Faculty of Education - Theses
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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.
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ItemAn analysis of education provision to older non-English speaking background youth with minimal or interrupted schooling in the Richmond/Collingwood area( 1987)This study is an analysis of educational provision in the Richmond/Coilingwood area for young people aged 16 to 24 years of age, of migrant or refugee background, who have a history of minimal or interrupted schooling. These students are mostly of Indo-Chinese or Timorese background , and face severe problems relating to their lack of literacy and poor English proficiency. Many of these students are unaccompanied refugees and face economic hardship in Australia. Educational programs running in five postprimary schools, two TAFE colleges and two language centres are examined in light of their relevance to the needs of these students. It emerges from this study that a small number of institutions provide responsive quality programs for this group. There are, however, general problems relating to the low status and marginalization of ESL programs in most of the institutions. These problems are compounded by a lack of funding, unsympathetic administration, ignorance of the issues and difficulties relating to accreditation. In some institutions, no provision at all is made for these students. Needs emerging from these issues may be summarized as follows. A greater awareness of the educational requirements. of this group must be developed. An informed collaborative approach must be adopted to respond to these needs in the form of appropriate ESL programs. Policy and administrative support must be forthcoming to assist in achieving these goals.
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ItemTeacher stress in day special schools for intellectually disabled students( 1987)The purpose of this study was three-fold to identify a) the sources of teacher stress b) the extent of teacher stress and c) the perceived health problems related to stress among 111 teachers in Victorian Day Special schools for intellectually disabled students. A confidential self report questionnaire based on the design context and measures of that used by Dr Rosemarie Otto was administered to teachers in six schools five of which were located in the Melbourne Metropolitan Area and one in a country town. Implicit to the design of the study was the assumption that teachers can provide reliable reports of their perceptions as to the sources of stress related to their work. The definition of stress used in this study was an alteration of physical and psychological homeostasis resulting from aspects of the teacher's job which are perceived as threats to the individual's well being and self esteem because they a) do not meet his/her needs or expectations or b) make demands which are beyond his/her resources to cope. There were four general findings. A significantly smaller percentage of teachers in Special schools perceive their job as 'highly stressful' (12/) when compared with the findings of Otto's studies of High Technical and Primary school teachers which consistently found more than 337. The major stressors for the Special Education teachers in this study were 1) disturbed and anti-social student behaviour 2) time and work-load pressures 3) problems related to the dual roles of work and home 4) negative community attitudes towards teachers and intellectually disabled students 5) a perceived alienation from the Ministry of Education and 6) aspects related to school administrative structures and staff tensions. The most commonly reported symptoms and medical conditions experienced (respiratory and throat) were closely aligned with those found by Otto. A small group (approximately 12/) of the Special educators perceived many aspects of teaching stressful and that these stresses occurred frequently The perceptions of this small group of teachers accounted for between a third and a half of all teacher reports of stress. Some aspects of being a Special Education teacher stress most teachers and should be alleviated Some teachers are stressed by most aspects of teaching and may well be advised to reconsider their vocation.
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Item"Learning to be a good woman" : post-primary education for girls in Victorian state schools, 1900-1939( 1987)The analysis of the development of State post-primary schooling is based on an understanding of the role of class and gender in order to investigate the philosophy, policies and pragmatic decisions which influenced the establishment of schools for girls, 1900 to 1939. An increasing awareness of the importance of gender characterised the development of State post-primary schools in Victoria in this period, partly as a result of a widespread acceptance that schooling did not cater sufficiently for gender differences. This thesis contends that the concept of work accepted by the society was class based and within this division, gender based. Implicitly and explicitly the role of wife and mother was eulogized as the most fitting vocation for all women and used as a justification for advocating an education for girls based on the acquisition of domestic skills. This thesis describes the development of post-primary schools for girls, the concentration on training in domestic skills and the development of a philosophy of education specifically designed to produce a 'good woman'. Domestic arts schools and technical schools, designed especially for working class girls, and the role of these schools in maintaining the gender division of labour, are discussed. The thesis also analyses the introduction of single sex high schools and the lack of resources devoted to girls. The 1930s and the economic forces that affected the education of most working class and lower middle class children, but especially girls, is discussed. Schools were affected by wider social tensions, but were used as tools to influence the direction girls would take on leaving school and were caught in the struggle to define and produce successive generations of 'good women'.
