A survey of knowledge and attitudes regarding Canada of grade seven and grade twelve students in south-western Newfoundland

Tucker, Robert Wayne. (1987) A survey of knowledge and attitudes regarding Canada of grade seven and grade twelve students in south-western Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (16MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: to measure and compare the knowledge level and attitudes regarding Canada of grade seven and grade twelve students within the Port-aux-Basques Integrated School Board district living in communities from Cape Ray to Grand Bruit; to compare the knowledge level and attitudes regarding Canada of the grade seven and grade twelve students within the Port-aux-Basques Integrated School Board district with those of other grade seven and grade twelve Canadian students; to compare the knowledge level and attitudes regarding Canada of grade twelve students within the Port-aux-Basques Integrated School Board district who had completed only the four required core social studies courses at the high school level and that of those grade twelve students within the same school district who had completed more than the core social studies courses; and the compare the knowledge level on Economic Issues related to Canada of grade twelve students within the Port-aux-Basques Integrated School Board district who had completed Canadian Economy 2103 and that of those grade twelve students within the same school district who did not complete this course. -- The population for this study consisted of 358 students within the Port-aux-Basques Integrated School Board district, of whom 226 students were grade seven students and 132 students were grade twelve students. The other Canadian students referred to in this study consisted of grade seven students who were surveyed by Kirkwood and Nediger (1982), and grade twelve students who were surveyed by Kirkwood, Anderson and Khan (1984). -- The instrument used in this study was developed by Kirkwood and Nediger (1982). The instrument consisted of two sections. The first section contained statements which attempted to elicit students’ opinions and attitudes about issues related to Canada. This part contained 40 Likert-type items. The second section consisted of 60 items which purported to evaluate the level of knowledge about Canada. The 60 items were divided into four subscales - the Canadian Environment, the Canadian Political System, the Canadian Economic System, and Specific Canadian Issues and Concerns. -- The analysis included item evaluation, descriptive statistics, t-tests and f-tests. -- The results indicated that the grade twelve students under study scored higher on the Knowledge Scale than did the grade seven students under study. The students under study scored lower that the other Canadian students on the Knowledge Scale. In terms of the affective scales, both the grade seven and grade twelve students under study displayed positive attitudes towards issues related to Canada. While there was no significant difference between the two grades on the Identity Scale, the grade twelve students were more positive to the issues on the Special Issues Scale. In relation to the attitudes of other Canadian students, the attitudes of the students under study were more positive generally. There was no significant difference in the knowledge level and attitudes of the grade twelve students who had completed only the four required core social studies courses and that of those grade twelve students who had completed more than the required core social studies courses. Finally, there was no significant difference in the knowledge level and attitudes of the grade twelve students who had completed Canadian Economy 2103 and that of those grade twelve students who had not completed this course. -- Implications for future research studies are discussed.

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