Set. Research Information for Teachers. Number Two 1990

' DOcuMENT RESUME

ED 334 190 SP 033 185

AUTHOR Jeffery, Peter, Ed. TITLE Set. Research Information for Teachers. Number Two 1990. INSTITUTION Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn.; New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Wellington. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 71p.; For a related document, see SP 033 151. AVAILABLE FROMAustralia, SET, Australian Council for Educational Research, Box 210, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122; New Zealand, SET, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Box 3237, Wellington. PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adapted Physical Education; Athletic Equipment; Beginning Teachers; Cost Effectiveness; Critical Viewing; Educational Environment; *Educational Resources; Elementary Secondary Education; Equipment Evaluation; Foreign Countries; Intelligence Tests; Mathematical Enrichment; Metacognition; Nuclear Warfare; *Reference Materials; Sex Fairness; Teaching (Occupation); Te7evision; Weather IDENTIFIERS *Australian Council for Educational Research; *New Zealand Council for Educational Rnsearch

ABSTRACT This set of research materials incorporates information for teachers, principals, students, lecturers, and actively involved parents. Included are leaflets and brief reports designed for private study, staff meetings, inservice courses, or small group discussion. The package contains 15 research studies: "Modified Sports: Kiwi and Aussie" (Velma McClellan, Julie Leibrich, Jennifer Bradshaw, and Jenny Neale); "IQ Tests and Cultural Distance" (James Flynn); "School Climate: Assessing and Improving School Environments" (Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser); "School Level Equipment Questionnaire (SLEQ)" (Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser); "Size, Costs, Curriculum in Secondary Schools" (Phillip McKenzie); "Education and Employment" (Paul Callister); "Good and Bad in Prime Time TV for Kids" (Mark Dewalt); "Girls are Better than Boys?" (Tony Gallagher); "Small Children Solve Big Problems" (Lyn English); "Increasing Meta-learning Part 2: Thinking Books" (Susan Swan and Richard White); "Finding Your First Job: From College to Classroom under New Rules" (Marie Cameron, Lexie Grundoff, Marilyn Gwilliam, Roger Peddie); "Weather and Wickedness" (Bill Badger and Eric O'Hare); "Lessons from Mrs. A. and Mrs. P" (Phillipa Lane); "Teenage Perceptions in a Still Nuclear Age" (Greta Barnhart-Thomson); and "I Only Think of the Men...I Don't Think of the Women" (Adrienne Alton-Lee, Prue Densem, Graham Nuthall). (LL)

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inforaga7ion Letfor teachers number two 1990

set: research information for teachers, is published twice a year by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

General Editor: Llyn Richards Australian Editor: Peter Jeffery Art Editor: John Gillespie

Copyright on all items in this number is held by the New Zealand and Australian Councils for Educational ,Research who grant to all pecple actively engaged in education the right to copy theso items in the interests of better teaching; simply acknowledge the source.

Subscriptions and enquiries to: Australia set ACER Box 210 Hawthorn Victoria 3122

New Zealand set NZCER Box 3237 Wellington

Gi Item 1

number Mv 1990 Research information for everyone interested in Australia education: teachers, Subscriptions from principals, students, lecturers, set actively involved parents... ACER Box 210 Leaflets and brief reports Hawthorn designed for a quick read, Victoria 3122 private study, staff-meetings, inservice courses or small New Zealand group discussions. Subscriptions from Produced twice-yearly try the set New Zealand and Australian NZCER Councils for Educational Box 3237 Research. Wellington

9.Girls are Better than Boys? Tony Gallagher Contents In Northern Ireland they used to assume that boys would catch up to girls at school. But the courts said there was discrimination and treating them differently must stop. Where does that leave us? 1. Contents Sheet Circulate a copy or pin one on the staffroom noticeboard. 10.Small Children Solve Big Problems Lyn English 2.Modified Sports: Kiwi and Aussie 5- and 6-year-olds can solve problems our syllabuses Velma McClellan, Julie Leibrich. Jennifer Bradshaw. assume they cannot. This evidence of abstract thought Jenny Neale and mathematical problem solving strategies should en- Australia had the idea first, New Zealand has seen it take courage everyone to aim high. off: child sized equipment and modified rules develop skills and give great fun. 11 Increasing Mete-learning Part 2: Thinking Books Susan Swan and Richard White 3.la litsts and Cultural Distance Children should learn how to learn. Nowadays we hope James Flynn with comments by John Raven school will teach that, above all else. Here is a second Dutch children do 20% better than their parents on IC1 example of how it can be encouraged; the first was Item Tests, and Japanese in the USA seem to do better than 11 in set No. 1, this year. Americans. But schools don't report a flood of geniuses, exam scores fall. These and other puzzles are addressed. 12. Finding Your First Job: From College to Classroom Under New Rules 4.School Climate: Assessing and Improving School Marie Cameron, Lexie Grundoff, Manlyn Gwilliam, Roger Environments Peddie Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser The way beginning teachers find jobs. or are directed into What gives your school its personality its spirit, its own them. are very different, country to country, state to state. culture? How can you assess school climate, and improve Here a brand new system, at the 'market-forces' end of it? With details and case studies this item introduces the the spectrum, is assessed. next. 13. Weather and Wickedness 5.School Level Equipment Questionnaire (SLEC1) Bill Badger and Eric O'Hare Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser The weather does have an effect on children's (mis)be- This 100 item questionnaire is for you to photo-copy and haviour. Evidence from Britain puts rain, wind and temper- use. It quickly shows which parts of your school's life you ature alongside referral:: for 'time out' and comes up with can change for the better, and checks when you have a predictive formula. done so. 14. Lessons from Mrs A. and Mrs P. 6.Size, Costs, Curriculum in Secondary Schools Phillipa Lane Phillip McKenzie The way infant children learnt some new maths was At what point is a school big enough? Some small sc.iinols matched with the way their teachers taught. The result is provide a better range of subjects than big ones, but tiny some more hints for the struggle of 'how to get it right.' schools will always be expensive to run. 15. Teenage Perceptions in a Still Nuclear Age 7.Education and Employment Greta Barnhart-Thomson Paul Callister with a brief reply by Ivan Snook Five years ago 88 percent of students in an average high A Planning Council economist sees market forces. plus school thought there would be a devastating war in their education, as the only route to well paid. sustainable, full lifetimes. How have perceptions changed? A follow-up employment. Profesr:, Snook says the figures don't back study. up the dogma. 16. 'I Only Think of the Men... IDon't Think of the Women.' 8. Good and Bad in Primo Time TV for Kids Adrienne AttosiLee. Prue Densem, Graham Nuthall Mark Dewatt As they did ordinary class work teacher and children were We can count all the shootings and violence on the TV observed and every word recorded. From this mountain we let our children watch. But what about the good things of data come startling and disturbing facts no one can they see? More counting reveals interesting facts. ignore. set !

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1_ I I HEY WERE PLAYING New Image Rugby. The Kiwi Sport programme is managed by the Hillary ne two teams were real mixes. Girlsand boys, Commission for Recreation and Sport which has a statutory big and small, old hands and learners, able responsibility to encourage the development of recreation Taf.nd not so good. Both sides had players who and sport for the benefit of all New Zealanders. Seventeen were playing "real" netball and "real''rugby at represen-national sports organisations and the Ministry for Educa- tative level outside the school. The children were unques-tion give their support to the Kiwi Sport programme. tionably fit, and the referee (the principal) was not in too Kiwi Sport was designed specifically for children aged bad a condition himself, although he looked somewhat9 to 12. The Hillary Commission hoped to have 30 percent hot and bothered in comparison with the players. Theof all primary schools playing a Kiwi Sport within the first level of skill was very high among both boys and girls. year. This goal was in fact achieved within the first two Chatting with the young players after the game it became months. The first step for a school is to 'Register' for Kiwi- clear that in no way did they see it as inferior to the parent Sport with the Hillary Commission, or for Aussie Sports ;;ame. They described New ImageRugby af... improving with the Australian Sportl Commission in Canberra. Then their skills for their extra-curricula sporting activities, a resource kit of informat.on is sent and arrangement made Mitch, interestingly enough, were not confined to justfor training; a iegular newsletter then arrives, with, for one or two sports.' example, lists of equipment suppliers. In New Zealand One Of our research team made these observations inafter one year there was a registration rate of 70 percent. a provincial city school where 11-and 12-year-olds wereNow it is 90 percent of all primary schools. A 1989 evalu- playing. New Image Rugby is the second most popularation report on the Aussie Sports Program,. reported a 26 Kiwi Sport. percent take-up approximately two and a half years after The most popular Kiwi Sport is Kiwi Cricket. Wefoundthe programme was introduced. This lower take-up has that over three-quarters of all New Zealand primarylittle to do with the quality of the games, nor with differ- schools are playing Kiwi Cricket and very few schoolsences between Australian and New Zealanders' attitudes who had tried it had given it up. Both children and teachers to sport, but everything to do with the fact that there were find the equipment a positive incentive to play; it is colour- fewer programme co-ordinators per child in Australia. ful, easy to use, non-harmful and, most important, dura-Also, statistics do not highlight the existence of man.; ble. The modified :Wes, as in New Image Rugby, as inunofficial Aussie Sports schools which are not formaliy all Aussie Sports and Kiwi Sport, allow children of all sortsregistered but may be following the Aussie Sports pro- to take part with great enjoyment;skills increase all round;gramme, as also happens in New Zealand. children who ar r. excluded from 'real' games because they are too small, or the 'wrong' sex, orunskilful, or uncom- petitive by nature, join in without ruining the game,theyAn evaluation have a lot of fun, and gain in fitness. n July 1989, the Hillary Commissioncontracted an inde- The Kiwi Sport programme was closely modelled on its Ipendent research team to conduct an evaluation of Australian counterpart, Aussie Sports, but adapted andKiwiSport. The study included surveys of randomly- developed for New Zealand conditions. The differencesselected schools registered with the programme and in the sports, the rules, and the equipment arefew butschools not registered, E well as 10 individual case studies the programmes have, in the past, been delivered and of schools using the progromme. There were also surveys promoted in quite different ways. For a primaty schooiof the KiwiSport Regional Co-ordinators and the National population ot 400,000 New Zealand has had 14 Kiwi SportSporting Organisations' KiwiSport Representath es. Regional Co-ordinators. Australia started with only 9Co- ordinators but very recently boosted its full state Ind reg-The School-based Surveys ional staff to 64. In July 1989 New Zealand education was in the first throes of the major administrative changes called 'Tomor.ow's Background Sch,sols'. The research team was aware thathoth principals Kiwi Sport was launched by the Hillary Commissionfor and teachers were experiencing considerable pressure as Recreation and Sport in May 1988. The programme was a result and expected this to lessenthe chances of getting introduced in response to two government reviews. Both replies. The rate of response was, however, exceedingly said young New Zealanders should be encouraged to par-high - 88 percent for the 177 registered schools and 90 ticipate in healthy and educational physicalactivity. Al-percent for the 82 non-registered schools. While the survey though various modified games were taught atthat time was designed to get the best responsepossible, the popu- most were organised on a fairlyad hoc basis. Sport, inlarity of KiwiSport, (even the non-registered schools were the traditional sense of the word, was viewedby some very interested and thinking of registering)undoubtedly educationalists as inappropriate for primary schoolchil-contributed to the high response rate. dren, so younger children's sporting experience was, to a large degree, limited. If they played sport it waslargelyThe schools' response to KiwiSport The because of their parents' judgment and initiative. Feer than 2 percent ot the schools registered w ith the Sports Inquiry Committee in 1985 was concernedthat chil- programme had dropped out. Furthermore,those schools dren were being e icouraged to specialise before getting which had not registered were interested in becoming part any opportunity ti 'try theirhand' at a variety of sports. competitionof the programme, with about half planning to register in It was also worried that unhealthy attitudes to the immediate future. The three main reasons for using were being fostered by 'theugly parent syndrome'. Some example and encourage the programme were parents do indeed set the wrong (1) approval of the philosophy of KiwiSport; poor sporting attitudes;others 'push' their children for selfish reasons rather than for the child's ownenjoyment. (2) familiarity with modified games (the most commonly The primary school setting was seen by theCommitteementioned were New Image Rugby, Kiwi Netball and as the best place to start counteringthe negative features Kiwi Cricket - these Jre now played under the banner of of competitive sport'. KiwiSport; (3) a response to Kiwi Sport promotional activities. a nun ber of sports, particularly Mini Footy (a modified The main reason given for not registering was cost. version of rugby league), Kiwi Golf, Orienteering, and Squash. Who was using KiwiSport? The work of the KiwiSport Regional Co-ordinator in School children, aged 9- to 12-years-old (Standard's 3 to schools Form 2 - Years 4 to 7), were the principal target group at the time of the evaluation. At Standard 3 and 4 levelsThe role of the KiwiSport Regional Co-ordinators is to (Years 4 and 5) virtually all teachers in registered schools promote the programme and to provide training for were using KiwiSpo.t. The number of teachers using teachers. Employed by the Hillary Commission, the Co-or- KiwiSport with children younger than 9 was considerable:dinators have promoted KiwiSport through a series of 34 percent with 5- and 6-year-olds, 58 percent with 7-year-festivals, demonstration and in-service training days. Gen- olds, 86 percent with 8-year-olds. But in Special Classeserally speaking, the Co-ordinators' work in schools was (mainly for the intellectually handicapped) only 41 percentvalued, and their credibility appeared to be high, with were using KiwiSport. schools wanting more of their attention, not less. Of all Forms 1 and 2 (Years 6 and 7) teachers said they used the schools using the programme, two-thirds reported hay- KiwiSport less because of ing had some contact with the Regional Co-ordinators. (1) children's lack of interest in KiwiSport; The majority of teachers (45 percent) were satisfied with the contact they had had, although 30 percent were neither (2) a need to develop their pupil's skills beyond that requir-satisfied nor dissatisfied. Very few were very dissatisfied. ed for KiwiSport; (3) problems that arose when trying to fit KiwiSport in Expectations of the Co-ordinators with inter-school activities; Teachers expected the Regional Co-ordinators to provide (4) the uisuitability of some KiwiSport equipment tor this schools with information about KiwiSport as their main particular age group. task. This meant demonstrating the KiwiSport equipment, providing information about its costs, where to get hold Which KiwiSports were being played in schools? of equipment, ways in which it might be modified to cope Seventeen KiwiSports were available to schools at that with skill progression, and generally giving teachers moral time. These included modified versions of hockey, cricket, support to set-up and maintain their KiwiSport program- rugby, rugby league, soccer, golf, at'iletics, badminton, mes. basketball, tennis, table tennis, netball, softball, trampolin- The second most frequently mentioned expectation was ing, orienteering, volleyball and squash. Kiwi Cricket was for the Co-ordinators to provide teachers with KiwiSport the most popular. training. In fact 73 percent of teachers had received some Is;ew Image Rugby, which ranked second as the mostform of training; 21 percent had not. The majority of played KiwiSport in schools was elso the most frequently teachers (65 percent) were satisfied or very satisfied with dropped. Thirteen percent of the schools which initiallythe KiwiSport training they had teceived. Only 10 percent took it up later stopped playing it. The reasons given bywere dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, but there was a teachers ;or dropping New Image Rugby included strong call for more training. Most suggestions for impro- (1) children not enjoying playing it; ving training were in fact not about the quality of training but asked that the training be more accessible - that there (2) the lack of inter-school competition; be more of it. (3) antagonistic attitudes to the game by local sports club coaches and parents. The use of specialised KiwiSport coaching manuals and The case studies also confirmed that an ambivalent rela-videos tionship exists between traditional rugby and its New Image offspring. While teachers are aware of the game'sSpecialised training manuals and videos have been developed, not by the Hillary Commission but by some of advantages - it is faster, safer, easier to control, develops and improves handling skills, and is fun for both boysthe 17 national sporting organisations ;nvolved in Kiwi Sport. The penetrati.-m of these coaching aids into schools, and girls - many parents, local sport club organisers andhowever, was not high. The greates' number of manuals coaches tend to view New Image Rugby with some dis-and videos are owned by those sehools playing New Image dain. The modified version is seen as a poor substituteRugby- a quarter of the schools have them. Kiwi Cricket for 'the real game'. Some children, particularly the moreand Kiwi Netball coaching manuals and videos were also physically able boys, tend to reflect these adult views. Yet,found in a reasonable proportion of schools. The next in those schools the research team visited it was apparenthighest was Kiwi Orienteering. that the enthusiasm of teachers for the game can overcome negative outside influences. The excellent game described in the introduction, with its fit children and not-quite-so-fitThe main strengths of the Kiwisport programme referee suggests this to be so. Teachers were asked to state the three main strengths of The third most commonly played Ki.viSport was Kiwi KiwiSport. In all, 123 teachers made comments (see the Netball. This game suffers similar problems to those de-bracketed figures). The three most frequently mentioned scribed of New Image Rugby; traditional female sportsconcepts were: are subject to the same negative pressuresapplied to the KiwiSport increases children's participation or involve established male sports. ment in physical activity (52) Overall, the number of KiwiSports played in schools ranged from six to ten. Least popular were Kiwi Tram- It provides a variety of sports, introduces new sports, poline and Mini Badminton (only 4 percent were playing gives a grounding ior other sports while offering time these sports). Cost was the main reason for not using Kiwi to try out various sports before attempting specialisation Trampoline while space was the principal reason for not (52) playing Kiwi Badminton. Lack of expertise to teach a par- The programme is based on skill development and im- ticular sport was the most frequently reported problem in proves the variety or range of skills (40). During the case-studies the children made a lot of posi- calls for a list of suppliers to be sent to schools. Arrange- tive comments about Kiwi Sport. The most common were, ments to rectify this problem have been negotiated be- 'It was great fun', 'Fun', 'Exciting', 'I like it because it's tween the Hillary Commission, the various sports, and a funbecause all of the teams enjoy it and, you know, major sports equipment distributing company. The Com- they're all cheering and enjoying themselves and every- mission hopes this will solve the problem. thing.' One child at a country school provided an answer There were minor grouches from the children about the that sums it up: gear ('The wickets blow over', 'I he ball hurts yourhands') I like any kind of sport... Kiwi Sport gives you the skills and some which were actually the result of poor teaching so you can play the proper game better. (1 hate the talks; I'd rather get into it', 'Kiwi Orienteering is just hunting pieces of paper'). The rules irked some of the better players ('In Kiwi Netball we don't really like The main problems with the KiwiSport programme swapping positions all the time', 'In real rugby you can Teachers were asked to describe the three main problems just pass the ball even if they touch you; I have to keep with the Kiwi Sport programme (117 teachers responded stopping all the time in New Image). However, most of to this question). The three most frequently mentioned the remarks from the children were enthusiastic. categories were: Conclusion Equipment-related: cost and access to equipment, prob- rr he low number of schools that had stopped using lems with equipment storage, maintenance and modify- KiwiSport altogether, and the very few instances ing existing equipment (71) where one particular sport had been discontinued, were Lack of training, information, confidence and expertise taken as positive signs that initial zeal for KiwiSport had among teachers about Kiwi Sport (32) not been stifled, despite teething problems. The over- Limited time available to teachers, a bad year ('Tomor- whelming impression from the surveys was one of en- rows Schools') (22). thusiasm. Both users and providers agree that it is a worth- The cost of Kiwi Sport equipment was seen by teachers while and beneficial modified sports education prog- as a major reason why they did notplay particular Kiwi- ramme. It is generally seen to have increased children's Sports. But when this factor was considered in relation to participation and to have encouraged their skin develop- the size of sr lool, it did not appear to have stopped smaller ment in a variety of sports. Teachers, once trained, find schools from participating in the programme. Equipment the programme easy to teach and, most importantly, child- unavailability was also a deterrent and there were several ren like it.

Notes The authors of this item were all members of the research group, Information concerning the tole of education and sport was taken Social Research Services and can be contacted do 130 Old Porirua Rd, from Ngaio, Wellington 4, New Zealand. The Report of the Sports Development Inquiry Committee, (1985) Sport on the Move, Wellington. For further reading on the sampling, methodology and findings of the Kiwi Sport evaluation see: The review of the New Zealand physical education syllabus can be McClellan, V. ,Leibrich, 1., Bradshaw, J. and Neale, J. (1)89) An found in Evaluation of KiwiSport - 4 Hillary Commission Programme, Wel- Department of Education, (1987) Physical Education Syllabus for lington: Hillary Commission for Recreation and Sport. Junwr Classes to Form 7 with Guidelines fur Early Childhood Education, Wellington: Department of Education. In order to register in the Kiwi Sport Programme a school needs to purchase a Kiwi Sport R.mource Kit which contains a 'how to do it' Following the results of the research outlined in this item the Hillary manual and other acticay-based and promotional accessones. The Commission has placed special emphasis on resourang 'delivery address for the HillarieCommissinn for Recreatwn and Sport is P.O. Box systems to meet the expansion of KiwiSports, now found in 90 2251, Wellington, New Zealand. percent of all New Zealand primary schuols. Special attention has been placed on teacher training. In order to register in the Aussie Sports Program a school needs to write to the Australian Sports Commisswn, P.O.Box 176, Relconnen, Canberra ACT, 2616. Australia. The infrmation concerr..ng the Evaluation of Aussie Sports was Copying Permitted taken from: © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant Clough, J. and Trail!, R. (1989) The 1988 Evaluation ot Aussie Sports, to all people actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the Canberra: The Australian Sports Commission. interests of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source. set fmr

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tAM GOING TO STRESS the limitations of IQ tests these contexts to claim that lQ tests, primarily nonverbal but it would be wrong to think that critics like myself tests like Raven's Progressive Matrices, can measurethe discount these tests entirely. For example, I am going intelligence of nations, and races, and ethnic groups de- o argue that teachers sometimes have toomuch faith spite the cultural distance that separates them. Someof in 'IQ thresholds', the notion that someone with an IQ ofthese claims are now suspect thanks to a new develop- i ment, namely, the phenomenon of massive IQ gains over 110 has only a 50-50 chance of graduating from university, or that someone with an IQ below 125 cannothope to be time. This shows that IQ tests cannot bridge the cultural a doctor or engineer. But still, I would notdeny that some-distance that separates one generation from another and one with a high IQ, who failsfirst year at university, is means that we must re-assess whetherthey can bridge probably performing below his or her ability. other kinds of cultural distance. And it would also be wrong to think that scholars like Young adults in 1980 outscored the young adults of 1950 Jensen, who uses IQ tests to develop a theory of intelli-by about 18 IQ points on Raven's, 15 points on Wechsler- gence, has some sort of blind faith inIQ tests. In fact,Binet tests, and 11 points on purely verbal tests. These Jensen tells teachers to discard group-administered mental trends; hold for every nation for which we have data, four- tests in favour of achievement tests, given after a unit of teen nations originally but now Denmark,Sweden, Brazil, instruction, that tell the teacher exactly what the pupil Israel, Scotland, and perhaps China have joined the list has or had not learned. He goes so far as to say '... it is to make a total of twenty. The best data comefrom the hard to see why a teacher should need to know a pupil's Netherlands and show a 20-point gain on Raven's. Since IQ' and 'I've never bothered to find out my own IQ because there has been no evidence that those with creative genius I don't know what I could do with it if I knew.' And adds, have multiplied by sixty times, no reports by teachers that sensibly enough, that the only way to find out if you can gifted students fill their classrooms, and a decrease rather achieve something is to try to achieve it. than an increase in the number of inventions patented, Having stressed the reservations about IQ tests mostthese IQ gains cannot be identified with gains in intelli- scholars share, I will now focus on limitations that are gence. If we took the Dutch gainsseriously, we would be sometimes overlooked, namely, the limitations cultural dis- forced to conclude that the average Dutchman of today is tance places on IQ tests. I believe that this generation livesat the 90th percentile of intelligencefor his father's gener- in a different cultural climate than the last, and that ethnic atior. Apparently the cultural distance the Netherlands groups like white Americans and Chinese Americanshave travels in thirty years, or even ten years, is enough to very different cultural traditions. Both kindsof cultural negate the correlation between IQ andintelligence. distance have practical implications, but first I want to say Thus far, every attempt to explain the cause ot massive something about theory, about whether IQ tests measure IQ gains has failed. Massive IQ gains have notbeen caused something that deserves to be called intelligence. by altered administration or scoring of tests, examiner laxity or skills, test sophistication, a growingbody of learned items, increased years of schooling,enhanced academic achievement, the new maths, TV or Sesame Street-type IQ and the Generations TV programmes, socioeconomic status gains, urbaniza- ntil recently the Spearman-Jensen theory had a strong tion, fluctuation in family size, selective mating,increased Uclaim to be the most successful theory of intelligence.outbreeding, the rigors of the great depression or World It identifies intelligence with IQ and there is no doubt thatWar Two. Some causal hypotheses thathave been in many contexts IQ does behave in accord with ourintui-suggested are so general they are difficult to falsify.For tions about intelligence. For example, i shows intelligence example, the suggestion that democratic parents and open increasing with age up to maturity and it correlates prettyeducators have been encouraging children tolearn the well with teacher ranking of children for ability and sub-kind of problem-solving skills required by IQ tests.Even sequentacademicachievement. ItestablishesIQ if true, this hypothesis would leave the most Important thresholds for various occupations and these rank occupa-problem unsolved: why do these skills not translateinto tions in accord with how most people rank themwhenreal-world intelligent behaviour? It would also force 'open they think of their cognitive demands and social prestige.educators' to confront this question: what profit is there People who strike us as mentally retarded generally gerin producing massive problem-solving gainsif these pay low IQs and those who seem to have quick or profound so few dividends in creativity,inventions, vocabulary, and minds generally get high IQs. IQ also has a claim to playdo not result even in enhanced academicachievement? some of the causal roles we would ascribe tointelligence,The present situation is truly baffling. It is as if wesud- for example, if two male siblings are differentiated by lQ,denly discovered a dramatic escalation of jugglingskills the one with the higher IQ tends to rise in occupationaland yet, there was no cany-over tosocially significant status while the lower one tends to fall. sportno one seemed to havebetter timing or co-ordina- However, the Spearman-Jensen theory goes beyondtion when playing football or basketball orcricket.

2 14.-U A few years ago. Jenselt claimed that we could compare early 1970s, white Americans had gained over 8 IQ points the intelligence of chickens, with that of dogs, with that which meant that almost all of them, on the old test, were of primates, with that of humans, with that of extra-terrest- now scoring above 70. The percentage below 70 had drop- rials. He envisaged a chain of tests running from the detour ped to about 0.54%. Taking all races, the number of Ameri- problem, through oddity problems, through Raven's Mat- cans eligible to be classified as mentally retarded had drop- rices, to presumably a form of Raven's adopted to extra-ter-ped from 8.8 million to only 2.6 million. The fact that this restrials, which would measure intelligence not only be-went unnoticed by psychofogists proves that they had no tween all human groups but also between species. Today real criterion of how many Americans were truly dysfunc- we know that Raven's Matrices cannot compare the Dutch tional. In 1974, the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children of 1982 with the Dutch of 1972 for intelligence. Until weRevised (WISC-R) was published and the new test, of know what went wrong, comparing the English with the course, dramatically increased the number eligible to be Portugese, Kalahari Bushmen with Polar Eskimos, Mar- classified as mentally retarded overnight. The record is tians with chickens, will have to wait. clear: over the last forty years, psychologists have used many radically different criteria for mental retardation and have no reason to favour one over another. Practical Implications Massive IQ gains have reopened the question of how Massive IQ gains create obsolete norms and obsolete intelligence interacts with age. The orthodox view was norms encourage inflated IQ estimates. For exam- that intelligence (in the sense of mental agility) peaked by ple, even so great a scholar as Vernon in 1982 believed the early 20s, then began a gradual decline which acceler- that Chinese Americans had a mean IQ of 110 on nonverbal ated in old age. However, much of the evidence for this tests and therefore, were well above the white average set hypothesis was from cross-sectional data which compare, at 100. He was misled by studies that used tests with for example, 65-year-old and 20-year-old subjects with obsolete norms, that is, tests normed against whites from both groups tested at the same time. We now know this twenty to thirty years before. Naturally, Chinese Ameri-comparison is invalid. Even if today's 65-year-olds have cans outscore the whites of thirty years ago but they cannot lost no ground since they were 20, they would be outscored outscore the average white of today. Similarly, in New by today's 20-year-olds; after all, the latter have profited Zeaiiincl, prisoners were once thought to have above aver- from forty-five'ears of massive IQ gains, which could age 1Qs but this turned out to be because they were scored mean as much as 30 points on tests like Raven's. Raven against obsolete norms. Score gains on athievement tests and Court have reanalyzed British data and concluded have been much lower than score gains on IQ tests, even that performance on Raven's has not declined between nonexistent. But in America, score gains over time have the ages of 20 and 65. Perhaps those involved in adult been significant on most tests at the primary school level. education need not anticipate reduced mental agility in School officials from systems clearly below average have their students. been known to score their pupils against out-of-date testf, Finally, to return to the American scene, the generational and offer parents the false reassurance that their children data present educators with a new and very puzzling prob- are performing above national norms. In America, the lem: how can we explain the fact that young Americans ludicrous situation has developed where every one of the made niassive IQ gains throughout the very same years fifty states is 'above average' on the six major commercially during which they registered significant losses on the fa- available achievement tests! mous Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)? Most universities use the SAT to choose their entering students. When pi pie take two IQ tests, they usually score higher on the older test simply because its norms are more obsolete and set a standard of performance easier to beat. IQ and Ethnic Groups Therefore, the higher scores do not really signify a better performance. Researchers, unaware of this, are often Chinese and Japanese Americans are often cited as pleased when disadvantaged groups score better than proof that IQ tests can explain why certain etnnic usual on obsolete tests, for example, black or lower-classgroups outachieve others. When asked why Asian Ameri- children. Therefore, they are tempted to hail obsolete tests cans outperform white Americans in academic achieve- as more 5uitable for such children in termsof content, ment, admission to elite universities, and attaining high administration, standardization, establishing rapport, and status occupations. Jensen replied that IQ tests showed so forth. They also want such children to behelped. When that they were smarter. But what if Chinese and Japanese first results from the famous Milwaukee Project showed Americans do not have higher IQs than whites? Then we ghetto black children, who had participated in the Project's would have to look towards non-IQ factors. enrichment programme, with a mean IQ of over 120, the I have reanalyzed the published literature on Asian usual reaction was to take the scores at face value. In fact. American IQ and achievements since 1938. The Coleman the [Qs were grossly inflated because their subjects were Report of 1965 is unique in measuring a representative being scored against norms that suffered from torty years nationwide sample of Chinese and Japanese Americans of obsolescence. against a similar sample of whites. With the white mean IQ gains over time have falsified the assumptions used set at 100 and staru:ard deviation at 15, Chinese and to justify the use of IQ tests to classify people as mentallyJapanese 17- and 18-year-olds scored 100 for nonverbal IQ, retarded. These were: a certain IQ isolates a certain percen-97 for verbal 1Q, and 98.5 overall. Only nine other studies tage of the population at the bottom of the IQ curve; it is have any claim to reliability. three allow us to score sensible to classffy that percentage as mentally retarded,Chinese or Japanese against their white peers and give that is, psychologists can determine that that group is dys-values close to those ot the Coleman Report. The rest functional either at school or in ordinary life. In the lateeither compare'. ;inese or Japanese to substandard 1940s, those below an IQ of 70 were classified as mentally white samples or scored them against test norms any- retarded because an IQ of 70 was thought to isolate thewhere from 10 to 33 years obsolete. When these studies bottom 2.27 percent of white Americans. When the are adjusted, they too confirm the Coleman Report. Vechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) was The high [Qs of Chinese and Japanese Americans are normed in 1947-1948, a WISC IQ of 70 may have isolated an illusion but their outstanding achievement are not an the bottom 2.27 percent of white Americans. But by the illusion. By 1980, Chinese Americans who were 17 or 18 11 in 1965-1966 were 31 to 33 years of age and the censusdeficiencies. Low achievement test scores, poor grades shows that 55 percent of them were in managerial, profes-over a normal high school curriculum, are quite another sional, or technical occupations. The figure for whites was matter. only 34 percent. We know the IQ thresholds whites nor- Note that when calculating who is in the top 50 or 75 mally need to attain to enter these occupations. If we used percent, we must use current white norms. Most IQ tests these to estimate the average IQ of these Chinese fromin actual use have all-races norms and suffer from obsoles- their occupations, we would have to suggest their averagecence and therefore, our values for IQ thresholds must be IQ was 120. So now we have a huge IQ/achievement gap: translated into the equivalent scores on each test. For exam- 120 (estimated IQ) minus 99 (actual IQ) equals 21 points. ple, take the WISC-R: 89.5 on a whites-only scale translates The Japanese American gap is lower at 10 IQ points. It into 92.5 on its all-races scale; eighteen years of obsoles- might be thdtaght that this is because a higher percentagecence adds another 5.5 points, which gives 98.0. So the of Japanese Americans are born in the USA and therefore minimum WISC-R thresholds for high status occupations retainfewerculturaldifferences.Butinterestingly, and elite professions would be about 98 and 108 respec- Japanese Americans born in the USA have the same IQ/ tively. achievement gap as those who came to America with their parents from Japan. And Chinese Americans born in the IQ and Achievement USA have the same gap as those who came from Hong Kong or Taiwan. p may be objected that the example of Chinese and To explain Chinese and Japanese overachievement vis 1 Japanese Americans' achievement has little applicabil- vis whites, we must construct hypotheses out of ethnicity to other groups. For example, blacks have an average differences and two hypotheses best fit the data. First, IQ of 85. Perhaps there is a critical level below which Chinese Americans can be 7 IQ points below whites and non-IQ factors cannot compensate for lower IQ. The yet still achieve the mix of high school grades and SAT achievements of Filipino Americans call this objection into scores that will get them into a university. And similarlyquestion. Three studies put the average IQ of Filipinos those Chinese Americans can also match higher IQ whites resident in America prior to 1970, between 85 and 90. And on those tests that determine entry into graduate schools yet, this group has surpassed whites for occupational and professional schools such as medicine, law, and bus-status, have 94 percent of white income, and have fewer iness. The IQ threshold for whites for entry into high families below the poverty level. status occupations (circa 1980) was 97; for Chinese it was Does IQ mismeasure the potential achievements of about 90. Thus the Chinese Americans had a larger pool ethnic groups only? Not at all. Here is a case that serves of potential achievers. Second, about 80 percent of Chinese as a bridge between ethnicity and gender. Women tend with IQs above 90 actually entered managerial, profes-to be under-represented in mathematics and science and sional, or technical posts. Only 60 percent of whites with Jensen hypothesizes that this is because they do worse on IQs above 97 did. Chinese Americans simply capitalize tests of spatial visualization. The mathematical achieve- on their pool of potential achievers more effectively than ments of Jewish Americans falsify this hypothesis. When white Americans capitalize on their own pool. Collectively normed on non-Jewish whites of the same gex, Jewish these two hypotheses, lower IQ threshold and higher subjects turn a 10-point deficit for visuo-spatial IQ into a capitalization rate, explain why Chinese Americans so oi:t 10-point advantage on mathematics tests. As for occupa- number whites in high status occupations. The Japani.cetion, they outnumber non-Jewish whites as mathemati- advantage can be explained by an IQ threshold 3 pointscians and statisticians by over three to one. Clearly some- below white, and a capitalization rate of 76 percent. thing more complex than IQ is needed to explain female under-representation in mathematics and science. Mean IQ also mismeasures the potential achievements Practical Implications of nations. China and Japan may have a 1- to 5-point IQ here is no doubt IQ thresholds exist for various univer-advantage over white America. Lynn believes the Japanese Tsides, professional schools, and occupations, that is,advantage has played a significant roie in that country's those below a certain IQ have little chance of gaining entry. economic miracle because it 'takes brains to drive Western However, our ethnic data urge caution about adviceand industrialists out of their own markets'. Basiuk sounds a policies based on IQ thresholds. For example, Chinese note of despair: Japan's human material is simply much thresholds are about 7 points lower than white thresholds.better than that available in America. Rushton includes It might seem appropriate to counsel individuals onthethe Chinese: 'the Oriental population of the Pacific Rim basis of their group membership but I think that danger-must be expected to ... outdistance the predominantly ous. How do you know when you areconfronted with aCaucasian population of North America and Western Chinese student with a character structure moretypical Europe'. This kind of concern is misdirected. Rather than of whites, or a white with a character structure more typical worrying about whether Japan or China has an IQ advan- of Chinese? The safest course appears to be to choose thetage, we should be worrying about the non-IQ advantage lowest IQ threshold existent and not give negative adviceAmerican-born Japanese and Chinese enjoy over whites. to anyone at that level or above. These ethnic differences have a potency at least four times To make sure no-one who could succeed isexcluded,as great as any IQ advantage Japan or China may have! no-one from the top 75 percent of thetotal white popula-This massive advantage exists even when cultural differ- tion should be discouraged from aspiring to somehighences are blurred within the United States by shared lan- status occupation such as technician orshop manager orguage, schooling, and media content. Therefore, how nurse, at least not on the basis ofIQ alone. No-one fromgreat may be the di nences cultural factors produce when the top 50 percent should be prevented from aspiring to people are still in their own countries and the differences some elite profession such as physician ornatural scientist.are at full strength? In practical terms this means that those who can hopefor The message of recent research can be put in a few a particular occupation should notbc discouraged fromwords: IQ tests have not vet learned how to bridge certain seeking the relevant academic credentials. A word of warn-kinds of cultural distance; and culture is important. We ing: merely because we should not use IQ todiscouragemust go beyond,IQ if we want a real understanding of aspirants does not mean we can ignore provenacademicgroup over-achievement and group under-achievement. Comment on IQ Tests and Cultural Distance