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ItemPlanning and budgeting in education: V.C.A.H., Burnley( 1987)In the proposed research attention is focussed upon the administrative functions of planning, budgeting and resource allocation in education with particular reference to the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture - Burnley Campus. The researcher maintains that these functions are important elements of educational administration which, if done effectively, enhance the overall effectiveness of organisations. Furthermore, it is believed that the individual approach adopted by educational organisations should be developed through a carefully considered policy process. The objective of the proposed research is to discuss planning and budgeting processes applicable to education, including the contemporary version of program budgeting, and to outline the elements to be considered in developing a budgeting model for the Burnley campus. The background to the above analysis will be established through a review of the literature in the field of planning, budgeting and resource allocation in education. An important feature of this review will be the influence of relevant government policy. The methodology used in the study will be a descriptive survey centred around the examination of V.C.A.H. documentation, administrative systems and the interviewing of relevant V.C.A.H. officers. The information provided by this survey will form the basis for an analysis of the existing policies and procedures at Burnley and form the basis for model development.
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ItemInitiating formal evaluation practices in Victorian secondary schools: a meta-evaluation of whole-school and part-school evaluation strategies( 1987)The purpose of this meta-evaluation was to investigate the merit of an apparent shift in evaluation policy on the part of the present government from whole-school evaluation with external validation and input to internal part-school evaluation as alternative strategies for initiating formal evaluation practices in Victorian secondary schools. While the study provides an overview of the strategies and outcomes pertaining to both approaches to evaluation, it focuses specifically on the implications of the scope of evaluation for the planning process in schools, the role and impact of the use of external expertise and the significance of staff perceptions on the process of evaluation and its outcomes. Data was collected using qualitative research methods and a retrospective study of eight carefully selected case study schools was carried out. Four of these schools had completed whole-school evaluations and the remaining four had completed part-school evaluations. While informal observation and document collection constituted an important part of the research strategy, heavy reliance was placed on data emerging from one-to-one interviews with individual members of staff across different levels of the school hierarchy. This methodology was adopted because it was believed to be the most effective way of discovering the more sensitive, less tangible outcomes related to evaluations, and because the attitudes and perceptions of staff towards evaluations represented an important outcome of the evaluation in their own right. A basic premise of this research is that the effectiveness of school-based evaluation initiatives in bringing about school improvement will be largely dependent upon the willing support of the staff who are called upon to participate in the evaluation and in any change initiatives which flow from it. While caution should be exercised in generalising from the findings of a limited number of case study schools to all schools, the findings support the general trend towards initiating formal evaluation practices via part-school evaluation strategy. However, they also underline the need for schools to initiate evaluation studies in ways which will ensure that they contribute effectively to, and become an integral part of, school development. In response to this need, an alternative model or approach to evaluation is proposed.
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ItemThe predictive power of measured interests in tertiary course choice: the case of science( 1987)The importance of career considerations in the processes which determine participation in science and mathematics in secondary school is rarely disputed. Similarly, vocational goals appear to be influential in the process of choosing a course of tertiary study. There are, however, few examples in the literature of the behavioural sciences where measures of occupational interests have been employed in empirical studies of students' school subject or tertiary course choices. In this study, Holland's (1973, 1985) theory of personalities and occupational environments is advanced as an integrative conceptual framework for the exploration of educational issues such as participation and tertiary course choice. It is proposed that a longitudinal study entailing examination of the structural relations between measured occupational interests, school subjects studied, and choice of tertiary field of study, will provide evidence of a substantive and profound relationship. The participants in the study were three cohorts of male Year 10 students (N = 262) attending a single - sex independent school in Melbourne. The Career Assessment Inventory and tests of scholastic aptitude were completed by all Year 10 students in 1981, 1982, and 1983. Other sources of data included details of school subjects studied by the cohorts in Years 11 and 12, final examination results (Year 12), and details of their VUAC applications for college or university courses. Measured interests and school subjects studied were classified in terms of Holland's RIASEC typology, and the applicants' tertiary course preferences were considered in terms of an hierarchical structure of Victorian tertiary courses. A basic causal model of tertiary course choice facilitated a structural analysis of the relations between the variables of interest. The results of the application of multivariate and simple bivariate analyses to the data indicated a clear pattern of strong relationships between occupational interests measured in Year 10, school subjects studied in Years 11 and 12, and preference for science and technology college or university courses. Two elaborations of the basic causal model provided data for an analysis of the effects of a more comprehensive set of interests contrasts on the criterion, and data for estimates of proportion of variance accounted for by the combination of variables included in the basic model. A substantial proportion of the variance in science and mathematics subjects actually studied in Years 11 and 12, and in first preference for a science and technology field of tertiary study, was explained by interests measured in Year 10. The results of the investigation provide compelling evidence of the predictive power of measured interests in tertiary course choice, particularly in the case of science. The results are considered within the conceptual framework provided by Holland's (1985) account of the developmental antecedents of career decision making. Implications for educational and vocational counselling are discussed; the application of Holland's theory to the educational domain is held to support the notion of its generality.
