ATTITUDE CHANGE ON POPULATION EDUCATION OF IX^TH STANDARD STUDENTS

P.Padmaja Rani

INTRODUCTION

Population education is an educational innovation in response to population problems only about four decades ago, is now being experimented in over a hundred countries of the world. It has been introduced in the educational systems of different countries as an important component of the multi-pronged strategy employed to help nations in order to attain the goals of population stabilisation and sustainable development. The concept of population education emerged in the context of population and development - the two most pressing issues before humankind today. Both are closely interrelated and both encompass a number of complex factors.

OBJECTIVES

1. To study the separate and relative effectiveness of the three treatment groups in producing changes in attitude in the desired direction in sub-urban secondary school students.

2. To relate the initial attitudes and the changes in the attitudes produced by the treatments to sex and family size.

METHOD

Variables

The independent variable was the attitude change. The communication strategy employed in affecting attitude change took three treatment forms. Population education and family planning were the dependent variables. Recipient variables were also adequately controlled by systematic sampling technique and rotation design.

Population and Sampling

The effective sample for the experimental study consisted of 240 IX^th standard students drawn from sub-urban Zilla Parishad High School in Madhurawada, Visakhapatnam. Initially, 240 students were included. Due to the absence of some of them either for more than one session or for the post-test, finally 200 students were considered. The students were divided into three treatments groups, formed by systematic sampling, including every third name in the attendance registers in one group.

Procedure

Experimental method was adopted to change the attitude towards population education and family planning. All three strategies of verbal-visual, dramatized and combination of two strategies consisted of four kinds of activities each. The programme for attitude was planned to take four sessions, each of one hour duration, while actual treatment would take 45 to 50 minutes. The rest of the time was to be used for report establishing, summing-up highlights, etc. The three treatments selected for the experiment were defined and designed. The tool used in the present study was developed, constructed and validated by Rao (1983). Visakha Students Attitude towards Family planning Scale (VISAF Scale) was constructed following the Linkert (1932) method. Both Telugu and English versions were made with adequate control of language, though it was only the Telugu version that was administered. Pre-test was conducted and there was no time limit for answering the questionnaire. Detailed instructions were given for filling the questionnaire. After pre-test, experimental strategies were applied for the three treatment groups. Finally, post-test was conducted for the above three groups.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Statistical software package (SPSS Windows version-11) was used to analyse the standard parameters like mean, t-test, standard deviation. The significance of acquiring more marks in post-test was observed. All the means of difference between pre-test and post-tests were positive, indicating gain in the direction of more positive attitudes in respect of all the treatments and the attitudes. The differences indicated that the quantum of change or gain were statistically significant in pre-test and post-test. All the treatments, therefore, proved to be quite productive and promising of change in attitude in the desired direction. All the mean differences between the final and the initial scores were positive. Hence, each of three treatments would produce substantial changes in the desired direction. In 200 samples of IX^th standard students of Zilla Parishad High School in Madhurawada area, a sub-urban of Visakhapatnam, boys (male) were 81 and girls (female) were 119. The small family size were numbered 73 where as large family were 127. Relationship between sex and family size taken as predictors on the one hand and the initial scores on the attitude scale taken as criteria on the other, was tested by the two-tailed ‘t’ test for the significance of difference between means. Sub group mean followed by ‘t’ values of differences between pairs of means. The differences by sex were not significant in any case.

RESULTS

The effect of the three communication strategies (verbal-visual, dramatisation and combination) in changing attitude to population and family planning predicted that the three treatments would produce significant change in the desired direction. This was tested by the ‘t’ test of significance of differences in means between initial and final scores on the attitude scales concerned. All the mean differences between the final and the initial scores were positive. Hence, in general, each of the three educational treatments produce substantial change in the desired direction. Hence, the research experiment was sustained in respect of the three treatments. All the means of the differences between pre-test and post-test scores were positive indicating gain in the direction of more positive attitude in respect of all the three treatments.