Secondary Modern School Research Articles

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL THINKING IN VERBAL COMPREHENSION

Summary. This paper describes the results obtained by the investigators in their efforts to establish whether the inferences that secondary modern school children and pupils in further education draw in history, geography and literature texts correspond to the formal operational stage of reasoning as postulated by Piaget in his theory of mental development. Further, it was sought to provide answers to the following questions: Do the results obtained correlate more closely with mental or chronological age? Is there any significant sex difference shown in the results? Do the results show any significant difference by age?

New Thinking in School Mathematics, Issued by the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation. Pp.246 1961. - Synopses for Modern Secondary School Mathematics, OEEC. Pp. 310. 1961.

New Thinking in School Mathematics, Issued by the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation. Pp.246 1961. - Synopses for Modern Secondary School Mathematics, OEEC. Pp. 310. 1961.

ANXIETY IN SECONDARY MODERN AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Summary. Theory regarding anxiety now yields a variety of predictions concerning its incidence in secondary modern and grammar school children. An investigation was designed to test some of these predictions.Anxiety was measured by means of eight self‐rating questionnaires. These were used in twelve single‐sex secondary modern and grammar schools to obtain a sample of approximately nine hundred children, divided equally into eight groups according to age, sex and school type. Differences between mean scores of secondary modern and grammar school groups were tested for significance by a series of t‐tests. The secondary modern school groups had significantly higher mean scores on three measures of manifest and separation anxiety, and higher mean scores on a measure of emotional introversion. The secondary grammar school groups had a significantly higher mean score on a measure of social introversion, and higher mean scores on measures of self‐blame and thinking introversion.The results are discussed in relation to Davis's theory of “adaptive, socialised anxiety.” This theory is not supported unless it is assumed that the kind of anxiety referred to by Davis bears little relation to what is generally understood by the word. Predictions following from generalisations of Lynn's work on anxiety and attainment also fail to be verified. It is concluded that if any assertion may be made regarding the general relationship of anxiety and attainment among secondary school children, it is that they are negatively correlated. This is supported by Vernon's finding of a positive correlation of attainment and emotional stability among children.Predictions made from Spence's theory are verified. Predictions made from a theory which identifies neuroticism with autonomic drive and introversion with the slow accumulation and fast dissipation of reactive inhibition are not supported.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Adkins Wood, D. (1960). Test Construction.Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of Education.Burns, D. G. (1960). Vocabulary of the Secondary Modern School Child.Lee, W. R. (1960). Spelling Irregularity and Reading Difficulty in English.Cartwright, D., and Zander, A. (1960). Group Dynamics: Research and Theory.Christiansen, B. (1960). Attitudes Towards Foreign Affairs as a Function of Personality.Cloward, R. A., and Ohlin L. E. (1960). Delinquency and Opportunity.Glover, E., Mannheim, H., and Miller, E. (edit.) British Journal of Criminology.Glover, E., Mannheim, H., and Miller, E. (edit.) The Library of Criminology Vol. I. Pioneers in Criminology (edit. by H. Mannheim, 1960)Glover, E., Mannheim, H., and Miller, E. (edit.) Vol. 2. Restitution to Victims of CrimeHerriot, V. E., et al. (1960) Comparison of Practices in Handwriting Advocated by Nineteen Commercial Systems of Handwriting Instruction.Jones, H. (1960). Reluctant Rebels: Re‐education and Group Process in a Residential Community.Lennhoff, F. G. (1960). Exceptional Children.Jones, Kathleen (1960). Mental Health and Social PolicyMahanta, D. (1960). Allocation of Pupils in Secondary Education.Perry, Natalie (1961). Teaching the Mentally Retarded Child.Pickard, P. M. (1961). I Could A Tale Unfold.Rommetveit, R. (1960). Selectivity, Intuition and Halo Effects in Social Perception.Ryans, D. G. (1960). Characteristics of Teachers.Saad, L. G., and Storer, W. O. (1960). Understanding in Mathematics.Schneiders, A. A. (1960). Personality Development and Adjustment in Adolescence.Odlum, D. (1961). Journey Through Adolescence.Squirrel, N., et al. (1960). Attitude Scaling.Stern, H. H. (1960). Parent Education: An International Survey.Waddington, C. H. (1960). The Ethical Animal.

