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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ItemSocial competence and the core curriculum : a critical/empirical approach to the role of social education in the core curriculum( 1981)Through the reanalysis, reassessment, and reinterpretation of the data from the Essential Learning About Society study (Piper, 1977) from the point of view of current concerns about the core curriculum, this study develops an empirically-derived framework for a core curriculum in social education which takes into account the views of a substantial section of the Australian community. The study argues that social education is a necessary component of a core curriculum designed to meet the needs of both the individual student and the society as a whole; that the concept of social competence provides a valid basis for defining a core curriculum in social education; and that, in the absence of a definitive analysis of Australian society, community perceptions provide a practical alternative to the problems of defining an education for social competence. The developed framework provides a practical resource for incorporating community perceptions into core curriculum decision-making, and as such has potentially useful applications to educational policy and practice and to further research, as well as providing a body of empirical evidence in an area where such evidence is largely lacking.
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ItemFactors influencing the development of curriculum initiatives in Victorian secondary schools( 1989)This thesis is based on a study of teachers at Preston East Technical School. The purpose of the interviews was to illicit information about teachers' perceptions of themselves as compared with their given role in the state system. This is then analyzed against what is offered as the ideal role of a teacher. It is suggested that if it is the teacher's role to improve educational opportunity, then teachers should be concerned with the outcome of exiting students. This would involve detailed monitoring of programmes, possible delivery of additional programmes and industrial campaigns not only for necessary educational resources but also for job creation for youth. This thesis demonstrates that teachers are too involved in the psychic reward of their job and this, combined with the undermining of their conditions, is preventing further curriculum development. Processes, such as the participatory model used by the Ministry of Education which involve teachers in anything other than viewing student outcome, are time-consuming and divert attention from the issue of equity. What is recommended as an ideal learning situation is the formation of a partnership between student and teacher, where both work as if part of a research team, who will call upon the wider community for clarification of values and information.
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ItemRevision of the State primary school curriculum in Victoria, 1928-34: its social and educational context( 1981)In the years 1928-34, educational leaders in Victoria worked towards a comprehensive revision of the State elementary school curriculum, a process which culminated in the publication of the General Course of Study for Elementary Schools, 1934. During these years the concept of curriculum expanded. It came to include not only the content of the printed courses of study, but also expressions of belief regarding the place of the school in society, ideas related to child development and learning theory, and to the everyday events and activities which took place in schools. Educationists saw in Australia's response to World War I, her commitment to the concept of Empire, and the increase in Australian nationalistic feeling, a set of social factors which helped shape the view that the school should promote the ideal of social unification. Never precisely defined, social unification was seen to involve the production of intelligent citizens who could assist the development of a better society. Education was thus seen to be a major vehicle for instilling the "spirit of service" within children. Educationists devoted increasing attention to an identification of societal changes as they perceived them. Further, they sought to define the implications of these changes for the elementary school curriculum. The depression of the early 1930's reinforced the view that the school and its curriculum should provide pupils with the means to affect the future of society. The concept of democracy, too, was an important factor contributing to an expanded view of curriculum. Closely associated with democracy were the notions of individuality and socialisation, each of which was seen to be an important aim of educational endeavour. Despite problems of definition, the concept of democracy bolstered the view that the school and therefore its curriculum should be a means of social unification. Perceptions of the prevailing social situation inevitably led to an identification of the shortcomings of present educational theory and practice. An increasing number of Victorian educationists took the opportunity to experience, at first-hand, educational practice in the U.S.A. and Europe, with the result that access to the writings and ideas of overseas educationists was facilitated, and that the eclectic approach which typified Victorian educational developments was enhanced. A comprehensive, yet ambiguous set of aims for the Victorian elementary school was stated. It reflected the view that the school was an important socialising agent within society. Further, a set of principles for curriculum revision was identified. Derived from the English Hadow Report, it indicated the growing awareness that the discipline of psychology was crucial for the design of an appropriate curriculum for Victoria's school children. Despite the fact that an expanded view of the curriculum had emerged, imprecision of language, incomplete understandings and misinterpretations of ideas or practice led to conflicting ideas and ambiguity. In addition, within Victoria's centralised education system, there were a number of constraints which affected the outcomes of the curriculum revision movement. The 1934 Course of Study reflected these constraints. It nevertheless did indicate that significant advances in educational thought had taken place.
