This study examined the observed effects of horse-riding which took place as an extra-curricula activity within the school day. The three children in the case study were primary aged students from a Canberra primary school who have an intellectual disability requiring high support. The criteria for selection was on the basis of how long they had taken part in the horse-riding programme. The three children were either just about to start or had just started the programme and had no previous experience with horses or horse-riding. The aim of the study was to explore the effects that the horse-riding programme had on the children's behaviour, attitudes and the way they communicated when riding. The children's behaviour was observed in the different settings of the school and the stables environment. Certain individual behaviours were observed and recorded on a weekly basis for an eight week period. Audio-recordings of behaviour took place as well as interviews both before and after the eight week period, from teachers, riding instructors, helpers, and parents. Whilst the case study could not be said to be large enough to be representative of all children with intellectual disabilities attending this horse-riding programme, in general some common themes relating to counselling emerged which corresponded with other studies referred to in the literature. These include positive effects such as a general sense of well-being and a feeling of success whilst being in control of the horse. An emerging empathy and closeness of each child with their particular horse was observed over time, which appeared to lead to increased communication. This took place whilst the children were talking or communicating to the horse or in the presence of the horse.

This study shows that whilst the emergence of school climate as an educational issue of major importance is being recognised in the more recent schooling effects literature, the actual concept remains somewhat elusive and vaguely defined. A severe lack of knowledge and need for study into the area, particularly of primary school climates, is also evident. The actual concept of climate is thus discussed and analysed and evidence in support of the need for its assessment is presented. Past measures used for climate assessment are then reviewed with the aim of selecting an appropriate instrument to identify school climate perceptions of primary school students in this study. Here a new area of school climate information - the quality of school life - was introduced. The Quality of School Life Questionnaire which enabled differentiation between a number of climate dimensions, was selected as being the most appropriate instrument for minor modification and use in this study. The refined version titled School Life was administered to 587 students from 23 classes in 12 A.C.T. primary schools. Data was analysed to provide detailed information concerning students' views of the positive and negative aspects of their school climate. To determine the validity of these results and to strengthen the study as a whole students with very high/very low school climate perceptions were then interviewed. This enabled more detailed discussions of these students' perceptions of school life. Also, it enabled examination of the possibility of employing school counsellor intervention techniques at both the school and personal levels aimed at assisting such students in coping more adequately in their school systems. The results indicate that school climate assessment can provide important information which could be utilized by school counsellors. In this Study, such assessment led to actual identification of the high/low quality areas in school climates and led to identification with reasonable accuracy of individual students not coping in their existent climates. Thus the possibility and the value of school counsellors working towards 'individualizing' school climates through either modifying the actual climate or climate dimension/s to better match student needs, or through employing intervention techniques aimed at helping individual students not coping in their particular school climates is examined and emphasized.

This thesis examines the views of A.C.T. primary school teachers about their work to build a picture of the culture of primary school teacher work of primary schools in the Australian Capital Territory. I define teaching culture to mean the behaviour, work practices, beliefs and possible habits teachers display in their efforts to perform the task of teaching. This description of teaching is possibly similar to what some authors describe as the 'sociology' of teaching (e.g. Barton and Walker, 1981). It is also a reflection of Deal's suggestion that culture describes 'the way things are done around here1 (Deal, 1985:605). In this case the study builds a picture of primary school teacher perceptions of the way things are, the culture of primary school teacher work, in the A.C.T. primary teaching system. The study has been designed to identify key workplace issues which preoccupy A.C.T. primary school teachers now and what they perceive to be the significant issues of the future, that is by the year 2005. The Delphi methodology was chosen to be the means to gather and refine information and perceptions from teachers its ability to clarify and refine issues and because the Delphi has amongst its advantages anonymity for participants and the use of experts in the data gathering. The study found that a high proportion of teachers feel stressed about attending meetings, yet wanting at the same time a say in the running of their school. Other results were that teachers considered they are poorly supported by the wider community and that a significant reward of the job was the interaction with the children. Teachers also believe that instructional methods will be radically different by 2005. The study aims to provide current information about the culture of primary school teacher work to teachers themselves and to present to interested authorities and institutions, such as the Department of Education and Training and The University of Canberra or the Australian Catholic University, recommendations for further research and practice to assist in policy design regarding the work teachers do. Some recommendations to the Department of Education and Training include: · the culture of primary school teacher work should be actively promoted to inform the community of the complexity of teacher work and to attract quality applicants to the profession; · that classroom teachers are resourced, at comparable levels to Public Servants or Departmental officers, with equipment such as computers and furniture; · that consideration be given to providing more inservice opportunities for teachers to pursue during stand-down (school holiday) time. Recommendations made to teacher-training institutions include: · regular research and reviews of teacher-training programs, with particular emphasis placed on beginning teacher needs and competencies and to highlighting areas newly recruited and experienced teachers consider require more training; · the design of comprehensive upgrading programs catering for the needs of newly appointed and experienced teachers.

