Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAn analysis of the logic of film criticism with special reference to film study courses in schools( 1970)The distinctive concepts, relationships between concepts, criteria and procedures for judgement-making which constitute the logic of film criticism have been left largely unexplored. As a consequence, film critics and film teachers, lacking an understanding of the distinot body of concepts and procedures characteristic of this form of discourse, have been unable to offer convincing justifications for critical judgements on the one hand, and f o r the belief that film study i s properly an educational activity on the other. In each case, factors or principles extrinsic to the internal logic of film criticism have been offered as justifications. It is shown that the search for justifications for both aesthetic and educational judgements which appeal to necessary formal or moral principles, or to the consequences believed to follow from an experiencing of films, cannot withstand analysis. A critical scourse in the arts i s properly effected by presenting descriptions of the works, expressed i n terms of, and justified with reference to, those concepts and criteriadistinctive of the form of art i n question. It is argued that the work of the English film critic, Robin Wood, and some recent semiological studies on the nature of meaning i n films, represent the beginnings of a clarification of the logic of film criticism. The matter is of central importance to the form and purpose of film study courses. If, to be counted as educational, an activity must be concerned with judgements publicly testable for truth or appropriateness, and if such judgements can occur only within the logical structure of a form of knowledge or discourse, then film teaching can properly be termed educational only if film study courses are informed by an understanding of the logic of film criticism. It follows then that Robin Wood's criticism and the small body of semiological work at present available could well serve as the source of this understanding.
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ItemThe teaching of French in New South Wales and Victoria 1850-1958( 1958)This thesis is a study of the development of the subject French at the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne and in the schools of New South Wales and Victoria. It seeks to show why French was taught in this land so far from France, by what methods it was taught, to whom and by whom it was taught. It was impossible to discover the answers to these questions without studying the growth of the two Universities and in particular the changes of curriculum in their Faculties of Arts, the relationship between the Universities and the schools and the influence of the University Departments of French on French in the schools, the growth of secondary education and the public examination system, and the reforms in the curriculum of the secondary schools in the twentieth century as a result of changes in educational theory and philosophy. Only against this background is it possible to understand the rise and fall of one particular subject.
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ItemComputer-based learning in an Australian setting : a study of the development and use of a foreign language vocabulary program at the University of Melbourne( 1976)This thesis is the first Australian study of the use of computer-based learning by non-Science students. It begins with a review of research and developments in computer applications in education overseas, and looks in particular at the use of computers in the teaching of foreign languages. It then examines the development, use and evaluation of a foreign language vocabulary practice program for students in first year undergraduate Swedish courses at the University of Melbourne. Since non-Science students might be expected to be more wary of technological innovations, student attitudes to the program and to the computer as a learning medium were of particular interest in this study. As had been reported in overseas studies, a majority of students showed very favourable attitudes to computer-based learning, largely because of their opinion that the program ensured thorough learning of the material presented. A smaller group were found to have strongly negative attitudes to the technique. The proportion of students who made a great deal of use of the program was quite small. This was attributable mainly to the limited aim of the program, acquisition of vocabulary, although inconvenience due to unsuitability of the available computing facilities for educational applications was also a contributing factor.
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ItemInfluences on engineering education in Australia( 1976)This thesis is concerned with the identification and examination of the various types of influences on professional engineering education in Australia. It commences with a study of what a professional person in general, and a professional engineer in particular, should be, and describes the functions and characteristics of such a person. This is followed by an examination of curriculum design, and how the curricula of professional courses are controlled by professional societies. The various influences on engineering curricula are then considered in detail in four broad categories, namely historical influences, formal influences, informal influences, and societal influences within each of these categories, various tapes of influences are identified, and their method of application, and relative effectiveness, discussed. Apart from the chapters on terminology and historical influences, which have been researched from existing publications, the content of the thesis is original, and, as far as can be ascertained, is the first attempt to examine the subject of Australian engineering education in a sociological context.
