Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemWhat are the objectives of the State College of Victoria at Frankston courses as perceived by students, lecturing staff (education), and teachers in the field( 1975)The purpose of this study was to investigate the Objectives of the State College of Victoria at Frankston as perceived by students, lecturing staff (in Education) and teachers in the field. The number of cases used was 227, including 25 first year private students, 40 first year studentship holders, 25 third year studentship holders, as well as 23 College education staff and 114 supervising teachers, of which only 61 replies were of value. The subjects were required to complete an open ended questionnaire on what they believed 'are' the objectives of the S.C.V. and what 'should be' the objectives. An inspection of the responses was made by using Content Analysis. It appeared that the responses fell into three fairly clearly defined areas of Objectives, viz. Professional, Academic and Personal Development. Further examination of the data indicated that an item had a positive or negative valence, i.e., the respondent indicated approval or disapproval of the item as an Objective. The Objectives were raw scored, and the frequency of mention was converted to percentages of the whole group being scored. This was done for both +ve and -ve valence, thus indicating whether a respondent was critical of or favourable to the perceived College Objectives. Further data was obtained by asking College lecturers and teachers in the field to rate on a scale +5 to -5 whether the College was doing what it should be doing in achieving College Objectives. The findings indicate that there is general agreement about the current levels of professional objectives as perceived by the different groups. there is consistent demand for more professional studies, except from college lecturers in Education. Colleges are seen by all groups as having an academic content which should be decreased markedly at all levels. Colleges are recognised as having a low personal development level which all but critical teachers agree needs to be significantly increased.
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ItemA comparative study of three state colleges of Victoria - Burwood, Frankston, Toorak, 1973-1976( 1977)On the 25 October 1972, Lindsay Thompson, the minister for Education, introduced into the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian State Parliament a Bill that was to create the State College of Victoria. Under this legislation the State Teachers' Colleges ceased to be administered by the Education Department and became an autonomous body in tertiary education. The aim of this thesis is to study the background to the formation of this institution. To look at the struggle for independence fought by individuals and associations connected with the Teachers' colleges and the lengthy enquiries and official panels established by the government. Chapters two, three and four are studies of three constituent colleges of the S.C.V., Burwood, Frankston and Toorak, in regard to their courses, staffing, organization and finance. following the gathering of this material an attempt is made to juxtapose these elements of the three colleges during the first three years of their independence, to try to establish similarities and differences in the data gathered. Comparative analysis is then attempted to draw conclusions regarding the progress, objectives, growth or setbacks the colleges have experienced and to try and establish why such results are evident. Finally two major questions are discussed. What is the future of the State College of Victoria system and what is the future of the individual colleges under study. To try and fathom out these problems the opinions of several people closely connected with the S.C.V. system and the Victorian Education Department were sought. The answers to both questions at this stage remain suppositions for they are presently under formal review by two State Government committees.
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ItemThe nature and organization of secondary "method" programmes in teacher education : a comparison between selected institutions in Australia and England( 1977)Although Method of Teaching courses are conducted in all institutions preparing secondary teachers in Victoria, South Australia and England (the regions examined in this thesis), little research has been conducted in this field. Programmes tend to be derived from a combination of factors: personal teaching experience, intuitive judgements about student needs, the practice of colleagues and their comments on the lecturer's own course, and folklore. Whilst the survey on which this thesis is based revealed that instruction in teaching techniques and curriculum design and the provision of information about resources are given high priority in Method courses, this seems to be the result of a pragmatic rather than a coherently developed theoretical approach to the problem of what should be included in such courses. There is a lack of agreement among the lecturers responsible for this aspect of teacher education on the most effective way of building Method of Teaching into the administrative structures. The existing patterns - either including Method in academic subject departments or incorporating Method in a School or Department of Education - have their advantages and disadvantages. It would seem that historical and political rather than strictly educational reasons account for the particular format chosen in each institution. The survey showed that the staff who plan and teach courses in Method are either part-time practising teachers or have taught in schools in recent years, and the majority have less experience in tertiary education than other colleagues in the institution. This may explain why their status is relatively low and why they have rarely managed to develop structures which could enhance their group identity. In this thesis, some possible ways of developing both such a sense of identity and a more informed awareness of the major aims of courses in Method have been examined, and some new approaches to course review and development have been suggested.