The Status of Population Education in Florida Secondary Schools During 1973-1974: A Final Report.

Overview & Synopsis

The study presents descriptive data pertaining to the status of population education within the curricula of Florida's secondary schools. A four-page questionnaire, designed to obtain data from classroom teachers on a broad range of topics and areas pertaining to the status of population education within their respective schools, was mailed to 300 randomly selected Florida middle, junior high, and senior high schools. Responses received from 45.3 percent of the public and private school teachers indicated the following findings: (1) population education is included in schools regardless of the size of the school's enrollment; (2) classroom teachers are consciously incorporating population education content in a variety of elective and required courses; (3) there is a wide range of length of time spent by teachers on population education; (4) the majority of population education teachers are social studies teachers; (5) population education priority rankings suggest that population is primarily studied as an integral part of the examination of broader environmental problems and processes; (6) classroom teachers of population primarily teach units whose objectives are developed and written by the teachers themselves; (7) the majority of teachers indicated that they would attend a preschool or inservice population workshop if such were offered; and (8) the majority of teachers may not have received any college course preparation in the population education area. From these findings it appears that population education is included in school curricula. (Author/DDB)