The Growth of Extended Courses in English Secondary Modern Schools

The Growth of Extended Courses in English Secondary Modern Schools

The Changing Social Function of the English Secondary Modern School

The Changing Social Function of the English Secondary Modern School

Book Review: The Secondary Modern School

Book Review: The Secondary Modern School

Smoking habits of young soldiers.

It is now generally accepted that cigarette smoking is a major contributory factor in the causation of lung cancer. Since smoking represents habituation, if not addiction, health education should be directed towards those who have not yet become addicted? the adolescent or the school child. Various studies of the smoking habits of school children of all ages have been made recently, but little is known of the habits of adolescents who have left school and not yet acquired the full adult habit of life. Most studies have been concerned with children of Secondary Modern, Grammar, or Public Schools (Raven, 1957; Parry Jones, 1957) and although the age groups surveyed ranged from 11-18 years, the number of boys over the age of 15 years has formed a very small proportion?less than 5 per cent, of the two major surveys carried out in Great Britain for which specific data are recorded (Bothwell, 1959; Chave and Schilling, 1959). In Norway, however, a survey of school children by Nilsen (1959) included 4,967 males between the ages of 13 and 20 years of whom 40 per cent, were aged 15 or over, whilst Todd (1959) gave figures, collected by random sampling in 1957, of the smoking habits of young men aged 12 to 19 years. A body of young men whose smoking habits could be the subject of accurate study is to be found in the young soldiers of the special training units which exist in the Army for those under the age of 18. In such a military population precise data of the total population at risk are obtainable thereby facilitating an accurate statistical study. A military population is also worthy of study in the light of figures given by the Tobacco Manufacturers for 1958, which indicate that, with an incidence of 70-6 per cent., male servicemen as a social group have the highest percentage of cigarette smokers in the community. Indeed, suggestions have been made fr m time to time that men in the Armed Services are encouraged to smoke cigarettes in conformity wi h their comrades,,or as a result of the issue of free cigarettes in certain circumstances, and the provision of duty-free cigarettes overseas. The Army Medical Services have recently started a programme of health education on smoking. Administrative medical officers have been instructed to make the facts of lung cancer known throughout the military community. Special efforts are to be made where the habit has not yet become fixed and Boy soldiers are picked out as the obvious target in this category. It was, therefore, considered that it would be of value to carry out a survey of the smoking habits of the young soldier at the start of this health education programme. The first aim would be to ascertain whether these boys, shortly to join a group which has the heaviest incidence of cigar tte smoking, had the same smoking habits as their civilian counterparts or whether there was anything in the pattern of their smoking habits to assist or improve the efficiency of any campaign of health education. A secondary aim would be to establish a basis for the assessment of the efficacy of the education programme at some future date. In order that a direct comparison might perhaps be made with the schoolboy it was decided to follow the same pattern of survey as that used by the Study Group of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Chave and Schilling, 1959), and this we were able to do with only a little variation which was due to the different circumstances of the population with which we were concerned.

Attitudes to School and Teachers in a Secondary Modern School*

British Journal of Educational PsychologyVolume 31, Issue P1 p. 106-109 Attitudes to School and Teachers in a Secondary Modern School* ERIC A. ALLEN, ERIC A. ALLEN Borough Road College, IsleworthSearch for more papers by this author ERIC A. ALLEN, ERIC A. ALLEN Borough Road College, IsleworthSearch for more papers by this author First published: February 1961 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1961.tb01708.x † Abstract of thesis presented for the M.A. degree of the University of London, 1959. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume31, IssueP1February 1961Pages 106-109 RelatedInformation

