Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemFrom port to resort : Queenscliff 1850-1900(Melbourne State College, 1980)
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ItemThe effect of Buddhism on the culture of the indigenous population of Japan(Melbourne State College, 1980)
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ItemPalladio Australiensis : Palladio and the influence of Palladianism on aspects of early Australian architecture(Melbourne State College, 1980)
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ItemLes Blakebrough : the development of Australian ceramics(Melbourne State College, 1980)
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ItemChildren's comprehension of mathematical language(University of Melbourne, 1980)Various characteristics of 216 grade 5, 6 children and then teachers were compiled from schools in the Bendigo area. The children were then examined on 56 short mathematical problems which were found �in textbooks commonly used in primary schools in Victoria. Each of the problems used 10 or less words or numerals. The steps used in solving a problem were assumed in this study to include the ability to: (i) select the operation necessary to solve the problem; (ii) write an equation that satisfies the condition expressed in the problem; and (iii) correctly solve the problem. Canonical correlation techniques were used to determine the influences of the predictor set of. variables on the criterion set of steps used in solving the problem. The first significant canonical-variate was related to reading ability, word knowledge and mathematical vocabulary in the predictor set and with all the variables in the criterion set. Both variable sets could be interpreted as measuring intelligence. The second canonical variate was directly related to all aspects of division in the criterion set of variables and could be measuring a factor of Skill in Division. This skill is directly related to knowledge of mathematical vocabulary, sex of teacher and attitude to myself but inversely related to attitude to reading. The third canonical variate exhibited characteristics of a chance factor that may well have occurred from a small subgroup of the sample. Two division criterion variables were associated with the third canonical variate. Five predictor variables, Sex of student, Grade level, Sex of Teacher, Attitude to Reading and Attitude to My Teacher, were all directly associated with the third canonical variate. Rasch analysis techniques were applied to the problems for those subjects who did not attend disadvantaged schools as well as for those who did. A significant difference was shown to exist between these two subgroups on their performance on the mathematics test. The items in the mathematics test were then examined for bias against students attending disadvantaged schools. No item bias against disadvantaged children was found. This result supports the deficit theory in language development. By using the item difficulties as scores, a one-factor analysis of variance, with unequal frequencies was conducted to compare the four operations. Items with more than one keyword were excluded from this in order that comparisons between the operations could be made. No significant difference was found. All the problems were then categorized by operation and whether only one keyword or more than one keyword was used in the problem. A 4 x 2 analysis of variance, with unequal cell frequencies was used to test the significance of the type of operation, the number of keywords and their interaction. Significant differences were found between operations at the 5% level and at the 0.1% level for the number of keywords. There was no significant interaction indicating that the difficulty may well lie in the structure of the problem. If more than one keyword was used the problem was more difficult than if only one keyword was used. Such a result has implications in the classroom as well as for authors of textbooks.
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ItemAims, men or money?. the establishment of secondary education for boys in South Australia and in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales - 1836 to 1860( 1980)Young children bring with them to school a certain amount of science knowledge gained from their everyday lives. What they "know", whether right or wrong, may be the result of interactions with family, television, computer programs, books, peers or visits to environmental locations, museums or science centres. In this study, children who have been at primary school for between two and three years are asked to describe their knowledge and their sources of information. The extent to which school factors are influencing their science knowledge is investigated. A survey was developed and protocols trialled before fifty-seven children aged eight and nine years at a provincial Victorian government primary school were surveyed to establish their home background and family interest in science, their own attitudes and feelings toward science and the efficacy of their science experiences at school. Interviews were carried out with nine students, selected to represent a broad range of attitudes to science, in order to gain more detailed information about their specific understandings of a number of topics within the primary school science curriculum and the sources of their information. The students' responses revealed that where they were knowledgeable about a subject they could indeed say from where they obtained their knowledge. Books were the most commonly cited source of information, followed by school, personal home experiences and family. Computers and the internet had little influence. Students who appeared to have "better" understandings quoted multiple sources of information. Positive correlations were found between enjoyment of school lessons and remembering science information, liking to watch science television or videos and remembering science information, and liking to read science books and remembering science information. Mothers were also linked to the use of science books at home, and the watching of nature TV shows at home. There are several implications for the teaching of science at early years level. Teachers need to be aware of powerful influences, from both within and outside of the classroom, which may impact on children, and which may be enlisted to help make learning more meaningful. The research indicates the importance of home background, parental interest and access to books, and notes the under utilisation of computers and lack of visits to museums and interactive science centres.