John Raven Edinburgh

Dr John Raven, whose manual on the Raven's Progressivethe given, to see meaning in confusion, to form high level Matrices (the major non-verbal IQ test) is mentioned(largely non-verbal) constructs which make it easy to hand- above, was asked to comment on Professor Flynn's item.le complex information. Now isn't it interesting that such He did so as follows: abilities should be increasing most when it is precisely these abilities on which modern society is most dependent! Professor Flynn's article is basically correct. This helps demonstrate the importance of measuring separately these two, theoretically separable, components (a) Educators have over-claimed the benefits of education credentials have NO validity outside theof what Spearman called 'g'. He saw 'g' as being made - educational up of two quite different types of ability - 'repro-ductive' educational system. To be more precise, the number of years 'success' in life, but and 'e-ductive' - which were very different but worked you have been educated predict your closely together. What Professor Flynn (in line with my the quality of the educational awards (which we spend sowork) has done is vindicate that point of view: we have much time trying to enhance and assess), at any terminal shown that these two abilities do have different genetic level, does not. (b) Psychologists have over-claimed about IQ - it accounts and environmental pedigrees; they have different causes; and they have different consequences. for only about 10% of the variance in performance outside (g) The differences over time and the ethnic/cultural differ- the educational system. ad-ences help elucidate the very research questions the tests (c) Psychologists and educators have utterly failed to were developed to try to elucidate. What emerges isthat dress the kind of motivational variables the importance the most plausible explanation of the increases in IQ over of which Flynn has highlighted. It is vital to find ways oftime and the ethnic/cultural differences is that they are getting a better fix on the motivational variables which due to the same variables as the similar changes in height, contribute so much to differences in performance. (d) Professor Flynn does fail to note that many otherbirth weight and infant mortality, that is, to nutrition, welfare and hygiene. abilities and physical attributes have increased dramati- Ravens Progressive Matrices were dosigned for use in cally - Japanese are getting taller, as Europeans have since a study of the genetic and environmental determinantsof Elizabethan times, and there is a continuous increase in mental abilities and defects. What Professor Flynn has the breaking of athletic records. Height increases are im-shown is a previously unsuspected effect of the ENVIRON- portant because they overturn the argument that measures MENT. And what the data as a whole show is that the which increase over time and yield sex and ethnic differ- relevant features of the environment are NOT educational: ences (as IQ measures do) are invalid. dramatic The improvement in athletic records specifically con-one of the notable things associated with this tradicts Professor Flynn's claim in the main article. Also increase over time is that there is a remarkable cross-cul- other intellectual changes have taken place; for example, tural stability in the norms obtained from societies with a the literary tradition at any point in time, for example in China, the number of books published has increased and Australia, New Zealand, East and West Germany, Czechos- complexity of ideas that people have to deal with routinely clear why the lovakia. at work has increased over time. It is not (h) Professor Flynn initially argued that these damn fool number of patents filed has not increased but theexplana- tests were useless for making cross-cuitural comparisons. tion could be the same as ;lily there are no moreOlympic gold medalists than 20 years ago despite the fact that the What he is now, de facto, doing is using these tests to show that as far as these abilities are concerned, there are no differ- performances required togain them have increasedences ... a finding which he now considers to be very dramatically - that is, one criterion may in effect be norm important! He therefore seeks the explanation of the gross referenced while the other is criterion referenced. (e) The fact that height has increased dramatically over visible difference elsewhere. time despite sex and ethnic differences in no wayinvali- Professor Flynn's work is basically sound; his cautions dates rulers as measures of height. are extremely important; and the voidin understanding (0 Not ALL abilities have been going up,for example the components of competence rightlycriminalises vocabulary test scores are static. This is also true for other psychologists and educators. But his work validates, rather 'reproductive' measures, that is those concerned with re-than calls in question, the basic theoretical principles producing facts.It is 'eductive' abilities that have been which guided the development of the tests and helps to increasing fastest. These are the abilities to 'squeeze mean- answer the very questions they weredeveloped to try to ing out of', to form creative new insights, to gobeyond answer.

5 Notes James Flynn is Professor of Political Science at the University The Coleman Report is Drof Otago, Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand. He has published Coleman, J.S. et al. (1966) Equality of Educational Opportunity. extensively on problems with IQ as a measure of difference between Washington DC: US Office of Education. races and groups. Some of his papers are mentioned later, others and include debate with Jensen, Lynn and Rushton on the suggestion Coleman, J.S. et al. (1966) Equality of Educational Opportunity, Sup- that some races me less intelligent than others, for example, plemental Appendix, Section 9, 10, Correlation Tables. Washington Flynn, J.R. (1980) Race, IQ and Jensen. London: Rout ledge. DC: US Office of Education. Flynn, J.R. (1988) Japanese intelligence simply fades away. The Psychologist, Vol. 1, pp. 348-350. The analysis of Filipino Americans' and Jewish Americans' IQ and Flynn, J.R. (1989) Rushton, evolution and race. The Psychologist, achievement is in an unpublished paper available from the author. Vol. 2, pp. 363-366. Flynn, J.R. (1989) Asian Americans: IQ, Genes, and Achievement. Unpublished manuscript. Jensen's views on the use and abuse of IQ tests and on the Spearman- Jensen theory of intelligence can be found in The papers attributing Japanese and Chinese success to greater intel- Jensen, A.R. (1981) Straight Talk about Mental Tests. New Yor'c: The ligence are Free Press. Lynn, R. (1987) 'Japan: Land of the rising IQ. A reply to Flynn'. Jensen, A.R. (1980) Bias in Mental Testing (Chapters 4 and 6). Lon- Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, Vol. 40, pp. 464-468. don: Methuen. See pages 175-182 and 247-248 for Jensen on and measuring the intelligence of animals, humans, and extra-terrest- Basiuk, V. (1984) 'Security recedes'. Foreign PI hey, Vol. 53, pp. rials. 49-73. That young adults in 1980 outscored young adults of 1950, and the and consequences from the international figures on gains, can be found in Flynn, J.R. (1987) 'Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests Rushton. J.P. (1989) Evolutionary biology and heritable traits: with really measure'. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 171-191. reference to Oriental-white-black differences. Paper presented at the Causal hypotheses on why there are such huge IQ gains over time Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, USA. can be found in Raven, J. and Court, J.H. (1989) Manual for Raven's Progressive Vernon's belief in the higher IQ of Chinese Americans can be found in Matrices and Vxabulary Scales. Research Supplement No. 4. London: Vernon, P.E. (1982) The Abilities and Achievements of Orientals in Lewis. North America. New York: Academic Press. The facts and conclusions about IQ changes over time and classifica- That New Zealand prisoners were once thought to be more intelligent tion of ?eople as mentally retarded can be found more fully detailed in can be found explained in Flynn, J.R. (1985) 'Wechsler intelligence tests: Do we really have Burgon, J.R. (1987) Report on the use. of the Standard Progressive a criterion of mental retardation?'. American Journalof Mental Defi- Matrices with nude CotrealVe trainees. Unpublished report, Wel- ciency, Vol. 90, pp. 236-244. lington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Comparisons of the WISC-R and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence There has been a great deal of discussion of the results which show Scale Revised (WAIS-R) reveal that the latter is 7.5 IQ points more every state of the USA 'above average' for academicachievement. lenient at the level of mental retardation (Spitz, 1989). Since these An excellent discussion of how this came about is in two tests weie normed at about the same time, this gross discrepancy Connell, J.J. (1988) Nationally nortned elementary achievement testing national cannot be due to IQ gains over time but probably reveals sampling in America's public sciwols: How all fifty states are above the available from error (Flynn's comment). average. Unpublished Paper, Friends for Education, Spitz, H.H. (1989) 'Variations in Wechsler interscale IQ disparities J.R. Flynn, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. at different levels of IQ'. Intelligence, Vol. 13, pp. 157-167. The reaction to the Milwaukee Project is exemplified by that in The orthodox view that intelligence peaks in our 20s can be found Clarke, A.D. (1973) 'The prevention of subcultural subnormality: Problems and prospects'. British Journal of Mental Subnormality, in Jensen (1980) mentioned above. Vol. 19, pp. 7-20. The re-analysis of British data by Raven and Court can be found in their manual mentioned above. and and Kagan, I. (1974) Child Development The puzzling problem of IQ gains and SAT losses is discussed in Mussen, P.H., Conger, and Personality, 4th ed. New York: Harper and Row. Flynn, J.R. (1984) 'The mean IQ of Amencans: Massive gains 1912 to 1978'. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 95, pp. 29-51. and Flynn, J.R. (1987) 'Maszave IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ test really measure' 5. Psychological Bullet.n, Vol. 101, pp. 171-191. The author's re-analysis of literature on Asian American IQ and Copying Permitted achievement since 1938 is in Copy.ight on this item is held by NZCER and ACER which grant the J.,R. (1989) Asian Atnericans: IQ, Genes, and Achievement. to all people actively engaged in education the nght to copy it in Unpublished manuscript. interests of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source.

6 Item 4 SeitNill""""1181148114;M number two 1990 SCHOOL CUMATE Assessing and Improving School Environments Darrell Fisher Tasmanian State Institute otTechnology and Barry Fraser Curtin University ot Technology

mogether with curriculum, resources, and leader- school environment, such as relationships among teachers ship, school environment (or climate) makes a and between teachers and students and the organisational ajor contribution to the effectiveness of a school. structure; it would also need dimensions to cover Moos's TThe environment is a set of factors which 'gives three general categoriesRelationship; Personal Develop- each school a personality, a spirit, a culture'. Therefore, ment; System Maintenance and System Change attention to school environment can contribute to school To make sure that the new instrument was valid we improvement. needed extensive interviews with teachers to ensure that However, there are few 'paper and penal' ways of check- dimensions and individual items covered what teachers ing your own school and few case studies ot teachers' saw as salient, and that only material which was specifi- successful attempts to improve school environments. This cally relevant to the school was included. In developing Net item, and the next, help fill those gaps. In Australia a the SLEQ, an attempt vas made to achieve economy by paper and pencil 'instrument' has been developed, tried, having a relatively smau number of reliable scales, each and refined. This item has some of the theory and an containing a fairly small number of items. interesting case study. The next item is the 'instrument' With these criteria in mind a seven-scale instrument was itself, the School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). developed. Two scales measure the Relationship Dimen- You may copy it and use it. The authors will be most sions (Student Support, Affiliation), one measures the Per- interested in any results and comments that arise from its sonal Development Dimension (Professional Interest) and use. four measure System Maintenance and System Change Dimensions (Staff Freedom, Participatory Decision Mak- .og, Innovation, and Resource Adequecy). To complete Theory the view of the school environment, a scale named Work The Assessment of School Environment Pressure has been added recently, making an eighth. Table 1 shows the nature of the SLEQ and provides chool environment instruments have been developed information about the method and direction of scoring. Sbefore, and go back to at least 1958. However most An interesting feature of the SLEQ is that it has two of them are awkward to use and do not have a clear basic questionnaires. One asks about the way things are at pre- theory. Moos in the early 1970s worked in a variety of sent (Actual Form), the other asks how you would prefer environments including hospital wards, school class- things to be (Preferred Form). Items in the two forms are rooms, prisons, military companies, university residences worded almost identically. An item such as 'Teachers are and 'ordinary' workplaces. He found three diverse psycho- encouraged to be innovative in this school' in the Actual social dimensions in these environments. Form is changed to 'Teachers would be encouraged to be (1) Relationship Dimensions (e.g., peer support) which iden- innovative in the school' in the Preferred Form. tify the nature and intensity of personal relationships and assess the extent to which people are involved, and sup- Validitti of the SLEQ port and help each other. \stolidity data are available for the SLEQ for three samples (2) Personal Development Dimensions (e.g., professional in- and these are given in Table 2. An analysis shows that terest) which assess the basic directions along which per- each scale shows satisfactory internal consistency reliabil- sonal growth and self-enhancement tend to occur. ity, there is satisfactory scale independence and the SLEQ (3) Sustem Maintenance am! System Change Dimensions (e.g., measures distinct aspects of school environment. The de- innovation) which is the extent to which the environment tails of this analysis are in the notes section at the end of is orderly, clear in expectations, maintains control and is this item. responsive to change. Moos developed a questionnaire about work environ- Improving School Environments ments and we found that it could be easily adapted for schools. rrhe method we have successfully tried is based on techniques used with success in the past for improving Development of the SLEQ classroom-level environments and for improving psychiat- We realised that a new environment questionnaire would ric hospital wards, family therapy groups, law enforce- need dimensions to characterise important aspects in the ment agencies and alcoholism treatment programmes. Table 1: Description of Scales in the SLEQ and their Classification According to Moos's Scheme

Scale Name Descriptior of Scale Sample Item Moos's General Category Student Support There is good rapport There are many disruptive. Relationship between teachers and difficult students in the students and students school. (-) behave in a responsible self-disciplined manner. Affiliation Teachers can obtain I feel that I could rely assistance, advice and on my colleagues for encouragement and are assistance if I should need made to feel accepted it.(+) by colleagues.

Professional Interest Teachers discuss Teadters frequently discuss Personal Development professional matters, teaching methods and or Goal Orientation show interest in their work strategies with each other. and seek further professional (+) development.

Staff Freedom Teachers are free of set rules, lam often supervised to System Maintenance guidelines and procedures, ensure that I follow and System Change and of supervision to ensure directions correctly. () rule compliance. Participatory Decision Teachers have the Teachers are frequently Making opportunity to participate asked to participate in in decision making. decisions concerning administrative policies and procedures. ( Innovation The school is in favour of Teachers are encouraged to planned change and be innovative in this school. experimentation, and fosters ( + ) individualisation. Resource Adequacy Support personnel, facilities, finance, equipment and resources are suitable and The supply of equipment and adequate resources is inadequate. (-) Work Pressure The extent to which work Teachers have to work long pressure dominates the hours to keep up with the school environment. workload. ( +)

Items designated (+) are scored by allo..ating 5, 4. 3, 2, 1, respectively, for the responses Strongly Agree, Agree, Not Sure, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. Items designed (-) are scored in the reverse manner. Omitted or Invalid responses are given a score of 3.

Table 2: Reliability (Alpha Coefficient) and Scale Independence (Mean Correlation of Scale wit), other Scale's) tor each SLEQ Scale for Three Sample's

Scale Number Form Alpha Reliability Mean Correktion with Other of Items Scales Sample Sample Sample Samp1e Sample Sample

1 2 3 1 2 3

Student Support 7 Actual 0.70 0.79 0.85 0.19 0.19 0.10 Pref 0.81 0.31

Affiliation 7 Ali!: I 0.8/ 0.85 0.84 0.34 0.18 0.38 0 77 0.42

Professional 7 Actual 0.86 0.81 0 81 0.29 0.29 0.36 Interest Pret 0.77 0.43 Staff Freedom 7 Actual 0.73 0.68 0 64 0.31 0.05 0.30 Net 0 76 0.30 Participatory 7 Actual 0.80 0.69 0.82 0.34 0.22 0.34 Decision Making Pref 0.74 0.28 Innovation 7 Actual 0.84 0.78 0.81 0.38 0.22 0.42 Pref 0.77 0.31

Resource 7 Actual 0.81 0.80 0.65 0.22 0.19 0.35 AdequaLy Pref 0.64 0 44

Sample Size 83 34 109 83 34 109 19 34 f0 19 34 10

Note: No validity data for the new Work Pressure Scale are yet available. This involves the following fundamental steps: Figure 1: 1. Assessment. Teachers answer the qiiestionnaire, both Profiles of Mean School Environment Scores on the SLEQ the Actual and the Preferred Forms. 2.Feedback. The answers are scored and the results summarised as profiles of mean school scores. These profiles are a useful way of depicting data. The teachers 32 then consider the information they give. 3.Rflecticm and discussion. Private reflection and discussion with peers and/or the researchers about the profiles then follows. The crucial decisions are next made about which, if any, of the aspects of their school, 20 revealed by the profiles, they will try to change. 4.Intervention. The teachers introduce various strategies, typically over a period of several months, aii-ed at (.. ----- improving the specific aspects (dimensions) of school , environment they have chosen. Usually ideas arise during meetings of teachers and from examining indi vidual items in the questionnaire. Most of these ideas are specific to each school and are quite different school from school. Pighte 14 Preferred 5.Reassessment. The Actual Form is answered again at Post-ten Actual the end of the intervention period. Pre-ten Actual

A Case Study String AffiliationF10.1111111041ii SIM Participatory immobile Resource PtOTII %WW1 logien. Freedom Maslen Adequacy Pressure Recently the new form of the SLEQ, including the Work Making Pressure scale, was used in a 15-teacher primary school. SLEQ Scales Following the steps. all the teachers filled in the questionnaire, both Actual and Preferred Forms. Average scale scores were calculated and the profiles were given to the staff. The results, the pre-test lines, are shown in Figure 1 in Table 3: the form in which they were presented to a meeting of Priorities for Action in improving School Enzuronment the school. Although there were sizable differences between Actual and Preferred scores on a number of dimensions, the areas the staff saw as needing immediate im-Resource Adequacy Conduct a survey of resources in provement were Resource Adequacy, Work Pressure and the school Innovation. Other dimensions were to be targets for a Develop a plan of attack: second round of change attempts. immediate, intermediary and long Next, the staff was divided randomly into small groups term to discuss the three areas named above. These groups Check and repair already existing were asked to consider those and to make suggestions for equipment improvement. The groups then were called together and group session leaders presented a report to the whole Develop a plan for increased staff.Points were discussed at some length and the sharing of resources priorities for action listed in Table 3 were accepted. Innovation Conduct staff meetings in For 10 weeks the actions listed in Table 3 were attempted. individual classrooms. These At the end of this time, the Actual form of the SLEQ was meetings should be rotated answered by the teachers for a second time. Had there between elementary aild infant been any changes? The results of this assessment are also rooms. Time should be given for the in Figure 1, the post-test line. class teacher to comment on Sizable changes did occur in two of the priority areas. organisation, display, problems, Resource Adequacy increased 2.5 raw score points (about etc. two-thirds of a standard deviation) and Innovation in- Free teachers with particular skills creased 1.7 raw score points (about half a standard devia- to help in other rooms (drama, tion). The use of t-tests for dependent samples revealed computers, science) that each of these differences was statistically significant (p<0.05). Adopt a whole-school theme However, the level of Work Pressure did not change. Attempt to 'spot the innovator' Nevertheless the staff was still pleased with the results, (particularly by senior staff) which indicated that the concentrated effort in the otherWork Pressure Have fewer staff meetings two areas they had chosen had been worthwhile. Use recess breaks for minor Conclusion discussions Draw on the community for We have reported the development and use of the assistance with coaching sporting School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). teams The SLEQ is consistent with the theorv of envirommnt improvement, makes good sense to practising teachers, Provide opportunities for is specifically relevant to schools, has minirmi overlap discussion about meeting the with classroom environment scales and is verv economic. individual needs of children 3 1 ; Each SLEQ scale has adequate reliability and scale inde- The SLEQ is likely to provide a useful source of criteria pendence. Already the SLEQ has been found useful in in the evaluation of innovative or alternative educational investigating differences between the climates of primary provision0 le.g., does the school environment change fol- and secondary schools and teachers have used it to identify lowing the implementation of a new curriculum). actions to improve their school environment. It works. Through instruments such as the SLEQ, it is possible ltis hoped that educational researchers as well as to tap important but subtle aspects of teachers' profes- teachers will make use of the SLEQ - it is widely applicable sional lives (e.g., Staff Freedom, Professional Interest, Af- and has been extensively validated. There are school level filiation, Innovation and Work Pressure). environment projects to be undertaken similar to those Assessments of actual and preferred school environ- previously completed for classroom-level environment. ments, as seen through the eyes of teachers themselves, For example, assessments involving the SLEQ could form will perhaps some day provide a useful foundation on the basis for studies of the effects of the school environ- which teachers can base attempts to improve the quality ment on job satisfaction or student achievement or morale. of their school settings and professional lives. Notes Dr Darrell L. Fisher is Principal Lecturer and Head of the Department The ValidiN of the SLEQ: of Adult Learning and Post-graduate Studies at the Tasmanian State The validity data (see Table 2) include information about each scale's Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 1214. Launceston. Fasmania 7250. internal consistency (Cronbach alpha reliability) and discriminant Australia. validity (mean correlation of a scale with the other seven scales). The Dr Barry J. Fraser is Professor and Director of the Science and first sample in Table 2 consisted of 83 teachers from 19 coeducational Mathematics Education Centre at Curtin University of Technology, government schools (seven elementary and 12 secondary) in the Syd- G.P.O. Box U1987, Perth 6001, Western Australia. ney metropolitan area. The second sample consisted of 34 secondary That environment makes a major contribution to the effectiveness of school teachers, each in a different government high school in New a school is well documented in South Wales. The third sample consisted of 109 teachers in 10 elemen- Creemers. B., Peters, T. and Reynolds, D. (eds.) (1989) Sell al tary and secondary schools in Tasmania. The teachers in the third Effectiveness and School Improvement. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swcts sample are the only ones who responded to the Preferred Form as and Seitlinger. well as to the Actual Form of the SLEQ. lt should be noted that the recently added Work Pressure scale (based on a scale in the WES) The quotation defining environment is from was not in the form of the questionnaire which was administered to Tye, K.A. (1974) The culture ot the school. In Goodlad, 1.1.. Klein, these samples; hence no statistics for this scale are included in Table 2. M.E. Novotney, J.M. and Tye, K.A. (eds.) Toward a Mankind School. table 2 shows that the reliability (alpha coefficient) for different An Adventure in Humanistic Education. New York: McGraw-Hill. SLEQ scales ranged from 0.70 to 0.91 for the first sample, from 0.68 The work of R.H. Moos in the early 70s can be found in to 0.91 for the second sample, from 0.64 to 0.85 for the actual form Moos, R.H. (1974) The Social Climate Scales: An Overview. Palo Alto, for the third sample. and from 0.64 to 0.81 for the preferred form for CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. the third sample. nese values suggest that each SLEQ scale displays and satisfactory internal consistency reliability for a scale composed of only seven items. The values of the mean correlation of a scale with Moos. R.H. (1981) Manual for Work Environment Scale. Palo Alto, the other scales shown in Table 2 range from 0.17 to 0.38 for the first CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. sample; from 0.05 to 0.29 for the second sample; from 0.10 to 0.42 Examples of earlier school environment instruments include for the Actual Form for the third sample; and from 0.28 to 0.44 for College Chanxteristics Index (CC1), which measures student and the Preferred Form for the third sample. These values indicate satisfac- staff perceptions of 30 environment characteristics. See: Pace, C.R. tory scale independence and suggest that the SLEQ measures distinct and Stern, G.G. (1958) An approach to the measurement of although somewhat overlapping aspects of school environment. psychological characteristics of college environments. Journal of Educa:ional Psychology, Vol. 49. pp. 269-77. linprerving Sclurol Environments: and The successful techniques used for improving classroom-level envi- High School Characteristics Index (HSC1) which is an adaption mnment are described in of the CC1. See: Fraser, 134. (1981) Using environmental assessments to make better Stern, G.G (1970) People in Context: Measuring Person.Environment classrooms. Journal ot Curriculum Studies, Vol. 13, pp. 131-44. Congruence in Education and Industry. New York: Wiley. and and Fraser, B./. and Fisher D.L. (1986) Using short forms ot classroom Organisational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) is a climate instruments to assess and improve classroom psychosocial widely used instrument. See: environment. Journal ot Research in Science Daching, Vol. 23. pp. Halpin, A.W. and Croft, D.B. (1963) Organizational CInnate ot 387-413. Schools. Chicago: Midwest Administration Centre, University of The techniques in psychiatric wards etc.. are mentioned in R.14. Chicago. Moos' 1974 work mentioned above. the Work Environment Scale (WES) developed bv Moos was designed CO111:111S1011. tor use in any work milieu rather than tor use specifically in schools. However, the WES's 10 dimensions appear well suited to describing A summary of classroom-level climate research is found in salient features of the teacher's school environment and have been Fraser, 13.1. (1989) Twenty years in classroom climate research: modified for use in schools in our previous research. The word Progress and prospect. Journal ot Curninlion Studies. Vol. 21, pp. 'people' was changed to 'teachers', the word 'supervisor' was 307-327. changed to 'senior staff' and the word 'employee' was changed to Work on how school environment changes tollowing the introduction 'teacher'. ot new curnculum can be tound in See: Fraser. 13.1., and Tobin, K.G. (1987) Evaluating Fraser, B.f., Docker, J.D. and Fisher, D.L. (1988) Assessing and alternative high schools in terms ot their classroom environments. improving school climate. Loaluation and Research inEducation. Vol. Studies in Educational Evaluation, Vol. 13. pp. 211-17. 2, No. 3. pp. 109-122. Teachers might use the SLEQ to assess their perceptions ot actual and and preferred school work environments as a basis tor discussion of improvements in their school work settings which would reduce Docker. /,Fisher, D.l.. and Fraser. 111. (1989) Differences in the psychosoc1a1 work environment ot different types ot schools. jour- ,wtual-preterred differences. See Fraser, Docker and Fisher mentioned nal of Childhood Education, Vol. 4, pp. 5-17. above. The Develo:pment of the SLEQ: What the new environment questionnaire would need was first documented in Copying Pennttted Rentoul. A.J. and Fraser, B.J. (1983) Development ot a school-level © Copyright on this item is held bv NZCER and ACER who grant environment questionnaire. Journal of Educational Administration. to all people actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the Vol. 21. pp. 21-39. interests of better teaching; just acknowledge the source.

4 10 POINNuth mfarnaw Item 5 [setSW Maws SLEO number two 1990 School-Level Environment Questionnaire Devnloped by Dr Darrell Fisher Tasmanian State Institute of Technology and Professor Barry Fraser Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.

Example 1.Using and scoring the SLEQ Scoring 2. Actual Form Signscore 3. Preferred Form 1. SD --a.) N A SA - 4 2. SD D N Z2'). SA 2 4. Score Sheet 3. SD D N A MK) + 5 4. M) 0 N A SA 5 Using and scoring the SLEO and so on. he scoring procedure is the same for both Forms, Actual Agreggating scoresfor one teacher Tand Preferred. Student Support Question no. 1 9 17 2F33 41 49 Total The items are arranged in cyclic order: the first item meas- Score 4 3 1 2 5 3 2 20 ures Student Support, the second measures Affiliation, the Affiliation third Professional Interest.., up to the eighth, Work Pressure. Question no. 2 10 18 26344250 Total The ninth measures Student Support (again); the tenth Affili- Score 2 3 2 2 1 2 3 15 ation (again); and so on. and so on. Some items are scored in this direction: 5 for Strongly Aggregating scoresfor whole staff (of 5) Agree, 4 for Agree, 3 for Neither Agree nor Disagree, 1 for Student Support 20+ 21+ 30+ 15+ 10=96 Strongly Disagree. These items are marked plus (+) in the Affiliation 1.5+ 28+ 24+ 30+ 20=117 chart below. and so on.