This study is concerned with school-based staff development. It looks briefly at the reasons for this development, emanating from changes in society and schools. First it traces the growth of school-based staff development overseas and in Australia. A variety of approaches to school-based staff development activities is demonstrated by a selection of case studies in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. The study then examines staff development provisions in the ACT education system, a system based on the philosophy of participatory decision making. It then looks closely, by means of description and questionnaire, at staff development in a particular school in this system, Duffy Primary School. The study concludes with recommendations and a model for staff development in schools. The writer implemented a school-based model of staff development at Duffy Primary School independent of other current theories and practices on school-based staff development. His most recent reading and research outlined in this study have confirmed the basic soundness of the school-based model of staff development.

This study set out to document and compare differences in career paths and career aspirations between women and men primary school teachers in the ACT. The study wished to confirm in the ACT, the kinds of differences between career patterns well documented elsewhere and to go beyond this to an exploration of why these differences persist and the implications of them. A questionnaire with factual items on teachers' career backgrounds and open-ended questions on teachers' attitudes was sent to a random sample of teachers in ACT government primary schools within the four cells made by the two dichotomous criteria of women and men, promoted and non-promoted. Data was tallied, categorized, and despite the small sample, statistically significant differences were found: Women take more and different kinds of leave; women teach the younger children but have greater teaching experience across the grades; in terms of intending to stay in their career, women have a greater commitment to teaching than men. Women are more negative towards promotion and express career ambition in professionally oriented terms, i.e. in terms of children and teaching. Men, particularly those promoted, express career ambitions in extrinsic, promotional terms. Women have high career satisfaction; promoted men are the most dissatisfied. In contrast with promoted men, non-promoted men come from metropolitan areas and have less extrinsic and more child-centred career aspirations. Teachers' attitudes to grades were studied: grades 5/6 were the most sought after for promotional purposes, had the highest status yet were considered to be relatively easy to teach. The early years had least value in promotional terms, lower status and were the most difficult to teach. The system needs to re-appraise definitions and assumptions about teachers' careers in general and women's role as a commited group of professional teachers. Teachers disinterested in conventional career ambitions, most of whom are women, are undervalued while decision-making is in the hands of non-practicioners in male-dominated heirarchical structures.

Over the past six years, a part-time withdrawal-from-mainstream-class enrichment program for gifted and talented children has been operating at the Holt Primary School in the Australian Capital Territory. In keeping with the neighbourhood school policy of the ACT Schools Authority, the program caters only for children within the school and has included those from grades three to six. Based on Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model, the program has a thematic approach which provides opportunities for participants to pursue both group and individual research on topics of interest to them. Identified children remain in the program for as long as possible and some have continued for as long as three years when resources have been available. This Action Research Study by the Co-ordinator of the program describes the setting up, objectives, identification methods, resources and evaluation.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 143-154). Also available in print.

