Reserves of ability in Australian male youth : an exploratory study
Date
1973
Authors
Milligan, Bruce Clifford
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Publisher
Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University
Abstract
This thesis is centred on an empirical study of reserves of
ability among Australian male youth , using a technique adapted from the
European research of Wolff and Harnqvist . The study is pitched at the
level of the senior years of secondary schooling . A cross- sectional
vi
design is involved , the data being based on a sample of National Servicemen
enlisted in the calendar year 1971 .
The study is conceptualised within the issue of equality of
educational opportunity . The main empirical focus is on the relationship
between measures of social class , intellectual ability and educational
attainment . The principal point of departure in the method of estimating
reserves of ability is the use of the benchmark assumption that children
of the higher social classes receive all the education that their abilities , interests and temperaments allow . This assumption has the effect of
confining the discovery of reserves to the ranks of the lower social classes . The study investigates the extent of matriculation reserves
among lower social class members of the sample . Estimates of reserves in
the entire twenty- year- old male age group are then projected . Using the
ratio of male to female senior secondary school enrolments , estimates are
also made of the number of reserves in the corresponding female age group ,
and in the population age group as a whole . These generalisations are
subject to limitations arising from problems of sampling and measurement
and the study is regared as being essentially an exploratory one .
Some implications of the approach used in the study for the
mobilisation of reserves are discussed .
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Thesis (Masters)
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2033-12-31
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