Some items are scored in the opposite direction:1 for Averaging staff score Strongly Agree, 2 for Agree, 3 for Neither Agree nor Disagree, Student Support 96 divided by 5 = 19.2 4 for Disagree, 5 for Strongly Disagree. These items are Affiliation 117 divided by 5 = 23.4 marked minus (-) in the chart below. and so on. Omitted or invalid responses are given a score of 3. Graphing (Staff Profile) 1. Give a score to each question, using the chart to work out which score to give. 30t 23.4 2.Add across the rows. X 3.Add total staff scores across the rows. 4.Averaje the staff scores across the rows. 19 2 20 - X 5.Make a graph (profile) of the results. Scoring School Level Environment Questionnaire 10 - Scale Items and Scoring Direction 11110 Student Support 1-,9+,17+,25-,33+,41+,49-. Student Affiliation Professinnai Support Interest Affiliation 2-,10+,18-,26+,34-,42+,50-. Copying Professional Interest3 +, II-. 19-,27+,35-,43+,51+. You may copy and use the SLEQ in your school. The authors Staff Freedom 4-,12+.20,.28 + ,36+,44-,52 -. will be most interested in any results and comments that arise from its use. Compondence to Dr Darrell Fisher, Department Participatory 5-,13-,21+, 29+,37+,45-,53-. Decision Making of Adult Learning and Post-Graduate Study, Tasmanian State Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 1214, Launceston, Tasmania, 30+,38-,46+,54+. Innovation 6-,14+,22-, Australia, 7250. Resource Adequacy7+,15 -,23+,31+,39-,47-,55+, Copying Permitted Work Pressure 8+,16+,24-,32+,40-,48-,:36+. © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER which + Items are scored 5 for Strongly Agree, 4 for Agree, 3 for grant to all people actively engaged in education the rightto Not Sure, 2 for Disagree and 1 for Strongly Disagree. copy it in the intereths of better teaching. Please acknowledge Items are scored in the reverse manner. the source.

1 Photocopy as many as required School-Level EnvironmentQuestionnaire (SLEQ) ACTUAL Form

There are 56 items in this questionnaire. They are statements 25.There are many noisy, badly-behaved students. to be considered in the context of the school inwhich you 28.I feel that I could rely on my colleagues for assistance work and your actual working environment. ifI needed it. Think about how well the statements describe your school 27. Many teachers attend inservice and other professional environment. development courses. Indicate your answer on the score sheet by circling: 28.There are few ruips and regulations that I am expected SD if you strongly disagree with the statement; to follow. if you disagree with the statement; 29.Teachers frequently are asked to participate in decisions N if you neither agree nor disagree with the statement or concerning e.dministrative policies and procedures. are not sure; 30.Most teachErs like the idea of change. A if you agiee with the statement; 31.Adequate duplicating facilities and services are availa- SA if you strongly agree with the statement; ble to teachers. If you change your mind about a response, cross outthe 32.There is no time for teachers to relax. old answer and circle the new choice. 33.Students get along well with teachers. 34. My colleagues seldom take notice of my professional 1. There are many disruptive, difficult students in the views and opinions. school. 35.Teachers show little interest in wt!..At is happening in 2.I seldom receive encouragement from colleagues. othet schools. 3.Teachers frequently discuss teaching methods and 36.I am allowed to do almost as I pease in the classroom. strategies with each other. 37.I am encouraged to make decisions without reference 4.I am often supervised to ensure that I follow directions to a senior member of staff. im- correctly. 38. New courses or curriculum materials are seldom 5.Decisions about the running of the school are usually plemented in the school. made by the principal or a small group o teachers. 39.Tape recorders and cassettes are seldom available 6.It is very difficult to change anything in tn,.sschool. when needed. 7.The school or department library includes anadequate 40.You can take it easy and still get the work done. selection of books and periodicals. 41.Most students are well-mannered and respectful to the 8.There is constant pressure to keep working. school staff. 9.Most students are helpful and co-operative to teachers. 42.I feel that I have many friends among my colleagues at 10.I feel accepted by other teachers. this school. Teachers are keen to learn from their colleagues. 11.Teachers avoid talking with each other about teaching 43. and learning. 44.My classes are expected to use prescribed textbooks 12.I am not expected to conform to a particular teaching and prescribed resource materials. style. 45. I must ask my subject department head or senior 13.I have to refer even small matters to a seniormember member of staff before I do most things. of staff for a final answer. 46.There is much experimentation with different teaching 14.Teachers are encouraged to be innovative in thisschool. approaches. Facilities are inadequate for catering for a variety of 15.The supply of equipment and resources is inadequate. 47. classroom activities and learning groups of different 16.Teachers have to work long hours to complete alltheir work. sizes. Seldom are there deadlines to be met. 17.Most students are pleasant and friendly to teachers. 48. Very strict discipline is needed to control many of the 18.I am ignored by other teachers. 49. 19.Professional matters are seldom discussed during staff students. meetings. 50.I often feel lonely and left out of things in the staffroom. Teachers show considerable interest in the professional 20.Itis considered very important that Iclosely follow 51. syllabuses and lesson plans. activities of their colleagues. I am expected tc maintain very strict control in the class- 21.Action can usually be taken without gaining theapproval 52. of the subject department head or a seniormember of room. staff. 53.I have very little say in the running of the school. 22.There is a great deal of resistance to proposalsfor cur- 54.New and different ideas are always being tried in this riculum change. school. Projectors and filmstrips, transparercies and films are 23.Video equipment, tapes and films are readilyavailable 55. and accessible. usually available when needed. 24.Teachers don't have to work very hard in thisschool. 56.It is hard to keep up with your workload.

2 IPhotocopy as many as required School-Level EnvironmentQuestionnaire (SLEQ)

Form There are 56 items in this questionnaire. They aro statements 24.Teachers would not have to work very hard In this school. to be considered in the context of the schoolin which you 25.There would be many noisy, badly-behaved students. work and your preferred or ideal working environment. 28.I would feel that I could rely on my colleagues for assist- Think about how Well the statements describe the school ance ifI needed it. environment in which you would prefer to work. 27. Many teachers would attend inservice and other profes- Indicate your answer on the score sheet by circliog: sional development courses. SD if you strongly disagree with the staternent; 28.There would be few rules and regulations that I would D if you disagree with the statement; be expected to follow. N if you neither agree nor disagree with the statement or 29.Teachers frequently would be asked to participate in are not sure; decisions concerning administrative policiep ;rid prcce- A if you agree with the statement; dures. SA if you strongly agree with 'the statement; 30.Most teachers would like the ides of change. If you change your mind about a response, cross out the 31.Adequate duplicating facilities and services would be old answer and circle Me new chorori. available to teachers. 32.There would be no time for teachers to relax. 33.Students would get along well with teachers. 1.There would be many disruptive, difficult students in the 34. My colleagues seldom would take notice of my profes- school. sional views and opinions. 2.I would seldom receive encnuragement from colleagues. 35.Teachers would show little interest in what was happen- 3.Teachers would frequi. iiscuss teaching methods ing in other schools. and strategies with ea%;. , ar. 36.I would be allowed to do almost as I please in the class- 4.I would often be supervised to ensure that I followed MOM. directions correctly. 37.I would be encouraged to make decisions without refer- 5.Decisions about the running of the school usually would ence to a senior member of staff. be made by the principal or a small group of teachers. 38. New courses or curriculum matcrrials seldom would be 6.It would be very difficult to change anything in the school. implemented in the school. 7.The school or department library would include an 39.Tape-recorders and cassCtes seldom would be availa- adequate selection of books and periodicals. ble when needed. 8.There woul .1 be constant pressure to keep working. 40.You could take it easy and still get the work done. 9.Most studants would be helpful and co-operative to 41.Most students would be well-mannered and respectful teachers. to the school staff. 10.I would feel accepted by other teachers. 42.I would feel that I had many friends among my col- 11.Teachers would avoid talking with each other about leagues at the school. teaching and learning. 43.Teachers would be keen to learn from their colleagues. 12.I would not be expected to conform to a particular teach- 44. My classes would be expected to use prescribed text- ing style. books and prescribed resource materials. 13.I would have to refer even small matters to a senior 45.I would have to ask my subject department head or member of staff for a final answer. senior member of staff before I did most things. 14.Teachers would be encouraged to be innovative in the 46.There would be much experimentation with different school. teaching approaches. 15. The supply of equipment and resources wouldnot be 47.Facilities would not be adequate for catering for a variety adequate. of classroom activities and learning groups of lifferent 18.Teachers would have to work long hours to cnmplete sizes. all their work. 48.Seldom would there be deadlines to he met. 17.Most students would be pleasant andfriendly to 49.Very strict discipline would be needed to control many teachers. of tne students. 18.I would be ignored by other teachers. 50.I would often feel ionely and left out of things in the 19.Professional matters seldom would be discussed during staffroom. staff meetings. 51.Teachers would show considerable interest in the profes- 20.It would be considered very important that Iclosely follow sional activities of their colleagues. syllabuses and lesson plans. 52.I would be expected to maintain very strict control in the 21.Action could usually be taken without gaiilingthe ap- classroom. proval of the subject department h9ad or asenior 53.I woulc have very atie say',tie running of the 'e:hool. member of staff. 54. New and different itieas would always be tried oui in 22.There would be a great dee: ot resistance toproposals the school. for curriculum change. 55.Projectors for filmutrips, transparencies and films would 23.Video equipment, tapes and films would be readily avail- usually be available when needed. able and accessible. 56.It would be hedd to keep up with your workload. 3 21 Photocopy as many as required

SLEC1 SLECI Score Sheet Score Sheet Actual Form Preferred Form

1 SD D N A SA 1 SD D N A SA 2 SD D N A SA 2 SD D N A SA 3 SD D N A SA 3 SD D N A SA 4 'SD D N A SA 4 SD D N A SA 5 .SD D N A SA 5 SD D N A SA 6 SD D N A SA 6 SD D N A SA 7 SD D N A SA 7 SD D N A SA 8 SD D N A SA 8 SD D N A SA 9 SD D N A SA 9 SD D N A SA 10 SD D N A SA 10 SD 0 N A SA

11 SD D N A SA 11 SD D N A SA 12 SD D N A SA 12 SD D N A SA 13 SD D N A SA 13 SD D N A SA 14 SD D N A SA 14 SD D N A SA 15 SD D N A SA 15 SD D N A SA 16 SD D N A SA 16 SD D N A SA 17 SD D N A SA 17 SD D N A SA 18 SD D N A SA 18 SD D N A SA 19 SD D N A SA 19 SD D N A SA 20 SD D N A SA 20 SD D N A SA 21 SD D N A SA 21 SD D N A SA 22 SD D N A SA 22 SD D N A SA 23 SD D N A SA 23 SD D N A SA 24 SD D N A SA 24 SD D N A SA 25 SD D N A SA 25 SD D N A SA 26 SD D N A SA 26 SD D N A SA 27 SD D N A SA 27 SD D N A SA 28 SD D N A SA 28 SD D N A SA 29 SD D N A SA 29 SD D N A SA 30 SD D N A SA 30 SD D N A SA 31 SD D N A SA 31 SD D N A SA 32 SD D N A SA 32 SD D N A SA 33 SD D N A SA 33 SD D N A SA 34 SD D N A SA 34 SD D N A SA 35 SD D N A SA 35 SD D N A SA 36 SD D N A SA 36 SD D N A SA 37 SD D N A SA 37 SD D N A SA 38 SD D N A SA 38 SD D N A SA 39 SD D N A SA 39 SD D N A SA 40 SD D N A SA 40 SD D N A SA 41 SD D N A SA 41 SD D N A SA 42 SD D N A SA 42 SD D N A SA 43 SD D N A SA 43 SD D N A SA 44 SD D N A SA 44 SD D N A SA 45 SD D N A SA 45 SD D N A SA 46 SD D N A SA 46 SD D N A SA 47 SD D N A SA 47 SD D N A SA 48 SD D N A SA 48 SD D N A SA 49 SD D N A SA 49 SD D N A SA 50 SD D N A SA 50 SD D N A SA 51 SD D N A SA 51 SD D N A SA 52 SD D N A SA 52 SD D N A SA 53 SD D N A SA 53 SD D N A SA 54 SD 0 N A SA 22 54 SD D N A SA 55 SD D N A SA 55 ''iSD D N A SA 56 SD D N A SA 56 SD D N,,q!N imi; SA 4 4 Imam II In Waite Item 6 SetaMOP, number two 1990 Size, Costs, Cuniculum in Secondary Schools

Phillip McKenzie ACER

. :2;1/4i; -3 ' 'ts Ir. , C.1.1gA1:] . - '.' ,'

';# A."% J. 4%. :

1 IEST COPT AVAILABLE TlWO MAIN ARGUMENTS are advanced for large of the number of different subjects or courses since it schools: they are able to provide more comprehen- considers several other dimensions of curriculum struc- sive curricula than small schools, and they are ture:breadth,depth, andaccess. ess expensive to opera'.Do large schools really The starting point is the number of classes that a school offer more subjects? Can they do this more economically? provides. Classes run for different .rngths of time each An analysis of Victorian Government statistics gives a clear week, so it is necessary to express the number of classes answer: while large schools do have advantages in bothin a common unit of raeasurement. In what follows, this of these respects, when they get bigger than about 800 is taken to be the number of 250 minute blocks that the students the gains from further increases in size are rela- class occupies each wek. Thus, for example, a school that tively small. offered a single mathematics class comprising four 50 mi- There are grounds for expecting that, beyond a certain nute periods at each of its six year levels would, in total, size, large schools will tend to offer 'more of the same'provide (4x50x6)/250 = 4.8 standardised mathematics rather than a greater variety of subjects. Monk in 1986 classes per week. decided this was true because specialised curricula tend The next step involves seeing the tc,tal number of classes to require small classes and schools will attempt to avoid provided by a school as the product of three variables: the operating small classes: number of broad curriculum areas that those classes rep- First, the evidence on the learning gains associated with resent (breadth); the average number of subjects per broad small class sizes is at best mixed ... These unclear gains curriculum area (depth); and the average number of classes must be balanced against the obvious and large expen-per subject (access). The more classes are operated in any ditures per pupil that small classes entail ... given subject, the greater the potential opportunity for Second, small class sizes mile equity problems :orstudents to enrol in that subject should they wish. administrators... If all the classes are of roughly the This way of looking at curriculum provision provides a same size, there is one fewer thinglor the administrator link between the allocation of the major resource available to worry about ... to schools, teacher time (as represented in the provision Third, the inefficiencies that stem from a failure toof classes), and the nature of the educational programme specialise may not be very large in any case. The prevail- that those classes deli..er to students: ing wage ... may be so low that the schools are not able to attract true specialists. Rather, they attract generalists M= BxDxA whereM = the total number of classes per week who are interchangeable. (expressed in 250-minute equivalents), Thomas in 1971 reached a similar conclusion from a B =the number of broad curriculum areas slightly different perspective. He argued that the provisirnt represented, of new courses is lik?ly to be relatively costly, not only D = the average number of subjects per broad because class sizes in new programmes tend to be small curriculum area, (in the initial stages) but also because they often require and specialised facilities and learning materials. Although A = the average number of 250-minute large schools may have more capacity to absorb the costs equivalent classes per subject. of new courses. beyond a certain enrolment level that capacity will be reduced by the need for very large schools Not only does this approach identify -albeit imperfectir to provide more resources for administration and co-ordi-- several important dimensionsof curriculum provision, nation. it also makes the tradeoffs that exist between them explici'.. These arguments refer to limits on the willingness of In a world of limited eclucational resources schools can.tot large schools to offer more specialised curricula. In govern-simultaneously increase the breadth, depth and access of ment school systems, such as those that operate intheir curriculum. Decisions have to be made about the Australia and New Zealand, there are also likely .o bepriorities to be given to these dimensions and difficult constraints on thecapacityof large schools to provide cur-choices confronted. Since Australian and New Zealand ricula that differ markedly from those in small schools. In secondary schools have some curriculum autonomy this these systems the staffing formulae allocate proportion-suggests that factors other than school size will influence ately more teachers to small schools than to large schools. the final shape of school curricula. The relatively favourable allocation of teachers to small schools is intended to allow them to provide a curriculum Data Base and Methodology range that is comparable to that of larger schools. It is at this point that the relationship between school size and he study used official data on teachers' time allocations the operating costs of schools becomes critical. If the staf- Tcollected from government secondary schools by the fing schedules aim to achieve curriculum parity between Victorian Ministry of Education in 1984. For every teacher, schools of different sizes, at what cost is this achieved? information was available on every timetabled teaching class assignment that they had - the subject concerned, the number of teachers in...olved in taking the class, the Measuring Curriculum Provision number of sessions and minutes per week that the class Conceptualising and measuring curricula is very dif-operated, the number of weeks per year that it ran, the ficult. We found the number of different subjects pro- number of students enrolled in the class, and the year vided in schools of varying sizes, identified the broad level(s) from which they were drawn. From this informa- curriculum areas represented by those subjects, and calcu-tion a picture of the curriculum provided by each school lated the relative allocation of class teaching time to each in the study was constructed. subject and area. We focused on the 'structure' of the The basic building blocks of the analysis were the subject curriculum, as represented by the school timetable. As labels attached to teachers' class teaching duties. They are such, it says very little about the specific content of differ- shown in Table 1. The nine headings come from a policy .. ent subjects, and nothing at all about teaching and learning document on the desirable shape of a balanced curriculum processes. It is, however, an advance over a simple count and were used as a measure of curriculum breadth (B). It

.2 Table 1 Secondary School Subjects Classified by Broad Curriculum Area

ENGLISH SCIENCE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

English Apiculture' Science Careen Engb Literature Behaviotnal Science Health Educed= English Migrant Biololgy Physical Education English Remedial Chemistry Physical Educatioo - Boys Es* Science Physical EducaticeGirls SOCIAL EDUCATION (including Geology) Pupil Welfare & Cotmealling Envkonasental Science Environmental Studies Phyuics TECHNICAL STUDIES General Studies Physical Science (including Integrated Studies) Science n.e.c Agriculture & Horticulure Group OeclaPhy Computer Studies History COMMERCE Electrical, Electronics Human Development & Society & Radio Trades (from Home Eccoomics Group)Accoundng Food & Catering Group Humanities General Consumer Education Home Economics Politics Commercial & Legal Studies Metal Trades & Fining Group Sccial Science Economics Plumbing & Sheetmeral Group Social Studies General Business Education Textl & Wool Trades Typing Vehicle Trades LANGUAGES OTHER Tvping & Shonharxl (Dacomb) Woodwork, Fundose & Building THAN ENGLISH Typing & Shorthand (Piunan) Group

French THE ARTS OTHER General Language Studies Getman Art Activities Greek (Modem) CeramicsiPouery Library Indonesian Clothing & Textiles Sports Supervision Italian (including Needlecraft) Other n.e.c. Japanese Craft n.e.c. Latin Dance Spanish Drama Turkish Film-Making & Television Languages Graphic Communicadon Metalcreft (including Jewellery) MATHEMATICS Music - Classroom Music Insmeneatal Computer Science PhotolgsPhy Mathematics - Applied Wocelcraft Methematice General Mathematics - Pure Mathematics - Remedial Mathematics n.e.c. was assumed that a school which providedclasses in allCurriculum Provision and School nine areas had a broader curriculum than a school with classes from (say) eight of the areas. The data on subjectSize: Results and Discussion offerings and the total amount of teacher time allocated(The information is in Table 2.) to class teaching also allowed the estimationof the extent of depth (D) and access (A). The Number of Subjects The official data also recorded each teacher's seniority classification and the amount oftimethey taught at the he 'average' Victorian high school in 1984 provided 34 school. This information, when combined with teachers'Tsubjects. The largest number, 47, was provided by a salary levels, provided an estimate of the operating costs school with just over 1000 students. The smallest number, of schools of different sizes. The data swereavailable for23, was provided by four schools that enrolled fewer than 95 percent (246 schools) of the Victorian governmenthigh400 students. Large schools generally provided more sub- schools that enrolled students in each of years 7 to 12jects than small schools, although an increase in school (Forms 2 to 7). The schools ranged in size from 76 to 1234size did not guarantee that a greater numberof subjects studentsthe average was 639. By Australian standards,would be provided. There was considerable variation be- Victorian high schools are relatively small. Using our re-tween schools of similar size. For eumple, thenumber sults for school systems with substantiallylarger 3choolsof subjects provided by schools in the 500 to 599 student must be done with caution. band ranged from 26 to 43. Correspondingly, there were Regression analysis was used to estimate the relation-many instances where a similar numberof subjects was ship between each of the curriculum elements B, D andprovided by schools of substantially different size. This A and school enrolment size. (The effectof other potentialcan be illustrated by schools atthe extremes of the enrol- influences on curriculum provision were also investigated. ment range: the smallest school (76 students)provided 33 but are not reported here.)The analysesallowed an estima-subjects, only one fewer than one of the largest schools tion of how much school size effects the curriculum, as (1109 students). well as whether the relationship was linear in form. These Regression analyses indicated that, on average, one ad- two analyses determine whether sizebrings curriculumditional subject was provided for every 100 students enrol- advantages, and whether those advantages approach anled by schools, when other factors were equal. School size the upper limit as schools increase insize. accounted for only 37 percent of the variation in 32a Table 2 Whole-School Curriculum Structure, by School Enrolment

MOMS Marne Avenge Average Average total Number Number number number of number of number of number of of of of broad subjects clause 250 minus students schools subjects circle. areas 170f WU per subject clams (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

<100 1 33.0 8.00 4.13 1.66 34.8 100-199 18 29.1 8.61 3.39 2.36 73.9 200-20: 13 29.2 8.31 3.32 3.17 91.7 300-399 23 29.1 8.87 3.29 3.80 109.7 400-499 27 32.6 8.85 3.68 4.24 136.6 5(X)-599 19 35.5 8.84 4.01 4.43 156.7 600-699 32 35.2 8.91 3.96 5.09 177.5 700-799 35 33.6 8.89 4.01 5.70 201.7 800-899 33 36.2 8.97 4.04 6.40 230.1 900-999 22 36.1 8.86 4.08 7.01 251.4 1000-1099 17 38.1 8.94 4.26 7.29 274.7 1100-1199 5 36.8 9.00 4.09 8.27 303.5

1200-1299 1 41.0 9.00 4.56 7.74 317.1

All Schools 246

Mean 34.1 8.84 3.86 5.19 179.3 Standard deviation 4.5 0.37 0.49 1.57 63.6 Minimum value 23.0 8.00 2.56 1.66 54.8 Maximum value 47.0 9.00 522 9.23 317.1

Note: For each individual school the product of columns (2) and (3) equals the value in column (1). and the product of columns (1) and (4) equals column (5). These identities 63 not always hold for the school groupings snown in the table because the mean values recorded in each column are unweighted. number of subjects provided by schools. This suggests the .,s discussed earlier, there was considerable variation be- important role that other factors play in this aspect oftween schools of similar size. School size accounted for curriculum decision making. only 29 percent of the variation between schools in the average number of subjects per area; on average, each The Number of Broad Curriculum Areas (Breadth ) additional 100 students was associated with an additional Almost all of the 246 Victorian high schools provided 0.1 subjects per broad curriculum area. .Mclasses in all of the nine broad curriculum areas. The Number of Classes Per Subject (Access) Twenty-eight schools did not provide Languages Other Than English and 11 schools did not provide Technical ere school size started to have a marked impact on Studies. H(curriculum structure. The smallest schools offered The schools that did not provide classes in Language only about two classes per subject per week (in 250-minute Other Than English were small, averaging 333 students.equivalent terms), whereas the largest schools provided In this particular area of the curriculum school :;ize didat least seven. Overall, school size accounted for 88 percent appear to be an important influence and it is worth noting of the variation between schools in this regard. Each in- that 20 were located in small country towns, where lan-crease in school size of 100 students was associated with guage teachers are few. It is also possible that becausethe provision of 0.5 additional classes per subject, on av- rural areas generally have fewer students from immigrant erage. backgrounds there may be less demand for language The average number of classes provided per subject is courses. Therefore it is unlikely that size alone preventsan indicator of the access students have to subjects of their the schools from providing a full range of curriculum areas.choice. However, care should be taken in interpreting the The 11 schools that did not provide classes in Technical data in these terms. Large schools rnz.y offer more classes Studies were, on average, larger than the schools that did per subject than small schools but through necessity rather provide such classes. In this regard small size does not than through any conscious effort to facilitate choice. This appear to be a barrier to providing a broad curriculum. is a particularly likely to be the case in the junior year There was not a great deal of variation between schools levels. A lzArge school that provided (say) six English classes in the number of broad areas that they provided at thefor its 150 year 7 (Form 2) students could not be said to whole-school level; and school size accounted for only abe offering greater student access to English than a small small proportion (10 r,rcent) of the variation that did exist. school that offered only one year 7 English class for 15 students. While the results suggest large schools may pro- The Number of Svbjects Per Curriculum Area (Depth ) vide curriculum advantages further analysis is needed for get the number of subjects provided per curricult.m a clear picture. area divide the figure in Column (2) by that inColumn The Total Number of Classes (1) in Table 2. The relationship between depth (D) and the three independent variables is an amalgam of the patterns here was a very strong relationship between the total discussed in the two previous sections. Tnumber of classes provided and school size, with size On average, 3.9 subjects were provided per broad cur-accounting for almost all (97 percent) of the variation be- riculum area in the 246 schools. Most schools with fewertween schools. This result was not all that surprising - than 600 students offered fewer than four subjects perlarge schools are allocated more teachers and, thus, are area while those with more than about600 students pro-able to offer more classes. There was some evidence, vided over four subjects per afea, on average. However,though, that the number of classes grew slightly more 4 26 Table 3 Teacher Salary Expenditure Per Student, by SchoolEnrolment Size

Number of Average Teacher Salary Number of Students Schools Expending* Per Student Index

4100 1 4 931 242.7 100499 18 3 105 152.S 200-299 13 2 566 126.3 300-399 23 2 229 109.7 400-499 27 2 056 101.2 500-599 19 1 990 97.9 600-699 32 1 896 93.3 700-799 35 1 819 89.5 800-1199 33 1 773 87.3 900-999 22 1 746 85.9 1000-1099 17 1 741 85.7 1100-1199 5 1 691 83.2 1200-1299 1 1 706 84.0

All logbook 246

Mean per schcal 2 032 100.0 Standard deviation 430 21.2 Minimum value 1 604 78.9 Maxirnum value 4 931 242.7

Note: The index is based on the Mean expenditure per school ($2032) = 100.0 rapidly than the number of teachers as school size in- The relationship between per student (or average) ex- creased. This suggests that, on average, teachers inlarge penditure on teachers' salaries and school enrolment size schools have more contact hours than teachers insmall is recorded in Table 3. Across the 246 schools the average schools. expenditure per student on teachers' salaries was $2,032. The close relationship between school size andthe totalThere was, however, considerable variation, around the number of classes confirms the important role thatstaffing mean, ranging from a maximum of $4,931 inthe smallest formulae (which are based on school size) play in determin-school in the study (76 students) to a minimum of $1,604 ing the teaching resources that schools areallocated. How-in one of the largest (1146 students). ever, the fact that school sizeaccou.tted for much smaller Figure 1 shows clearly the curvilinear relationship be- proportions of the other variations indicates theimport-tween expenditure per student and school size. The rela- ance of local influences on thedetail of what curriculum tionship was hyperLolic in form: per student expenditure is provided. declined at a decreasing rate as school size increased. Once school enrolments exceeded about 800 students the decline Operating Costs and 3chuol Size: in average expenditure associated with further increases Results in school size was proportionately quite small. I n Victoria, as in most school systemsexpenditure on This hyperbolic relationship has also been documented teachers' salaries is the largest single component offor other Australian government ichool systems. Essen- education budgets so teachers' salaries were used as a tially it is the result of the policy (expressed in the staffing proxy for school operating costs. Costdata were not avail-formulae for government schools) which gives lower stu- able for several other key resourcesmost notably land,dent-teacher ratios (and thus higher per-student expendi- buildings, capital items, and student transportation and tures) in small schools. In Victoria, at least, the schedules this should be noted becpuse such costs are likely tobealso allocated a slightly higher proportion of senior (and related closely to school size. thus more costly) teachers to small schools.

Figure 1 Per Student Expenditure on Teachers Salaries, ItySchool Enrolment Size.

5000

4500 4000

3500 + + 3000 44414. + 2500 It++hi. TR- 2000 4. 1500

1000 500. 0 160 260 360460 560 600700800900 16(10 1100 1200 1300 School Enrolment

5 2/ Discussion the total number of high school students. Thus, even eystem-level administrators structure the allocation of though per student expenditures in small schools are high, resources to schools to ensure that smallschools are their combined impact on the total costs of operating the able to provide curricula comparable with large schools. school system, is quite small. The success of this policy was evident in the relatively Second, because small schools tend to be located in small role that school size played in accounting for vari-areas of low population, there may be no practicalalterna- ation between schuols in two of the three dimensionsof tive to maintaining them in their present form. curriculum structure that were measured, namely, breadth Third, the data presented here suggested that gains (for and depth. School size was far more important in explain- curriculum variety and overall costs) from increasing ing differences between schools in the average numberof school size appeared to be relatively small once schools classes that they provided per subject. However, as was exceeded about 800 or so students.Although the noted, this particular variable was an imperfect measure generalisability of these results need to be qualified, they of the third dimension of curriculum structure,students' suggest that large schools do not necessarily bring the access to subjects of their choice. curriculum andCo3tadvantages that are often claimed. An important consequence of the policy to providesuf- All of this is not to say that large schools should not ficient resources to small schools was that the per-student continue to be provided. The financial gains from large costs of operating those schools were relatively high.How- schools, no matter how small, may still be necessary to ever, three comments can be made inthis regard. First, support those schools which, because of their location, asa group the small schoolsenrolled only a small propor- are inevitably small. Whilst there are budget restraints tion of the high school population. In the present study there is no absolute answer to the question of appropriate 13 percent of the schools enrolled fewer than 300 students. school size since sizes need to be considered in the context In total, those enrolments represented only 4 percentof of the viability of the school system as a whole.

