Population education in Florida secondary schools: a status study.

Abstract

The attempt was made in this study to collect descriptive data pertaining to the status of population education within the curricula of Floridas secondary schools. In April 1974 a 4-page questionnaire was mailed to 300 randomly selected Florida middle junior high and senior high schools. The 23-item questionnaire was designed to obtain data from classroom teachers on a broad range of subjects and areas pertaining to the status of population education within their respective schools. 45.3% of the teachers returned completed questionnaires. Of the 136 teachers responding 75.1% taught their population units in public secondary schools; the remaining group taught in private schools. The following are the more important findings relative to the status of population education in Florida: 1) classroom teachers in a wide variety of subject areas included population content and units within their regular courses; 2) the units taught by these teachers emphasized different objectives content and concepts; 3) the units taught by public and private school teachers were very similar in objectives content and concepts stressed; 4) the units varied in length; 5) social studies teachers were expected to and in fact did teach a majority of the units on population education; 6) population education teachers desired more instructional aids and inservice workshops to help them improve their courses; and 7) a vast majority of the teachers had taken no formal college course which focused on population content. This survey reported the quantitative nature of population education in the Florida secondary schools; the quality of the education provided remains an unknown.