<p>In this text about the mathematics education in a primary school in the Gambia, I am researching what this mathematics education consists of and what surrounding factors might be affecting it. The pupils of the school in question speak several different languages. This language situation is one of the factors considered in the research. A connection between the real life led by the pupils and their mathematics education was a second factor. The third factor is financial resources or the lack thereof. I wanted to see if a lack of sufficient financial resources was visible in forming the education and the teaching of the pupils. The teaching of mathematics in the school seemed to be based on behaviourism, but could perhaps take benefit from the ethnomathematics perspective. Through observations, analyzing documents and an interview, I realized that the government had set ambitious objectives for the teachers to follow, but due to lack of economical resources, as far as my study found, these are not achieved. As ambitious objectives, which are not followed by sufficient funding is an issue not only applicable in Gambian schools and since Sweden is a growing multicultural society, I can use my knowledge from this study in my work in Swedish schools.</p> / MFS - Minor Field Studies

<p>This research investigates and reveals the condition of outdoor education (ODE) in general in two specific countries, Cyprus and Sweden. Some more specific questions that this research tries to answer are:</p><p>· What are some differences in ODE development between Sweden and Cyprus?</p><p>· What are the opinions of teachers in Cyprus and Sweden with respect to ODE?</p><p>· What are the conditions in Swedish and Cypriot schools that affect the development and implementation of ODE in schools? </p><p>· What are some future plans for ODE in Cyprus based on these results?</p><p>For the conduction of this research questionnaires were delivered and filled out from teachers of primary school for each country. The questionnaire was consisted from sixteen questions and includes two types of questions, ordinary scale questions and a combination if ordinary scale question with open type questions.</p><p>The outcomes of the research generally show a positive attitude from behalf of the teachers towards ODE and a bigger acquaintance of Swedish teachers with the subject in compared to Cypriot teachers.</p><p>However teachers seem to have also some reservations towards some issues concerning ODE. The research also reveals the gap in the field of training opportunities-especially in Cyprus, and also the teacher’s belief in the importance of training. The important role of factors like tradition, culture and different educational systems in the two countries concerning ODE is also stress out. Taking in mind the outcomes some comments and suggestions for future plants are discussed. </p>

<p>Syftet med föreliggande studie var att beskriva hur skolsköterskor upplever problematiken kring övervikt/fetma hos barn i låg- och mellanstadiet och att undersöka vilka strategier skolsköterskorna har för att förebygga/hjälpa dessa barn. Ännu ett syfte med studien var att undersöka hur skolsköterskorna ser på samarbetet med föräldrar, lärare och andra skolsköterskor i detta problem. Metoden var att intervjua sju skolsköterskor på låg- och mellanstadiet i två kommuner i Mellansverige. Intervjuerna spelades in på band och transkriberades ordagrant. Meningsbärande enheter plockades ut och materialet kategoriserades och resulterade i tre huvudkategorier och tio subkategorier. Resultatet visade att de sju intervjuade skolsköterskorna ansåg att det är ett problem med övervikt/fetma hos skolbarn. Skolsköterskorna hade inte några särskilda strategier för att förebygga övervikt/fetma och riktlinjerna från skolhälsovården är oklara, men fyra av skolsköterskorna höll på att arbeta fram en förebyggande strategi på egen hand. Alla skolsköterskor hade mer eller mindre en strategi för att hjälpa överviktiga/feta skolbarn genom att prata kost och motion på hälsosamtalen. Fyra av skolsköterskorna hade arbetat fram eget material. Materialet användes sedan för att hjälpa barnen att få ett annat tankesätt och en förändrad livsstil. Alla sju skolsköterskor ansåg att ett fungerande samarbete med föräldrar, lärare och andra skolsköterskor underlättar arbetet med de överviktiga barnen.</p> / <p>The aim of the existing study was to describe how school nurses experience the complex of problems about obesity among primary school and middle school children, also to examine which strategies school nurses use to prevent/help these children. Amongst other aims, this study examines how school nurses experience cooperation with parents, teachers and other school nurses within this area. The method used was to interview seven school nurses in primary school and middle school from two school regions in the middle of Sweden. The interviews were recorded on tape and transcribed in verbatim. Sense bearing units were picked out and the material was categorized, which resulted in three main categories with ten subcategorise. The results showed that the seven interviewed school nurses considered that there is a problem with obesity in school children. The school nurses didn’t have any specific strategies to prevent obesity and the guidelines from the school health board were indistinctive, but four of the school nurses were working on preventive strategies on their own hand. All of the school nurses more or less had a strategy for helping obese school children, by meens of talking about nutrition and fysical exercise in health sessions. Four of the school nurses had created their own material. The material was then used to help the children with another way of thinking and change in lifestyle. All seven school nurses considered that a working cooperation with parents, teachers and other school nurses facilitated the work with the obese children.</p>