Notes r Philip McKenzie is a Senior Research Officer atthe Australian It estimated that teachers' salaries accounted for lust under 80 percent DCouncil for Educational Research, Box 210, Hawthorn, Vidona, of recurrent public expenditure on Victorian government secondary Australia 3122. schools (Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1981). The usefulness of teachers salaries as a proxy for total recurrent expenditures is also The idea that large schools tend to otter 'more ot the same' can be suggested by the evidence that a number of other items of school tound in expenditure, such as administrative out' lys and support staff salaries, Monk, D.H. (1986) Secondary school enroament and curricular com- are highly correlated with expenditure on teachers. Thisprocedure prehensiveness. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Uriversity, Department is supported by of Educatioit Hough. J.R. (1981) A study of school costs. Windsor, Berks.: NFER- The quotation is trom p. 10. Nelson. Thomas's argument about new courses absorbing extra funds can be and McKenzie and Keeves (1982) mentioned above. found in Thomas, I.A. (1971) The productive sJiool. A systems analysis approach The documenting of the hyperbolic relationship between high school to educational administration. New 'fork: lohn Wiley. size and per-pupil expenditure can be found in Curtis, C.K. (1981) An analysis of expenditure in South Australian The staffing formulae that allocate proportionately more teachers to primary and high schools. Unpublished Master of Education thesis. small schools is expanded in Adelaide: Flinders University. McKenzie. PA. and Keeves. J.P. (1982) Eight education systems: and Resource allocation policies in the government sdiool systems ot Australia Commonwealth Schools Commifsion (1983) Schools resource's study: and New Zealand. Hawthorn, Vic.: ACER. Part two. Canberra: Commonwealth Schools Commission. The idea that the curricalum has a 'structure' which can be rep- Full details of the study from which this article has been derived are resented by the school timetable is discussed in written up in El lem, G. (1986) Timetable analysis: A Tool tor school adminis- McKenzie, PA. (1990) Secondary school size curriculum structure, trators. Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 24. pp. 18-37. and resource use: A study in the economics ot education. Hawthorn, That in a world of limited resources schools cannot simultaneously Vic.: ACER. (mimeo.) curriculum is derived increase the breadth, depth and access La their Thc idea that small schools should be to a certain extent funded from from the savings made by large sclools Is found in Monk, D.H. (1987) Secondary school size and curriculum com- Davies TI. (1969) .cholibliTgams4rtsod. Oxford: Pergamon. prehensiveness. F..1.-onomicsot Education Review, Vol. 6, pp. 137-150. v ts -a- .t The nine headings found in Table 1 come from Ministry of Education. Victoria (1987) Currnulum trameuvrks. Mel- bourne: Author. Operating costs and school size: results. The most detailed study ot school expenditure in Australia is © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant Commonwealth Schools Commission (1981) Schools resource's study. to all people actooely engaged in education the right to copy it in the Part one. Canberra: Commonwealth Schools Commission. interests of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source. Item 7 set* number two 1990 EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Paul Cal lister New Zealand Planning Council

A Brief Reply Ivan Snook Massey University

In set No. 1, 1989, Professor Ivan Snook wroteInflated (that jobs are becoming increasingly sophisticated and that Expectations. QualiF.cations and lob Prospects.His main thesis higher and higher cognitive skills are required to ensure was that the statistics for employment inAustralia and economic growth) and the 'Radical View' (that schools are New Zealand dp not make it possible to give unequivocal, just vast sorting machines grading children like apples, automatic, advice to stay on at school. The statistics are the worth of the grades for manual, skilled, and profes- of no use in individual counselling. So 'Should I stay at sional iobs being set by the state of the economy, not by school?' should be in every case an utterly open question, educational judgement.) he said. In this item thv New Zealand Planning Council defends The article contained a critique of both the 'Official View' the 'Official View' and Professor Snook replies "irietly.

BEST COPYAVAILABLE. 29 Education and Employment Paul Cal lister New Zealand Planning Council

The pemary goal of education is to elicit and fortify what-and ultimately therefore, whethc over the whole economy ever creative impulse [people] may possess. up-skilling is occurring. Bertrand Russell The relative success of a company will naturally depend on a range of factors, but those pursuing the up-skilling MuOST PEOPLE would agree that educationroute through techniques such as quality circles and team- has a crucial role in giving young people anworking appear to have an edge over the more traditional nderstandingof themselves andtheiroperators. The automobile assembly industry is an exam- world, and greater degrees of competence inple worldwide. In the United States evidence points to coping with their lives. But does education also have a up-skilling (and more worker participation) in companies major role to play in the job creation process? exposed to foreign competition, with de-skilling (and in- In c,,t number one, 1989, Professor Ivan Snook explored creased management control) more apparent in companies the relationship between education and unemployment. protected from competition.4 He ugued that staying on at school does not help individu- In analysing economy wide skill movements there is a als obtain employment and to the contrary may decreasebody of overseas literature which points to economy wide their chances of obtaining the jobs they had in mind. Heup-skilling.5 In the United States, for example, forecasts by went further in arguing that unemployment in generalthe Hudson Institute show a strong trend towards higher will not be reduced by lifting retention rates or providing educational requirements among the fastest growing jobs. more education. Jobs are not requiringincreasing degrees They estimate that of all new jobs created over the 1984-2000 of knowledge and skill; rather, he asserted, the reverse isperiod, over half will require some education beyond high the case. school and almost a third will be filled by college graduates. There is no 'quick fix' solution to unemployment. How-Currently only 22% of all occupations in the US require a ever, New Zealand Planning Councilresearch does indi-college degree. Professor Snook relies on anecdotal evi- cate that raising the level of education and skills in the dence to support his view of generalised de-skilling. The workforce is a key element in the battle against unemploy-problem with anecdotes is that it is nearly always possible ment, particularly if we want our new employment oppor-to find examples which go the other way. tunities in high income rather than low wage activities Within New Zealandrecent employment trends support thecase for up-skilling. and occupations. De-skilling or Up-skilling? Fastest Growing Jobs 1976-1986 Statisticians, systems analysts +125% Acentral issue in the employment/education iel,ate is whether tomorrow's jobs will require 'cvels Professional, technical n.e.c. +108% of skill, or whether technology is reducing the demands on workers. Economists +106% Employment statistics show that in both Australia and Government administrators +104% New Zealand, as in other developed countries, there has been a shift from manufacturing and primary sector jobs Broadcasting + 91% to service sector ones, a shift from manual to non-manual + 78% work, and an increase in part-time work.' Australian re- Managers search also indicates there has been a major shift into Clerical supervisors + 76% information related jobs.2 Many of these shifts have required considerablere-skillingof the workforce. Working proprietors 4- 67% Measuring whether this has involvedde-skillingorup-skil- Jurists + 55% lingis of course a complex task. Individual case studies can point to examples of buth up-skilling and de-skilling occur- Authors and journalists + 47% ring within industry groups and even within individual enterprises. In the banking industry, for example, frontline Artists and photographers + 51% staff now have to understand a wide range of complex (ALL OCCUPATIONS + 10%) products inclue.ing floating and fixed rate mortgages, de- posits varying from debentures to unit trusts, and foreign Source; Department of Statistics exchange transactions which include swaps, forwards con- tracts and futures. They also have to master rapidlychang- All of these occupations either require, or substantially ing technology, imorove interpersonal skills, and in somebenefit from, higher levels of education. Some of these cases learn new languages to dealeffectively in a global fasteF1 growing jobs still employ relatively small numbers. environment. At the same time there is also some evidenceNot everyone is going to be an author or a statistician. that the 'back-room' people, processing the paperworkBut a similar pattern emerges when the absolute numbers generated, have jobs that are de-skilled. Of real interest,employed is examined. Managers rise to the top of the however, is whether companies pursuing an overall up-skil-list with over 31,000 new positions created between 1976 ling philosophy are generally more successful than thoseand 1986, while the largest loss of jobs occurred in the pursuing the de-skilling route, whether this leads them to occupations of labouring and construction workers. Since be the dominant form of business enterprise in the economy1986 growth in professional/managerial occupations has 2 30 i1 continued, but with large losses in the manufacturing/ With a rapidly restructuring economy there is an in- labouring areas. These movements indicate that the fastest creased chance of facing unemployment. For most people, growing occupations require higher levels of education. however, this period will be relatively short and this is To a significant degree the movement to up-skilling or particularly true for qualified people (any period is still de-skilling will be determined by the particular philosophy likely to be traumatic for most people). A New Zealand of an enterprise or even that of a whole nation. Ken Doug- Department of Labour survey in 1988 showed that almost las, of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions suggests half of the long term unemployed had left school at Pge 15 we have *v. option but to pursue theup-skilfing/re-skilling an4 an estimated 70% had no educational qualificAon.8 route. This combined with the above data would indicate that in The reality for the New Zealand economy is that wegeneral an individual's chance of obtaining employment is cannot compete, in Taylorist terms, with low wage pro-enhanced by staying longer in school and then obtaining duction line economies. Not, that is, unless of course some post-qualifications. This relationship is also supported we become one ourselves, and I think there is general by studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and agreement that we wish to avoid that. Australia.' New Zealand's strength, in economic terms, therefore Professor Snook however endeavours to counter these arises out of the relative quality of our education system arguments by stating that many people 'with advanced and the possibilities of a highly skilled and flexible work- credentials take on jobs that are beneath what they would force that it creates. In other words, we cannot prosper normally have expected'. No doubt this does occur but it by trying to outdo low wage economies in an assembly is equally likely that many people take jobs above their skill line production approach which is based on breaking levels. The failure of many small businesses (and some big work down into simple tasks, and having it performed ones as well) due to lack of managerial, marketing or finan- by unskilled or low skilled workers. What we can do cial skills points to the need for upgraded skills in many is develop a highly skilled adaptable workforce which areas. concentrates on quality (rather than quantity) production, and innovation. To do this we need to harness Will more education help create more the knowledge of workers about the production process, and develop methods of work organisation which jobs? allow all participants an input.' ut even if it is accepted that higher qualifications raise A recent survey by the Institute of Economic Research/In- Ban individual's chance of obtaining a job, there is the stitute of Policy Studies showed that managers of indi- view that there is a set number of jobs in the economy vidual New Zealand firms believe training/re-skilling is with the number primarily determined by government one of the key factors in improvingquality, productivity policies. Within this view lifting education retention rates and overall competitiveness of their firms. Diverse lobby will therefore simply reshuffle those jobs around. groups such as the Council of Trade Unions,Manufacturea. In practice the long term employment/unemployment Federation, Employers Federation, and the Business Round- picture is much more complex. The rate of increase in new table also agree that education is required for the up-skilling jobs needed to reduce unemployment is strongly influ- that needs to take place. enced by the increase in the labour force. In New Zealand in the 1980s there has been a very rapidly increasing labour force, driven in part by the entry of the 'baby boom' gen- Will more education help an eration into the workforce, and in part by an increase in individual? female participation in the paid workforce. Over a longer he data indicate that up-skilling is, and will continue time period the increase in female participation has been Tto be the dominant trend in New Zealand industry.It particularly dramatic, rising from just over one third of therefore seems likely that an individual's chances of ob- the working age population in 1966 to just under two taining a job will be assisted by the level (and of course thirds in 1986. With Scandinavian countries showing par- nature) of their qualifications. Professor Snook's own fig- ticipation rates around 70-80% there is no reason to believe ures show that those with higher levelsof education are we have reached a limit in New Zealand. With such demog- at less risk of unemployment than thosewith no or few raphic and social change occurring we have a situation qualifications. where the numbers of people employed and unemployed can increase at the same time. , Unemployment Rate (%) by Educational In New Zealand, if we look at long term changes be- Attainment tween the early 1970's and the late 1980's we find that February 1986 unemployment has increased by over 100,000, employment has grown by over 200,000, while retention rates in 15-1920-24All ages the seventh form (Year 12) have risen from just over 11% in 1970 to just under 30% in 1988. With post-school qualifications16.7 9.2 5.3 Simply focusing on the link between increasing education and increasing numbers of unemployed is therefore degree n.a. 10.7 3.8 8.4 5.4 potentially misleading. As an argument against increased trade-technical 14.6 participation Professor Snook states that unemployment Without post-school does not go down as the general level of education rises. qualifications 22.613.8 11.1 Australian and New Zealand data show, however, that it is equally true to state that employment rises as the general attended highest level 19.3 11.7 10.4* level of education increases. did not attend highest level24.3 15.0 11.2 In analysing these changes we need to ask some addi- left at 16 or over 22.3 11.9 11.2 tional questions: left at 15 or under 26.920.0 11.3" 1. What would have happened to employment and un- Source: Labour 5tanstics Australia. 198h. 6101, p. 69 employment hod we not improved our education par- we rage h, point 12). ticipation rates? Education and GDP per Capita OECD countriesage 17

United States IN

16 - Canada Norway Suisse 14 - Sweden Denmark J:pan Germany Australia UK 211:1 11"Finland New Zealand AustriaBelgium 10 -

Ireland Greece IN 1. France 4 Turkey 2. Netherlands

2 20 30 40 60 70 80 90 100 Education participation rates (%) Figure 1. 2. What would have occurred had our participation ratesgrowth can bring us back to full employment by the mid increased at a significantly faster rate? 1990's." In the modelling exercise the increase in productiv- In relation to both questions we also need to examineity makes the sale of our product., on world markets easier participation rates relative to changes in other countries. and more profitable. Measurements of total factor produc- For example while absolute rates rose in New Zealand tivity are designed to include increases in the value of out- between 1982 and 1988, New Zealand's position relative put from both capital and labour. Increasing the value of to the rest of the OECD actually declined. Ultimately, how- output of labour can take place in a variety of ways. Here ever, we need to seek evidence of a link between educa- is an Australian view. tion, wealth creation and the creation of employment. ...technological innovation has often been directed to- Empirical work, such as that by Denison in the United wards producing the same product more cheaply. Qual- States, indicates that increasing levels of education in the ity, innovation and excellence are all contributors to in- workforce are a major driver of economic growth.' A creased productivity, in that they increase the value of graph showing the relationship between retention rates and the product or service. Value is added by making the GDP per capita also indicates that the link between educa- most effective use of all the skills that are available. tion and employment is worth exploring. (See Figure 1.) If the notion of productivity is to be useful to us, we Such links between GDP and education participation are must see it as being about creating new products or in themselves of course simplistic, and further analysis is services for identified niche markets, about image de- needed to determine the factors leading to strong employ- velopment and projection to segmented markets rather ment growth. Examining the high employment,high in- than mass marketing, and about a commitment to quality come, and high participation rate societiessuch as Sweden which is not about assembly-line inspections, but rather and Japan provides some guide. In such economies higher derives from a cultural attitude which is socially and levels of education are linked into significantly different educationally reinforced.12 work practices, high levels of research and development, 'Added value' comes increasingly from the skilled use of high savings, and high levels of investment, such relation-information and knowledge. In a New Zealand context writ- ships being fostered by both private sector and public sector ers such as Dordick support this view. policies. In New Zealand, at least, there is still considerable New Zealand's economic future may very well rest upon debate as to whether such relationships should be fostered its appreciation of the true meaning of the word 'inform- by government policies. If higher education can be combined with these other ation'. The nation's farmers and industrialists, bankers growth factors this will ultimately lead to higher levels of and retailers, scholars and students, must recognise that productivity growth, the key element in securing high wage the information era is more than merely a world in which employment growth. The effect of higher productivity can word processors replace typewriters and computers replace calculators. It is an era in which information is the be demonstrated in economic modelling work. raw material out of which value and wealth is created.13 A joint New Zealand Planning Council/Victoria Univer- sity economic model shows that a relatively small (when This includes information about consuniths, their pref- compared with other OECD countries) rise in productivityerences and where they shop, about raw materials, its characteristics, and the technologies available for trans-labour market policies, levels of research and develop- forming it into products consumers prefer - knowing ment, even the number of forms New Zealand businesses where to find and how to use this information is crucial need to fill in, influence the success of enterprises and to generating more income aitcl morejobs. ultimately the employment creation process. In addition The potential for 'added value' and added jobs, through retention rates only tell us about quantity of education, the use of highly skilled information collectors, analysers not quality. Quality needs to be continually examined, and users can be seen in a more practical way in the wool such as is currently occurring with the latest round of tests industry. Wool is a major (and very traditional) non high-by the International Association for the Evaluation of Edu- tech, raw commodity export for both Australia and New cational Achievement. Finally linked to both quality and Zealand. This raw wool is exported to be turned into car-quantity is theneed to pay attention to making sure that pets or fashion garments for the world markets using over-the right mix of skills are being developed. In the US, for seas machinery, overseas design, overseasmarket research example, there are 500,000 lawyers with 39,000 graduating and advertising, creating overseas employment. While we each year. In Japan there are 17,000 lawyers and 300 may not be able to competewith the Chinese in factory graduates every year. The US trains lawyers while floor labour costs, in an increasingly capital intensive in-Japanese trains engineers." It is perhaps no accident that dustry, and using our superior levels of skills, we should Japan dominates world trade in automobiles, es well as be able to produce better designs, better colours, better trade in many other engineering intensive goods. New Zea- durability, better advertising and marketing techniques, land needs to determine its own optimal mix of skills, and better delivery schedules, and ultimately more competitive this is an issue facing parents, students, Boards of Trustees higher quality products. and the new Ministry of Education. But what about the size of overseas markets? Measured against the relatively small populations of Australiaand Conclusion New Zealand world markets are huge. The Japanese market, for example, while already a major New Zealand ex- rofessor Snook is right in suggesting that increasing port destination,still remains relatively untapped forpretention rates should not be used simply as a way of many products. In tourism New Zealandcurrently attracts keeping the unemployed off the streets, or providing more just under 1% of Japanese travellers, while a rangeof food jobs for teachers. He is also right that young people need and fibre markets in Japan hold considerable potential. to explore the issues of unemployment and look critically But it will not be unskilled labourers who developthe at its causes. But he is wrong in suggesting that students new products and break into newmarkets. To get cherries 'who are enjoying school should be encouraged to stay into the JapAlese market required skilled NZhorticul-on, providing they are aware of the fact that so doing may turalists, scientists, economists and trade negotiatol most decrease their chance of the sort of job they have in mind.' with high levels of formal education. This breakthrough A return to full employment at high wages will not be alone increased New Zealand's horticultural earnings by easily achieved. But New Zealand Planning Council re- nearly $1m in 1989, with the potential to dramatically in-search does strongly indicate that increasing skills in the crease this amount in the future. workforce will be of assistance to the individual and will As already indicated increasing retention rates alone ultimately move society closer to this goal. Therefore every will not guarantee success in reducing unemployment. effort should be made to encourage all studentl to lift their Factors such as exchange rates, interest rates, level of inter- sights in terms of the quantity and quality of education national demand, the rate of increase in skills overseas, they seek.

Notes A more detailed version of these arguments is found inTomorrow's 8. Department of Labour. Surrey of Long krtn Unemployment. Wel- Skills, available from the New Zealand Planning Council. PO Box lington, 1989. 5066, Wellington, New Zealand. 9. (a) Ashenfelter. 0 and Ham I. Education. Unemployment and Earnings, Journal of Political Economy, 87(5). Part 2. 1979. 1. (a) Haines. Lesley Work Today - Employment Trends to 1989.New (b) Nickell, S. Education and Lifetime Patterns of Unemployment Jour- Zealand Planning Council, 1989. nal of Political Economy, 87(5), Part 2, 1979. (b) Cal lister, Paul and Haines Tomorrow's Skills, Second Edition. (c) Rao, G.L. Youth Labour Market Programs: What Effect have theu New Zealand Planning Council, 1990. had? Bureau of Labour Market Research. Australia. 2. Mandeville, T., Macdonald. S.. Thompson. B. and Lamberton. 10. Denison. E.. Trends in American Economic Growth. 1927-1982, D.M., Technology, employment and the Queensland information econo- Washington: The Brookings Institution. 1985. Queensland. 1984. my, Information Research Unit. University of 11. Rose, Dennis. The Fully Employed High Income Economy of the 1990s. 3. Austnn, T., The New Global Finance Sector: Coming on line inNew Draft document. New Zealand Planning Council. January 1990. Zealand, Unpublished draft, Christchurch. 1989. 12. Gilmour, Jane. Culture. creativity and productivity - An exploration 4. Cornfield, D.B., Workers. Managers andTechnological Change, of the role ot creativity in Australia's future, Creative AustraliaProject, Plenum Press. New York, 1987. Commission for the FutureiAustralia Council, November 1988. 5. (a) US Department of Labour. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly 13. Dordick, H.. Information Technology and the New Zealand Economy, Labor Review. September 1987. Victoria Unwesity Press tor the Institute of Policy Studies, Wel- (b) Leontief. Wassily and Duchin, Faye. The Future Impact ot Auto- lington, 1987. mation on Workers, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986. in an Input-Output 14. The Relationship between ereatwity and an innovative productive future, (c) Uno, Kimio Measurement ofServices Papers and proceedings of the Creative Australia National Work- Framework, North Holland, Amsterdam. 198Q shop, Adelaide, July 1989. (d) Johnston, W.B., Workforce 2000, Hudson Institute, USA 1987. (e) See reference 4. O. Douglas, Ken Industrial Democracy: Trade Union Perspectwe.Indust- nal Democracy seminar, Auckland. May 1989. Copying Permitted 7. Campbell-Hunt. Colin et al. Prod uctipttv and Quality in New Zea- © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER which grant land Firms: Effects of Deregulation, New Zealand Institute of to all people actively engaged in education the right to copy it inthe Economic Research, Monograph 46. March 1989. interests of befter teaching. Please acknowledge the source.

5 Education and Employment: A Brief Reply

Ivan Snook Massey University

THERE is little point in trying to unravel all the (below both Australia and New Zealand). While Ireland twisted strands in the argument from the Planning lags in 17th place for economic output, Sweden is near Council. the top. Even if there were a good correlation this would not (1) In a matter so complex, their arguments are simplisticshow that increased education causes increased G.D.P. and undifferentiated. There is, for example, no recognition it might show that countries with higher G.D.P could afford oi the role of government employment policies in the vari-to provide extra education. (And motor cars, telephones, ous countries. It is assumed that all countries have a 'mar-etc.I have yet to hear anyone argt.e that increasing the ket economy' in which there is an uncontrolled relationship number of cars or telephones leads to increased prosperity. between education and employment. This is just not so. Such arguments work only if we already have a dogma.) japan, for example, has a strongly protectionist policy and itcannot be assumed that any results there can be(4) In an earlier paper I produced Labour Department generalised here. Similarly, there is enormous confusion statistics to show that in 1978 69.3% of the unemployed about 'skills'. What, for example, is the relationship be- had no formal qualifications but 65 2% of the workforce had tween the 'skills' (whatever they are) needed for 'tomor-no formal qualifications either. Similarly 3.9% of the un- row' and a lengthened stay at school? Does a sixth or a vinployed bad tertiary qualifications while 4.00/0 of the seventh form (or a polytechnic course) inevitably provide workforce had them. tomorrow's skills: I am therefore, unmoved by the Council's 1988 statistics In the absence of sophisticated distinctions and argu- showing the lack of qualifications of the unemployed. Until ments I can only focus on more precise claims. this is compared with the figures for the workforce as a I do not believe that their 'research does indicate that whole, it will in no way support the Council's view that raising the level of education and skill in the workforce is there is a relationship between unemployment and school- a key element in the battle against unemployment'. They ing. could be right but the case at present seems more a matter (5) The Employment Gazette 1988 showed that in Britain of dogma than of research. unemployment rates were greater (not lesser) wi$ higher The table on page 2 for example, tells us nothing about qualifications. Thus, for example, of those 25-44, un- 'skill' levels or even educational levels. employment levels were (2) The Council reprints my table on qualifications (page 3) and draws a different conclusion. My point still stands. 12% for those with C.S.E. Over all age groups the difference in unemployment be- 13% for those with 0 levels, and h. een those who left school at 15 or under and those who 200/e for those with A levels stayed to the end of schooling (at least two more years) Staying at school had made the individues situation worse. was less than 1% (to put it mildly, a ver poor 'rate of return'). (3) [he figures on G.D.P. and educational levels are at (6) I am arguing only against a social icy. It may be in best quite inconclusive there is nothing like a perfectthe interests of many young people to stay on at school. correlation. Thus, on the graph for example, Germany It may be in the interests of many others to leave school. which has the highest retention rates is orly seventh in In employment terms Australian and New Zealand data economic output (GDP). On the other hand, Canada,tend to support my view; the English data does more than terth in retention levels,is second (to the USA) in that. economic output. Belgium 5th in r7tention is 14th in The Planning Council says 'Professor Snook... is wrong economic output, while Denmark, 13th in retention is a in suggesting that students "who are enjoying school comfortable 6th in economic output. In the tables the Plan- should be encouraged to do so, providing they are aware ning Council uses in its booklet Tomorrow's Skills the lack of the fact that so doing may decrease their chance of the of correlation between length of schooling and economicsort rf job they have in mind": I do not wish to confront output is even more s;artling for at age 19 Ireland (23.6%) dog vith dogma but must simply suggest that mv claim and Sweden (23.5%) are almost the same in retention rate is not wrong or even debatable: it is clearly correct.

6 reassma inicernabon Item 8 [setas wows number two 1990

GOODEggBAD in Prime Time TV for Kids By Mark Dewalt Susquehanna University

Introduction IN HE AVERAGE FAMILY in the USA watched television Violence 49 hours and 48 minutes per week in 1987. That was a reducf)n from the SO hours and 16 minutes watched umerous researchers have studied the effects of televis- per w .ak in 1986. This slight reduction did not as- Nion on reading acnievement, writing ability, imagination suage the fears of many groups and individuals, including and aggres3iveness. One such researcher is Huesmann wh.) t =hers, reporters, parents, researchers, the public interest reported in 1984 that boys who strongly identity with violent group Action for Children's Television, and theAmerican TV characters are more prone to aggressive behtwiour. Academy of Pediatrics. They are concerned with the amount Further research by Eron indicated that the amount of TV of television viewing and what the television characters do. violence children view when they are 8 is the best indicator Both are legitimate concerns. of how aggressive they will be when they are 19; in fact, By till, time children graduate from high school they will televiewing at the age of eight correlates with the type of have wiAched approximately 18.000 hours of television, and crimes they will commit. Finally, Newsweek reported on the have spent more hours watching television than in school. growing problem of kids and guns. The article pointed out that constant exposure to violence on television can desen- TV's effects sitise children to the effect of firearms. The article also pointed out that fighting is often portrayed on TV as being glamorous survey by Parents magazine indicated that 60%of par- and as the best, immediate, solution to a charactor's prob- ents feel that most TV programmes were not worth watch- A lems. The depiction of violence is even more critical to the ing and 72% said that there was too much violence.Further- very young viewer; Weissbourd discovered that children under more), the American Academy of Pediatrics believesthat TV the age of three have difficulty understanding the concept of vhawing exposes children to too much violence, sex, drugs make-believe. To them a person who is shot on television and alcohol, and thet their depiction implies that everyone indulges in uiolence, sex, drugs and alcohol and that they actually has been shot. are risk-free. Postman believes that televiewinghas a perva- The Three Rs sive impact on both children and adults, and hisbook, Amus- ing Ourselves to Death indicates that important national is- nfortunaoly, the results of acted violence on TV are not sues are teeing decided, increasingly, by appearances(which U%lithe only nelative effects of television. Several research is what TV does best) rather than by understanding the issues. projects show the! poor success in mathematics, reading and

IESTOPY AVAILABLE writing go 'land in hand with long hours of TV watching. Maybe Part 1, watching TV poor rel.Jers take up TV watching as a substitute, but it is just as likely that long hours in front of the screen inhibit I n our examination of actual programmes 37 observers were learning these skills. There is evidence that this is so. Com- trained, then assigned shows to watch. They did not judge stock reports from a 1970-80 California study of over 500,000 behaviour to be good/bad, appropriate/inappropriate, but sim- sixth and twelfth grade students that the number of hours ply noted its occurrence. The eight things they were watching spent watching television was negatively related to reading,for were (1) use of mathematics, (2) reading, (3) positive writing, and mathematics achievement. A finer analysis of reference to religion, (4) cigarettes, (5) alcoholic drinks. (6) results by Fetter, studying over 10,000 sixth graders, indicated someone attacked, (7) people shot at, (8) people killed. that one to two hours per day watching TV does not hinder Sixty-two prime-time television shows were watched for a reading achievement: however, reading achievement de-month. TV movies, sports events, variety shows, commercials creases as viewing time increases beyond two hours per day. and nem, reports were excluded. Similar findings were reported by Williams and colleagues Readino was the action which occurred most often. The who reviewed many research projects and found that televis-average was 4.2 times per hour (see Table 4, Total Sample). ion viewing has a slight positive effect on school achievement The incidence of drinking was 2.4 times per hour, while people up to ten hours per week. But more than ten hours per week were attacked 1.2 times per hour. People were shot at at the has a negative effect. rate of .9 per hour and people were killed at the same rate. Cigarettes were smoked on the average of .8 per hour. The Imagination use of mathematics occurred at the rate of .4 times per hour Another problem, and one much more difficult to pin down, and positive references to religion were made .5 times per Pit is the effect of frequent viewing on the imagination. It hour. Furthermore, 129 of the 162 episodes observed did not appears that the imagination is not stimulated when one have any use of mathematics and 132 of the episodes did watches TV because TV gives the viewer the images, unlike not have a positive reference to religion. reading which requires us to create images from words. It is These are the figures for every sort of TV show, but most maintained by many educators that reading improves our children have favourite shows. The second leg of the research imaginative abilities and creative writing ability in a way TV discovered what these were. It is when the incidence of does not. Thus Fin excessive amount of televiewing may limit mathematics, reading, etc., for the children's favourite shows a child's writing ability. Pierce found that the writing abilityof is discovered that even more interesting facts are seen. middle school students was negatively related to the amount of time spent watching television. And many teachers will What kids like know the experience of Joan Schloss, a teacher of nine-year- A stratif.ed sample of 1,042 children aged 6- to 11-years-old olds, who said 'When I was reading students' stories for a was chosen, urban and rural, from several states, includ- young author's p Meet, I was shocked because the content ing minority groups. An 'interest inventory' was mailed to their was so violent, n le stories reflected what children see on TV teachers who assisted the students, as needed, in completing monsters and killing. There was nothing creative or imagina-the inventory and returned It to the researchers. The results tive about them.' are in Tables 1, 2 and 3. Time Watching television nct only affects reading achievement, Table 1 imagination, and aggressiveness, but it takes time away Children's Most Liked Prime-time TV Shows from other important activities. Many teachers are concerned FNquency of children who with the child who continually stays up late watchi ig television TV Programme picked as 1 of 3 favourites % and as a result is fatigued during school. ier problems caused by frequent televiewing are less time spent working Alf 387 37 on homework, conversing with family members, engaging in The Cosby Show 265 25 sporting activities, playing, and reading for pleasure. For Growing Pains 104 10 example, a study cchducted at Tufts University indicated that Who's the Boss? 87 8 United States young people became more obese from 1960 Family Ties 81 8 to 1980 and that one of the factors was excessive television viewing. Rags to Riches 57 5 Researching the Facts Table 2 owever, a lot of claims about the influence of TV rely on Hphrases such as 'there is too much shooting.' Exactly Favourite Subject of Children in the Sample how much is there? We need to know. Calculations have been Subject Frequency made by researchers such as Michael Liberman who in set No. 1, 1986, item 11, has an article with an analysis of the Math 434 42 vocabulary and syntax of popular children's programmes. Gym 154 15 It has been assumed that TV has poor models for children. Reading 137 13 Poor models have in fact been counted, and preached Science/Health 104 10 against, and rightly so. But good models have not been Art 69 7 counted, nor their effects looked at. This research project Spelling 66 6 began this task. The research needed to knew what good and bad actions were being shown on TV, but it is slso needed Ottw Language Arts 42 4 to know which were being seen by childrenwhich program- Social Studies 31 3 mes they were watching and the incidence of these models Music 25 2 on 'their' programmes. Therefore the first sectionof the project Recess 18 2 had trained observers watching TV, the second part asked Handwriting 8 1 children which programmes they watched and their likes and Library 6 1 dislikes.