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ItemThe public examination of English in Victoria : a study of one external influence on the secondary school English curriculum( 1980)The secondary school English curriculum was determined by groups outside schools during the period 1944-1974. External domination of teaching content and methodology was ensured by a system of Public and Matriculation Examinations which empowered agents of the universities to prescribe courses and to assess students' performance in those courses. The University of Melbourne exercised these functions through its Professorial Board and the Schools Board before relinquishing its powers to the Victorian Universities and Schools Examination Board in 1965. Statute and tradition allowed these bodies to establish themselves as a centre apart from schools, and to legitimise their authority through the institutionalised processes of prescription, examination and review of performance. The effect of these processes was to subordinate schools, teachers and pupils. There was immense inertia in the Victorian system of external prescription and examination. Courses and examination papers remained essentially unmodified for long periods. Significant development in the conception and content of English courses occurred, effectively, only at Year 12 in response to social and educational pressures which had previously led to the withdrawal of Public Intermediate and Leaving Examinations. Broadening the goals of H.S.C. English did not, however, signal diminished control over curriculum from the centre. The fact of competitive examinations at the end of secondary schooling continued to shape content and methodology in the earlier years. Competitive examinations engendered in schools, teachers and pupils a narrow conformity, the results of which can most clearly be seen in the failure of the Class A system to produce school-based curriculum initiatives of any substance. The effect of external prescription and examination of English courses was profound. Relationships between teachers and pupils were strongly mediated by the system, reducing the autonomy of both by subjugating their intentions to the instrumental demands of evaluation. So much of a student's 'life chance' depended upon examination success that teachers and taught were continually constrained to focus their attention on the tasks expected in examinations. Fragmentation, in line with the different sections of examination papers, rather than integration became, therefore, the organising principle for teaching aimed at developing those techniques believed to be essential for success in the examination game. External examinations dictated that the English classroom was a place where pupils met to prepare for their encounters with examinations rather than to explore the nature and richness of experience through literature and their own use of language for real ends. The system of Public and Matriculation Examinations established in 1944 was a potent influence on the secondary school English curriculum. The system rested upon a powerful, conservative centre whose legitimacy was so thoroughly entrenched that it was able to admit reform only on its own terms. Thus, it was possible after twenty-five years of relative stasis to negotiate evolution in the details of the school English curriculum without alteration to the essential power relationships. After thirty years, English teachers were still without autonomy. Year 12 English courses continued to exert the pressures and to exact the dependence which had constrained mother tongue studies throughout secondary schools since 1944.
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ItemDeclining enrolments and school reorganisation: an enunciation of the policy and planning options for Victorian post-primary schools( 1988)The state school system in Victoria experienced a significant decline in student enrolments during the 1980s. This was due to a combination of a sustained fall in fertility and the rise in popularity of non-government schooling. It was only partly offset in post-primary schools by the increase in retention. These factors, together with geographic location and school type, were the principle determinants of enrolment movements in individual schools. The politics of enrolment contraction are those of scarcity and conflict. Local schools compete with each other for the diminishing pool of students, the increase in schooling costs per student creates conflict between schools and the Government over resource utilisation, restrictions are placed on school curricula and teachers find their working conditions, professional opportunities, classroom teaching and morale all adversely affected. Secondary schools with declining enrolments need to consider some form of reorganisation. While the policies of the government on curriculum, school structures and reorganisation itself do set certain parameters, school communities are presented with a range of curriculum and structural options. The introduction of new curricula, which have structural implications, into Years 7-10 (Ministerial Paper No.6/Frameworks) and in Years 11 and 12 (the V.C.E.) provide both an incentive and an opportunity to reorganise as a positive response to decline. The positive and negative aspects of the planning options available to schools need to be weighed up in terms of Government policies, curriculum principles, the experience of other education systems and the pilot program of reorganisation in Melbourne's South Central Region. The process of school reorganisation will work more effectively where it has been decentralised to local planning committees which actively involve all of those affected by proposed changes. Given that the process is redistributive in nature, successful reorganisation is dependent upon the political acknowledgement and accommodation of conflicting interests.
