Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAn analysis of how an innovation is disseminated by using the origins of the vertical curriculum concept in Victorian State Secondary Schools( 1985)The purpose of this investigation was twofold. One aim was to discover the origins of the vertical curriculum structure that has made a considerable impact on state secondary schools in the last decade. The other aim was to establish how the idea spread throughout the system and why schools made this major change away from the horizontal curriculum. Three research methods were used in this study. Firstly, Education Department Secondary School Handbooks were studied to identify the vertically structured schools in 1975 and 1982. Secondly, a telephone survey was undertaken in order to find more information about each of the forty-four vertical models discovered in the 1983 Handbook. This survey also enabled the original innovative schools to be identified, key individuals to be established and communication links between schools to be drawn up. Finally, the key carriers of the concept were interviewed to gain in depth information on the innovation. The outcome from the data collected should assist in the understanding of how a major curriculum change can disseminate throughout the schools in an education system. These implications should apply to educational systems outside of both Victoria and Australia.
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ItemPaper dolls : an analysis of the culture of femininity as represented in the teenage magazine, Dolly( 1984)With the growth of the women's movement, there has been an increasing interest in the place of women in history. This has produced evidence that women have had a far greater part to play in history than has been previously recognized. This absence is now being rectified by works such as Dale Spender's Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them, which gives short accounts of the philosophies and work of individual women. While they had considerable impact in their own time, most of these women have been unaccountably "lost" in male histories. The retrieval of their stories, and of the general history of day-to-day female existence, is an important area. It is not merely a matter of inserting female figures into existing histories, but of rewriting history to incorporate them. However, in the context of my study, I am more interested in the history of images of women, rather than a factual account of their lives. It is unfortunate but true that these images of "Woman" have an impact on our culture that supersedes the actions of the many women throughout history who have diverged from these images; therefore when studying women in relationship to society it is of more use it understanding the position assigned them rather than accounts of the achievements of individuals. I will touch on various writers who have studied attitudes to women at different times during the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon culture that Australia has inherited. DOLLY is a particularly blatant example of that control and interpretation. Inevitably, the contradictions inherent in the female culture, the conflict between ideology and the lived experience, are there as well. Capitalism is all-important, in the guise of consumerism, as advertising is the economic rationale of DOLLY. Similarly, DOLLY's relationship to that other massive ideological framework, the patriarchy, needs to be explored, as well as the impact the combination of the two has upon women. DOLLY is also about incorporation: it works to reconcile images and ideologies of the feminine that appear to be contradictory or disturbing. The increasing sexual freedom has to be dealt with; the role of the family and the cult of the individual, female solidarity and female competition have to be reconciled. All these and other factors have to be adjusted and smoothed over under a glossy surface. In its own way, DOLLY is a hegemonic masterpiece. Studying DOLLY does not merely involve locking at the magazine in isolation, but also reviewing the circumstances that give rise to this form of cultural artifact. The position of Woman in our culture, as embodying all the qualities not included in the "norm", is based on a male perspective of what the "norm" might be. This is taken to the point where even. women accept this image of themselves.
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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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ItemMaking the transition : cultural reproduction in the market-place( 1985)This work relates to the cultural, economic and behavioural characteristics of two groups of young people who have recently left school and, either embarked upon a career pathway via tertiary education or on to long-term unemployment. Theories of cultural reproduction and anomie were examined in an attempt to account for the pathways that the two groups had taken. Two anomalies were discovered; students from migrant or working-class backgrounds who were succeeding in higher education and some working class unemployed young people who were beginning the slide into the under class. Cultural reproduction theory was found not to exactly or accurately account for outcomes and life chances whereas anomie theory was found to be a reasonable explication for the state of malaise of a number of those young people interviewed.
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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.
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ItemSport, femininity and feminism( 1985)This thesis explores the culture of sport from a feminist perspective. It reviews the masculine nature of sport and the apparent incompatibility between female athleticism and the traditional femininity; and indicates feminists' concerns with the existing sports culture. The details of interviews with ten university sports women in an interactive setting are set out, covering both sporting and non-sporting areas. Many of the women report experiencing the conflict between their athletic involvement and the demands of traditional femininity but resolve the conflict in favour of sport in an individualistic way. Their feminist awareness and feeling of sisterhood appear to be comparatively undeveloped. Finally, some options for increasing the attractiveness of sport for girls and women are suggested, including not only easier access to the existing culture, but the development of alternatives based specifically on women's physiology and lifestyle.
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ItemAn evaluation of computer science in the Victorian Higher Schools Certificate( 1984)This thesis evaluates certain aspects of the Victorian Higher Schools Certificate subject, Computer Science. Firstly, an overview is taken of the subject as it was intended to function in the first three years of its accreditation, 1981 - 83. In the light of this, the draft proposal for changes to the course in 1984 is reviewed. Secondly, a number of specific areas of the course are examined in more detail. A questionnaire to course designers and teachers is the basis of this investigation. The relationship between stated objectives of the course and items of course content is explored. An analysis is conducted on the extent to which the four option components are equitable in terms of time. The relative importance of the three components of assessment is explored, especially in the case of a 'barely passing' student. Actual raw mark components for the 1981 students have been used in connection with the latter investigation.
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ItemPeer tutoring in a tertiary institution( 1987)This thesis aims to explore and assess the potential of Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy for student-teachers who need to improve their written language skills. Specifically it addresses students' attitudes to Peer Tutoring from an organisational perspective, and their attitude towards the effectiveness of the strategy to further develop written language skills. The study was conducted during 1986 with first-year English students enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) Course at Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In this study three research tools were used = formal interviews, two questionnaires, and an analysis of students' written work. Interviews were conducted with six students on completion of their Peer Tutoring program. Questions focussed on their attitude to Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy, the success of the approach for them, problems they encountered with the approach and suggestions for more effective management of the program. Following the interviews, students completed a questionnaire designed to confirm and give data additional to that already collected. All first-year English students completed a four-item questionnaire, related to Peer Tutoring at the completion of the subject. These questions were designed to assess all students' attitudes to the effectiveness of Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy, whether they were involved in the program or not, and to provide feedback for more effective program management. Assignments were collected at the completion of the program, and were analysed in terms of the student's attitude towards Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy and the gains made in written language skills. The data clearly indicates the value of Peer Tutoring as a strategy for students in their first year of teacher-training, and major recommendations have emerged from student comment as to more effective program management in the future.
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ItemThe year co-ordinator in selected Victorian metropolitan independent schools : profile, practice and prospects( 1987)This study was designed to examine the position and role of the Year Co-ordinator in selected Victorian Metropolitan Independent schools. The principal objectives of the study were: (i) to discover what sorts of persons undertake this role and establish whether they have personal, academic and career characteristics in common; (ii) to look at the year co-ordinator's perception of the role; and (iii) to examine the career interests of year co-ordinators and, in particular, to gauge their opinions on how well their present role is preparing them for future responsibilities, such as Deputy Principal or Principal. A questionnaire was distributed to forty AHISA affiliated Independent schools in Victoria. Twenty eight valid responses were received. Six Principals returned their questionnaires stating that the position of year co-ordinator did not exist in their schools. The schools who did not reply were telephoned and it was established that year co-ordinators did exist in those schools.