2 Table 3 Behaviour children see Favourite Free Time Activity of Students in the Sample f all the good and bad behaviour children see modelled Activity Frequency Oon their favourite TV programmes reading tops the list - it is depicted 7 times an hour. Positive references to religion, Bike riding 158 15 smoking and people being attacked, shot or killed were not Playing with friends 102 10 displayed on these shows and drinking occurred only 0.1 Watching TV 102 10 times per hour. Th;./ favourite programmes of the children had Playing 97 9 fewer people being attacked, shot at, and killed than the total Football 82 8 sample. The children's favourites also had less smoking, drink- Reading 65 6 ing, and fewer positive references to religion than the full 62 shows. Conversely, the children's shows depicted much more Playing outside 34 3 reading per hour than the total sample. Playing games 29 3 Playing school 24 2 Behaviour adults see 23 2 Pets Also fascinating is the fact that if Americans watched no- Visiting relatives 22 2 r% thing but their five favourite shows they also would see Shopping 21 2 no cigarettes and no people being attacked, shot at or killed. Drawing 19 2 Reading occurs in these programmes at the rate of 5.9 times Skateboarding 19 2 per hour while mathematics is used 0.3 times per tpur. People Swimming 17 2 drink alcohol 3.6 times per hour (rather more than in all shows together) but positive references to religion are the same. Soccer 15 1 The results of this 1987 study closely match those found Basketball 15 1 by Dewalt and Ossenfort for prime-time programmes in 1986. Fishing 11 1 Discussion The responses to question 1, 'What is your favourite TV oth positive and negative behaviour occurs on prime-time show? are displayed in Table 1. Alf and Cosby were the clear television. Reading occurs on the average of 4.2 times favourites of the children with Alf being selected by 37% of per hour, but people were attacked 1.2 times per hour, people the children and The Cosby Show being selected by 25% of were shot 0.9 times per hour and people were killed 0.9 times the students. Forty-one percent of the students reported some per hour. However, as one observer indicated, they would not type of cartoon as one of their favourite shows, and only four have noticed the reading if it had not been their job to note students did not have any favourite television shows, three it down. of whom did not have a television in their home. A second important finding of the study is that both the The same students also answered the question, 'What sub- children's top five favourite shows and the USA's top five ject do you like best in school?' The results displayed in Table shows had very few instances of people being attacked, shot, 2 indicate that mathematics was clearly the favourite subject and killed. This is encouraging because it may indicate a of the children in the sample (42%) while 29% of the children trend away from violence as an essential ingredient of tele- indicated reading to be their favourite subject. The students vision programmes. were also asked to indicate their favourite free time activity. Very many ways of behaving were not measured. We did These results, which are listed in Table 3, indicated that 15% not measure references to sex, verbal abuse, swearing, chase of the students liked bike riding the best. Watching television scenes, drugs, stealing, kidnapping, and verbal threats. One was the favourite free time activity of 10% of the students. observer asked, 'Why don't you measure verbal abuse? I The students were also asked to indicate the best book hope you do next year, this show is just terrible.' Another they had read. The students selected 654 different books observer refused to watch another episode of a show because with no single book being selected by more than 2% of the of the poor quality of the programme which became apparent students. when she took time to record the behaviour exhibited by the

'Bible 4 Means and Standard Deviations for Each Behaviour Seen on Prime Time TV

On Total Programmes On Children's On American in Sample Favourite Programmes Populace's Favourites Standard Standard Standard Behaviour I. an Deviation Mean Deviation Mean Deviation Mathematics 0.4 1.1 0.4 1.1 0.3 1.5 Reading 4.2 5.6 7.0 5.5 5.9 4.8 Religion 0.5 1.4 0.5 1.9 Cigarettes Smoked 0.8 1.9 Alcoholic Drinks 2.4 4.1 0.1 0.5 3 6 8.2 People Attacked 1.2 1.9 ^ People Shot 0.9 2.6 ^ People Killed 0.9 2.3

Children's Favourites - Alf, The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Who's the Bqss?, Family Ties Amencan Populace Favourites - The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers, The Golden Girls, Growing Pains

3 3 characters. It should also be noted that the study did not children, take the,n to libraries so the children can select their measure many aspects of good actions and positive mes- own books; tney should model good reading habits them- sages which some programmes convey. For example, some selves, and read to their children every day. Tips for reducing programmes have addressed the problem of adult illiteracy. time spent televiewing include: The fact that a positive reference to religion occurred only 1. Turn off the television when the programme is finished. once every two hours should send a strong message to the 2. Don't be afraid to say NO to certain programmes or tele- leaders of religious groups. The average family spends nearly viewing in general. 50 hours per week watching television, which leaves little 3. Set limits on number of programmes per week and then time for religious sturdy or for aiding those in need, work out a schedule of viewing with your children. Parents should be aware of both the amount of time their 4. Reduce the number of television sets. children watch television and the content of the program- 5. Gradually reduce your child's televiewing to one hour or mes.They should make sure that televiewing does not take less per school day. time away from other important activities such as playing, reading, conversing with family members, and homework. Parents also need to help their children realise that what Families who have participated in research on the effects of they view on television may not be acceptable behaviour in having no TV for a while usually see reading and conversation their home or neighbourhood. As often as possible parents between family members increase. The families found this should view the programmes with their children and discuss very encouraging. Unfortunately, when the study ends most the consequences of violence, the fictional nature of the prog- families start watching television again; reading and family rammes, and selling techniques used in commercials. conversation return to the pre-research level. Parents can monitor television programmes as done in this Parents who are interested in reducing excessive teleview- study. They can then restrict their children's viewing to shows ing by their children should remember that if they want their with acceptable patterns of behaviour. As one Susquehanna children to watch less television they should provide or University student stated 'I wouldn't want my own children to suggest something else for them to do. For example, they grow up in this kind of [violent] atmosphere so why would I should provide plenty of appropriate reading material for their want them to watch TV when this atmosphere is so prevalent.'

Notes Dr Mark W. Dewalt is Assistant Professor of Education at Susquehanna That imagination is not stimulated by TV is oiscussed in University. Selinsgrove. Pennsylvania. 17870, USA. Singer and Singer (1979) Is human imagination going down the tube? He gratefully acknowledges the efforts of the 37 observers. 35 teachers. The Chronicle of Higher Education. p.56. and 1042 children who participated in the study. Special thanks go to and Susquehanna studenta Laurie Erickson, Allison Hirschman and Kristen Winn. Marie (1977) The plug-in drug, New York: Viking. Weaver who spent many hours on the project. That writing is affected by a lot ot time watching TV is in The 1986-7 figures for USA television watching are from the Peirce, Kate (1983) Relation between time spent viewing television A.C. Nielson Company 1987 year-end report. and and children's writing skills, Journalism Quarterly, Autumn, pp. 445- Baker, K (1988) Americans have more TV's. watch less. Sunbury News 448. Item. The link between obesity and TV viewing comes from The survey by Parents Magazine is by I. Guller and can be found :n the United Press International (1987) Obosity on the rise. Sunbury News May 1987 edition. p. 32. Item. The 1986 study which the present study results closely match is The details for Postmana book are Postman. N. (1987) Amusing Ourselves to Death, New York: Penguin Dewalt, M. and Ossenfort. S. (1987) Reading and Prime-time Televis- ion. Paper presented at the Eastern Edi iCational Research Conference Books. annual meeting Boston. That boys strongly identifying with violent TV characters are more prone A study of what happened when families stopped watching TV is men- to aggressive behaviour is detailed in Heusemann. L.. Lagerspritz, K. and Erou. L (1984) Intervening vari- tioned in ables in the TV violence-aggression relation: Evidence from two coun- Winn. Marie (1977) The plug-in drug, New York: Viking. tries, Developmental Psychology, Vol. 20, No. 5. pp. 746-775. Suggesting something else to do is outlined in That the amount of TV viewing at 8 is the best indicator of aggressiveness Slavenas. R. (1984) TV or not TV. is that the question? Early Child Development and Care. Vol. 13. pp. 377-389. is written about in Faivelson, S. (1987) Verdict on TV violence, WomenS Day, p. 24. Further Reading The Newsweek article on the problem of children and guns was written Parents concerned about the amount of television their children are watch- by George Hackett and others and is in the edition of January 11.1988. ing, or the amount the family is watching should read one or more of the pages 18-19. following: Childrena difficulty with make-believe and reality is detailed in Potter, R. (1981) The positive use of commercial television with children. Weissbourd. P (1985) How much are children aware of? Parents. p. Washington: National Education Association. 124. Charren. P and Hulsizer. C. (1986) TV smart book for kids. Dutton Research projects on TV and lack of success in the 3 Rs not mentioned Winn. Marie (1977) The plug-in drug, New York. Viking Coleman. W (1983) Making TV work for your family. Minneapolis in this article include Neuman. S. and Prowda. P (1982) Television viewing and reading Bethany House. achievement. Journal of Reading, pp. 666-670. and Sean& D.. Mead. N. and Ward. B. (1985) The relationship of students reading skills to TV watching, leisure time reading. and homework. Journal of Reading, pp. 158-162. The projects mentioned are Comstock. G. (1982) Education and television The persistent challenge. Television and Children. pp. 9-13. and Fetter, M. (1984) Television viewing and school achievement. Journal of Communication, Vol. 34. No. 2. pp. 104-118. and Copying Permitted Williams. P. Haertel. E.. Haertel. G. and Wa !berg. H. (1982) Impact of Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER which grant to television on school learning: A research synthesis. American Educa- all pecple actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the interests tional Research Journal. Vol. 19. pp. 19-50. of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source.

4 Item 9 (setryrw-,:.1, number two 1990 GIRLS ARE BETTER THAN BOYS? Tony Gallagher University of Ulster

ILWO RECENTLY PUBLISHED REPORTS from the On average and total attainment scores, and the four '0- orthern Ireland Council for Educational Re- level' criterion, girls did better at 16 than boys. More im- search contain evidence on the comparative per- portantly, this was true also for girls and boys with the formanco ot boys and girls in public examinations same grades in eleven-plus. at 16. They show girls outperforming boys (even after These results should not have come as a complete sur- allowance is made for ability level). prise to the Department of Education in Northern Ireland: This is particularly significant in Northern Ireland be- their most recent School Leaver Statistics show girls out- cause in Northern Ireland there are still Grammar schools. performing boys. A lot hangs on your passing or failing an exam called the 'eleven-plus'. If you pass you will be offered a free place in a Grammar school, a school with an 'academic' syllabus The Test Case which will open up chances for entry to University and Vollowing the publication of Transfer Pupils at Sixteen the the professions. If you fail the eleven-plus you will prob- Equal Opportunities Commission decided to support ably go to a school which does not aim to get you to a test case alleging that the policy of treating boys and university; the professions will be, virtually, closed to you. girls as separate populations amounted to sex discrimina- Therefore, for the intellectual health of the country, and tion. The parents of four girls, who had taken the eleven- for equity in selection, the eleven-plus exam has been two plus examination in 1987 and who had been deemed not verbal-reasoning-type tests, taken in the 1st term of the qualified for a Grammar school place, argued, on the basis final year of primary schooling. It is said to test knowledge of their school work, that their daughters had probably and educational aptitude. The top 27% of boys and theobtained better marks on the tests than boys who had top 27% of girls qualified for a non-fee paying place in a qualified for grammar school places. As background evi- Grammar school. Was this fair? dence the Equal Opportunities Commission submitted Boys and girls were treated as separate (but equal?) copies of Pupils in the Border Band and Transfer Pupils at populations. This 'discrimination' was justified in 1984 by Sixteen with the High Court Judge. The Court therefore Nicholas Scott, the then Under-Secretary of State with had two issues to decide on: first, whether or not the responsibility for Education in Northern Ireland: policy of separate ranking for boys and girls in the selection The present procedure, which is designed to select those most likely to benefit from academic courses, takes account procedure was illegal, and second, whether or not the of the differing intellectual maturity between boys and four girls whose parents had brought the case had them- girls, but not by making adjustments to scores. I am fully selves been discriminated against. persuaded that our procedure is fair to all the children. On 1 July 1988 the Judge ruled that the Department of In other words, girls were expected to have higher attain- Education's policy of separate ranking at 11 did amount ment at age 11, but boys were expected to have caught to sex discrimination and was therefore illegal. On 6 July up at some later stage. If this premise was valid, then to the Department announced that the policy of separate treat boys and girls as a single population at 11 would, in marking would cease and that the marks for the 1987/8 fact, discriminate against boys. Transfer age-group would be reviewed such that the entire The two reports, Pupils in the Border Band and Transferage-group would be treated as a single population. On Pupils at Sixteen both suggested that the premise was not the basis of the review an additional 305 girls fell within valid. Studying 484 15-year-olds, the Border Band study the top 27 percent r: marks and were awarded qualified showed that, girls, on average, achieved the equivalent of status. Also, lite Impartment announced that any qualified nearly one '0-level' exam pass more than the boys. Sig-boys who, in consequence of the review, had been dis- nificantly more of the girls (74.4%) than of the boys placed from the top 27 percent would nevertheless retain (57.5%) achieved four or more '0-level' passes, the mini-their grammar places. mum level of attainment necessary to retain or obtain a The Education and Library Boards are currently trying place in the sixth ;orm of a Grammar school. to place in Grammar Schools those affected girls who wish The Transfer Pupils at Sixteen study used a larger sample to avail of this opportunity. Of the four girls involved in of 1500 pupils, randomly drawn from the list of pupils the test case, at least three were not among the extra 305 transferring from primary to post-primary schools in 1981. qualifiers. However, these three girls may yet obtain grammar pUces. After the Department's initial responseNorthern Irish society differs little from most other to the (*lurt! tuling, the Equal Opportunities Commission societies in the generally subordinate role allotted to r.girl who obtaitied marks equal to or above women. Thus, if girls out-perform boys atschool at the that of th. ,rst qualified bay, should be declared qual-ages of eleven and sixteen, what happensafterwards to ified. set limits on women's performance in the labourmarket? As a result uf the Cour .s July ruling just over 400 boys,1Wo possibilities suggest themselves. The first is that in who had been in the top 27 percent of boys' marks, werelater stages of the educational process women are shunted displaced from the top ;7 percent of all pupils' marks. Theinto curricular ghettoes that limit their options in the Equal Opportunities C.rission argued that the Depart-labour market; in other words, what people are qualified ment's decision to allow these boys to retain their non-in over-rides qualifications per se. The second possibility feepaying places in Grammar schools amounted to sexis that discrimination against women in the labour market discrimination and that any girls with marks equal to oris even stronger than might previously have been thought. above the lowest qualified boy should be offered a freeIt would seem that any initial self-congratulation on the grammar place. On 20 September the Judgeruled in favour NICER findings by feminists ought, perhaps, to be re- of this argument and a further 555 girls were offered non-placed by more sober reflection by everyone on the wider feepaying places in grammar schools. It is not known how implications for women in society. this affected the girls involved in the test case. The fourth and final set of questions raised by the episode concerns the linkage between educational policy and equal opportunity. At the time the eleven-plus was Lessons devised, equal opportunity for women or members of rr he research findings and the outcomeof the sub-ethnic minorities was not given the priority properly af- sequent court case raise a number of important ques-forded from the 1960s onwards. Whilst life chances hang tions, for educationalists and researchers inparticular, and on the outcomes of exams, with nationalqualifications for society more generally. giving entry to further education, better paid jobs and a Firstly, the case raises some questions foreducationalistsbetter life style, debates about what tests measure are far on the efficacy of ability tests.We can think of the twofrom academic, and are not the sole perogative of main types of tests that are given tochildren as (a) cur-educationalists. At the extremes, poor testing could riculum-based tests of achievement which seek todeter-exclude Einsteins from Mathematics, put Calibans into mine the extent to which children haveacquired somehaute couture. At the very least, poor testing, including particular, specific, knowledge, and (b) tests ofability that which reflects older stereotyped notions of ability and which should reflect more general knowledgeand a talentdevelopment, could mean that particular categories of for a certain type of learning. Theeleven-plus was de-people will" have to put up with less than fulfilling lives. signed as an ability test, and used in NorthernIreland to If ec'ucationalists do not lolk to their techniques and select those pupils who should mostbenefit from themethods in the light of the wider commitment to equal academic curriculum of a grammar school.Ability tests opportunity, it could happen that, as in Northern Ireland, were preferred over knowledge testsfor selection to gram-other people do it for them. mar schools sinceknowledge-based tests were thought to be too heavily influenced by suchfactors as home background. Notes irrelevant as far In the court case this background was Dr A.M. Gallagher worked for the Northern IrelandCouncil for Edu- as the judge wasconcerned: he was solely interested in cational Research between 1985 and 1987 and is currently Research the outcome of the tests vis-a-vis sexdiscrimination. Fur- Officer at the Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster thermore, the Department of Education ignoredthe at Coleraine, Northern Ireland. rationale of its own tests when it decided toallow the boys who had originally 'passed' theeleven-plus, but were References then displaced from the top 27%, to retaintheir grammar Equal Opportunities Commission of Northern Ireland (1983)Quality places. Furthermore, Wilson (1987) has pointed outthat m Education; Are you providing it? - a guide togood practicrin the provision the transfer age-group of &furl opportunities in education,Belfast: EOC. in the 1950s approximately 15% of Report No. 4 from were deemed to havequalified the eleven-plus, but by Gallagher, A.M. (1988)Transfer Pupils at Sixteen, the 1980s this had risen to almost 30%.It would seem the NICER Transfer Procedure Project, Belfast: NICER. education is more Johnston, J. and Rooney, E. (1987) Gender differences ineducation. that suitability for a grammar school In R.D. Osborne, R.I. Cormack and R. Miller (eds.)Edualtion and related to the number of grammar placesavailable than Policy in Northern Ireland,Belfast: Policy Research Institute. to any abstract criterion ofsuitability. Scott, N. (1984) Speech by Mr Nicholas Scott MP,Under-Secretary The second issue is of particular relevance toresearch- of State responsible for education, at the annualconference of the ers, but is importantalso for those generally interested in Ulster Teachers' Union at Newcastle, County Down (27 April 1984). the formation of social policy. At the timeof the research Belfast: Northern Ireland Information Service. into the Transfer Procedure, NICER wasalmost wholly Sutherland, A.E. and Gallagher, A.M. (1986)D'ansfer and thr Upper funded by the Department of Education inNorthern Ire- Primary School, ReportNo. 1 from the NICER Transfer Procedure publish its research Project, Belfast: NICER. land. However, NICER was free to Sutherland, A.E. and Gallagher, A.M. (1987)Pupils in the Border Band, findings. This was important because itallowed a third Report No. 3 from the NICER Transfer ProcedureProject, Belfast: Opportunities Commission, party, in this case the Equal Wilson, J.A. (1987) Selection for Secondary Education.In R.D. Os.. to draw upon those researchfindings when launching its borne, R.J. Cormack and R. Miller (eds.)Education and Policy in Nor- legal challenge. In the interests offree and democratic thern Ireland,Belast: Policy Research Institute. discussion on social policy it is importantthat research Copies of the NICERTransfer Procedure Projectreports can be obtained results are openly and widely available. from the NICER Research Unit, Queen's University,Belfast. Thirdly, a number of questions are raisedfor feminists and those interested in the issue ofgender equality. Feminists may say, one hopes with their tonguesin cheek, © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant that the NICER research confirms whatthey already knew, to all people achy* engaged in education theright to copy it in the i.e., that girls are intellectually superior toboys. However, interests of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source. 2 4U Setmorssztco Item 10 foe Iseerws number two 1990 SMALL CHILDREN SOLVE BIG PROBLEMS Lyn English Queensland Unizvsity of Technology

41 1 BEST COPYAYA1LABLE Figure 1. Try your hand at this problem. Use the clues to find the special block. Clues: The block is not thick. It is not a triangle. It is not large.

What method did you use to arrive at your answer? TbHIS PROBLEM was given to 52 5-year-olds, in a quiet room of their school. The blocks were there Young children can solve seriation and the clues spoken. Forty-six identified the right problems lock and with very little delay; once the last clue While acknowledging Piaget's outstanding contribu- had been given, the children pointed immediately to the tion to child psychology, modem research is yielding correct block. a more positive and realistic account of the young child's When we analyse the logical thinking required, we cognitive abilities. For example, DeLoache, Sugarman, realise just how cognitively adept young children are when and Brown explored very young children's strategies in they commence their school lives. Yet research has tended assembling a set of five nested cups. The cups were chosen to highlight what young children can not do.The result because of their appeal to young children and because is that children's competence as thinkers and problemsol- mistakes were immediately obvious to the children - a vers has been underestimated. By highlightingthe cogni- feedback feature. Children as young as 18 months ar- tive talents of young children we can see how to enrich ranged the cups with enthusiasm. They knew immediately children's problem-solving experiences. when they had made a mistake and hence, were able to correct their errors. An analysis of the ways the children Past Limitations managed the corrections revealed increasing flexibility and broadening of thought and action with age, trends which he theories of Jean Piaget have been the most influen- otherwise might not have been detected. Ttial on our thinking about children's thinking. How- ever, they portray you g children aslimited in their ability to reason logically or inferentially or to think intelligently Young children can reason deductively in general. If you set out to teach only the range of educational experiences which fit Piaget's stages of cognitive t was once thought that only older children could man- development you will restrict your teaching. Piaget's exper- Iage to draw logical conclusions. However, six-year-olds iments were based on sophisticated scientific phenomena have this ability. Within the context of a make-believe and were frequently accompanied by abstract instructions world, Dias and Harris presented young children with and unfamiliar apparatu5. Consequently, children's poorsyllogisms whose premises ran counter to their practical performance on many Piagetian tasks could have been knowledge, for example: due largely to their failure to understand the instructions All cats bark. and to the meaningless nature of the task materials. In Rex is a cat. the 'colouring liquids' experiment, for example, children Does Rex bark? Why/why not? were presented with containers ofdifferent chemical substances which they were to mix in all possible ways. The It was found that the use of fantasy cut down the atten- chemical reactions of the substances produced varying tion they gave to their practical world knowledge, enabling colours which served to identify the combinations formed. them to accept the premises as a basis for reasoning. Given Another experiment required the child to predict the con-a task with appropriate content, young children can reason ditions under which a rod would bend sufficiently to en-deductively. I confirmed this in a sin- iiar project. I gave able one end to touch the water in a basin. Weights and bq,inning school children syllogistic problems with fan . clamps were attached to the rods which varied in thick-tasy creatures. One piece of reasoning was ness, cross-sectional form, and substance.These variables Wobbles wear furry pyjamas to bed. had to be considered one at a time when determining the Animals that wear furry pyjamas love to eat grubs. conditions under which the rod wouid bend. This meant Morilla is a Wobble. that all the other variables had to be held constant. In Does Morilla eat grubs? Why/why not? other words, the child had to imagine all the possible combinations involving these variables. Given the sophis- This was presented in two different ways. In one set ;:f ticated structure of these two tasks, it is not surprising problems, children played with a stuffed animal called that it was not till adolescence that children could do these 'Morilla'. In the other set of problems, children were asked tasks, that is, at Piaget's stage called 'formal operations'. to pretend that they were the creature. For example, 'Let's

2 pretend that you are a Wobble. Do you eat grubs?' In thissolution strategies. They moved away from trial-and-error instance, one would expect the children to say, 'No! I don't towards systematic solution procedures involving a pat- eat grubs'. However, many of the children not only drew tern in item selection (e.g. blue top, green top; blue top, green logically correct conclusions, but also gave 'theoretical' top...). They refined their pattern until they had adopted reasons why: 'Yes, Mori Ila eats grubs because she wears an efficient 'odometer strategy', so named because of its furry pyjamas:, or 'Yes, I eat grubs because I'm a Wobble resemblance to the functioning of a car's odometer (milage and I wear furry pyjamas.' In other words, the children counter). This strategy involved taking one item of clothing did not guess; they were able to ignore practical consider- (e.g. a yellow top) and systematically matching it with ations and use deductive reasoning to draw conclusions. each of the items of the other type until all possible com- An interesting finding here was that children who adopted binations with that item had been formed (e.g. yellow top/ the creature role outperformed those for whom a toy was pink pants; yellow top/blue pants; yellow top/red pants). provided. But maybe the doll's pyjamas were not furry This procedure was repeated until all possible combina- enough! tions of tops and pants had been formed, as shown in Young children can solve problems Figure 3. of combination Figure 3

easoning in a logical manner is also evident when Rchildren systematically form all possible combinations of two items. The name for the mathematical study of the selection and arrangement of items in a finite set is corn- binatorics. An interestirg research project looked into how well young children can handle such problems. The problems they were given did not have 'ready-made' solution procedures and hence, the children had to use their existing knowledge structures and thinking processes to solve the problems. The study was in three parts involving 115 children aged from 4.6 years to 9.10 years. Here is one of the investigations in which 50 children took part. Each child was presented with a series of seven problem- solving tasks involving dressing toy bears in all possible combinations of tops and pants of various colours. Two of the tasks used items of the same colour but with varying ;lumbers of buttons. The number of possible combinations ranged from five to nine.

Figure 2 While the problem (dressing dolls) was meaningful to young children, the mathematical domainunderlying the task was new to them. Hence the children's initial attempts showed little knowledge of combinatorics, but considerable knowledge of informal problem-solving procedures. But once they had finished the tasks, many children displayed an implicit knowledge of combinatorial principles. Some could even make the principles explicit by explaining the 'best' way of solving the problem. Associated with this was a significant improvement in their ability to tackle non-routine problems outside the combinatorics field, with many children independently acquiring expert-like problem-solving strategies.In essence, these children were able to assume control of their ownlearning. Conclusions he findings of the studies have significant implications The children were videotaped and their problem-solving Tfor the education of Young school children. Tradition- tactics later analysed. They all possessed a repertoire of ally, mathematical problem-solving in the early school problem-solving strategies which they almost all could years has focused on routine word problemsinvolving apply effectively. All of the children commenced with trial- arithmetic computations. Because problems of this type and-error; they did not employ any systematic method in are usually 'predictable' in that they can besolved through selecting the clothing items but simply chose the tops and the application of one of the four arithmetic operations, pants in a random fashion. This is a relativelyinefficient they rarely provide children with the opportunity to en- way of solving such a problem yet 25 of the 50children gage in diverse thinking processes. Problem-solving in the managed to get all the possible different outfits in the first early school should encompass more than the application task. The major reason for their success was their effective of previously learnt rules or procedures. Children need use of checking strategies. Theyemployed a number of to engage in ;. wide range of problem-solving experiences scanning actions to monitor their progress. Through care- (some of which have as many solutions as there a're chil- ful scanning, the children were able to detect and correct dren in the class) and should be encouratechtithink and any errors in the mix of items theyhad selected. talk about their means of soltitiOn. s should As the children got further through the setof similar capitalise on yourtg children's intellectual talents so that tasks, 28 of the 50 children adopted more sophisticated their thinking can be extended and enriched.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 3 Notes Dr Lyn English is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. The Dias and Harris experiment with syllogisms comes from Science and Computing at the Queensland University of Technology, Dias. M. and Harris, P. (19881 The effect of make-believe play on Carseldine Campus, Box 284, Zillmere, Queensland, Australia 4034. deductive reasoning, British Journal of Development Psyclwlogy, Vol. The study first mentioned was undertaken by Lyn English during 6, pp. 207-221. Confirming research by the author on syllogistic reasoning is written 1989. Further information may be obtained from her. up in The underestimation of children's competence as thinkers and prob- English, L.D. (1989) Reasoning in a fantasy uvrld: Deductive logic lem solvers is detailed in displayed by beginning first graders. Paper presented at the Annual Donaldson, M. (1985) The mismatch between school and children's Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, minds. In N. Entwistle (Ed.) New Directions in educational psychology Adelaide, November 28December 2. 1: Learning and teaching, London: The Falmer Press. Research on reasoning to solve combinatorial problems was studied How Piaget's influential theories show young children as limited in by the author and can be found more fully in logical reasoning is discussed in the same book. English, L.D. (1988) Young children's competence in solving novel com- A criticism of the sophisticated scientific phenomena in Piaget's exper- binatorial probknis. Ph.D thesis, University of Queensland. iments can be found in That schools should capitalise on children's intellectual talents is Carey, S. (1985) Are children fundamentally different kinds of thin- further developed in kers and learners than adults? In S.E Thipman, J.W. Segal and R. Splitter, L. (1988) On teaching children to be better thinkers, Un- Glaser (Eds.) Thinking and learning skills. ivl. 2: Current research and icorn, Vol. 14, No..1, pp. 40-47 open questions, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. The 'colouring liquids' experiment and bending rod experiment is written up in Inhelder. B. and Piaget, J. (1958) The growth ot logical thinking prom childhood to adolescence, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. The nesting cups experiment is found in Copying Permitted DeLoache, J.. Sugarman, S. and Brown, A. (1985) The development (2) Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant of error correction strategies in young children's manipulative play, to all people actively engaged in education the right to cop? It in the Cognitwe Development, Vol 56, pp. 928-939. Interests of better teaching. Please acknowledge the source.

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BEiTCOPY AVAILABLE 44

4 wommO irlsrmoko Item 11 setloomet number two 1990 INCREASING META-LEARNING Part 2 Thinking Books By Susan Swan Clayton North Primary School and Richard White Monash University

TaHIS IS THE SECOND ARTICLE of a pair on study we preferred to limit the entries to one per day, and methods of improving the quality of students' make them more complete and direct descriptions of what learning. The first, by Bakopanos and White, had been learned. Each child was given an exercise book ppeared in the previous issue of set.It de- on the first day of the 1988 school year, and was asked to scribed the encouragement of senior secondary school label it 'Thinking Book'. Entries in these books were to be students to ask questions. The intervention described the means of training them to become more conscious, in the present article required middle primary school purposeful learners. students to write, each day, one thing they had learned. The training involved a cycle: the children reflected on In both cases the purpose was to make students moretheir learning and wrote in their thinking books, the purposeful learners, more aware of how they learn. The teacher then reflected on their entries and wrote a response technical term is meta-learning. in each book, then next day the child read the teacher's The procedure described here, like the one in the pre- response and thought about it in making the next entry. vious article, appears simple. Both, however, illustrate In constructing responses, the teacher had three major two key points: interventions to increase meta-learning objectives in mind. The children were: cannot be brief, as they have to alter the ingrained learn- to increase links between what they were learning and ing habits of years, and for them to affect classroom what they already knew; behaviour they have to be part of the normal programme, to increase links between what they were learning and not taught as separate lessons. their experiences outside school; to become more active in learning, through questioning things they did not understand, the purposes of class- Study 2: Helping Children Reflect on room activities, and the effectiveness of their work Their Learning habits. n 1985 John Baird made the first Australian experiments An example of how the teacher promoted the first two Iin meta-learning, with 14- and 16-year-olds in science of these objectives follows. All examples are headed by classes. He made much use of evaluation notebooks in the child's name and the date. which at the end of each lesson the students graded the Jenny, Ar.ril 12th. quality of their involvement. A similar diary was intro- tt duos, am.. W4 1.4,414o, duced at the beginning of the Project for the Enhancement V4A1,tA.t. of Effective Learning (PEEL) at Laverton High School but ? tsiO Ait4AL_P-At1,"tt soon had to be abandoned as the students disliked using "i 4144/ "fr. it. That was unfortunate, since recording how well the A t'iligt#164 a. (A.OL rotit er student had thought about the topic of the lesson seems Phu, ri ores 4.k.0( cro SS jr 1000 4.0b44 a useful way of encouraging meta-learning. It remains useful, however, only if it involves reflection and does not ta I Nave I.A.seti fo-e &icy I:Asels degenerate into a chore that is done mindlessly. The potential value of written reflection on lessons re- It took about 20 minutes each day for the teacher to mained attractive enough, despite the PEEL experience, respond to the children's nntries. The responses were never for another investigation of its practicality. The students negative. Errors in facts and in spelling and grammar were in this trial were much younger, a Year 3 (Std. 2) class of not corrected, since that would have inhibited the children. 21 children of average age about 8 years. Errors were dealt with in class, without ascribing them to Entries in the diaries or evaluation notebooks in the individuals. earlier studies had been brief assessments by the students The procedure began on the first day of the school year of their activity in the lesson. The entries were required (February 3), and wntinued through tl e year. This report for every lesson. With the younger children in the present is based on progress up to the middle of the year. 1 4 5 Results Polly. April 13th.

