Colin Power

Adolescent Decision-Making: The Development of Competence.

This article reviews evidence relating to the development of competence in decision-making during adolescence. The review focuses on cognitive aspects of decision-making and discusses nine indicators of competence: choice; comprehension; creativity; compromise; consequentiality; correctness; credibility; consistency; and commitment. The evidence suggests that by the age of 15 years many adolescents show a reliable level of competence in metacognitive understanding of decision-making, creative problem-solving, correctness of choice, and commitment to a course of action. Young adolescents (12-14 years) are less able to create options, identify a wide range of risks and benefits, foresee the consequences of alternatives, and gauge the credibility of information from sources with vested interests. No evidence is available relating to age differences in willingness to make choices, devise compromises, and show consistency of choices. Barriers to achieving competence in decision-making during adolescence include attitudinal constraints (e.g. beliefs about the proper age for making decisions), peer group pressures to conformity, breakdowns in family structure and functioning, and restricted legal rights to make important personal decisions (e.g. to donate blood or body tissue).

Factors Influencing Retentivity and Satisfaction with Secondary Schooling

Having outlined some of the cultural, economic, and systems factors influencing participation rates in secondary education, this paper examines the degree to which selected school characteristics, home background, and cohort characteristics are associated with apparent school retentivity rates of 30 South Australian secondary schools, and the characteristics of 2711 secondary students with intention to quit school and student satisfaction. At the school level, the key factors turned out to be the socioeducational level of the parents and the type of school attended. At the student level, intention to quit school was found to be directly linked to satisfaction which in turn was associated with sex, academic self-concept, and parental encouragement.

Major influences on science achievement in a developing country: Kenya

This study seeks to contribute to our understanding of the relative importance of selected student, teacher and school characteristics on student achievement and attitudes towards science. The sample included 424 Form 4 students and 144 science teachers from ten secondary schools in Kenya. Data were collected on school type, location and science resources; teacher experience, training and expectation; and student gender, science experiences, attitudes and aspirations with respect to science, and science achievement. The results indicate that the school and teacher characteristics play a more significant role in shaping science attitudes and achievement in developing countries like Kenya, than in developed countries. There were significant differences between boys and girls in student motivational orientation and achievement, but the relationship between gender and achievement is indirect and mediated through variations in the resources of different types of secondary schools and the teachers assigned to them.

Higher education indicators: An exercise in interpretation

Abstract Current political and economic imperatives imply that policy decisions in the field of higher education can no longer be made on the basis of the limited information — mainly input measures — available at present. Performance indicators are needed, covering costs and participation rates as well as progress and graduation rates. Practices and progress vary in the countries examined (among which Australia, the United States, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom), but the difficulties of establishing meaningful reference points and guidelines for proper use are widely recognised. Nevertheless, experience has shown that if the debate is open and the objectives agreed upon, a fruitful dialogue can take place.

A structural interaction model of the primary school in Papua New Guinea

Abstract Most of the published research that has been carried out in Papua New Guinea primary schools has been directed at either the cognitive learning problems of children, or the mismatch between the cultures of schools and their communities. Both the cognitive-psychological approach and the culture-conflict approach lack explanatory value of some of the problems that are faced by teachers and students in primary schools. This study attempts to examine the Papua New Guinea primary school system from a systems methodological standpoint. A descriptive structural model has been assembled from tape-recorded interview data of some 110 education department staff. These staff included District Superintendents, School Inspectors, Principals and Teachers. An analysis of this structural model has shown that there are two dominant sets of forces which influence teachers in their day-to-day school activities. One set originates within the local community and expresses its expectations and aspirations of its school. The other set originates from the influence of the teacher promotion and reward system on the degree of teacher satisfaction. Results obtained from the analysis of the structural model show how difficult it will be to effect change in the education system through teacher participation.