In this study an attempt was made to consider the behaviour
of students in a new open-plan High School as a specific example
of an interaction between man and his environment. In the first
two chapters a brief review was made of research and theories
that were thought to be relevant to this.
In the last part of the study a research project which
involved a comparison of 'coping' and 'non-coping' students was
described.
The teaching environment in the chosen High School during
the first term of 1976 appeared to be a 'Progressive - Open
type' of teaching environment. After the first tern it changed
and became increasingly more traditional.
Significant differences in scholastic behaviour between
the two groups of students at the end of the first term indicated
that:-
1. The coping group tended to have a more internal locus of
control than the non-coping group.
2. The students of the coping group tended to plan for
professional careers whereas those of the non-coping group
tended to plan for non-professional careers.
3. On the whole the coping group tended to have realistic
career aims in terms of their general ability.
(ii)
If. The students of the coping group tended to have higher
I.Q. scores than those of the non-coping group.
There were no significant differences between the coping
and non-coping groups in terms of their attitudes towards the
High School nor in terms of the attitudes of their parents.
Both groups of students tended to state that 'doing well
at school' was important to them and to record positive or
neutral attitudes towards the High School for both themselves
and their parents.
Significant differences in behaviour were found between
'internal' and 'external' students that support Rotter's theory
regarding goal values. Internal students who planned for
professional careers tended to be in the coping group whereas
internal students who planned for non-professional careers
tended to be in the non-coping group. In the case of the
'external' students no significant differences were found
between the type of career aims and coning.
The change to a more traditional type of teaching environment
appeared to benefit the 'external' students.
At the end of the third terra there was a significant increase
in the numbers of 'external' students classified as coping,
but in the case of the 'internal' students no significant increase
was found.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219001 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Hewat, Pat, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Pat Hewat |
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