The data are the students' and teacher's entries in the M Mil., I tienthervteroire444 Loa S tip, 5 thinking books. They are extensive (about 2000 student iik 0..1s # iejalIS, entries for the class in half a year), and virtually impossible to summarise in a table. A more substantialsampling of Ke. cnI. the entries than is possible here is in Susan Swan's thesis; Ootoof Pett.j.I c. Au.'WaifJena itaam. here all that we provide are summary conclusions with Alm aatj Lid crt...1 a440.j 40 one or two illustrative examples and onecomplete case 4'441444144 P` intiVekei iA 11.41% study. iNilua wit0/1 $A.m.A ti4.4tAfor Objective 1: Increase linking with 4%Aai yog um* +0oviae. ct VI AC ric4 bid it.4 S Ctookci prior knowledge. Cs.Y e p.e,ollve 30165.e) live he children increased markedly their formation of links Pio ca. Twith prior knowledge. At the beginning of the year 14 none formed such links, and commentedonly on the new e, 1 cm; +-amp e.5sq. re.,11 Ot1 things they learned each lesson. The teach..r's responses encouraged them, and they made progress in reperting .3iv) ft'4.3 40f links, in the thinking books and in oral work in class. Stephanie, May 24th. Objective 3: Increase activity in learning through questions by L.ToK R students he children were to question anything they did not lona -tesote. 1:4y41. 141#4, Tunderstand, the purposes of classroom activities, and rier4or pro ftLe ;WM,' do /rooks the effectiveness of their own work habits. This objective was achieved less well than the first two, though even mate ththrritcwstJy UAL 11 here progress occurred. They did ask questions in their OF 4f-ere/ithiettert,A,Lsthejso,. books, but not so much about the three targets I listed above; rather, they wanted information about something is mes knit -there- elm /sitaws. they were interested in, or wanted to know the teacher's opinion. Jenny, March 3rd. 6.144,4y,WING.? &ft(241' UJ areactoiLy cLue cettvc f&Pr enI-411 &AAA 11.42A ttaLiAlb jot& h.4. 64.rat Weekirk. &Ler Ls ? Why tied. tM. 11)16Z 1A0//e vole a ire.? and. w Alydid tA to They continued to find it difficult to recover priorknow- edee.1:900.c ledge, preferring to recall episodes of events. These 0.1 L ell*ILA& all f &Lc t 144 episodes were relevant, but the children had trouble in fe-e" extracting facts from them. One example occurred when Mts / fedsot'5 the children were discussing feral animals in Australia. All of the children in the group claimed that they didn't know tAect.1-riyr int sI s tocty anything about feral animals but once the discussion got going almost every child was able to relate a story aboutwe a.iN 120? foxes or some other sort of feral animal from an uncle's There were very few questions about things the children property or wherever. Most of the children did infactdidn't understand, the purposes of class activities and possess quite a bit of knowledge about the topicbut ittheir work habits. This should not necessarily imply that seemed to be inextricably linked with particular episodes. they were not questioning at all. Most of the children were Nevertheless, the children became much more fluent incontinually reflecting on these aspects of their learning reporting links between topics. but rarely posed those reflections as questions. They made a lot of statements in their thinking books to point out the Objective 2: Increase linking with out-things they did not understand in various lessons. of-school experiences Catherine, April 13th. T inking with experiences cannot be separated sharply were, 1-101/J,0 Li from linking with factual knowledge, as we found with 7- otety nlyt4s the first objective. The children became very fluent in mak- a-blOtJdiriL1 iPt big Airing ing links with episodes, although at the beginning of the year they made none. They had to be helped tomake them. eitd Sactwo 4L111s$S o math They began to make links with their own past experi- rn to yeti', ences, but even more excitingly came also toobserve uses for what they learned in other people's lives and for them- earepteksd e it7a 4 I:kesas selves in the future. This was true for both fuither learning or 1aelm yo and in out-of-school applications. anIIt 46. By writing down the thirsgs they did not understand Jenny, May 27th. the children had a belief that this would mean they would receive some assistance, either through the responsesthey ro itstymrs s-tvan alkea. tA,S were given in their thinldng book orthrough additional to writ e 1,:n our3/71 4 ittrtg assistance in the following lesson. In this way their reflections on areas of difficulty had the same effect as questions. liooissLIM at- cue 1 ire ht The children seemed to iind it easier to write about something they were having difficulty withrather than forming 610.44-1,g tnif` Adetking it into a specific question. you The purposes of classroom activities again were not so 14remttAat much questioned as reflected on. The children were en- t'VC. 14 6 °Mr th tel couraged to think and write about the purposes of things they were learning. At times when they could not see the kooksb-ecaae. ott66relk purpose, they either stated this or posedit as a question. 1-teLt tt L pOr tti Tim, April llth. Y/Z do some,t6ikizipj 700101it, dokie CA t offir-nit& toiki some,-tLn.3 G-141ikie, ratiti 1 ctictork40, now 11:11rn ke how- todo daiderij tryjusi.darit 1iih4 Urn arta o be Walt (4 _5 chs we Carole how i;eik5a .a- y jo cto doGle ttl t r? kfrWie ,fAi al I Although framing questions was difficult, in general and 4:t f-ter there seemed an understanding that there was a purpose a. Veryi.nPortri6 to each classroom activity and thechildren had to think -ULI about and decide what this purpose was.They became g et on1.1 ou thin. very good at this type ofreflection. Mrs 6tvad-L /EMX Jenny, April 22nd. et is vify po-rt ent 't4Ota..j /(4.OIL Pellt ;15 hkevoi. / re-ii1-t11a.1. rf In conclusion, all of the objectives set out were achieved 4r4 hm4) spa/in some measure. The children's reflections inthe three 9014d areas outlined did increasesignificantly in frequency, in cot% er1iL t- ivr-Cr ,e. ctf.4i3quality and in their spontaneity. The form that thosereflec- .then tions took, however, was perhaps a little different to that ptople,kidA ho.c kr!0/e_rsieLfrot, which was anticipated in the planning of the strategy. The id fi IA- are children relied heavily on linking their learning with actual r GLVta- episodes rather than facts. They did not use questions to 4 e,ate--e-frfy y14- W clarify the things they were learning or to reflect ontheir (notAi sivtl work habits as was anticipated, but rather to find out more t; Kola IA) about the things that interested them or puzzledthem. 06 her' tv zjo It, 1/ I A Case Study f&Pd. OP4°19 mpressions of progress with the objectives arebest The children used the thinking books veryinfrequently Igained by reading each child's thinking book from start to reflect on their work habits.But they did occasionally, to finish. Some, of course, change morethan others. The when making excuses for what they didn'tdo. child in the example that follows is one who at the begin- Ariana, March 9th. ning of Year 3 was already in difficulty in copingwith school. 10115/lc "el (roe Stephanie arrived new into the school from a nearby school it the beginning of the year. She wasenrolled by dider Ce44 id 1,4Ja her older sister Maria. Maria is fifteen yearsStephanie's sloo) senior and requested that any correspondence orproblems ta Slow.141.6) concerning Stephanie be directed to herselfrather than much I was4aliting the parents as their English is limited. Both parentsand Maria were born in Italy although Stephanie wasborn in reflections into questions Australia. She has no other brothers or sisters. At no time did they form these roles, it about their work habits. After questioning Stephanie about the family When asked to reflect on what they havelearnt by writ- became evident that she did not take any responsibility have ing in their thinking books, most of the responsesprovided for herself or her belongings at home. She did not understanding of how any jobs around the holisewhich she was expected to by the children reflected a good the they learnt and the role of the thinkingbook in their learn- perform. Her school bag was unpacked for her in afternoon and packed again the next day. She wastold ing.

347 by her sister what to wear every day. All notices which February 10th. were given to Stephanie to have signed by parentsand Nr.ortis be returned, such as Religious Education and Swimming PeJeuedsicy I cie Acme. permission slips, were returned to school by her sister. A few days after the class's first homework project was how 1,2 NyeMorly b is civen to the children, Maria arrived at school to fmd out h 06,0- Am APC4I00 Sae d. exactly what the project entailed, as she claimed that Stephanie seemed confused and anxious about it. When ZOV if.Sh the projects were handed in, Stephanie's MP of an extremely high standarc: with very detailed illusto.dons and written in handwriti-dg which definitely did not belong to her. When asked to present her project to the class, she After two weeks of writing daily in her thinking book, she wrote an entry which did in fact reflect on what she could not even read what was written. Al l. of the children in the class work daily on process had learnt in relation to that which she had been directed to write about. writing. This entails work on individual pieces of writing for which they areJsponsible. The role of the teacher February 16th. during these sessions is that of a consultant, providing individuals or small groups of children with conferences /we lamca.G-cre. Aar Glick poorie about their writing. During the first couple of weeks of Ihei i.bcd cdider Me eon,. term, Stephanie would complain at the beginning of each session that she 'had nothing to write down.' She asked Wee C) ci.ec ktei" CAe 4 IcILZ. to work with a partner. This was allowed in thehope that it would motivate her or stimulate some ideas for her own writing. During the first four weeks of term she 'worked' with various partners but seemed to spend all her time Even though this entry revealed confusion between con- talking about irrelevant topics. The only written work com-Victs and aborigines, the response provided was positive pleted during this period was written solely by the otheras this was the firet entry which showe4 some comprehen- child. sion of the task. Stephanie rarely made any contributions to class discus- The following day she then wrote almost the same thing sions early in the year. Occasionally she would raise !ler again. hand indicating that she had something to say and then February 17th. ask a question quite irrelevant to the discussion. For example, during a discussion about the conditions on board the first fleet ships for convicts, she put her hand up to ask if the class had sport that day as she 'forgot her run Idm/ lor-A-1-cdt,iL Ae frsi- ners'. She tended to sit on the outside of the group oi fleee &)7e%7 Lo..) CCP %Ades children and often played with another child's hair during ij Cal such discussions. Cd Lrooct1At9 LAJ c,.-)otscletset Stephanie often seemed inattentive at the beginning of the year when instructions were being given. She never GI) 4' I elo 010 LA, AO-eAr attempted anything without first requesting help. She continually complained that she did not understand or could Citvelt not complete an activity, even before attemptingit. Stephanie's early reflections in her thinking book regard- ing what she had learnt revealed a lack of effort and responsibility toward her own learning. Her first three entries all commented that she had learnt something but had forgot- The response she received back pointed out that this ten wha t. was almost a repeat of the previous day's entry. February 4th. About two weeks later, the entries began to show somewhat more detail and evidence of reflection. oWot jou.. Le 04.rn0,b-ota tke March 1st. (APL Jt..t Lera 7/ fc,p *en- is &rt..;dehy ellhot felt. you117 se M..Skoty 3. February 5th. itIpt,.0 two IGigu ihy GirChoGo heersia jo." M er e, CO er 14441# 3Cik in op ala i r-ezzi .4fr Itow khe karoo.jol ki.s kra.4 f. tkat teitxr Steres.r.i.e.?

+ 1-1^ 0 -roych A couple of weeks after this, Stephanie began to make Following this she began to write a minimal amount links between what she was learning and her experiences but it was unrelated to that wh;:h she had been directed in the world. She also began asking questions and reflect- to write about. ing on her own work habits.

4 March 10th. Stephanie began to work on her own during process writing sessions after the fourth week of term. She began to produce some quite reasonable pieces of writing and A tA/r LYNs, 'yob no longer asked for topic ideas. Stephanie managed to t Ma& organize conferences about her writing and before the end ulna.1 4.,1 iltal In4/411 jou of term had made two of her stories into books. Stephanie's participa ion in class discussions gradually havit. uteu SC Q,,i deo v increased during theiter part of the term. She began to Juky cr% s iM make some worthwhile contributions and ask some in- rad teresting questions such as: 'How did the white people ;aave 1 Goiet learn to communicate with the aborigines?' The second project which was to be completed at home hp e r.Pv. ICS 34940Pej was handed in at the end of first term. Stephanie's was Crn doe written in her own handwriting this time and she pre- 4'446(..e r 3Cet- sented it to the class quite confidently. The artwork was 0100, 414Orli, again of a very high standard and obviously not done by .41 Stephanie. Her sister had not visited the school to find out what was expected for this project. This change in attitude and behaviour could not neces- All of the responses provided back to Stephanie weresarily be :nterpreted as a consequence of Stepharie's in- positive, encouraging her to continue to make these links creasingly complex reflections in her thinking book. It certainly, however, played an important part in increasing and to question anything she was unsure about or found interesting. Stephanie's responses continued to show in-her confidence in and sense of control over her own work creasing evidence of reflective thinking and active linking. 'as was evidenced by her sister's comments. Maria came to school to check up on Stephanie's progress saying that March 24th. Stephanie had been telling her how much she had improved and how she was thinking so much harder. At the day 1,m 'maths Gut end of first term Stephanie asked to take her thinking b-45 t e itbook home to show Maria and parents h^w well she was so doing and how she was a 'good thinker' now. Stephanie bc,01.N.e. an.at was asked if writing in her thinking book had helpedwith 1 was her learning. Her answer was a definite 'Yes'. When asked okdb ;744ft in what way it helped she said 'Well it makes me think (reccte,c%e about what I use things for when I grow up and that. It's woiriivraL good for you to think about what you're learning and to ask questions. I think they're really fun too.' ekat Although assessment of the thinking books has to be ii-toerb subjective, case studies such as Stephanie's give us confi- 4t.ve?" ja;now kcv.4.d dence in the effectiveness of the books in improv ing the b -e quality of the student's learning. That effectiveness is not, bel however, automatic. One prerequisite is that the children 1,w 1,4) oko must distinguish between what they did in class and what (..6 they learned. For some children this took nearly a term, ow Vuo t4.) to with frequent reminders and conferences with the teacher. -64e- .1144--ec.. This early example shows Vicky writing about what she did, not what she learned. ke LA,Z vzcti. LS Vicky, February 12th. kluaw o&ell .6-t. free ca.1.44 the- 1410 wear so-ys 370-c-091., ken. ya-, 4/1th MR katLi, a meaba J° ckiher 5racies itus &loci fccA jerk. 71.4c1, I 1151713 foV 140.2-4z a S Ogyt. krstr- tA) to Clan. 6411- Or joidt- frt. 101-Co .ef .p scoo cipilb nowit. . Language skills need to be at a basic level. This was a .tea, problem in the study for a few students, whose first language is not English. Beyond the basic level;language skillf do not seem as important in determining quality of Stephanie's classroom behaviour began to change at reflection as does learning style. Anna, for instance, is a about the same time that her thinking book reflections fluent writer who spells and reads well, but tends to write were changing. She began to attempt tocomplete her glib responses to lessons with a similar pattern of reflection work before asking for assistance, and usually found that every day. Other children with poorer language skillssuch she could complete it without help. as Catherine are capable of original reflections: 49 Catherine, March 24th. Final Comments Despite the difficulties encountered in trying to in- Tav crease the frequency of questioning in the first study, the impression we derived from the two studies is that it 1 L4 e 6 ata. ice vy ototmc is possible to increase the quality of learning by training ave cylweed io in meta-learning. That training must persist for a long time. Indeed it must pervade lessons; it is not a treatment i What}-theuos ofa that can be given for a while then turned off. It is a perma- Mshe keel nent and continuous approach to teaching. The form of the training may vary. In one study we finst TokAtveo 1,e.4/1 encouraged questioning, in the other, we encouraged writ- Actory11/1k ten statements of learning. Both were practical, and could thfs. be sustained indefinitely. Many othei methods of en- urittle if 14ou. (mockfor- couraging _tudents to reflect on the,: learning can be expected to be equally effective. 295justforone waviot Whatever the method, it has emerged that two factors twont rh 1.0.2k tLAvot Gek that are powerful in determining success: (1) the per-onal- ity of the child, and (2) his or her perception of the purpose a,vast a/roomy aat gion,of schooling. Together these factors influence learning style. Neither is easy to alter, being determined by forces tAe beyond the teacher's control. The older the student, the more both are set. That was the bad news. The good news is that practical and effective procedures (such as those tried in these two studies) are available.

Notes Ms Susan Swan is a teacher at Clayton North Primary c,chool, Mel- For further reading on Metacognition and Meta-learning see bourne, Australia. Biggs, John, 'Reflective Thinking and School LearninA, An intro- Dr Richard T. White is Professor of Education at Monash University. duction to the theory and practice of metacognition' in set No. 2, C:ayton, Victoria 3168, Australia. 1987, Reis, 10. This work on Increasing Meta-learning is published in two parts, the and first appearing in set No. 1, 1990, by Vickie Bakopanos and Richard White, Richard T., (1988) *Metacognition* in Keeves, 1.1). (Ed.) White and called Increasing Meta-learning, Part 1, Encouraging Stu- Educational Research. Methodology and Measurement: An International dents to Ask Questions. Handbook. Oxford: Pergamon. The research described in this item can be found in more detail in Swan, S.M. (1988) Helping children reflect on their learning, Master of Educational Studies prolect, Monash University. Further references to other research can be found in the notes section © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant of the first article, set No. 1, 1990, item 1. Increasing Meta-leaming. to all people actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the Part 1, EncouNging Students to Ask Questions. interests ot better teaching. Please ackrowledge the source.

5 u

6 intorn~FMWC11 Item 12 setfat isadaws number two 1990 FINDING YOUR FIRST JOB From College to Classroom Under New Rules Marie Cameron Lexie Grudnoff Marilyn Gwilliam Auckland Colkge of Education Roger Peddie Auckland University

New Systems for Old weeks at college, for theirs. We got replies from 127 prin- The way beginning teachers find jobs, or have jobs foundcipals and 244 students, so we can have considerable con- for them, or are directed into jobs, are very different, coun-fidence with the results. In a few cases questions were try to country and state to state. In New Zealand, the not clearly answered so we give the results here in percen- educational administration revolution of the last 18 monthstages. has brought in a system at the 'market forces' end of the Two further points should be stressed. First, the survey spectrum. As you leave your college of education you and analysis which follows relates to the first round of job apply to whatever school you would like to teach in andoffers only. In this first round there were about 100 more the Principal (optionally advised by the parent-run Board students graduating than jobs advertised. An 'over-entitle- of Trustees) decides whether you should get the job. Apart ment' scheme was introduced later and by February 1990 from the knowledge that the government is going to payonly 14 students were still unplaced. Secondly, the match a fixed salary, the situation is very like that in the businessbetween students and principals is close but not complete: world you sell yourself, in competition with your friends. students from outside Auckland did apply for jobs in the 1990 was the first year this system was used. What hap- region. pened? What are the pitfalls? How did the students, now Student sample first-year teachers, find it? How did the principals find it? The final student sample characteristics were as in Table 1. Would you recommend it to your best friend, your favourite education system, your local MP? Table 1 Student sample chararteristics(Percentages) Ourresearch Two years ago beginning primary teachers were placed in Sex Female 87 Male 13 schools by a regional board; every student was guaranteed Ethnicity Maori 10 Pacific Pakeha/Other 81 a position and most appointments were confirmed by the Islander 8 mid-November before they began. The first round under Thiining 3-year83 Pacific Graduate 11 the new procedures was carried out during October 1989. Islands Therefore, in November, we asked 131 principals, who Trained 6 had advertised first-year positions in our area, for their Age <25yrs 65 25-35yrs 22 >35yrs 13 reactions, and asked the 300 students, during their last Results teachers. Just over a third offered the names of referees. During the selection process, almost three-quart ers vis- The 224 Students ited at least one oftheschools applied for, met with the College preparation principal and/or had one or more formal interviews. Half Colleges of Education have a responsibility to prepare stu-met informally with other staff of the school, a third met dents for the appointment process. How well did the Auck-with the Chair of the Board of Trustees, but only eight land College of Education perform? The students were students (4 percent) met with the full Board. An even generally happy with the validity of the 'College Profile'smaller number (three students), gave a demonstration prepared by the staff. Opinions were more mixed on the lesson. college's performance in preparing students for job appli- These general figures do not reveal the extraordinary cations and job interviews. Interview preparation in par-range of action taken by individual students. One student ticular was considered inadequate by 40 percent, although had 11 formal interviews, and 24 others had six or more. almost as many gave a top rating as gave a bottom rating.Two students visited 14 schools and, indeed, a quarter of Comments called for more assistance and support before those applying visited six or more. The picture in general and during the appointment process. is that some students spent an enormous amount of time in the process of applying for their first teaching position. Applications and visits Compounding the difficulty was the fact that the job search As might be expected, most students (90 percent) applied process coincided with their final teaching section (profes- for one or more jobs. About three-quarters of these applied for between four and 12 positions, but five applied for 25 sional practice) in schools. or more, with two applying for 40! All who applied in- Interviews cluded a curriculum vitae and the college profile report; Of key importance in the selection process was the formal almost all provided a transcript of their college work, teach- interview. About 85 percent of students attended one, ing experience reports and reports from their associa:o two, or three interviews. Common patterns emerged. 1 t of ques-1. Equity. Although the numbers arerelatively small, some First, over 85 percent felt there was a good range Males were more likely tions and that they had an opportunity tospeak in a situ-interesting trends may be noted. relaxed. This to receive offers than females (70 percent v. 65percent). ation that was professional but pleasant and slightly was a very positive resultfrom the survey. On the other Among this group, pakeha (European) males were hand, some students reported finding the interview pro-less likely to be offered a position than non-pakehamales. cess very demanding: Six of the 16 pakeha males who applied did not receive a like 'Whatfirst-round offer. Similarly, more than a third of the pakeha I felt very inadequate being asked questions female applicants received no offers, but only oneMaori else you can do for our school?' Sometimes Ithought they were looking for a superman or superwoman. female (of 14) was not offered at least one job. There were fewer job The major areas about which they were questionedin-13 Pacific Island Trained Teachers; they received offers on this first round, with over half receiving nooffers cluded their curriculum knowledge (90 percent), their in- nevertheless been placed in pos- terests (81 percent) and classroom management(74 per-at all. These people have cent). Students felt that schools sometimeshad very high itions on subsequent rounds. expectations in specialist curriculum areas: 2. Age and gender. A trend which was clearly apparent Schools are placing music and RE. at the top of their requir-related to age and gender. Nearly half the women aged ed skills in some areas, and a beginning teacher cannotover 36 received no offers: 38 percentof those aged 25-35 be expected to be highly qualified in theseuntil morefound themselves in that situation, but only 30 percent of experience has been gained. those aged under 25. While a similar trend wasobserved More than a third were asked questions abouttheir for men, the numbers here were very small. Alongwith teaching experience, Maori and multicultural experience,this, students who were parents (one in five of those ap- their personal philosophy of teaching, andtheir ability to plying), were less likely to be offered jobs; 39 percent did relate to others. Just under a quarter were askedpersonal not win a first-round offer, as opposed to32 percent of or family-related questions.While the large majority ofthose without children. It is unclear as to whetherthe this last group were women (34 of 39 involved),the samecombination of age and children was the major factor for percentages of men and womeninterviewed were asked these people in this first round of offers, or whetherother personal questions. factors were also critical. Based on questions asked at their interviewsstudents 3. Qualifications and Training. The qualificationsof the stu- were asked whichfactors influencing appointment they dents, or whether they had completed three-year ortwo- believed were most important. Factorsnoted by 50 or more year (graduate) courses, appear tohave made very little students (about a third of those interviewed) were:mul-difference to the proportion offered positions. Indeed.. ticultural experience, interests outside teaching,the re-holding university qualifications does not appear tohave ports of associate teachers, thecollege profile and trans-made any difference, with any slight trend favouringthose cript, their spoken English, their general appearance,and without university papers or degrees. One or twoprincipals their age. None of these factors wasmentioned by morecommented directly on this aspect in the questionnaires: than two-thirds of the students andlittle evidence for Having a university degree doesn't mean that theywill be differences these beliefs was proffered. Only very minor a good teacher. were noted betweenmales and females and the small 4. Prior Association (`Being Known'). A factorthat does comparisons number of men involved makes statistical seem to have been important waswhether the student inappropriate. was known by the school. This wasusually because of teaching practice, but some students had assistedtheir Offers of Positions because they Seventeen students (8 percent) wereoffered positions be-local schools in other ways, or were known two-thirds of these were part of the school community.Although the survey fore the official closing date. Almost link had been on teaching practice in the schoolconcerned; of did not allow a precise figure to be placed on the only one-thirdbetween prior contact and appointment, the results and those offered positions after the legal date advan- had taught in the school during teachingpractice. Nearly comments make it clear that being known gave an students. tage. While this is hardly surprising, itdoes mean that half of the early offers were to Maori other, possibly better, candidates may have been over- In all, two-thirds (66 percent) wereoffered one or more positions. More than half of these wereoffered one posi-looked. One student felt very strongly about this (and the tion, but two students were eachoffered nine positions. whole process): One in five applicants, presumablyperceived as the top Welcome to the real world. Appointments were made be- contenders, were offered at least threepositions. Many fore the closing date of applications. Principals wentfor students offered comments about why theybelieved they who they knew. were appointed. These show awide range of factors Overall, a complex interaction of factors seems tohave thought to be critical: affected the appointment process, but many students taught music there strongly suspected that individual appointments were I hadn't done a section there, but I had criteria. and been on a music camp with them. Iknew they were made on the basis of one or two highly desired looking for a music person. Student Perceptions of the Process Because of my age I looked like amember of the staff Many students offered comments about various aspects instead of a trainee. I came from the rightcommunity. of the appointment process. Some of these reveal aquite Having been at the school on section...the school knew different dimension from that given in the general sum- who I was, what I was like in the classroom as ateacher, mary of events above.Indeed, negative comments far out- .md what my relationships with the staffand the children weighed positive ones, particularly those telling how stu- were like. dents felt personally about their experience. Principal is pro-equity so my genderand race made me It is clear that some schools were inundatedwith applications, with several schools receiving more than30 appli- desirable. did not The data were analysed to see whethersuch perceptions cations for one position. In such cases schools could be identified in the total group.Results from this have adequate time toprocessthese applications operated individually adequately. The following selection of commentsshows analysis suggest that the schools result: and did not folio'a clearly identifiable pattern. he kinds of treatment some students received as a 2 2 I am disappointed at the way some schools didn't even Such remarks are not surprising, given that most of look at some applications. Short listing was done before all these students entered college believing that they would applications were in. all be placed by the regional Board under the system I was really angry at the fact that 5 schools failed to notify operating at the time. Nevertheless, the overall pattern of me or even acknowledge that theyhad received my appli- student comment in this survey shows that the appoint- cation. In the end I rang the schools to find out that some-ment process, as it operated, had some serious flaws. one else had the job. Students' concluding remarks Some were very late in sending rejections. One just crossed All in all, the process of winning a position on the first theirname off the (application) envelope, putntine on, and round was clearly a time-consuming and stressful process sent it back. for students. Many had negative experiences which left On the other hand, students were very appreciative of them upset or angry, whether they won positions or not. schools who treated them courteously: Of those appointed, no single 'ideal appointee' emerges, All my transcripts came back by post. Some of them wrote although Maori maies and younger females without child- nice notes. ren appear to have been relativelyfavoured. Qualifications The process itself was clearly alienating for many stu- make no apparent difference and being known by teaching dents, they felt unclear about what was expected, and practice or other contact, while helpful, was not decisive. what individual schools were looking for. It felt like a meat market out there. There were vast differ- The 127 Principals ences between schools and theirexpectations. Positions available It was like a lottery. The principals haddifferent expecta- The Principal's queshonnaires identified 158 beginning tions and no set procedures. I feel very remoteand alien- teacher positions in their schools for the first appointment ated. round. The majority of schools (80 percent) were seeking Strong criticism was levelled at some principals by stu-only one beginning teacher. Almost two-thirds of the pos- dents. Far more negative comments were expressedhere itions available were in the junior school. Intermediate than positive. Principals were perceived as being the kev schools (11- and 12-year-olds only) offered 20 percent of figures, with mixed feelings about Board of Trustees in- the positions and often had more than one available. volvement in the process. Who selected beginning teachers? Board reps didn't really know what they were asking for. The selection process involves both shortlisting and inter- Abundantly clear, principals held all the power. viewing, as well as the final choice. Only 12 percent of Totally unfair. There are no rules. Boards of Trustees and principals reported doing the shortlisting on their own. principals are all doing whattheywant to. I feel bitter, Over half involved other teachers and a quarter used the angry, tired. expertise of both staff and members of the Board of Trus- Once schools had decided upon their first choice, stu- tees (BoT). In 10 percent of schools, the principal andBoT dents were contacted and offered a position.Officially, members alone drew up the shortlist of applicants. students were permitted 48 hours to decide whether to When it came to final selection, just under a third of accept the offer or not. In practice, anumber of students the principals made this decision on their own. About the reported that they were pressured to decide immediately. same number involved members of their staff,with the Some schools put pressure on us to accept straight away rest involving BoT members. It is important to note that or forget it. That wasn't fair. in just over a third of the schools in the sample there was I was rushed to make a decision between schools. Ittook BoT involvement in both shortlisting and final selection. me a long time to decide andbadgering principals didn't Under the new legislation principals have the authority help. to appoint basic scale teachers without any BoT involve- This pressure resulted in some studentsaccepting jobs ment at all. offered to them when they would havepreferred to wait The Selection Process to see if a more favouredchoice came up. This also worked The data make it clear that many principals put a great against the schools, as students sometimesaccepted jobs deal of time and effort into the appointment process, a with considerable ambivalence. point some students found contrary to their own experi- I'm very happy that I have a position, but atthis stage feel ence. Nearly three-quarters of the principals heldformal very insecure and worried becauseI (a) don't fulfil tags: interviews for prospective appointments. The number of (b) have no experience at this level; ancl (c)feel and know students interviewed ranged from just one to a surprising I was forced to accept this level because of mygender i.e., thirteen, with the interviewing of three or four applicants the male appointed at the school was automaticallygiven being most com.non. the senior position. As noted earlier, students supplied quite extensive One student experienced a very differentkind of pres- documentation, many included referee's statements, col- sure, which cesulted in losinganother position. lege transcripts, profiles written by their college tutors, I had one principal who asked me not to accept anyother CVs and reports written by associate teachers and visiting teaching positions before hearing from her andthe final lecturers. Which of these did principals find most useful? outcome was that I was fobbed off by her untilI went in Many principals (60 percent) rated the CV as the most personally and was told I was unsuccessful. useful document. Comments such as, 'They gave excellent Those who failed to win positions on this firstround groundz. for s.lection', and 'provided insights into in- commonly reported feelings of failure and incompetence, terests and suicability',were typical.Principals com- as shown by the following: mented on the 'high standard of presentation' of many To put it bluntly, my self-esteem has neverbeen so low. CVs, though several questioned the need for 'glossy' or I felt like a right royal reject. 'costly and professionally produced' documents. Even successful candidates reported thatthere was an College profiles were also considered to be very useful, unpleasant atmosphere at college followingthe initial particularly for initial shortlisting. However many princi- .f 'very similar'; some round: pals felt that the prqfiles tended to The level of bitterness is very high, andjustifiably so I felt they were 'too general' or 'too positive' to help them think. discriminate among applicants. The profiles were con- 3 53 sidered to sometimes have a negative effect, 'damming If the major criterion for success is that each school [sic] the applicant if weaknesses as well as strengths wereappointed the person they wanted, then the process could revealed.' These comments highlight the difficulty of pre-be judged quite successful. Over 70 percent of principals paring personal profiles which show achievements and appointed their first choice and a further 16 percent their strengths for a market that is essentially competitive, and second choice. In other areas, however, the data reveal where the first task for the principal may well be to elimi-some serious concerns. nate, rather than to select candidates. The major issue for principals was their perception that Most students supplied referees' statements or namesa significant number of their colleagues 'jumped the gun', of people to consult. A sizeable number of principals (40and appointed before the closing date. There was a strong percent) reported they did not use this information. Theypush in comments for procedures to be more tightly con- commented that they 'preferred to use their own judge-trolled. A number made comments like the following: ment', and that 'personal interviews are much better'. There should be closely defined procedures for advertising Where principals did use referee information, it was 'to jobs, interviewing and notifying applicants. check where there was doubt', or 'to confirm information'. Several remarked that 'all principals should abide by In some cases, this checking appears to be excessive. Onethe rules'. One in four principals expressed concern that student (a parent), reported that guidelines promoting fairness to all candidates had not My children's principal was rung about me to find out been followed. about the stability of my family life. As has been noted earlier, principals' actions sometimes While the last concern might not be preventable, these impacted strongly on individual students. At a time when data do suggest that students should be more selective both schools and students were struggling to adapt to new about documents supporting their applications, and thatroles, it tended to be the students who were the main they clearly need training in writing good CVs and careful victims of hasty or unethical procedures. preparation for interviews. The implications from the 1989 survey may be summed What Factors Influenced Final Selection? up as follows: When it came to final selection, principals rated the follow- I.There needs to be enough time allocated to the appointing factors as 'very important': ment round to enable schools to process applications commitment to teaching 80% appropriately. fitting the job description 73% 2. Guidelines on procedures need to be clear and explicit, specific strengths in curriculum areas 70% and followed by all parties. Ethical standards must be (especially music and multicultural strengths) high. Although principals indicated that personal factors such3. Students need to be informed of and supported in as age, gender, ethnicity andfamily circumstances were appeal procedures where these become necessary be- not important, 60 percent of them rated spokenEnglish cause of incorrect or unethical practices. and the 'personality' of the candidate as very important 4.It is in the interests of both students and schools that considerations. Respondents were quite evenly divided the needs of individual schools be made as specific as on the importance of being able tospeak Maori or another possible, within equity provisions, so that time is not language, and on the holding of a university degree or wasted through totally inappropriate applications. part of a degree. This last point is intriguing, given that5. Schools should be aware of the large amounts of time the Auckland College of Education has recently embarked spent by students(Inwhat is often a stressful experi- on a bachelor of education degree withthe University of ence: they need to ensure that all applicants are treated Auckland. with the courtesy and respect to which they are clearly There were also strong indications that principals were entitled. looking for a teacher who would fit in with existing staff The final comment can best be left to one ot the appli- and the local community. They commented on the import-cants. The message, echoed bv the researchers, is quite ance of qualities such as being 'able tofit into a syndicate simple: and plan co-operatively', and 'able to modify ideas and After what we've been through I hope things will be better methods to fit the needs of the school'. Country principals when future students apply for jobs. were interested in the abilityof appointees to 'adapt to a small town' and to 'live in a small community'. Some principals were, however, looking for people who would add to or complement their existing establishment. ForNotes example: 'Most of my staff are over 40, I'm looking for Marie Cameron is an educational psychologist and lecturer. Lexie balance'; or 'I'm looking for a male as the staff are all Grudnoff is senior lecturer and co-ordinator, and Marilyn Gwilliam is a senior lecturer in the Education Department at theAuckland female'. College of Education. Dr Roger Peddle is a senior lecturer in Education The principals had widely differing general interests at the University ot Auckland. and used quite different selection criteria. It may well be Full details of these surveys are available from Lexie Grudnott, Edu- useful for schools to consider making available a much cation Department, Auckland College ot Education, Private Hag, more detailed job description/specificationthan was poss- Symonds Street Post Office, Auckland. iblepreviously. Such descriptionswill need careful The research team wish io thank the Principal ot A.C.E. for both encouraging the group and making funds available to carry out this monitoring however, to ensure that equity is safeguarded. study. Thanks are also due to Tony Hunt. Helen lloggard and Kittina Who would be involved in this is as yet unclear. Cowie for their work in processing the data. Similar questions and a close examination ot interview procedures Discussion are dealt with in an earlier set item recounting British experiences: The appointment of beginning teachers in 1989 wasthe Ado+, Ken (l989) 'A' tor Accept; 'It' for Reject. The alphabet tot first time that New Zealand primary schools had full and swlecting and promoting teachers, set. No. 2, 1989,Item2. direct responsibility for appointing such staff. Appoint- formal train- mert guidelines were issued to schools, but Copying Permitted ing in appointment and interview procedures appears to © Copyright on this item is held bv NZCER and ACER which grant have been inadequate or non-existent. How successful, to all people actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the then, was the Auckland district experience? interests ot better teaching. Please acknowledge the source 4 item 13 reet rrevA number two 1990 Weather and Wickedness Bill Badger and Eric O'Hare University of Lancaster

