This study examined the ant communities of several grasslands of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and their relevance to the pink-tailed legless lizard, Aprasia parapulchella (Pygopodidae). A. parapulchella is a fossorial species that shares burrows with, and eats the brood of, several grassland ant species. Foraging ants were collected from sites by pitfall trapping throughout one calendar year and comparisons of ant communities made between seasons and sites of differing vegetation structure. Competition between ant species for artificial nest sites and the effects of temperature on selection of nest site selection were also studied. The role that ants play in the distribution of A. parapulchella was investigated by (i) comparing ant faunas from several sites throughout the geographic range of the lizard, including sites in New South Wales and Victoria, (ii) performing feeding preference experiments with A. parapulchella, and (iii) investigating the seasonal nature of brood production and nest establishment by ants in ACT grasslands. Major findings were used to make recommendations to assist in the management, including rehabilitation, of A. parapulchella grassland sites. Low insolation appears to significantly affect the ant species composition of grassland sites in the ACT relative to other Australian vegetation types. In the ACT grassland sites, large species of the Dominant Dolichoderinae functional group were absent, or present only in very low numbers. The communities were species-poor relative to other Australian studies with only 60 species being recorded across all sites studied, with no more than 21 species recorded at any site on any sampling occasion. Whilst ant species community structure was highly variable between seasons and sites, more than 95% of ants were from the three functional groups, Dominant Dolichoderinae, Generalized Myrmicinae and Opportunists. The communities were numerically dominated throughout the year by the ubiquitous species groups Iridomyrmex 'rufoniger' and Rhytidoponera 'metallica'. Almost all taxa increased in foraging abundance during summer months and Pheidole spp., Monomorium spp., Crematogaster sp. Paratrechina sp. and Notoncus ectalomoides were occasionally locally abundant. There were no significant relationships between ant and vegetation community structures, but Solenopsis sp. showed an alliance with sites that had a high abundance of Themeda australis (kangaroo grass), whilst Crematogaster sp. and Paratrechina sp. are potential bioindicators of disturbance from grazing or pasture improvement. Iridomyrmex 'rufoniger' were the numerically dominant foraging ants, making up 50% of all captures, but they held only 80% of their nest sites when faced with competition from other species. R. 'metallica' and Pheidole spp. on the other hand, gained 80% more nests than they lost to other taxa. I. 'rufoniger' and R. 'metallica' both preferred nest sites with warmer temperature regimes when given the choice, and this assisted them to tend brood throughout the year. All ant species in ACT grasslands had summer peaks in brood production. Most nests were inactive throughout the cooler months and nest founding was predominantly between September and November. The common species, Iridomyrmex spp., Paratrechina sp. and R. 'metallica' held winged reproductives in their nests from April and all ant taxa had released all alates by mid- November. Although there were differences in ant community structure throughout the range of A. parapulchella, the ubiquitous R. 'metallica' and I. 'rufoniger' were always abundant, whilst again, Dominant Dolichoderinae and associated subordinate taxa were absent or present only in relatively low numbers. The lizards consumed brood from all the common ant species in ACT grasslands and showed preference for consuming brood of, and living with, small Iridomyrmex spp. The range of the small Iridomyrmex spp. preferred by A. parapulchella extends far beyond that of the lizard. Its distribution is apparently not restricted by the range of its ant prey species. For rehabilitation of A. parapulchella sites in the ACT, it is recommended that a significant ground cover of native grasses is established to ensure the low abundance of large and territorial ants from the Dominant Dolichoderinae functional group. Along with a high abundance of shallow surface rocks, this will ensure the establishment of ant communities that are numerically dominated by small Iridomyrmex spp., which are preferred by A. parapulchella for homesite sharing and as a food source.

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.

Since 1977 ten innovatory keyboard laboratories, which enable teachers to utilize group teaching methods in musical instrument instruction, have been set up in A.C.T. educational institutions. Reactions to this innovation have been varied, and its usefulness queried. However, there has been a lack of information and little evidence of systematic research in Australia on this topic, perhaps because there are very few areas outside the A.C.T. where keyboard laboratories are used in schools. The investigation reported here attempted to determine why the innovation spread so rapidly in the A.C.T., the uses to which it was being put, and the kinds of support mechanisms that were necessary to ensure its optimum use. An interview known as the Levels of Use Interview was selected as the main method of collecting data from teachers using keyboard laboratories, and by analysing these interviews in the context of the A.C.T. educational milieu it was possible to predict a future pattern of usage, and recommend appropriate action to be taken by administrators responsible for the organization of A.C.T. education. The findings of the study supported theories that innovations are adopted by members of social networks and that the size of the system and degree of administrative and financial support may positively affect the spread of an innovation. All teachers using keyboard laboratories were convinced of their value, although this perception varied according to factors such as promotional status and recency of teacher training. In addition, the LoU Interview was found to be a highly appropriate tool for a practising classroom teacher to use in an investigation of this kind.