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ItemThe cognitive levels of grade VI, form II and form IV students when solving social studies type problems and the influence upon performance of varying the method of question presentation( 1972)An examination was made of the thinking abilities of students measured on social studies type tests and the influence upon performance of varying the method of presentation. The study was undertaken with subjects drawn from grade 6, form II and formlV. The social studies tests were five in number. Two were based upon verbal materials, two upon photographs and one upon actual objects. For the questions asked, each testing situation provided conflicting information which the subject could either ignore or attempt to resolve. Three treatment groups were used to assess the impact of varying the method of test presentation. In the first the subjects were given each set of data and the appropriate questions were posed. With the second variation the subjects were asked to consider possible answers to each question before they saw the data. The third variation involved a short teaching sequence where individual subjects were shown model answers to a question based upon a situation that was not part of the testing program. The qualities of these model answers were indicated and the subject was asked to replicate similar attributes in his own responses. This brief introduction was given to each subject in Treatment Three on five occasions, just prior to each of the five testing situations. Aside from the two major issues investigated, the study also examined the relationship between performance on the social studies situations and performance on the A.C.E.R. Intermediate Test D; A.C.E.R. Word Knowledge, Form B; a multi-choice social studies reasoning test; and a test of current affairs. In addition performance on the social studies tasks was related to the socio-economic status of parents and to performance on a replication of Piaget's colourless chemicals experiment. The results of the study are based upon an examination of the responses of 171 subjects from two different socio-economic areas and assigned at random to the three treatment groups. Performance was rated against the stages of cognitive growth proposed by Piaget together with some additional sub-sections. Overall, 8 categories were used to classify the responses; the categories ranged from the intuitive stage to the stage of formal operations. The analysis of results indicated that the performance of the three grade levels differed significantly from one another. The mean score of grade six, across the five tasks, was at the early level of concrete operations. Form II was still within the concrete stage although at a higher or more sophisticated level. Form IV mean score almost reached the transitional stage between concrete and formal operations. Performance on the three groups of social studies tests - verbal, visual and objects - differed significantly from each other. This result was interpreted with caution. Although the verbal material situations were more difficult than the visual materials which in turn were more difficult than the objects test, this sequence of decreasing difficulty also corresponded to the order of test administration. Thus the change in difficulty level could have been due to a learning phenomenon rather than to the nature of the test materials. The differences in scores between Treatment Three and the other two treatments was accepted as a real difference and a significant interaction was discovered between grade 6 and Treatment Three. The correlations between the social studies tasks and other variables followed the order sequence of intelligence test scores, vocabulary, social studies reasoning, chronological age, social studies knowledge, colourless chemicals experiment, and socio economic status of parents. The lower correlation between the last two measures and the five social studies tasks was not anticipated.
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ItemThe sociohistorical approach to science teaching : theory and practice( 1978)A conception of scientific methodology is regarded as an important objective in science education. There exists an identifiable popular view of science which is expressed both explicitly and implicitly in science curriculum design, and in the evaluation of students' progress. This popular view of science includes such elements as objectivity, open-mindedness, logicality and rationality. It can be found in explicit statements of scientific methodology in science texts, and can be discerned in the actual structure of curricule,as well as in tests on students' understanding of science. The currently dominant behavioural objectives model of curriculum design, with its emphasis on the use of rational, logical means-end reasoning, is a facilitative agent in the propagation of the popular view. There is, however, considerable equivocation concerning the nature of scientific methodology. The existence of a number of different conceptions of science, for example those articulated by Popper, Kuhn, and Schwab, is incompatible with the singularity of the popular view. The prespecification of outcomes, as demanded by the behavioural objectives model of curriculum design, seems inappropriate in light of the fact that these outcomes (relating to scientific methodology) have such an equivocal base. The suitability of an alternative model of curriculum design, that articulated by Stenhouse, is explored. There has recently been a rise in interest in the Sociohistorical Approach to science teaching. This approach, which involves the setting of episodes of scientific inquiry in their social and historical context, may constitute a practical manifestation of Stenhouse's theory. An attempt is made to outline the marriage of the process model and the use of sociohistorical materials.