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ItemUndergraduate course preferences of students with some previous tertiary education( 1982)The thesis is an examination of the factors which affect the course choice of applicants to tertiary institutions. The sample is taken from the 1977 applicant cohort registered with the Victorian Universities Admissions Committee. The applicants in the sample are those who had already been enrolled in tertiary educational institutions for at least one year, prior to their application in 1977. The aims of the study are to examine the effect of previous tertiary experience, employment experience, age and sex on the course choice of the applicants. The data used in the study were taken from:. application files held by the Victorian Universities Admissions Committee. The results of the analysis are compared with the results of studies carried out in Australia and overseas which described the vocational and educational choices of students entering tertiary institutions for the first time, and subsequently transferring to other institutions in some cases. The main difference between this study and those which preceded it is that the applicant sample in this study contains persons aged from seventeen years to more than sixty-five years, whilst previous analyses had been confined in the main to the young applicants. A comparison is made between the course choices of the young applicants, aged 22 years or less, and the older applicants, aged 23 years or more. The results of this study are similar to those already published. Nevertheless some new information about the effect of the Victorian tertiary education system - the number and nature of the institutions - on the choices of applicants is presented. In addition the study makes available a comparison of age groups which has not yet been attempted elsewhere. The study shows that applicants of all ages have two objectives: the first, to obtain a qualification which will enable them to find satisfying employment; the second, the study a course which provides them with interesting activity which enables them to find personal satisfaction. In the main students wish to undertake the second objective at a University, whilst vocational training is sought at. a variety of institutions. The prestige and academic standing of the institutions is an important factor in the determination of the applicants' choices, and as a result many are not satisfied in their application.
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ItemSome determinants of students' course selection in mathematics( 1984)In this study some determinants of students' course selection in mathematics. were investigated, with particular attention being given to those factors which may result in differential participation rates between boys and girls. The aim of the study was to assess the relative importance for student decisions of various psychological variables related to achievement attitudes. Such knowledge could then be used in the design of appropriate programs and techniques to increase the likelihood of students continuing to take maths. Questionnaires were administered to the 115 students in Year 9 and to the 107 students in Year 7 at a Melbourne inner-suburban .high school. Specific findings apply to those students in that particular school; without investigation of the effect of such variables as socioeconomic status, ethnic background., administrative structure, course-availability and class size they could not be extrapolated to other students in other schools. Students' estimates of their maths abilities and their expectations for maths performance, decreased with age, as did their perception of their parents' and teachers' beliefs about their ability and expectations for their success. Students' beliefs about the importance of success in maths and their declared interest in and liking'for the subject also decreased with age, while their estimates of the difficulty of maths increased with age. Year 9 boys had higher opinions of their maths ability and were more confident of success in future maths courses, than were Year 9 girls. These girls saw the subject as being more difficult and the cost of the effort required to do well to be higher than did their male classmates. At the Year 7 level, however, the only sex differences were in the stereotyping of the utility of maths for females and in the stereotyping of maths as a male domain. Plans to continue with maths were facilitated by high expectations, by firm beliefs in the value of maths and in one's own ability and by low estimates of the difficulty of maths. Sex differences favouring boys were found on these variables. On the basis of these findings, certain areas for intervention were identified. These areas included the encouragement of positive attitudes towards maths, the provision of career awareness programs, and the attempt to modify parents' and teachers' attitudes as to the maths, ability of girls and the importance of maths for them.