The aim of the Field Study described in this Report was to examine the nature of primary-secondary transition as perceived by students themselves. Twelve students from four A.C.T. primary schools were interviewed prior to their entry to one or other of two high schools, and subsequent interviews were conducted at intervals during the students' first six months in high school. Further information was obtained from interviews with their parents and from formal and informal assessments made by their primary and secondary teachers. To place the trends revealed in the interviews in a wider context, surveys were administered at the beginning and end of the six months' period to all Year 7 students in both high schools. A major emphasis of the Study was an investigation of how students cope with new tasks, social and academic, at a time when there is a potentially stressful conjunction of early adolescence and major educational transition. Such coping is conceptualised as the individual matching his resources against the demands made by a new situation. The initial appraisal by students of the new situation was a general perception of high school as either benign or threatening. The more differentiated, or secondary, appraisal was influenced by further information and experiences; and re-appraisal was characterised, after a further lapse of time, by either a reinforcement or reversal of original perceptions. It was found that upon moving to the more complex institutional setting of high school some students had difficulty in adjusting to a more formal organisation and a more demanding curriculum. The students' response to high school included such coping strategies as hostility, withdrawal or active striving to meet the challenge of a new school. Some students who showed a marked inability to cope with one or more of the tasks, social or academic, of high school were deemed to have experienced adaptive failure. A key factor in adjustment to high school, and one that was at least as important as academic achievement, was that of interpersonal relationships. Success in relating to both teachers and peers was found to be a crucial factor for students, whether bright or less bright, and it was found that students of limited academic achievement could find compensation if they perceived their "person environment" as benign.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a human relations programme for high school students in Years 7, 8 and 9. The programme, based on the course devised by Varenhorst (1976; Appendix B), was run as a non-assessable option for one semester in an A.C.T. high school by the author, who was the counsellor at the school, and a volunteer teacher. Humanistic, behavioural and cognitive methods of implementation were used. As well as trying to achieve more effective interpersonal relations between students, so that they could more successfully relate and resolve differences, a secondary aim was to try to make the counsellor's role a more preventative rather than a largely remedial and crisis-laden one. Twenty-eight students enrolled for the course. Fourteen were assigned to the experimental group and experienced the human relations programme; the fourteen in the control group undertook a variety of other options they had chosen. Both groups completed pre- and postquestionnaires from which quantitative data was gathered. As a check on these quantitative results, post-study qualitative data were also gathered from the experimental group. The course taught verbal and non-verbal communication skills, decision-making and problem-solving skills, particularly in relation to such areas as the peer group, the family and the school. The ethics of helping others experiencing problems in any of these areas was an integral part of the course. iv The study showed that human relations skills can be taught, although the findings were interpreted cautiously because of design and methodological difficulties. The lack of randomisation and reported, rather than behavioural, change per se are two areas which restrict the generalisability of the results. It is suggested that, to achieve more widespread gains, such a course could be incorporated into the existing pastoral care programme of the school in which all teachers and students took part. It is further suggested that, for optimal effectiveness, parents and teachers, as well as students, would need to be aware of, and know how to put into practice, the skills taught in this programme and relate them to interaction generally. A first step was made by the experimenter towards widening the role of the school counsellor away from crisis cases towards prevention of problems. Ideally, the programme could be expanded to include teachers and parents who could, in turn, become human relations educators, thus serving the whole student population. The teaching, learning and practising of skill became the main focus of the programme. Although some peer counselling was involved in assignments, time precluded an experimental study of effectiveness in this applied area. All students but one wanted to proceed with this practical work.

The study described in this report attempted to investigate the area of classroom discipline in the primary school. In particular the objectives were to ascertain the factors which influences teachers' knowledge of discipline procedures and the factors which influence teachers' implementation of discipline procedures. The study first examined discipline policies and practices in Australian schools generally and in Australian Capital Territory government schools in particular. A review of the literature indicated that the area of discipline in the classroom is one which seems to be increasingly important in the range of presage variables under investigation by researchers. Information was obtained from sixty completed questionnaires from primary teachers in eight primary schools. Respondents indicated that they taught over the full range of primary school years/grades. Results suggested that senior management in the schools appeared to have a relatively unimportant role in influencing classroom teachers' discipline programmes. The results indicated that the in-school influences which were perceived as the most influential on both teachers' knowledge of discipline procedures and on teachers' current discipline procedures were a) those connected with pupils and b) factors about the personal preference of teachers. The out-of-school influences which were perceived as the most influential on both teachers' knowledge of discipline and on teachers' current discipline procedures were a) those connected with professional development and b) factors about the intuitions and reactions of teachers. Results in general suggested that some primary teachers may be depending or) outdated information regarding school and classroom discipline programmes. These findings could have important ramifications for teacher training agencies regarding the allocation of resources to the area of school discipline programmes.

