Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemA review of recent developments in the conception and administration of year 12 geography courses in Australia( 1981)Although geography has been taught in Australian secondary schools for most of this century, it is only in the past thirty years that all states have provided a course of study for the teaching of geography to Year 12 students. Geography has been a significant component of the school curriculum for many students at this level during this time. The development of secondary education systems in the post-World War II years has been influenced by many factors which have directly or indirectly affected Year 12 geography courses. These factors, varying from state to state, have included reports of commissions, for example, the Wyndham Report, development of curriculum theory, the removal of external examinations at various levels, and others. Specific factors which have influenced Year 12 geography courses have been changes in the nature of geographic thought, the writings of Bruner and Australian geographers Biddle, McCaskill, Shortle, Stringer, Blachford, and the increasing involvement of teachers in curriculum development. Each state has produced a Year 12 geography course unique to that state in many ways. A study of the current (1979) courses illustrates not only their similarities and differences, but also examines factors which have influenced their development. Various statutory bodies responsible for the development of the course in each state provided a degree of central control, and the external examinations continue to play a significant role despite the general movement toward school-based curriculum development and internal assessment at other levels of secondary schooling. The future geography at Year 12 level depends upon the ability of course developers, not only to meet the challenge of change, but also to provide a course of study seen by students to be not only interesting but also as relevant and meaningful preparation for the postsecondary world they are about to enter.
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ItemGeography in Victorian government schools, 1900-1950( 1983)Geography has a long tradition as a component of the teaching programs of both the elementary and secondary schools of Britain and her former colonies. Research has shown this to be the case in nineteenth century Victoria, where Geography was seen as an important subject. The subject was taught in the Victorian secondary schools which developed in the twentieth century. This has been substantiated by French who claims that by the end of the nineteenth century 'no group of secondary schools gave an education markedly different from that given in the generality of schools, and this included Geography very traditionally.' The thesis traces the history of the teaching of Geography in government elementary and secondary schools in the period 1900-1950. 1950 was chosen as the end of the study period because an established tradition, which existed during the previous fifty years, was drawing to its end. Major changes in teaching programs occurred in elementary schools in 1954 and in secondary schools in 1956. These changes altered what had existed until the 1950s, and for this reason the period under discussion constitutes a reasonably unified whole. Initial research indicated that a wealth of material on Geography in Australian schools was available and this resulted in the decision to discuss only the government schools of Victoria. Within these government schools, the years from Preparatory through to grade ten have been considered. Certain areas have been excluded from the research in order to keep the thesis within the stated limits. One of the notable exclusions is discussion of the assessment of students. Teacher education is another area which has been largely excluded. Much material exists on both of these areas. (From Introduction)
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ItemEffects of inquiry and expository experimental treatments upon student achievement in geography( 1983)The experimental study investigated the effects upon students' Inquiry Skills achievement scores of firstly, exposure to 'a set of geography resource materials; secondly, the application of three different experimental treatments; and thirdly, the students' sex. The sample used in the experimental study consisted of 404 Year 10 geography students in nine Melbourne high schools. Classes in each school were randomly assigned to either a control group which had no exposure to any of the resource materials or to one of three experimental treatments, namely an expository treatment, a teacher controlled inquiry treatment and a student controlled inquiry treatment. Half the students in the' sample completed an Inquiry Skills pretest so that statistical adjustments could be made for prior inquiry skills aptitude. All students completed a posttest after the completion of a four week geography unit of work. A series of multivariate analyses of variance and univariate analyses of covariance were undertaken to test seven research hypotheses. The major findings of the study were firstly that students exposed to the geography resource materials performed significantly better (p< .05) than the control group; secondly, no significant differences (p< .05) were observed between the three experimental treatments or between male and female students in these experimental treatments; and thirdly, that students in the experimental treatment group experienced a training effect on the Data Gathering element of the Inquiry Skills test as a consequence of completing a pretest.