Implementing Conductive Education in Australia: a question of programme transplantation

Abstract

This paper is concerned with issues arising from the transfer of educational programmes developed in one educational context to another, in some cases markedly different, educational situation. The introduction to Australia of conductive education, an integrated education and therapy programme developed in Hungary in the 1950s for children with physical disabilities, is an example of such a transfer. Results derived from two evaluation studies of conductive education projects in New South Wales suggest that, when implemented in Australia in the 1990s, students did not achieve the expected positive outcomes, though some improvement in at least one motor task was achieved by most students. Problems identified in the two studies included lack of programming to generalise new skills to daily living tasks, neglect of academic and communication skills, the unchanging and the unchallenging nature of the motor programme leading to poor motivation for more competent students, and the segregated nature of the programme. Unequivocal evidence of efficacy, particularly in social contexts similar to the new setting, should be required before unqualified support is given to the transplantation of reportedly highly successful intervention programmes from one social context to another.