This field study is an examination, by a partisan participant observer, of the Neighbourhood Community Centre and its first year of operation as the Co-operative Peoples School, in the ACT government school system. The Neighbourhood Community Centre was a small, alternative, independent school for children from three to eight years of age. The school's philosophy was progressive and its management policies and structures co-operative and non-hierarchical. For two years, parents campaigned to become part of the ACT government school system. In February 1978, the school opened as a government school, with funding and staffing arrangements similar to other schools in the ACT. Soon after incorporation, the distinctive attributes of the Neighbourhood Community Centre began to disappear. Conflict became the dominant characteristic of the new school: the degree, extent and duration were extreme for a group that had asserted a commitment to consensus and co-operation. Two identifiable and, ultimately, irreconciliable parent factions emerged. Three factors were linked in the events of 1978: conflict, ideology and power struggles in a situation of change. These factors do not easily fit into the dominant sociological paradigm, functionalism, as an explanation of the events of 1978, for the concept of power has been, at best, slow to be incorporated into that sociological tradition. Yet the events, to this observer, were linked to a political struggle between competing groups for the domination of the school: power was a major dimension. Only at a superficial level was the conflict ideological. Parent factions concealed a third group, the teachers, who were striving to dominate the school, a domination that was not accepted unequivocally in the new school. Their ultimate success depended not on their coalition with a parent faction, the support of the Schools Office, strategies for isolating criticism and critics and their professional ideology; their success depended on their structural power within the school system which provided resources, support and justification for their position. This analysis endorses sociological theorists who maintain that power, and structural power in particular, is a central concern in organisational life. The failure of the Co-operative Peoples School was linked to the unequal distribution of power within the co-operative.

n/a

This study examines some aspects of the transition of students from high schools to a particular college in the A.C.T. The stimulus for the study arose from the writer's perception of problems being experienced by beginning college students and a concern that these were in part due to the recent restructuring of secondary education in the A.C.T. The study investigated a number of areas affecting the transition experiences of students moving from high schools to Hawker College. A comparative study was undertaken of the various curricula of the feeder high schools and of the College. Instruments were devised to measure student's perceptions of their transition experiences and of their orientation to the College. Interviews were conducted with College and high school teachers, a random selection of parents and some ex-students. The modified American CUES questionnaire used by Whitta in Queensland formed the basis of a study of environmental press in the high schools and College. An analysis was also undertaken of the nature and extent of communication between the high schools and College. Results indicated that for most students the transition to the College was short and relatively smooth, although not without problems. However 10 to 15 per cent of students, particularly those of lower ability and low motivation, were observed to have experienced a difficult and often prolonged transition. Problems for students arose from a sudden increase in the amount of freedom given them, a significant rise in teachers' expectations of their written language skills and their lack of self-organisational skills. On the basis of the findings certain recommendations are made aimed at increasing the communication between teachers in high schools and the College and at improving the orientation of students to the College. Other recommendations are concerned with easing the transition of students, particularly those most likely to experience transition problems.

This study addresses the criticism leveled at A.C.T. Mathematics teachers with regard to their failure to use any other method of teaching than chalk-and-talk. By considering the changed needs of society for mathematics and the changed perceptions by society of education, the criticism is placed in context. The importance of spatial ability for mathematics is examined in the context of theories of cognitive abilities and its current under utilization within the classroom. On the basis of the increased need to utilize more talent the study was designed to operationalise in the classroom the constructs of simultaneous and successive synthesis, derived from Luria's model of brain functioning. The question of gender differences in mathematics achievment and spatial ability is addressed. The possible role of the maturation of language in determining differences in the acquistion of ability to form simultaneous synthesis is briefly discussed. The study was designed to utilize and enhance simultaneous synthesis. By demonstrating an Aptitude-Treatment Interaction it was intended to confirm that students, who function at a high level in simultaneous synthesis but at a low level in successive synthesis, would achieve more with experience with spatial activates than in a more traditional chalk-and-talk classroom. Gender differences in achievement were not found. Gender differences in successive/simultaneous profiles were found in accordance with theory predictions. The need for the duration of longer treatment periods is briefly discussed in the context of funding and the appearance of greater efficiency of traditional teaching methods when the students are functioning at the highest level of symbolic thought.