It is a well documented fact that primary teachers as a group
are quite lacking in their enthusiasm for science, a subject
of constant concern for those committed to its role as a component
of the primary school curriculum.
In order to test the effects of various treatments on groups of
teachers and pre-service trainees, a 21 item questionnaire was
developed to measure attitudes towards science in the primary
school curriculum, towards improving expertise in the area, and
in the traditional "escientific attitudes and values"e.
A new group of pre-service students provided one group and the
pilot population, students in their final semester of a Diploma in
Teaching programme another group, and teachers attending residential
schools for UG2 conversion and PGl teacher education courses provided
several other groups based on teaching location.
Items were selected from the pilot instrument on their ability
to discriminate between high scoring and low scoring groups
measured with the Mann-Whitney U test.
Analyses in the main survey between groups, were carried out using
Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis one way analysis of variance,
and between items, using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test.
All manipulation and analysis of data was carried out with the
assistance of two computer programs, written in PASCAL by the
author specifically for this study � one for item analysis, the
other, a statistical package for analysing the main survey data.
Findings include 'support for prediction in the literature that
change in education is a slow process, demanding ongoing support
by the system and teacher education institutions, for teachers
committed to the change.
Also, the value of computer support, and advantages of tailoring
a statistical package to the study, rather than the study to
analyses readily accessible, are clearly demonstrated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218746 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Allen, L. R., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright L. R. Allen |
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