Introduction TtHERE IS ALWAYS TROUBLE when lunch is in- dents' simply refers to the number of referrals to the quiet side on wet days, when there is snow in the play-room. In this paper, the number is not examined further ground, and on any windy day. That is part ofwith respect to, for example, how many different pupils eacher folklore. But is there any statistical relation- were involved, or how many teachers. Nor do we examine ship between the incidence of disruptive behaviour and what kind of teachers, male, female, experienced or newly weather conditions? Is pupil behaviour really worse on qualified, referred the pupils to the quiet room. These data windy days? Are there any effects of particularly cold, are available and have been analysed elsewhere. particularly hot or particularly changeable days? In the course of a case study of a mixed comprehensive school (b) The Meteorological Data (roll 1217) in West Cumbria we were able to examine pat- Measurements of weather factors have been obtained terns of disruptive behaviour and to test the teacher for each day of this same period from an HM folklore maxim that pupil behaviour is linked to the wea-Coastguard station approximately 41/2 miles from the ther. school. The factors for which data were available for this Although climatic effects on human behaviour have period were: been looked at no-one so far has examined what happens Wind direction (degrees) in school. One area that has been carefully researched is Wind speed (knots) all as at 12.00 hours GMT that of the link between weather conditions and road traffic Dew point accidents. While concentrating largely on physical road conditions, Smith in reviewing previous work concludes Maximum temperature (°C)between 9.00 hours and Minimum temperature (°C) that 'there is evidence that physical considerations alone 21.00 hours are insufficient' to explain all accidents. Smith describes Rainfall (mm) sharp rises in accident rates which have been assodated with drivers' experience of rapid pressure changes linked Results with the passage of fronts. In turn these effects are seen as causing 'biologically unfavourable stresses operating on mumbers of referrals to the quiet room averaged 26.4 the central nervous system'. Miller looked particularly at I N per week, with a maximum figure of 18 incidents in the Santa Ana winds of the USA. With the general accep-one day and only nine days in tne year when no pupils tance that hot, dry, windy conditions are linked with short-were referred. temperedness and a rise in domestic incidents, he points The relationship between the behavioural referrals and to significant relationship between the Santa Ana wind each of the weather variables is analysed first by Pearson conditions and the rise in the crime rate. There is, there- correlahon coefficients. Correlation coefficients between fore, some understanding of the effects of weather condi- number of behavioural referrals to the quiet room, and various meteorological data, were as follows: tions, particularly of changes in conditions, on human behaviour. With wind speed 0.17 With dew point 0.20 Data Collection With max. temperature 0.34, With min. temperature 0.31, (a) The Behavioural Incidents With rainfall 0.10 rr he school has used, for the past few years, a quietAll these correlations, except that with raintall, were room, to which pupils involved in behavioural inci-highly significant statistically, that is, they are most un- dents with staff have been referred. Corporal punishment likely to be chance effect. has never been used, and much of the disciplinary em- Wind direction (in degrees) presents its own fairly obvi- phasis has been based on confrontational avoidance. ous problems, and cannot be included in a correlation Whenever a pupil or pupils are involved in an incident analysis. with a member of staff which might conceivably lead to The correlation analysis indicated statistically significant a significant confrontation, referral is made to the quiet relationships between the number of disruptive incidents room in order to 'defuse' the situation. All such referrals and temperature measures in general and also to a lesser are recorded, and dated, in order to help subsequent pas- degree in wind speed. This level of statistical significance toral follow-up. was not reached in the correlations between disruptive The Quiet Room book has been used in this aspect of incidents and rainfall. the study to record the frequency of occurrence of confron- The data were subjected to regression analysis which tational incidents over the academic year Septem'Jer 1983 can only be descriptive. It is summarised in Table 1. One to July 1984. In all, the number of incidents recorded over of the interestintrfeatures not shown in the table is that 186 school days has been analysed. The 'number of inci-it was not so much the average temperature on any day that was predictive of disruptive incidents, rather the range Notes of temperatures between the maximum and minimum Mr G.W. Badger is Deputy Head. Radderv School, Fortrose, Scotland. values. The size of the difference between the maximum and minimum temperature values was directly related to Dr Eric O'Hare is Director, Centre for Educational Research and De- velopment, University of Lancaster, Cartmel College, Bailrigg, Lan- the number of disruptive pUpil referrals. For example, a caster LA1 4Y1, United Kingdom. temperature range from a minimum of 0°C to a maximum They thank John Reay and the sixth form students of the West Cumb- of 10°C. could produce an average temperature of 5°C. rian school for help in tabulating the meteorological data. Thanks Equally well, a minimum temperature of 4°C to a are also due to Dr Nick Longford, Centre for Applied Statistics,Uni- maximum of 6°C could also produce an average tempera- versity of Lancaster, for his help with statistical analysis. ture of 5°C. The prediction equation, however, gives more Correspondence to Dr O'Hare, please. disruptive incidents on days showing the 0-10°C range kir a fuller report of this research see than in the weather conditions that produce the smaller Badger, Bill and O'Hare. Eric, Disruptive Behaviour and Weather 13ritish Education range 4-6°C. Pattems in a West Cumbria Secondary School, The table shows that the minimum temperature was Research lournal,Vol. 15, No. 1, 1989, pp. 89-94. The research on the weather and human behaviour is more extensive the most influential amongst these weather variables. This than that mentioned briefly here. However, some of the research is suggests that if, perhaps, the children were allowed to Weather and road accidents wear outdoor coats in the classrooms ondays that were Smith, K. (1982) How seasonal and weather conditions influence particularly cold, or if the heating was turned up, confron- road accidents in Glasgow, &offishGeographical Magazine,Vol. 98, tations between teachers and pupils would be fewer. pp. 103-114. The Santa Ana wind Table I Miller, W.H. (1968) Santa Ana winds and crime.Professional Geog- Regression analysis (multiple regression = 0.46; R2 = 0.21; rapher,Vol. 20, pp. 23-27. standard error = .3.08 (Nie et al., 1975) Weather and school attendance Standard Karweil, N.L. (1973)Rainy Days and Mondays,Report No. 162, t-values Independent variable in order error Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University. Center for the Study of the Sociological Organisation of Schools. Minimum temperature -0.082 0.018 -4.6 Rapid pressure changes and 'biologically unfavourable stresses' 0.029 0.016 1.8 Horvath, L.G. (1970) Der Einfluss von Wetterveranderungen auf Maximum temperature 73. No. -0.080 0.035 -3.4 das Unfallgeschelen,Zeitschrift thr Verkchrssicherheit, Vol. Wind speed 1, pp. 85-87 Dew point 0.030 0.014 2.2 and Rainfall -0.003 0.003 -0.92 Roer. P.O. (1974) Effects of some non-transportation factors on Constant = 7.21 the incidence and seventy of traffic accidents. Logisliansportation Review.Vol. 10, pp. 165-179. The analysis produces the following prediction equa- The data on the number of different pupils referred to the quiet mom. tion: and the teachers who referred them is in The predicted number of disruptive incidents, N = Badger, G.W. (1984)Disruption: 14 in-school approaches.a report on Wyndham School to Cumbria LEA, CERD Occasional paper, Uni- 0.08 x min. temp. + 0.03 x max. temp. versity of Lancaster. 0.08 x wind speed + 0.03 x dew point The regression analysis (see Table I) follows 0.03 x rainfall + 6. Nie, et al.. (1975)SPSS,2nd ed., London: McCraw-Hill. With this equation we could predict the possible number For further reading on disruptive behaviour of disruptive incidents for a given combination ofweather Whole school factors such as school clima te and internal organisation data. On average, the number of actual disruptiveinci- Reynolds, D. et al. (1976) The delinquent school. In M. liam- dents scores may deviate from the predicted scoresby mersley and P. Woods (eds.) TheProcessof Schooling,Milton Keynes: about 3. Open University Press. Weather variables feature in the regression analysiswith and varying degrees of statistical and educationalsignificance. Rutter. M. et al. (1979)Fifteen Thousand Hours,London: Open From the present analysis it appears that the speedof the Books. wind was negatively linked, albeit slightly, withdisruptive behaviour in the school under study. This does notbear Galloway, D. et al)1982)Schools and Disrupnve Pupils,London: out the widely held view that higherwinds are connected Longmans. with pupil misbehaviour. Rainfall does not appearhere and to be significantly related to numbersof disruptive inci- Steed. D. (1983)Disruptive pupiN, disruptive sihools - winch is the chicken and which is the egg.Paper presented to the British Associ- dents. There does appear to be a connection betweenpupil ation tor the Advancement ot Science. behaviour and changes in temperature over the courseof School size the most Heal, K.H. (1978) Misbehaviour amongst school thildren - the day. Although lower temperatures overall are rule of the school.Policy and Politics,Vol. b, pp. 321.332. influential among theindividual weathervariables itself a Classroom Management studied, the range in temperatures over a day is Bennett. S.N. (1976)Teaching Styksd PupilPrvgre,s. London: more powerful predictorof numbers of disruptiv.... inci- Open Books. dents. and The current wide concern over disruptive behaviourin Wragg, T. (1980) Training teachers in class management. In C. schools focusses on Upton and A Cokell (eds.) BehavrourProblems in Ow Comprehensuy the school itself in all its practices; School,University College Cardiff. internal relationships and overall ethos; and effects of pupil background and communityinfluence. Clarke, D. et al. (1981) Disruptive incidents in secondarv hool Effects of weather may be as powerful. They mayalso classrooms a sequence analysis approach,Oxford Revirw ot Educa- have different effects on pupils from the onesthey have tion,vol.7.pp. 111-117 on teP.chers. The present paper putsinto perspective the additional and variable effects of weatherconditions on d © Copyright on th s item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant day-to-day basis which may be superimposed on thelikely to all people activoty engaged in education the right to copy it in the occurrence of disruptive behaviour. interest of better teaching. Pleasp acknowledge the source. 2 in101111111M item 14 set10111110140 number two 1990 LESSONS Mis A=1Mis P Helping Children Understand the Formal Symbolic Language of Arithmetic

By Philippa Lane University of Canterbury

Introduction MdOST CHILDREN enter school able to analyse Their teachers, Mrs A at Austin, Mrs P at Potter, are number problems and apply good problem-both trained teachers. They have both been teaching for solving strategies, strategies that they haveover 15 years and have attended courses on the teaching eveloped themselves. They understand theof new maths. fundamentals of addition and subtraction and can apply Mrs A 'really liked' new maths, enjoyed 'working with their knowledge in both concrete and hypothetical situa-the aesthetic side Of it' andidn't see it as 'just based on tions. However, when introduced to formal written arith-computation'. Mrs P felt t...t she understood the concepts metic many experience serious difficulties. It is suggestedinvolved, but had litt'.confidence in her ability to com- that there is a 'gap' between the symbolic system of arith-municate them; she preferred other types of teaching. metic and the children's informally-learned methods and concepts. The direct-modelling methods the childrenStarting Points naturally employ bear a strong resemblance to the actual Each child, alone, was given a set of tasks to test general situations they represent; the symbolic system introduced numerical ability: knowledge of rote counting, number at school is far more abstract. For example, children oftensequence forwards and backwards, numeral recognition use their fingers to represent addition and subtractionand counting by fives, tens and backwards from twenty. problems, but at school they must learn to write equations The average score gained by each school group was similar. using numbers and signs that seem to contribute little toI also checked what the children could manage with equip- problem-solving. Despite all the inherent difficulties it isment and symbols already. First I used blocks, and asked, important that children gain access to the power inherent If we put 6 blocks here and 3 blocks here how many blocks in abstract mathematical symbolism. have we got altogether? Following a reply the child was Teachers make a difference to children's learning; there asked to use magnetic numerals and signs to show 'that are many, many research results pointing to that. This was first we had 6 blocks and then we added 3 more.' This underlined in recent mathematics research with seven-type of task was repeated with 9 and 5, 9 take away 3, vear-old children which showed that class-mates at a par- and 13 take away 6. This can be called a representation task. ticular school all had the same strengths and weaknesses. Working in the opposite direction I asked the children In some schools, pupils were good at subtraction; in other to read a set of equations and to demonstrate each using schools, the children were better at addition, and so on. the blocks. This, can be called an interpretation task. Marks In particular they understood equations according to the were given for reading correctly, and for a dynamic explan- class they were in, not according to their general numerical ation, actual or described. Dynamic explanations included ability. So itseems pretty clear that understanding removing the sets for subtraction or counting across sets mathematics concepts, such as equations, depends on the or uniting them to demonstrate the joining principle of teacher. This idea was followed up in careful observations addition. The marks were higher for each type of task at of what two teachers did and the results they got. Potter than at Austin school (see Table 1). The Research Table 1 Pre-test Scores The Children and their Teachers WO Christchurch state primary schools (called here School General Equations TAustin and Potter) have pupils from middle socioeconomic status families. Seventeen 6- and 7-year-old Range Mean S.D. Range Mean S.D. children were receiving their initial formal instruction in Austin 12-26, 21.74.53 4-25 10.3 7.05 equations when I began the research. They were the child- Potter 17-29 21.9 4.7 8-19 14.6 3.39 ren in the 'middle' maths groups in each class. Ending Points Using such differences a chart showing different styles After the lessons had been taught I tested the children of teaching can be drawn up like this. with the same tasks again. Austin school now outperformed Potter school. This was true for all the equation Skills tasks considered together, and for each separate task ex- Meaning cept using magnetic symbols to represent the additionof When the rules were taught Last First blocks. What was taught about the Table 2 Rules Why used Flow to use Changes in the Understanding of Equations Interest in child-construct- e, ed algorithms Yes No e,ep°'0 ,_ ...., 44,...7 Use of rote learning No Yes Pel\b. ,g, & .cA9..,' 49 4' \c Reaction to errors Diagnosis Judgement .4,c, ."40. c. r ..s, .s. 40 t> 1:. 1> 210 40 School ck, 40 N Austin All areas 36 4.0 7.2 A good example of different styles I have observed is Addition: Representation 4 0.4 1.8 in the way the equals sign is introduced, given meaning, Addition: Interpretation 10 1.1 1.4 and practised. Those teachers who emphasise skills con- Subtraction: Representation 7 0.8 1.9 vey the idea (1) that the equals sign is asignal to do Subtraction: Interpretation 15 1.7 2.1 something or, (2) it is a separator of problem and answer (thus suggesting a one-directional relationship between Potter the two sides of the equation). Those teachers who em- All areas 6 0.8 4.4 phasise meaning present the equals sign as a symbol of Addition: Representation 4 0.5 1.7 sameness, a bridge between the two sides of the question Addition: Interpretation 1 0.1 0.5 (thus suggesting a two-directional relationship). Subtraction: Representation 3 0.4 1.6 Many of the characteristics of the two styles were evident Subtraction: Interpretation 0 0.0 0.6 during the first lesson of the unit. Mrs A had laid the ground-work in the previous week's lessons by having the class join and separate sets and describe verbally what they had done. This lesson began in the same way, but The Learning Opportunities the 'number story' was written on the board. The symbols During a few days of instruction the Austin schoolchild- for 'and' and 'makes' were then introduced and thechildren came from behind andovertook the Potter school ren given the chance to make up newexamples and children in their level of understanding of equations. represent them with equations. Mrs A checkedbefore the What different learning opportunities did they get?What end of the lesson that everyone was able to represent the might help to explain t1-.7ir different progress? process they had performed and understoodwhat they were doing. Then they were given twoworksheets, one Time for addition and one for subtraction. These depicted the Both teachers devoted asimilar amount of time to processes with everyday objects such as balloons,goldfish mathematics and concentrated almost exclusively on rep- and birthday candles. resentation, working from concrete examples to symbols. Mrs P began by putting magnetic triangles on the board, Mrs A spent more time on subtraction (four times asmuch) three of one colour and two of another, and writing '3', and a little less than Mrs P on addition.This extra time '2' and '5' below. The 'special signs' were immediately was available because, in contrastto the Potter school inserted, and she said, and repeated, 'three plus two lessons, very little time was spent in Mrs A's class waitingequals five', pointing to the appropriate symbols. Follow- for children to get ready or teaching generalthings such ing a brief mention of the meaning of 'plus' and 'equals', as numeral writing. Differencesin time spent on addition the children were asked to 'choose two colours and make and subtraction are reflected in the amount learnt. a row of five', immediately proceeding to representtheir Class Organisation examples in the form of a written equation. Group tuition The higher achieving group, at Austin school, spent morefinished with a short explanation of the word 'equation', time in group rather than whole classinstruction, hadand children were told how to complete a worksheet less teacher contact time and spent a greater proportionfeaturing stamped zoo animals. of group instruction time practising independentlyrather Other differences in style became apparent as the teach- than in unison with the teacher. ing of the unit progressed. Both teachers taught their pupils how to represent processes symbolically, but only Individual Attention Mrs A explained why equations are useful: 'just numbers The most frequent types of attention given atboth schools doesn't show people what you have doneyou need to were for assessment andinstruction. More individual at- do something here (points to signs) to show that we had tention was given at Potter school. aset of three here and a set of two, and that wejoined Instructional Style them together to make five.' A way of looking at the different ways the twoteachers The children at Potter school were required to adhere taught would be to ask where the main emphasis was to a particular way of doing things. Mrs P liked thechildren placed. Was the emphasis on communicationof meaning to place the numerals and signs correctly on graphed and understanding or on the teaching ofisolated skills?paper, to date their work and use pagesin order. They When I looked at when the arithmetical rules weretaught were encouraged to read the equationstogether, pointing it was clear that the teacher who was workingfor meaning to addends and circling the sum. Sometimes theychanted and understanding taught rules last of all.but the teacherin unison a little'frhyme': 'Adding works on two numbers, busy with teaching skills taught the rules first. and you can put them in any order.' Mrs A showed a relative lack of concern with rules.She Mrs P was less explicit. She did not stress difficult points encouraged the children to demonstrate things in their and checked less often that the desired connections had OWil way, guiding them to a particularmethod only if she been made. For example, to illustrate the commutative saw the necessity. For example, whenmistakes were made property of addition the children were required to put a in the sum, the children were told to countthe objects if set inside each of two rings on a card, write the equation they were unsure how many they had. The evaluation for it, turn the card 180 degrees and Write the equation exercise at the end of the unit required the childrento for the sets in the new position. The children were not create a drawing or model to showaddition and subtrac- told that turning the card was merely a quick way of re-or- tion. Those who were unsure what to do were given a dering the sets. If they did not realise this and focused variety of examples. One child, who was in tearsbecause on the card-turning itself, then the conceptremained un- she didn't know what to do was told, Don't worry,there's learned. no right and wrong.' Review and Organisation. Mrs P spent little time reviewing and pulling together the various pieces of knowledge and For each teacher her way of reacting to errors wasalso generally indicated skills that had been imparted, whereas Mrs A set aside part of her instructional style. Mrs P and what was wrong and told the child how to correct it, orpart of each lesson to review recently-taught skills ideas and to relate these to previously-taught material. just requested that it be done again. Mrs A showed more The two types of Successful Task Performance. Both teachers demonstrated concern with why the child had erred. as they taught. Both showed the children how toperform reaction were exhibited in similar incidents which took the tasks they would be required to complete. Generally place in the two classrooms. In each case a child had the children showed their understanding by performing written '=7' rather than the whole equation. as intended, but Mrs P's pupils showedthat her intentions Mrs P: Don't do that, please. I don't ever want to see youhad not always been made clear. They often requested do that. Write a whole equation and make sure it further information, which sometimes culminated in recall makes sense while you write it. Make it mean of the group for further instruction. something. Mrs A: You've just given me the end of the equation.You're Implications telling me how many you've got. I want the whole equation. [Asks another child to give the whole KaITUDES and beliefs, rather than teaching experience equation, which he does.) Now, did you hear what nd intellectual knowledge, are the main influences he said? Can you tell me what he said?[She does.] on how teachers teach. Or so it has beensaid. Certainly Can you see how that's different from what you ideas about wnat mathematics is, coupled with percep- said? You just told tae the end bit, but the whole tions of their students, shape what teachers do. Mrs A, equation's very important. [Mrs A gives herwho enjoyed maths and saw it as a complex but useful another example and asks for the equation, which subject, paid considerable attention to underlying mean- the child gives correctly.] Great. I just wanted to ings, linked tasks with her pupils' everyday experiences make sure you understood that. and taught with confidence and enthusiasm. Mrs 12, who was less enthusiastic about mathematics,showed less con- It should be noted that the two instructional styles are fidence in her ability to teach it, restricted instruction more not claimed to be discrete, but toindicate an empl asis on to computational aspects and less oftenrelated the skills a particular approach. to everyday needs. Mrs A conveyed two meanings for 'equals': 'makes'and From my research no cleat causal telationships can be 'the same as', but emphasised the latter, usingthe idea claimed. However, the associations I found between what of scales as a model. A worksheet and a gamereinforced happened in the classroom and the children's achievement the concept. Mrs P spent little time on meanings, buther were consistent with the literature on effectiveteaching. explanation of 'equals' was the meaning-centredidea of It may therefore be. useful to note and apply the factors equal sides rather than the one-directional 'makes'. that were associated with superior achievement: Teacher Clarity Time The two teachers diffen-Al on a number of aspects: Themore time spent on a topic the morepotential there Assessment and Individual Help. Both teachers scored well is for learning. Avoid wasting instruction time in getting in giving heip 'out only Mrs A assessedand gave help organised. with concepts. Explicit Estahlishment of Connections and Emphasis onDif- Organisation and Individual Attention ficult Pomts. Only Mrs A made clear associationsbetween The more successful group at Austin school had less ideas and tasks. She stressed parts ofthe work that she teacher contact time and experienced greater autonomy. perceived as potentially difficult for the children to grasp. The less successful group at Potter school had more of the For example, dunsig one lesson on subtractionshe stood teacher's time but were more disruptive and helpless. This gives seven children in a hoop andthen took five of them out. cannot be taken to mean that less teacher attention better results. The Potter children may well have needed Let me show you what some of you people wrotefor even more attention than they got. Thechildren bring that (writes '5-2=71. When you had your sets sepa- their own behaviour, some of it springing from their socio- rated you could see your set of five and you could see economic background, to school. How that mixes with your set of two. You forgot that insubtraction we start the personality and style of the teacher is always different. off with what you have at the beginning, then we look No single type of organisation is superior for all students. at what you take away, then you seewhat you've got left. How should that equation start off? [A child saysInstructional Style 'Seven minus two equals five.' Mrs A writes it on the The 'skills' style is useful for teaching computation, but board and points to each numeral in turn. j This is what it is the 'meaning' style which allows children toadapt we started off with, that'swhat we took away, that's their skills to new situations. Mrs P's emphasis on skills what we had left. [Two more examples wereworked seemed to preparelier students only for the types of tasks in this fashion.) they had practised, whereas Mrs A's concentration on un-

, 35:1 derlying meanings was associated with higher scores for difficulty while others pursue activities that are benefi- the untaught interpretation tasks. It seems likely that the cial to them. Austin school children were able to apply their conceptual Make links explicitso that the children make appropriate knowledge to the new tasks. In today's rapidly-changing connections between pieces of knowledge. When they society, where continual adaptation is necessary, the are left to make the desired associations for themselves 'meaning' style provides high quality learning oppor- many fail to do so or make alternative connections that tunities. are invalid. Use plentiful demonstrationsof actual or typical examples of Clarity set problems. Pupils can benefit if teachers use methods which have Identify and spend extra timeon aspects of the work that are been found to promote understanding: potentially (or ach... lly) difficult for children to grasp. Continually assesspupils to discovee the extent of their Review previously-taught materialbefore you present addi- understanding of the concepts and processes taught so tional material. that further help can be given where it is needed. Organise the pieces of knowledge that contribute to a particular Give individual helpto aid particular children who have topicso that the learner can see how they all fit together.

Notes Ms Philippa L. Lane carried out this research whilst at the University The factors which were included in the measurement of teacher clarity of Canterbury. Her work can be found in her B.A. Hons. thesis kept were extracted from a number of sources including by the University. Her contact address is 105 Woodbury St, Christ- Bush, A.). and Kennedy, J.J. (1977) An empirical investigation of church 4, New Zealand. teacher clarity, Journal of teadwr Education, Vot. 28, No. 2. pp. 53-58. The recent New Zealand study which describes the numerical abilities and Cruickshank. D.R. (1985) Applying research on teacher clarity, Jour- of children on entry to school, and which was the forerunner of this project, is written up in 'Number Skills in Junior Classrooms' in set nal of Teacher Education. March-Apnl, pp. 44-48. No. 2, 1988. Full explanation is given in and Young-Loveridge, Jennifer M. (1987) The development of cluldren's Hiebert, J. (1984) mentioned above. number concepts, Education Department, University of Canterbury, and Hughes. M. (1986) mentioned above. Research Report No. 87-1. and Problems that children encounter with the highly svmbohc system Sudyam, M.N. (1985) The role of review in mathematics instruction, of formal mathematics are discussed in Arithmetic Teacher, Vol. 33, No. I. p. 26. Carpenter, IP, Herbert. I. and Moser. J.M. 1'983) The effect of The effects of teacher attitudes and beliets on their teaching behaviour instruction on children's solutions ot addition d subtraction word problems, Education Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 14, pp. 35-72. are described in Barr. R. (1988) Conditions influencing content taught in nine fourth- and grade mathematics classrooms, The Elementary School Journal, Vol. Hiebert, J. (1984) Children's mathematics learning: The struggle to link form and understanding. The Elementary School Journal. Vol. 88, No. 4, pp. 387-411. and 84, No. 5, pp. 497-513. Fey, J. (1970) Classroom teaching of mathematics, Reiwie ot Educa- and Hughes, M. (1986) Children and Number: Difficulties in Learning tional Research. Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 535-551. and Mathematics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Thompson, A.G. (1984) The relationship of teachers conceptions That teachers have an effect on children's learning is detailed in of mathematics and mathematics teaching to instructional practice, Good. T.L., Biddle. J.). and Brophy, J .E. (1975) Teachers Maki. A Educational Studies in Mathematus, Vol. 15, pp. 105-127. Difference, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. and Powell. M. and Beard. J.W. (1984) Teacher Effectiveness- Aa Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Research. New York: Garland. Good and colleagues, above, found that not only do teachers condition students, but students also condition teachers' behaviour. This is also mentioned in Brophy, I.E. (1976) Reflections on research in elementary schools. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 27, No. 1. pp. 5-13. Comprehensive coverage of skill- and meaning-based teaching and their consequences can be found in Labinowicz, E. (1985) Learning from Children: New Beginnings tor Teaching Numerical Thinking. A Piagetian Approach, California. Addi- son-Wesley. O..) Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant This book is also recommended for its practical child-based approach to all people actively engaged in education the fight to copy it in the to the teaching of numerical concepts and skills. interests of better teaching; simply acknowledge the source.