The Changing Social Function of the English Secondary Modern School

The Changing Social Function of the English Secondary Modern School

PLACEMENT PROBLEMS AMONG ENGINEERING APPRENTICES IN PART‐TIME TECHNICAL COLLEGE COURSES

Summary. Three groups of part‐time day release students taking first year Ordinary National Certificate Classes in engineering were given a verbal and non‐verbal intelligence test (N> 1000). On the verbal test the mean score was only slightly above that for the population as a whole, but on the non‐verbal test 89 per cent. were at or above the fiftieth percentile with 27 per cent. in the top 10 per cent. of the population. Recent attempts to improve the selection of Ordinary National Certificate students appear to be unrelated to intelligence test scores, as the results obtained in two different areas between 1950 and 1957 show no significant differences. Fifty per cent. had attended secondary modern schools as against 73 per cent. of the whole school population in the same age range. Seventy‐five per cent. had fathers in skilled and managerial jobs, compared with a national average of 53 per cent. In 1957, only 18 per cent. of those not in full‐time education were attending part‐time day classes.The educational and sociological implications of these figures are discussed in relation to manpower problems. An increase in the number of such students must increase the proportion from secondary modern schools and unskilled homes, so that the problems associated with teaching young people of poor verbal ability are unlikely to diminish.

LEVELS OF ATTAINMENT OF EDUCABLE SUBNORMAL ADOLESCENTS

Summary. This study is an attempt to evaluate, by means of specially designed or adapted tests, the academic achievement of a representative sample of 300 educationally subnormal adolescents in the ‘top’ classes of London E.S.N, secondary schools. Their results are compared with those of ‘normal’ children with the same chronological ages in a secondary modern school and with those of children of similar mental ages in a junior school.The over‐all results of the E.S.N. adolescents show a wide range of variability, but generally fall below those of the junior school in every area tested, except craft. However, it was observed that in those schools where there were emphasis on and enthusiasm for a certain subject, in certain cases, this effected a relatively superior achievement in this subject, sometimes at the expense of others in the curriculum. It, therefore, seems that if the same enthusiasm and emphasis prevailed in all E.S.N. schools, and were directed at all subjects, combined with better teaching techniques and sound organization, an over‐all rise in the general level of attainment could possibly be accomplished.However, the writer suggests that the curriculum, although incorporating the academic and craft subjects, should be directed primarily towards vocational guidance and social maturity, rather than depending mainly on verbal facility, in which research has consistently shown the subnormal child to be most handicapped.

The Teaching of Mathematics in the Secondary Modern School. By Olive I. Morgan. Pp. 144. 10s. 6d. 1959. (George G. Harrap)

The Teaching of Mathematics in the Secondary Modern School. By Olive I. Morgan. Pp. 144. 10s. 6d. 1959. (George G. Harrap)

Teaching on Jesus Christ given in the first year of the Secondary Modern School

Teaching on Jesus Christ given in the first year of the Secondary Modern School

Science Teaching in Secondary Modern Schools

Science Teaching in Secondary Modern Schools

Secondary Modern Schools

Your Secondary Modern Schools An Account of Their Work in the Late 1950's. By J. Vincent Chapman. Pp. 298. (London: The College of Preceptors, 1959.) 12s. 6d. net.

The Crowther Report — through Industrial Eyes

CAREFUL READING of the Crowther Report — and not just a quick look at the Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations — fills one with admiration for the magnificent way in which the members of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) have dealt with their terms of reference. Extended courses and examinations for late leavers in secondary modern schools, day‐release classes, sandwich courses, the no‐man's land for those who leave school at 16 and whose continued education often consists of a series of skirmishes with ill‐rewarding evening classes, the role of technical and comprehensive schools, specialisation in sixth forms — all these and other matters are discussed and the discussions lead to firm conclusions about how they may be improved, together with recommendations about how the required teachers of quality and the necessary buildings should be found.

Vocabulary of the Secondary Modern School Child

(1960). Vocabulary of the Secondary Modern School Child. Educational Research: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 111-111.

The Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting

The Society has a reputation for bright and indeed brilliant days for its annual meetings. But the Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting, held at the Haworth Secondary Modern School on Saturday, July 2nd, 1960, was on a day when the low grey clouds never lifted and Haworth had the dark, gloomy look that seme people imagine to be its permanent appearance. But notwithstanding the forbidding skies with their threat of downpour a good audience gathered in the school to hear Dame Myra Curtis, D.B.E., former Principal of Newnham College, give the annual address.

Physical science for teachers in training

Summary An account of cooperation between Balls Park Teachers' Training College (for women), Hertford, and the Department of Science of Hatfield Technical College. Specially selected students from the Training College attend the Technical College on one day a week for a course in the Physical Sciences. The object of the course is to increase the scientific background of the students and possibly to encourage them to undertake some teaching of science in secondary modern schools.