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ItemSenior school chemistry in Victoria: syllabus prescription and pressure for change( 1984)A few key ideas have dominated the senior school chemistry syllabuses in Victoria. Despite pressures for change, and disclaimers to the contrary at various times, the Victorian course developers have shown a constant commitment to chemistry as an academic discipline, to the exclusion of most if not all of the societal, cultural, historical and economic aspects of the subject. In this thesis, an understanding of present courses in terms of past practice has been sought through a study of the ideas which have influenced syllabus design at various times. Some purchase on the exercise of change in school syllabuses, on the possibilities and limits to change, was obtained, although no prediction of future directions could be attempted. At the outset a decision was taken to concentrate the investigation on materials published principally for the direction of teachers whose task it was to prepare their classes for an externally set and assessed examination in chemistry. Thus, in this thesis, attention has focussed on the expressed intentions of the course developers in Victoria, as outlined in syllabuses, Course of Study and Scope of Course statements, and commentary in Circulars to Schools. Data extracted from these documents was supplemented with material from the recommended textbooks and Reports of Examiners. The former provided an extended coverage of material prescribed in the syllabuses, offering more insight into teaching sequence and depth than could, at this remove, be fairly inferred from syllabus documents alone. Commentary in the Reports of Examiners revealed more of the expectations of examiners and course developers than was apparent from the syllabuses alone. The correctives suggested by the examiners for a range of perceived shortcomings gave an indication of what was seen at various times as appropriate in schools courses. The examination papers themselves were not analyzed except for a few specific items. Although examinations have without doubt served to direct and limit teaching practice, this has not been their primary function. Selection of content, and methods of teaching specific items of content, and trends in course changes, were compared with contemporary practice in England and the United States. Chemistry method textbooks proved useful here as those available were spread approximately evenly across the whole of the period of the survey. Journal articles, except for those few which reported historical material, tended to be concentrated in the latter quarter of the century, 1955 to 1980, thus affording a much better coverage of ideas extant during that period than was the case for the earlier years. The syllabus in action, in terms of classroom practice, facilities and management, was not considered as part of this study. These factors assumed significance only in so far as they imposed limitations on the course developers. Those decisions taken revealed, in the syllabus but more so in commentary documents, the rationalization of an idealized conception of the discipline of chemistry into a form fit for school use. The view taken in this thesis was neither strictly historical nor chronological. No attempt was made to fully document the development of chemistry as a school level subject in this state. Past practice, and current overseas practice, were used rather to construct a context in which the most recent course changes in Victoria could be explained. In commenting on syllabus change, it has proved easier to identify past shortcomings than to point to a direction for the future. Trends, even though well established, can be and have been reversed. An aim shared by course developers in different countries is susceptible to quite disparate interpretations, resulting in courses with little in common. Further, as this research has been limited to publicly expressed intentions in official documents, it allowed only indirect reflection on purposes and reasons for decisions. A study complementary to this thesis in which particular periods were dealt with in greater detail, could examine the hopes and frustrations of those individuals who assumed the responsibility for the development of school level chemistry courses in Victoria. From both sorts of consideration of the studies a society chooses to impose on its children, some insight into the nature of that society and its culture could be gained.
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ItemAn analytical survey of percussion education at the immediate pre-tertiary level( 1989)The standard of music education for players of percussion instruments appears to be deficient when compared to that of players of other musical instruments. Research has been conducted amongst students of percussion with the purpose of identifying characteristics which may suggest the need to adopt particular teaching strategies to address problems related to educational background. A profile of percussion students at the Box Hill College of TAFE Music Department refers to such matters as age, educational background, musical training and experience, learning skills and achievement. This profile is presented along with an analysis of some learning difficulties and problems encountered by students and the strategies adopted to address those problems. The role of published materials used in percussion teaching at Box Hill College of TAFE and the rationale for the writing of further tuition material is discussed. The content and context of the instrumental lesson and curriculum models which pertain to instrumental tuition form a large part of the study. The role of the teacher in the instrumental lesson is seen to include functions which go beyond the immediate processes of skill and knowledge development into the realm of personal growth and development. An essential aspect of skill development for musicians is the daily practice programme. The aims of practice, the motivation to practice and the materials and organisation of practice are all examined together with related problems experienced by students and the strategies used to address such problems. Percussion tuition, traditionally having been conducted outside the mainstream of music teaching institutions, is now seen to be most effective when conducted within the context of a comprehensive music education programme. Students of percussion clearly benefit from a course of study which includes not only percussion tuition but also aural and theoretical training, the study of music history, composition and practical experience in performance ensembles.