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ItemStudents' attitudes concerning mathematics: a study of the opinions and views concerning mathematics and mathematics teaching held by students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria( 1966)From an examination of the relevant courses of study in mathematics and the associated published writings hypotheses were proposed to examine the influence of an emphasis on an inquiry and discovery approach to the teaching of mathematics on the attitudes concerning mathematics of students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria (each N = 1000). Emphasis on the use of inquiry methods at the lower secondary school level was found to be associated with students' views that mathematics teaching involved more inquiry and discovery, with students' opinions that mathematics was an open and creative process and with the students' greater interest in mathematics. At the upper primary school level a strong influence of curricular factors was not detected, however, the evidence suggested that the classroom teacher played an important part in the development of attitudes concerning mathematics. The data collected was examined for the influence of several non-curricular factors including the sex of the pupil, and the occupation and the place of residence of the students' father. The sex of the student and differences in the scientific nature and the socio-economic status of the father's occupation were found to be linked with some differences in the opinions expressed by the students concerning mathematics.
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ItemA study of the use of computer managed instruction in the teaching of Fortran( 1974)Like many other studies of the effectiveness (in the cognitive domain) of innovatory teaching methods, this study revealed that for the sample of students involved, there were no statistically significant differences in the test scores obtained by the experimental group using a programmed text, when compared to the scores of those who learnt Fortran by the traditional lecture method. However, for the purposes of this study, such a finding is not of great importance per se; it was necessary as a first step to ensure that students using the individualised learning method were not academically disadvantaged. Certainly, the students who used the CMI exercises with traditional lectures (Group 2) performed better on the final examination than those who used the traditional exercises; the CMI exercises can therefore be claimed to be of positive benefit to the students. (From conclusions)
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ItemSocial ideologies in two sets of multicultural curricular materials( 1980)The large increase in the non-British proportion of Australia's population since 1945 has created a demand for greater recognition in schools of cultural difference and a re-affirmation of the goal of equality of educational opportunity. Marxist theories of ideology, hegemony and the State are employed to examine whether 'multicultural' curricular materials which are ostensibly advocating a critical appraisal of the society and subscription to these pluralist goals, are not soliciting support for dominant ideologies. The thesis questions whether they are not acting to reproduce the social order to the detriment of the ethnic minorities they are purporting to serve. The first of the two sets of curricular materials examined, Ethnic Australia, develops a Eurocentric view of exploration and inter-ethnic relations favourable to the needs of .capitalist economic growth. Its criticism of prejudice is unrelenting, but it does not extend it to an adequate analysis of the social conditions which might have generated discrimination and conflict. In its presentation of Italian and Greek cultures, it highlights and reinforces those attitudes and behaviours which are most conducive to an acceptance of competitive individualism under capitalism. The materials entitled Australia : A Multicultural Society, show the benefit of widespread consultation with educators and ethnic groups. They offer a view of culture and a picture of the material circumstances of Greeks and other migrants in Australia which accords with the most recent and carefully conducted research. In delivering a sustained attack on the inadequate provision for migrants in this country, they expose children' to a variety of ideological perspectives gleaned from the media, ethnic communities and the peer culture. Reservations are expressed about the capacity of materials with a liberal reformist ideology to develop in school students a critical awareness of the more intractable social structural barriers to the achievement of social equality and acceptance of cultural difference. Finally, there is brief discussion of the problems of construction and dissemination of critical curricular materials in a publicly funded educational system.
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ItemPoetry with teacher and without: an aspect of group work in English( 1980)Recent research suggests that students are, without being directed by a teacher, capable of understanding and appreciating poems through small-group discussion. This study compares junior secondary student response to poems in two types of small-group discussion, teacher-directed and undirected. It investigates (l) differences between group types in students' verbal response, (C2) the relative success of group types in engendering positive attitudes towards poetry, (3) factors contributing to the success or otherwise of the discussions and (4) the adequacy of the research instruments employed. Analysis is made of transcripts of three discussions by each of eight groups. Data provided by these transcripts is used to examine the concept of literary perception, resulting in an extension of a current thesis to include two further perceptions. The study would suggest that teacher intervention may be an impediment to students' appreciation and enjoyment of poetry, that group structures may affect response and that it is possible to discern a model of literary perception.