional - idiographic tradition strengthened as an explanatory mode of human behaviour. Nomothetism emerged in the late 1950s in Australia in the application of models and theories explaining human behaviour. Normative theory was supported by an increased use of quantification and by the growing preference for systematic studies in geography. Neither mode of explanation exists at the total exclusion of the other; so that while nomothetism enjoyed widespread appeal in academic geography from the late 1950s, significant challenges were mounted against it because of its inadequacies as a mode of explaining human aggregate behaviour. Nomothetic explanation in human geography can be seen at the research level and in education circles. Many normative models and theories found their way into senior geography courses to the extent they promoted a systems approach. Teachers would have been aware of normative theory in geography from their university studies and teacher training courses during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. The tension between associated explanatory modes in systematic and regional geography becomes apparent in the analysis of the N.S.W. H.S.C. Geography Syllabus in which confusing statements raise problems for teachers interpreting and implementing this prescriptive document. Given these tensions and problems of explanation in human geography, the adoption of a critical rationalist viewpoint as propounded by Karl Popper is suggested as a possible solution for geography teachers when interpreting a syllabus such as that of the N.S.W. H.S.C. Falsification rather than verification should be the node of inquiry towards explanation of human aggregate behaviour.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the concerns of secondary school teacher-librarians, that the subject headings set down by the Australian Schools Catalogue Information Service (ASCIS) do not cover topics in senior sourses of study. NSW HSC Economics was chosen to test this perception. Terms were extracted from three textual sources (syllabus, textbook and examination papers) and checked against the subject headings in the ASCIS Subject Headings List. A comparison was made between terms which matched exactly, those which were only partially matched and those which had no match. The linguistic complexity of the term (single-word or multi-word) and the number of textual sources using the term were also taken into account. The results showed a varying degree of match between textual terms and subject headings. Single-word terms found in more than one textual source were much more likely to be found in the subject headings than those from only one textual source. Multi-word terms were found less frequently than single-word terms, but were also more likely to be found when they came from more than one textual source. There was a large number of partial matches in this group, and these were found to be more general in concept than the textual terms. Most of the terms were found, but the general nature of the partial matches and the lack of adequate cross references may cause problems in subject analysis and retrieval.

In January, 1974, the Interim ACT Schools Authority assumed responsibility for pre, primary and secondary schools in the Australian Capital Territory. It took steps to provide a basis for the restructuring of secondary education. The traditional six-year comprehensive high school was to be replaced in 1976 by a four-year high school and a two-year secondary college. The Interim Authority decided that each school should be responsible for its own curriculum which should not be constrained by an external examination. A system of course development and teacher assessment, to replace the New South Wales Higher School Certificate syllabuses and examination, was developed during 1974. The Interim Authority sought the advice of the Australian Council for Educational Research, and a report prepared by it was used to stimulate public debate. After considering a wide cross section of points of view the Interim Authority decided that accredited courses would replace syllabuses, teacher assessments, the examination and profile reports the Certificate. The ACT Schools Accrediting Agency, a committee of the Interim Authority, was formed in 1975 to administer accrediting assessment and reporting. The Accrediting Agency negotiated the basis for tertiary entrance for ACT students. It determined that a single aggregate score, the Tertiary Entrance Score, should be calculated, using aggregated scaled teacher assessments. Scores from three major and one minor accredited-TES courses scaled by the Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test total score would be aggregated. A system-wide order of merit would be created. The maximum aggregate score would be 360. The basis for the aggregate was very different from that which it was replacing. In New South Wales, five subject scores with a possible maximum of 900 was used. An examination of a number of comparison and correlation studies presented in Part B indicates that ASAT scaling of teacher estimates improves the correlation of teacher estimates with the Higher School Certificate examination aggregate scores. Some correlations between ASAT-scaled criteria and HSC aggregates are in the order of 0.9. As is expected some movement away from what was acceptable in 1975 occurred. When examined in the light of the philosophy of school responsibility for curriculum and assessment the procedures adopted certainly facilitate this, while at the same time produce students' results which can be used as confidently as external examination results have been.