4 bU Item 15 number two 1990 Teenage Perceptions inaStill Nuclear Age An Up-date, 1989 Greta Barnhart-Thomson St Andrew's College, Christchurch

Some found these Issues too stressful The results to think about Teacher's comment The hopes of these adolescents mostly concerned personal desires for: good school and exam marks, a good-looking spouse, a flash car, a nice home, success in a career, children, BACK IN 1985 Kevin Mc Sweeny reported in set a long life. No.2, Item 14, that in his quite average high school The fears of the same young people were focussed on 88 percent of the students felt that there would be concerns about the world, mainly to do with war. The two a nuclear war in their lifetimes. The girls were more questions asked what they were most concerned or fearful fearful than the boys. Half of these young people expected about happening in the next 5 years, and what they were that the result of a nuclear war would be total destruction. most concerned or fearful about happening in their lifetimes. Only farmers sons were strongly of the opinion that deter- The answers they gave were not directedthere were no rence would prevent a nuclear war. Only 2 percent could boxes to tick nor yes/no responses involved. But 72 percent imagine any justification for a nuclear war. Twenty percent of were fearful of war or a nuclear war in their lifetimes and 48 the boys could imagine a 'conventional' war being justified, percent fearful of a major war in the next five years. but only 3 percent of the girls. At the same time I was making my own survey, Adolescent Thble 1 Response in a Nuclear Age: An Exploratory Study, but prob- Proportion of students believing that a major war will occur ing deeper into the fears and hopes of adolescents. I found A major war will A major war will that 83 percent (aged 13 to 18) felt that there would quite occur within occur within my likely be a nuclear war in their lifetimes with 50 percent expect- 5 years lifetime ing the worst scenario. The girls were more fearful than the boys but they also believed that they could do something about it. It is notable that 67 percent of these young people Girls school 57 80 were angry and incensed (not just fearful and helpless) about Boys school 44 75 the world situation. Given a broader perspective, nuclear war Co-educational school 49 73 was foremost on their minds. One girl said Co-educational school 41 60 The building up of arms just provokes war, We need to 72 support the United Nations to achieve a nuclear disarma- Average 48 ment. It only takes one country like us to start a trend. There have been many studies of the sceptical/cynical/ 'Typical responses despairing/fearful attitudes of youth which point in the same I am mostly concerned about direction. Some of these are mentioned in the notes at the the world blowing up due to war (girl, 15) end of this item. But the world has changed. The threat of the world getting 'nuked' (boy, 15) superpower confrontation has changed. The political shape of Europe has changed. Have young people's opinions and the after-effects of a nuclear war. I haven't had a chance fears changed? It has been suggested that the generation to live yet. All the old people don't need to live any gap is now spaced at mere five year intervals! Therefore, I longer and they are the ones who will push the button. set out to do a short follow-up study. (boy 16) World War 3 (nuclear war) and surviving it (boy, 16) The follow-up all the nuclear weapons in this world (girl, 13) America and Russia with their new bombs and things I n April 1989, when peristroika and glastnost were well that can DAMAGE THE WHOLE WORLD in one blow under way, when the INF Treaty had begun the elimination (girl, 14) of one class of nuclear weaponsthose at Greenham Com- mon when Poland and Hungary were changing their gov- the government buying frigates putting New Zealand ernmehts, but before the collapse of the Communist govern- on the map as a target to be blown up by the Russians ments in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Bul- or Americansand the rotting from radiation poisoning garia and before the Berlin Wall went down, I asked 96 girls as an atter-etfect (girl, 17). and 89 boys in four secondary schools just four open-ended The homogeneity of views from different age groups as questions. The first two asked what they hoped would hap- well as backgrourids was notable. There was only a slight pen, the second two asked that they feared might happen. difference (not statistically significant) between boys' and girls' fears of war. Both were very knowledgable of theissues. Living In an age where there is the likelihood of horrible A 15-year-uld girl wrote: lives (and horrible deaths) requires that we work for change I am relatively pessimistic about the future and feel thatit and take responsibility. As well as the threats of nuclear war, would only take a single 'press of the button' to start the disease and unemployment, as mentioned by this adoles- annihilation of the earth. Many people I have spoken to agree cent, there Is also the threat of ozone depletion, global warm- with me in that tley would definitely not want to survive a ing, pollution, and the rape of natural resources. The chal- nuclear war. lenge to us as teachers is to help children, as we help each What seems so unfair Is that it will be only one country other, to accept responsibility to work to reverse these that starts the war, thus inflicting it on other 'innocent'nations. threatening trends. I think the country that starts the nuclear holocaust isselfish and cruel for causing the ban of the world. Notes It must be said that the majority of the young peoplewith hopeful expectations (58 percent) were more concernedwith Mrs Greta Barnhart-Thomson is SeniOr Counsellor/Psychologist at St plans Andrew's College, Papanui Road, Christchurch, New Zealand. She gives personal issues: with school performance, with career special thanks to the Christchurch secondary schools who participated and with future directions for themselves, particularlywhen in this study. considering just the next five years. And their fearful concerns Her original survey is can be temporary: one 17-year-old wrotethat her greatest Barnhart-Thomson, G. (1988) Adolescent response in a nuclear age: extinction of the an exploratory study. Christchurch: University of CanterburyUnpub- concern over the next five years was the lished thesis. mountain gorilla the film Gorillas in the Mist was playing their whole lives See also at the time. However, when asked about Barnhart-Thomson, G. (1987) Teenage Perceptions in a Nuclear Age, they shift to world concerns, making a conscious move away New Zealand Family Physician 14. 60-63. from self-centred Issues. The overriding consensus was one question- Studies of thrzi sceptical/cynical/despairing/fearful attitudes of adoles- of concern. A teacher attached a cover note to the cents in the recent past include naires which she returned: Beardsiee, W. and Mack, J. (1983) The impact on children and ado- Some found these issues too stressful to thinkabout. lescents of nuclear developments, Psychosocial Aspects of Nuclear Developments. Task Force Report No.20. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association. Discussion and exploding, Chivian. E. and Mack. J. (1985) Soviet children and the threat of ithin hours of the space shuttle Challenger nuciear war: a preliminary study American Journal of Orthop- American psychologists went into action to assesshow W sychlatry, 55 (4) 484-502. the tragedy affected the nation's children.There had been a and teacher aboard. The expectation was that shockand a deep Gray B. and Valentine. J.J. (1984) Nuclear war: the knowledge and sense of sadness would prevailand that fears might abound. attitudes of New Zealand secondary children. New Zealand Family Initially, however, reports indicated that kids were'coping' Physician, 11 (3) 121-123. well and that their only bewildsrment was why thequestions The suggestion that the generation gap is now five years comes from were being put to them In thefirst place. Similarly, after the Taylor, B. (1969) Paper in private circulation. Wellington: NZ Depart- Chernobyl disaster, there was no 'strong' reaction inFinland ment of Heatth. in spite of people's proximity to the fallout, aswell as the fact Psychologists reports on children's initial reactions to the Challenger disaster include that Finland also has nuclear power plants. Williams, J.E. (1986) Paper in private circulation. Winston-Salem, Do these reactions suggest that we, and youngpeople in coping with life- North Carolina: Wake Forest University. particular have in-built mechanisms for A report on reactions in Finland to Chernobyl is threatening situations? It has been suggested thatwhen the Rimpela. M. (1988) Paper in private circulation. Helsinki: Department threats become too disturbing we simplyignore them, a reac- of Public Health Science, University of Helsinki. tion named 'psychic numbing'. Although itis difficult to locate For 'psychic numbing' see research dealing directly with this Issue,findings in the USA Litton, R.J. (1982) Beyond nuclear numbing. Teachers' College Re- during World War 2 reveal that when parentsdeny that the cord (84) 15. situation is threatening this only heightens thetrauma in Research in the USA during WW2 on parents denying threats includes have made case reports, Bakler, L. and Rosenfeld. E. (1974) Effects of parental fears on chil- young people. Psychologists who dnin in wartime. Social Casework, 55. 497-503. and those looking at the effects ofthe Challenger disaster, issues in- That discussion diminishes the idea that war is like natural catastrophes recommend that adults should talk openly about is discussed in volving death, actual or threatened. Engelstrom. Y. (1978), War in the imaginatiOn of Finnish school chil- In fact discussion about nuclear war hasbeen found to dren. Current Research on Peace and Violence. 1: 91-103. diminish the popular belief among young peoplethat war is That young people who worry about war are often better adjusted than like a natural catastropheand hence impossible to prevent those who do not is detailed in preparations for Goldennng. J.M. and Doctor. R.M. (1984) Californian adolescents' and to strengthen the Idea that war and concerns about the threat of nuclear war. Proceedings of the4th war are social processes which canbe influenced by people. Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nucle- Through discussions young people canbecome affiliated ar War with others also concerned about theissue. Anxiety about and war is not disastrous, and atleast two pieces of research Somrnk 3. and Goldberg. S. et al. (1985) The nuclear threat have shown that young people who do worryabout it, and and Canauan children. Canadian Journal of Public Health 76. 154- have got to the position of feeling that they cando something 156. about the prevention of war, tend to dobetter at school and That young people are well aware of the threats to their lives is discussed generally are better adjusted than those whodo not worry. in threats to their lives. Solantus, T. and Chivian, E. et al. (eds) (1985) Impact of the threat Young people are well aware of the of nuclear war on children and adolescents. Proceedings of an inter- To avoid the Issues is one trap: to makethem seem over- national research symposium Boston: International Physrcians tor whelming is the other. Comments such as thefollowing could the Prevention of Nuclear War. become common: Copying Permttted I'm sick of everyone filling us with a:I sorts of crap abouthow © Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant to all we're gonna get nuked, Or AIDS. and I-ever find jobsand ail people actively engaged in education the right to copy it in the interests have horrible lives. of better teaching; simply acknowledge the source.

62,) Item 16. setr-ft."1"Nh.,..h.r. number two 1990 only think of themen... I don't think of the women' Adrienne Alton-Lee, Prue Densem and Graham Nuthall Department of Education, University of Canterbury

V-AI-4Ir -a- 12.41- Air A. NIafill Ar ar 0, a th. Teacher MHERE IS GROWING EVIDENCE that classroomTextbooks processes work in powerful ways to favour child-The extent of gender-bias in school texts has been well- ren by gender, race and social class. These proces-documented world-wide. Recent research has begun to 1ses work in ways of which even those involved,show the impact that sexist texts have on children. For both teachers and pupils, are not aware. In thissetitem example, male generic language ('man' or 'he' to denote we focus on gender-bias in the content of what childrenpeople in general or gender unknown) is unconsciously experience in classrooms. We report the results of analyses perceived by children and adults to refer to men and not of the way in which the formal curriculum becomes a women. When asked to imagine the people referred to by gender-biased reality in the classroom. male generic language, they report the image of a male Research has already shown that patterns of classroom and rarely a female. interaction and school textbooks are significantly gender- Over the past two years we have set our first year uni- biased. versity students the task of analyzing the gender characteristics of recently published secondary science texts used Classroom Interaction in New Zealand secondary schools. An analysis of the In 1988, Alison Kelly analyzed 81 separate studies of gen- first chapter of Deborah Epp's School Certificate Science: der-bias in patterns of classroom interaction which ranged Physics showed that where the gender of a person was from a detailed study of a single classroom to a survey ofmentioned, only 18% were female and 82% were male. 102 classrooms. Her analyses made it clear that teachers Only three of the 34 persons depicted in illustrations were consistently interact more with boys than with girls, al-distinguishably female. Systematic analysis of the first though they may claim that they treat and wish to treat chapter of an apparently non-sexist new fourth form text both sexes the same way. Karen Newton reported a study(Active Science 1 by Grieve & Ball) showed females were of participation patterns in Auckland junior school class-mentioned or depicted in illustrations less than a third as rooms. One teacher who was personally 'concerned and frequently as males. committed to giving girls a fair go' believed that in her classroom 85% of the girls and 75% of the boys typically Curriculum contributed to class discussion. Observations showed that So far, however, there has been little research on how in fact girls initiated only 18% of public interactions while children actually experience gender-bias in the school cur- boys initiated 82%. Of public interactions initiated by the riculum. Dale Spender has argued that girls and women teacher only 15% were initiated with girls' and 85% werehave been largely invisible in the curriculum, and where initiated with boys. they have been visible, the representations have been

BIEST COPY AVAILABLE 1 6 largely demeaning or derogatory. She claims that the cur- Table I riculum is made up of knowledge generated by white men Gender References in a Curricult, Z.in;:The Middle Ages about white men. She goes on to claim that the effect of in a Standard 3 (Year 4) Class this curriculum is so universal and so profound that we (Total Unit Time: 52 hours 22 minutes) have come to perceive male le.aowledge as normal and Gender Number of Mentions Percentages appropriate in an unquestioned way. Spenderconcludes that we can no longer trust what we know. People (Generic) 1,883 14.4 Three years ago we tested Spender's claimsin relation Males 10,637 81.7 to the curriculumactually experienced by children -not just Females 507 3.9 the materials or the texts that were available to the teacher TOTAL 13,027 100.0 and children, but the actual minute by minuteverbal and visual content experienced in classrooms. We useddata gathered about the learning of nine-year-old andeleven- year-old children for our major research projectcalled Table 2 Gender References in a Curriculum UnitNew York: Understanding Learning and Teaching.We were motivated to Cultural Differencesin a Form 1 (Year 6) Class carry out a gender analysis of the databecause we initially believed Spender's claims may have been exaggerated. (Total Unit lime: 6 hours 26 minutes) Systematic analyses indicated that Spender's claims may Gender Number of Mentions Percentages have been conservative! People (Generic) 1,253 60.2 What we did Males 780 37.4 Females 50 2.4 We selected the two studies which focused on people as curriculum content: Study 2 (a unit on the English middle TOTAL 2,083 100.0 ages with nine-year-old children) andStudy 3 (a unit called New Yorkunit there were, on average, two mentions of 'New York City: A Study of Cultural Differences' with males very minute and one mention of a female every eleven-year-old children). The unit topics had been de-seven to eight minutes. cided upon by the teachers and were also taught by other A further analysis of the 50 mentions of women and teachers in both schools. girls in theNew Yorkunit revealed that 24 of those were We analyzed transcripts of continuous observations and peripheral to the central focus on a male. Twelve involved audio recordings of class lessons, individual workand mentionsof alittle boy's girlfriend in a story - she was group tasks. All the work the childrendid in their books never present except in his thoughts and conversations. and all curricula resources including worksheets,books, Three were mentions of mothers of men. Three were men- photographs, filmstrips and so on were included inthe tions of a cleaning lady who worked for the male subject. analysis. One was a mention of a drunk wife who displeased her Every mention of, or reference to, a human being in the husband, one was 'the other woman' in a child's father's written or spoken data was classifedunder threelife, and the last mention involved the observatirm that categories: (1) 'people' (as a gender unspecified term, po-women are less successful than men ataccomplishing tentially inclusive of males and females); (2) 'male'; (3) suicide. Of the remaining 26 mentions of women, six in- 'female'. Pronouns were included in the analysis.Each volved the discussion of women in relation to parental mention, whether plural or singular, was counted only failure, in 17 the woman was the subject but only in relation once. Details of the roles ati: aztionsof each charatArr or to men. Only three mentions were made of a woman groups of characters were alsorecorded. Tests and in- without reference to her relation to a male. These were all depth interviews were used to explore what the children of one woman who was mentioned because she died. had learned from what they had experienced. These were Analysis of theMiddle Agesdata has revealed the same conducted a week or two after the units as part of thepattern with 12.4% of the mentions of womenbeing Understanding Learning and Teaching Project.More tests and pejorative. In 42.4% of the mentions of women, they were interviews were carried out one year later. in subordinate roles to men ('Brok and his good wife', 'the villeins' wives', 'Joan of Arc died for Christ'). What we found The teachers As can be seen in Tables I and 2, the strongestpattern is the invisibility of women. On average, everyminute of Both teachers of these units (one male and one female) class time during theMiddle Ages unit,the children were were shocked when we showed them thecurriculum exposed to three to four mentions of males. Comparethis analyses. Both were confronted with the unconscious and to one mention of a female every sixminutes. During the profound nature of sexism in the curriculum the children experienced. In the Middle Ages unit the teacher had introduced the topic by stating: We're going to be looking at people. How they lived in England during the Middle Ages, what they did and how they earned their living, what they ate, what happened when they were sick, who was rich and who was poor. All those sorts of thingsthat happened in everyday life. The Impact on Children AI. AP The interviews with the children revealed the impact of 1. a curriculum that purports to beabout people but is chiefly about men. Sam was asked by the interviewer to explain

I 1 what the women did:

Surgeon 6 4 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Sam: They used to ... aw can't remember now, There was also evidence that the focus on men under- they used to um ... um ... mined the little the pupils did learn about women and Interviewer: What about the women? interfered with the children's learning from the intended Sam: Walk up and down the castle trying to act curriculum. One of the few women mentioned during the beautiful. (Laugh)... Middle Ages unit was Joan of Arc. However, the children's Sam: Yeah, they thought they were great. And responses to a multiple-choice test item about Joan of Arc people used to go, 'Wow, you're so beauti-showed that they predominantly attributed her ac- ful!' complishments to William the Conqueror. Seven children Amy, a high achieving girl, explained why she d'd not out of the class of 33 selected William the Conqueror before know much about the lives of women during the Middlethe unit and maintained that response in spite of the unit. Ages: Fifteen out of the remaining 26 did not select William the Amy: Because in those days they'd be, well theConqueror before the unit but incorrectly 'learned' that barons and knights. There would be morehe fought the battles that ended the Hundred Years War. about them there; not so much the womenSix of those fifteen had correctly selected Joan of Arc before as they were not barons or knights or any-the unit. Four children recorded that they did not know thing. the answer and four others selected Marco Polo or Francis When the interviewer probed further Amy explained: of Assissi. Only three children out of 33 correctly attributed Amy: The Lady of the Manor was ... she was the the accomplishment to Joan of Arc immediately after the daughter of some important man so that unit. Out of the 23 children who were available for a test made her a lady or something like that. of long-term learning given one year later, none still Amy stated that she did not care about not learning about selected Joan of Arc. Two of the three children who had women and explained why: selected Joan of Arc in the immediate post-iest selected Amy: Some women were serfs and we learnt about William the Conqueror a year later! serfs anyway. So there is not much more you The impact of the curriculum focus on white males on can learn. the children who studied the New York City unit showed When the third case study pupil, Kim an average-achiev-a similar pattern. The following excerpt reveals that Mia, ing boy, was asked in the interview to identify the namea Pakeha girl, identified with the men who came from of the head person in a nunnery he replied: Europe to settle in New York. Mia was responding to a Kim: Oh, I don't know. I've forgotten completely what a nunnery is. question about the settlement of New York: When the interviewer probed further Kim added: Mia: I think it was the Indians. I think they were Oh I think it's something to do with a monas- the first people to have it. tery Interviewer Interviewer: Did you learn about nuns when you studied(femee): Mm? the Middle Ages? Mia: Cause they just, see, you don't... urnIn- Kim: Monks we learnt about monks. dians came before today sort of wearing all them farepaints and things. You sort of think The impact of this curriculum on Kim is best illustrated of them being first there because they were by his diagram of the feudal systema society depicted there before us. You think Indians, and you entirely by men. think of long hair and headbands and A diagram of the Medieval Feudal System drawn by Kim, a weapons ... nine-year-old average-achieving boy. Interview,.And you say, you think uf them being there before us? Mia: Mm. (Nods) Interviewer:And do you feel, when you say 'us', do you mean that the people who came to settle New York after the Indians were people like us. Mia: Mm. Mm. (Nods) Interviewer:How were they like us? Mia: Well, they didn't wear um, war paint and carry weapons around. They just sort of had, they wore clothes like us, sort of (laughter), civilized clothes. Interviewer:When you say 'us' do you think of women or men? Mia: I think of men really, cause like, sort of early Canterbury you have visior s of people wear . ing sort of long suits and things. You know. I don't really...That's right. I only think of the men (giggle). I don't think of the women (giggle). This excerpt is taken from an interview carried out a year after the unit when.Mia was Awelve. Mia explained to the interviewer that she was a strong supporter of the 'Girls can do anything' campaign. The intonation of her voice and her laughter suggested that she surprised herself when she realized that the images in her mind were all of men. In spite ()liter apparently feminist beliefs she was powerfully affected by a curriculum that largely excluded

BEST COPY AVAILABLE Given the weight of the evidence thepressing need is to change both the curriculum materials and theway children experience the curriculum. The Problem of Change It is important not to underestimate the roleof hegemony in confounding attempts to make changes. Forboys and men the curricula focus on male activity can be affirming and empowering. For girls andwomen the hegemonic process leads them to collude in, and defendas normal, school curriculum that is sexist. Sexism in education is very powerful butit is only one of the structured and hiddenways in which our thinking becomes gendered. For example, the social andeconomic structures that divide human activity into public and private spheres, paid and unpaid work, maintain fundamental beliefs about the different value of maleand female women. Her schema for storing historical material ap-contributions to our society. However, in schools,we, as peared to be exclusively male. teachers, administrators and parentscan bring about The Australian Commonwealth Schools Commissionchanges. And as the Australian Commonwealth Schools (1975) defined sexism as a 'process through which femalesCommission pointed out in 1975, 'Good educationis neces- and males not only progressively learn that different sarily non-sexist.' things are required and expected of them because of their Because we have come to think of the invisibility of girls sex, but learn those things in an unexamined way.' The and women as normal, systematic ptvadures and training data from the present study suggest that theprocess isare necessary to monitor and combat sexism in thecur- not only unexamined but strongly hegemonic. Hegemonic riculum. Because pupils havecome to think of the invisi- is a term used to describe the process through whichmem-bility of girls and womenas normal they may resist the bers of a subordinate group come to collude in,or unknow-introduction of women and girls into curriculum.There- ingly support, and maintain, their own subordination.fore it is important that the introduction ofnon-sexist cur- Both teachers and pupils accept as normal andapprop-ricula is accompanied by counter-sexist strategiesto edu- riate, a curriculum which excludes and systematicallyun-cate children about sexism and the need for change. dervalues women. Suggestions for strategies to help develop Summary and Implications gender-equitable practice What the children experienced: Ensure that there is a spending policy that makes gender- Our evidence demonstrates that the childrenwere ex-balance a requirement for allnew educational materials. posed to a curriculum predominantly about whitemenThere are charts to help staff analyse educationalmaterials and from the perspective of whitemen. The knowledgefor gender balance at the end of this item. Affirmative affirmed and commended male endeavour (predomin-action in purchasing will be necessary to counter-balance antly that of conquering armies or colonists) and presented the overwhelmingly sexist effect of existingresources. Save images of white males as strong, brave, pioneering andthe additional burden on school staff. Require publishers adventurous. of educational materials touse systematic procedures at Our focus on the experienced curriculum (rather thanthe development stage to ensure that allnew publications just the texts or resource materials) suggests that educatorsare non-sexist and non-racist in language, content, and may have markedly ander-estimated the extent of sexism illustrations. Publishers' Guidelines for non-sexistmat- in what pupils experience. erials in education are available (e.g., the McGraw-Hill The impact on children: Guidelines) Teacher-made curriculumresources are often best suited to the educational needs of the children. Ensure The evidence we now have provides dues to the serious- staff have relief time and financial supportto develop gen- ness of the impact on children of how they experience theder-balanced resources. curriculum. The children's acceptance of the subordinate status and the invisibility of women was apparent im- Put a priority on gender equity training for school staff. Overseas research suggests that equitytrainingfor mediately after the unit and appeared to be even strongerteachers is critical to the success of even modest gender- a year later. equity initiatives. Perhaps the best evidence of the long-term impact of New Zealand schools, when implementing the 'Taking sexist curricula is the teachers' lack of awareness of the Action' plan in Governing Schools: A Practical Handlvok for bias. We are all products of this kind of curriculum. School Trustees should ensure that all strategies address When we present the data from the Middle Ages studycurriculum as well as other areas of gender eqoity. to university and College of Education students we use a series of slides of medieval paintings depicting women as Principals soldiers, weavers, sculptors, farmers, surgeons, teachers, miners, mothers, masons, bakers, apothecaries, painters 1. Make a priority of equity training for staff. Thereare and so on. We do this because many students genuinely many competing demands on staff training. However, believe the myth that women did not make an importantequity training is critical both because there is a prcblem contribution to life in the English middle ages. The long-seeing the problem and because the effectiveness ofany term impact of sexist curricula is very powerful. Thatother equity resource is dependent upon teachers. women were mentioned even less frequently in the study2. Ensure that the responsibility for the development of of modern-day New York provides an important insightequity policy or programmes does not fall on one isolated that sexism in class teaching is not just a matter of biasedstaff member.The need for inter-staff support is highlight- historical records. ed in overseas reports. In larger schools, ensure that equity BEST COPY AVAILABLE working groups involve staff who work at each age level,2.4 Use the action-research model in the 'Countering- or staff from each Department. Sexism in Education' handbook as a guide for evaluation 3. If the school has an equity working group, providestrategies to diagnose the impact of the changes on pupils. opportunities for them to consult with the rest of the staffGirls may be harassed or abused in the course of the to generate a wcrkable plan to evaluate, modify, replacechanges. and develop Curricula materials systematically. Encourage2.5 Ensure you have available images of women in a vari- the working group to keep brief records of the gains made.ety of roles and activities relevant to your topic. We have Many staff can feel overwhelmed by the pervasiveness offound even simple strategies such as showing images of sexism in curricula. Therefore it is important for the staff the women who have won Nobel prizes for scientific work to establish a step-by-step plan that is practicable. to have a powerful effect on first year University students. 4. Facilitate opportunities and support for staff to carryHowever, check that your images of women do not under- out small-scale action research in the school. It is important value or exclude women's contribution of unpaid nurtur- for teachers to gather information about what is actuallying and household work. Overseas 'non-sexist' program- happening; imp ortant for them, and their pupils. The ap-mes featuring women in traditionally male activitiesonly, proach could be 'ntroduced as part of staff developmenthave had an unintended but deeply troubling outcome: within the school. There is an action research model inthey have increased children's undervaluing of women's the Countering Sexism in Education handbook which could .Inpaid contribution to society. be put on to an overhead to initiate discussion at a staff2.6 Design for your pupils research tasks which focus meeting. upon women's lives and contribution to society.Prepare 5. Carrying out analyses of curricula materials takes time.children for the detective work necessary to uncover Teaching staff will need time to do it. They will also need information about women and use the problems they meet assistance from other staff or assistants with whom theyas a basis for discussion about the predominanceof men in historical material. Train pupils to interview aunts, feel comfortable. mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers to gather Teachers their own historical material. 1. Photocopy the coding pages we have provided and do3. One of the greatest sources of frustration for counter- your own analyses. Begin with curricula maierials.Later sexist practice is the considerable amount of work involved use a tape recorder to provide dataabout the curriculum in locating curriculum resources that include and value children experience. Collaborate with other staff. Take timewomen and girls. Photocopy and use the codingsheets to discuss the results of your analyses andbrainstorm to analyze existing resources for topics for which you are strategies that will be effective in your class. If you have having most difficulty developing non-sexist resources. the Countering Sexism in Education handbook, use and mod- We your analyses to support your need for funding and ify the procedures in it. Note: It is important to gatherfor time to develop adequate curricula resources. When some data yourself and think through theimplicationsyou have money to purchase new materialsbeware of before you raise the issues with students. superficial changes that appear to be non-sexist (such as 2. Initial attempts to introduce gender-balanced cur-'inserts' or 'adds-ons') but which continue to marginalize riculum are typically resisted by both girls and boys. Be women. prepared for anger and resistance from children! Girls may 4. Ensure that the resources you develop are equitable for resist focus on women and/or may suffer a backlash from race as well as gender. The aim is an 'inclusivecurriculum' angry boys. As a result of sexist curriculaand other social which involves all children and does not exclude particular processes, students undervalue curricula thatfocus upon groups. girls and women. The strength of the resistance highlights the need for change. Because of the resistance, genderImportant Note: equity initiatives should begin with counter-sexist ratherThe coding sheets we have provided should not be applied to fiction. Although general curriculum materials for social than just non-sexist strategies. For example: studies, science, mathematics etc., should be gender-bal- 2.1 Begin by using the coding sheets (or adaptions) to getanced throughout, it is inappropriee to apply the same students systematically analyzing curricu' Like kinds of analyses to stories and novels. In the case of the us, until they see it they are unlikely tobelieve it! Children school library a simple first step is to compare the number do understand the concept of fairness. of books with female central characters and male central 2.2 Use exercises, designed to expose the problems ofcharacters and apply affirmative action in library buying sexist curricula. For example, use a simple exercise (beforeto redress the imbalance. Don't increase the number of you introduce the topic) like asking thestudents to draw stories with neuter characters. The immediate need is for a scientist. Explore their conL.:ptionsof a scientist. It isan increase in female characters. There arelists available important to alert children to the effects of male genericof excellent fiction books which present a positive image language. Ask pupils to draw pictures of early cavemen,of women and girls. e.g., Book 2 of the Combat Sexism Kit policemen, 'the man in the street' etc. Choose male generic published by Globe Press for the Australian Union of Stu- terms from resources in the school: textbooks, encyc-dents. lopaedias, non-fiction references. The research shows that children predominantly interpret male generic language as male specific. Their pictures willreveal to you and them how they interpret male generic language. Try translating some male-generic language intofemalegeneric and explore the ways in which language can exclude or stereo- type females and males. 2.3 Use language whkh specifies both genders as often as possible. Saying 'he or she' maytake slightly longer ; but the research suggests children are most likely to have gender-balanced associations when both genders are specified. Scul p tor

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 56 Please photocopy as many copies as you need

Coding Chart For gender analysis of the language in textbooks, other written material & audio tapes. (Not for fiction)

Page Gender specified Gender Male- Female- No. Unspecified Generic Generic Female Male Both

(Sub) Total

Decide which categories you want to compare and turn thenumber 100 number in the category into a percentage of the total: total 1

Definitions Gender specified female mentions the sex involved women, girls. she... Gender specified male men, boys, males, he, ... Plurals count as 1 mention. Gender specifiedboth explicitly both men and women, he and she... Gender unspecified inclusive termspeople, person, humankind, teacher.... Male-generic uses he and man for people in general, or refers to a person as he when the sex is unknown or irrelevant Female-generic uses she, or woman, similarly.

Tally each mention in the columns. Please adapt the chart to your own needs, e.g., you roav want to analyse the roles and activities (as well as the mentions). Systematic analysis is time consuming. fry an anal...sis of a few randomly selected pages; you will soon have an indication of the degree of bias. 6 d

6 '-"C";

111., Please phctncopy as many copies as you need

Coding Chart For gender analysis of text illustrations or visual resources. (Not for fiction)

Page Gender No. Neutral or Females Males Indistinguishable Brief note on Brief note on Brief note on Number activities or Number activities or Number activities or roles roles roles

(Sub) Total

Decide which categories you want to compare and turn thenumber number in the category into a percentage of the total: total 1 Look for stereotyping in the roles and activities. Note: Coding photos showing large numbers of people is unreliable and time consuming. We suggest youanalyse only photos with four or fewer people.

69 7 -11.111111M Masons

Notes for Dr Adrienne Alton-Lee is a Lecturer inEducation at the University We pay tribute to the teachers whose programmes we studied, their commitment to children, for their openness to reflective practice, of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch, NewZealand. and their conviction that the findings should be published. Dr Prue Densem is a Lecturer in Education atthe University of Can- The assistance of the New Zealand Department of Education and its terbury, Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand. successor the Ministry of Education to the UnderstandingLearning and Dr Graham Nuthall is Professor of Education atthe University of Teaching Project is gratefully acknowledged, as is also the help of the Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch, NewZealand. Social Science Research Fund Board and the University of Canterbury.

Researand Development is needed to: References Develop resource indexes of the extent of genderimbalance in cur- Commonwealth Schools Commission (1975) Girls, Schools and Society, rently widely used curricula materials and texts. Canberra: Government Printer. Develop, network and distribute resource indexesof non-sexist cur- Kelly, A. (1988) Gender differences in teacher-pupil interactions: a riculum materials and information about sourcesof non-sexist cur- meta-analytic review. Research in Education, 39, pp. 1-23. ricula and materials. (New Zealand has, forexample the Kohia Re- source Centre, Auckland FeministTeachers Newsletter, and the Netwon, K. (1988) Gender Differences in Classroom Interactwn. Unpub- Women's Advisory Committee on Education). lished masters thesis, University of Auckland. Spender, D. (1982) hwisible Women: The Schooling Scandal, London: Evaluate the implementation of counter-sexist strategiesand develop effective teaching methods and support strategies to promotegender Writers and Readers. equity. Copying Permitted Acknowledgements The research which gave rise to this set itemwould not have been Copyright on this item is held by NZCER and ACER who grant to all people actively engaged in education the right to copyIt in the possible without the meticulous work of ValerieAinsworth who car- interests of better teching. Please acknowledge the source. ried out the quantitative analyses of gender.

'the pictures of medieval wnmeri come from many 14th and 15th century books. We found these among many others beautifully reproduced in The Medieval Woman, An Illuminated Book of Days, by Sally Fox (Editor), a New YorkGraphic Society book, published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, USA, 1985.

BEST COPYAVAILABLE 8 research information setfor teachers number two 1990

1. Contents sheet 9. Girls are Better than Boys? 7bny Gallagher 2. Modified Sports: Kiwi and Aussie 10. Small Children Solve Big Velma McClellan, Julie Leibrich, Problems Jennifer Bradshaw, Jenny Neale Lyn English

3. IQ Tests and Cultural Distance 11.Increasing Meta-learning Part 2: James Flynn with comments by John Thinking Books Raven Susan Swan and Richard White

4. School Climate: Assessing and 12. Finding Your First Job Improving School Environments Marie Cameron, Lexie Grundoff, Darrell Fisherand Barry Fraser Marilyn Gwilliam, Rodger Peddie

5. School Level Environment 13. Weather and Wickedness Questionnaire (SLEQ) Bill Badger and Eric O'Hare Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser 6. Size, Costs, Curriculum in 14. Lessons from Mrs A. and Mrs R Secondary Schools Phillipa Lane Phillip McKenzie 15. Teenage Perceptions In a Still

7.Education and Employment Nuclear Age Paul Callisterwith a brief reply by Greta Barnhart-Thomson Ivan Snook 16.'I Only Think of the Men... 8. Good and Bad in Prime Time I Don't Think of the Women' TV for Kids Adrienne Alton-Lee, Prue Densem, Ma* Dewalt Graham Nuthall