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ItemParticipation and influence on policy decision-making by principals and senior administrators in the Adult Migrant Education Services( 1987)From the late seventies to 1986 the Adult Migrant Education Services (AMES) in Victoria changed, from a simple organisation structure managed by direct supervision, to an extensive organisation with a complex organisation structure managed through delegated responsibility. The impetus for this study is the observation that policy decision-making processes are not generally understood by organisation members. The purpose of the study is to contribute to an increased understanding of decision-making processes in the Adult Migrant Education Services by examining the characteristics and determining conditions and outcomes of these decision-making processes. The objects of study are a number of principals of Adult Migrant Education Centres and senior AMES staff. Their participation and influence on two policy decisions at State level is examined with regard to past, present and future aspects of organisational development. The theoretical focus of the study concerns the location of the decision-making power within the organisation and the identification of the relative forms of participation in a policy decision. Two models for analysing the processes of decision-making were used, as presented in the works of Thomas Dye and Per Erik Ellström. A system devised to permit classification of forms of participation was used to identify the dimension of participation in policy decision-making. Data was collected through recorded and verbatim reports of interviews, minutes, internal organisational reports and government reports. As the study progressed, AMES management made the first steps towards corporate planning and program budgeting. The initial impact of such planning on the participation of principals and senior staff in policy decisions is described. As a result of the analysis of the data it is found that the lack of legitimate participative policy generating processes and structures at principal level was related to the lack of strategic planning. In conclusion, examples of the overall management function of the middle and senior level in a decentralized organisation is suggested.
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ItemParents in the classroom( 1987)The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the presence of parents in the classroom on children, parents, and teachers. The study took the form of a sequenced set of action research style interventions in an outer-suburban secondary school and an inner-city primary school. Attitudes of parents of students in year 7 to creativity, frustration, control, play, and teaching/learning were measured with Strom's Parent as a Teacher inventory, P A A T. Achievements of the children in word knowledge, comprehension, spelling, and maths were measured with tests of ACER. There were some significant correlations between attitudes of parents and achievements of their children. For example, attitudes of mothers to control and the achievement of their children in maths were very highly correlated (N=105, p=.001). After one year of secondary schooling, there was no significant difference between the entering and final achievements of the year 7 students in this study in comprehension and maths (N=123). End-of-year scores of students for word knowledge and spelling were below the scores that would have been expected of students one year younger (N=175, 174). The numbers in these comparisons differ because of absences from school. Classroom experiments were conducted with parents in classrooms in a junior secondary and a primary school. "Parents" means adults who may be parents, other relatives or friends of the students, or friends of the school. In year 7, three different treatments for six weeks were compared, namely, two parents for two classroom periods a week (T), two parents for four periods a week (F), and no parents (Z). There was a significant interaction between mathematical aptitude and treatment (p=.021) such that at the low level of aptitude, achievements in maths with treatments F and T were superior to treatment Z. Also, with the low and medium levels of aptitude combined, treatment T was superior to treatment F (p=.038). With respect to attitude to learning maths, treatment T was superior to treatment F at both the low and medium levels of mathematical aptitude. However the effect on post attitudes was not significant. The attitudes of students in one grade 2 and two composite grades 3/4 were measured to sixteen items that were related to their school and TV. Coincident with the presence of parents in the classrooms of grade 2 and two composite grades 3/4 , there was an increase in positive attitudes of students to eight items in which there was a high level of teacher/parent involvement (HTPI) compared with eight low TPI items (grade 2, N=26; grades 3/4, N=50). In grades 3/4, the presence of parents in the classroom over a period of eight weeks had useful cumulative effects on time on task, teacher stress, and inappropriate class behaviour. Parents, students, and teachers in this study recommended that experience with parents in the classroom should be expanded.