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ItemRemediating the elementary mathematics of prospective primary school teachers( 1980)Three areas are reviewed: the knowledge of prospective primary teachers of basic mathematics, remediation programs in mathematics and the use of calculators as a learning aid in mathematics. A remediation program is described involving a diagnostic pre-test and consequent assignment to one of three treatments: self-study, group tutorials or individual tutorials. The purpose of the 10 week program is to help prospective primary teachers meet a competency requirement in mathematics which is mandatory for progress beyond the third semester of a six-semester course of primary teacher training at a Victorian university. The program covers understanding and knowledge of place value, whole number decimals and fraction operations, percentages, averages and measurement including metrics. The group tutorials were given one of two treatments: the use of calculators during the remedial program, or the same program without calculators. Seven hypotheses related to the effects of the program are described. Post-testing after the 10 weeks of the program showed very large gains by each of the three groups. However the calculator group showed no difference from the non-calculator group, a finding consistent with the literature. Discussion of the results and pointers for future study conclude the study, with one recommendation being that mathematics specialists be appointed to primary schools.
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ItemRaymond Williams : a critique of his theory of culture and education( 1980)This thesis is a critical exposition of Williams' theory of culture as expounded in two of his early works, Culture and Society 1780-1950, and The Long Revolution, and of the influence of that theory on his views on education. Williams' views on man, on valued knowledge and on the ideal society, being fundamental to an understanding of his theory of culture and its connection with education, are given particular attention. Williams sees man as evolving into a being with a unique brain and hence as having the potential to learn, to reason, to communicate and to create. The process of realising this potential is identified by Williams as both the process of interaction within culture and also the characteristic achievement of culture. However, this thesis argues that such a view of man, allegedly drawn from experience, is selectively based and conjectural. Williams' account of what constitutes valued knowledge is based partly on his attempt to re-define culture by a synthesis of previous definitions, and partly on his argument that knowledge is socially created. But, despite his own overt objections to a distinctive 'high' culture, it is evident that Williams himself is extending the selection of valued knowledge and activity, not avoiding selection. At the same time, he is preserving the distinction between skilled intellectual activities (associated with the ideal of 'high culture') and the more 'ordinary' activities of a culture. The thesis also questions Williams' proposition that knowledge is a social creation based ideally on a pooling of common experience. It argues that 'experience' is not invariably the sound basis for knowledge that Williams assumes it to be and it questions the need for his strong emphasis on commonly shared experience. A 'common culture' functioning both for the expression of, and as the necessary basis for an egalitarian society is the distinctive mark of Williams' ideal society, a society which he believes will nurture man's evolving potential and hence his cultural progress. The characteristics of that ideal society - communal solidarity, participating democracy, consensus by open communication, and the principal of 'equality of being' - are critically examined, and attention is drawn to some ambiguities and apparent contradictions in their exposition. Finally, the function Williams ascribes to education, namely, that of being an important means of developing man's individual and collective potential, is examined. Williams' concern for developing intellectual skills, and for directing these towards the changing of society, is contrasted with his tendency to subordinate education to stated social ends. This, it is argued, may lead in practice to less dynamic results and be more open to distortion than Williams obviously intends. In summary, it is maintained that Williams' arguments from experience form an inadequate base for the claims his theory of culture is called on to support; that his attempt to redefine culture by a synthesis of existing and to some degree conflicting definitions leaves unresolved a number of ambiguities and contradictions; and that these weaknesses are reflected in some of his prescriptions for education.