An investigation into the nature of services offered at the district level by instructional materials centres of school boards in Canada

Oldford, Roy (1978) An investigation into the nature of services offered at the district level by instructional materials centres of school boards in Canada. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study was conducted to find the answers to the following two general questions: -- 1. Is there a relationship between the size of school districts in Canada and the presence or absence of various components of media services? -- 2. Is there a relationship between the presence or absence of various components of media services and the opinion of media specialists concerning the extent to which these components are desirable? -- The study assumed that those philosophies of curriculum and instruction that require a variety of media are sound and also that the district level service will be instrumental in helping to develop effective media programmes for defined areas. -- A questionnaire was developed and mailed to 212 school board districts across Canada who reported the presence of some type of media programme. The questionnaire consisted of a general section which asked for the student population of the district, the full-time teacher population of the district, the area of the district in square miles, the total budget for new media, and the total budget for library books. These were considered as independent variables and only one--the size of the school district as determined by the total student enrollment--was chosen for this study. -- The next ten sections of the questionnaire outlined what were considered to be characteristics of a district media centre, and these were listed under the following general areas: -- 1. Financial Arrangements -- 2. Selection of Materials and Equipment for Acquisition -- 3. Classifying, Cataloguing and Processing of Materials and Equipment -- 4. Availability of Educational Media -- 5. Care and Maintenance of Materials and Equipment -- 6. Physical Facilities -- 7. Furnishings and Equipment -- 8. Locally and Commercially Produced Materials -- 9. Educational Media Staff -- 10. Services and Activities -- Ten null hypotheses were then stated, one each concerning the possible relationships of the ten components of media centre operations with the size of the school district. A Chi Square was applied to attest independence, and the null hypotheses were either accepted or rejected based on a .05 level of significance. -- The findings showed that the null hypotheses were accepted for a majority of characteristics in nine of the ten components of media services. In general there was no significant relationship between the presence or absence of the characteristic~ of media services and the size of the school district. -- The null hypothesis was rejected with respect to a majority of the characteristics of the component of locally and commercially produced materials, concluding that there is a significant relationship between this component of media services and the size of the school district. -- To answer the second question, ten null hypotheses were also formulated - one for each of the ten components of the media centre's services-indicating that there was no significant difference between the presence or absence of the particular characteristics of these components of media services and the extent to which they were considered desirable by the media specialists. A Chi Square analysis was then performed to test independence, and the null hypotheses were either accepted or rejected based on a .05 level of significance. -- The findings here indicate that the null hypotheses were rejected for a majority of characteristics in six of the components of media services. The null hypotheses were accepted only in the case of the components of physical facilities, furnishings and equipment, the educational media staff, and services and activities. It can be concluded then, in general, that there is a significant relationship between the presence or absence of these components of media services and the opinion of media specialists concerning the extent to which these components are considered desirable.

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