Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe link between secondary education and the chemical industry in Victoria( 1994)This study investigates the existing links between the chemical industry and secondary education in Victoria. The current views of the chemical industry towards their involvement with secondary schools and secondary teachers' perceptions of industry are examined. The authors' personal perspective based on professional participation in industry and in education forms an integral part of the study. The major factors that currently impact on the link between education and industry are outlined. The effectiveness of recent initiatives, both national and international for the development of closer links are examined. Key personnel in schools. and industry were interviewed in order to examine the current relationship between secondary schools and industry. The extent to which each party takes responsibility for incorporating this relationship as an important factor contributing to the chemical industry's future is also examined. This study reveals that the number of initiatives aimed at securing a closer link between secondary schools and industry within Victoria are limited and the overall coordination and direction of this link is inadequate. Recommendations are therefore put forward to improve this situation.
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ItemProvision for students experiencing learning difficulties in independent, single campus, Protestant secondary girls' schools in Victoria( 1996)This study examines the support policies and provisions for students experiencing learning difficulties in five Protestant, independent, secondary girls' schools in Victoria. A multiple case study, utilising special teacher interviews and surveys of students' parents, was preferred. Supplementary information came from examination of school related documentation, school directories and selected interviews with students, parents and education professionals. Schools' reluctance to provide sensitive information impeded data collection in this study. Schools would not allow direct access to families and two even refused to forward a survey to students' parents. During interviews teachers showed considerable reluctance to share information concerning numbers of students experiencing learning difficulties, selection procedures and programs. Four major influences were revealed in the study: religion, government policies, funding and market forces. Other significant issues emerging included teachers' expressed need for on-going teacher training, and concern about the Disability Discrimination Act (1992). Parents highlighted the need to preserve student confidentiality. Both teachers and parents expressed positive views of the wide range of support services available in their schools, particularly increased parent involvement, inclusive/integrated education and the need for increased funds. Christian ethics rather than Protestantism influenced school provisions and hidden agendas revealed were selective enrolment practices and competition among the schools. Five recommendations were formulated: the need to clarify the implications of the 1992 Disability Discrimination Act for independent schools, further inter-school cooperation, employment of special education staff in all independent schools, formation of a parent lobby and further theological research into the religious and social responsibilities of church founded schools.
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ItemUniversity High School oral history project( 1994)This Project has been designed to provide the necessary basic historical research and guidelines for a continuing oral history project based at the University High School. The Project will have minimum supervision and volunteer involvement. The University High School Alumni Association plans to support this project as a continuing activity. The Project will rely on volunteer-interviewers and the research in this study has been designed to provide the basic knowledge required to conduct an informed interview. This Project is a school-based activity that draws its research material from school history publications, school literature and school archival material. The completed tapes can be used as a source of raw data. Chapter One introduces oral history. Chapters Two, Three and Four deal with secondary education history and Chapters Five to Eleven cover the school-sourced history of the University High School 1910-1985. Chapter Twelve gives guidelines for interview procedure and the processing of the completed audio-tapes for inclusion in the University High School Library Archives.
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ItemVCE course development days, 1991 : an appraisal( 1992)This minor thesis traces the evolution and rationale of the development and implementation of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) from its inception in 1987 to its first full year of operation in 1992. It outlines the design and operation of the professional development program undertaken to assist the implementation of the certificate. Its focus is an appraisal of the major element of the professional development program - the 1991 course development days. Three perspectives are offered in this account of the effectiveness of the 1991 course development days - a district evaluation, individual presenter's responses and a regional survey. The appraisal concludes with an overview and a set of recommendations for continuing professional development for VCE teachers beyond 1992.
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ItemThe Victorian Certificate of Education : the change process and teacher practice( 1995)There are two key issues in this study. Firstly, to examine the extent to which teacher practice has changed during the first year of implementation of the Victorian Certificate of Education's Year 11 Legal Studies study design - Unit 1 - Criminal Law and Civil Law. The second key issue is to explore the extent to which any change in teacher practice is due to the new course and the manner in which it was implemented. For this study I have used a case study approach with a series of cross-case techniques when analysing the data. Three cases were selected for study. Several different methods of data collection were employed. Specifically, external observation, systematic interviewing, collection and analysis of documents and checklists were used on a regular basis. To develop the cross-case synthesis I adopted cross-site analysis techniques as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1984) in their text Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods. In order to plan this study, an overview of some of the key writings in this area was undertaken. Specifically, key writings on implementation and the process of implementation in relation to teacher practice were reviewed. This process is explored through the examination of several theories and models on implementation. How teachers perceive a change to existing curriculum programmes and the extent to which that curriculum leads to a modification in teacher practice is examined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the range of variables and interventions that can lead to a modification in teacher practice. The major findings and conclusions drawn from this study indicate that the teachers' pedagogical judgments, plans and decisions reflected a reasonably narrow collection of educational goals. These goals were shaped, in the main, by the realities of their classroom environments. The teachers prioritised most matters on a cost benefit ratio. This was particularly evident in relation to the intervention strategies. They also underwent a period of uncertainty about the change which compounded their reluctance to move away from established classroom practice and adopt certain teaching techniques that complemented the flexible nature of the study design. Decisions regarding teacher practice, therefore, were orientated around 'tried and true' techniques that met a number of preconditions. Specifically the need to balance the competing academic needs and interests of their students; student willingness to cooperate and feel comfortable with the teaching style adopted; perceptions of what the new content and assessment offerings required, and the limitations of time dominated their decision-making process. The end result was a general reluctance to discard established methods of teacher practice given these classroom 'realities'. The major findings, therefore, indicate that an educational change in terms of a modification to teacher practice was difficult to achieve.
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ItemA description and explanation of the differences in teacher culture in state secondary schools in Victoria( 1993)The Victorian state secondary education system has had, for many years, two divisions: the Technical School Division and the High School Division. Teachers operating in one system in most cases had very little to do with those in the other system and it has seemed that two distinct " teaching cultures" had developed. During the eighties and early nineties, substantial structural changes occurred within the state system which allowed teacher movement between the previous divisions and thus created the potential for conflict. Teachers from each division have been confronted with a teaching culture in many cases different from their own experiences. Each system historically existed for a different reason, offered different curricula and trained its teachers differently. Its raisond'etre changed as social conditions changed but the differences persisted. Its teaching staff seemed to develop ways of operating which marked them as distinctly "technical" or "high". A hypothesis was proposed which suggested that a teaching culture comprised two broad factors which then determined the sorts of school operations teachers were likely to be involved in. Thus it might be possible to group people with similar backgrounds and experiences into a technical school culture and others into a high school culture. To understand if a difference existed between technical and high school teachers, qualitative research was undertaken using interviews with six people who equally represented each division, who were varied in their teaching subjects and who had recently come to a new school where a new teaching culture had not yet been established. The data collected was verified by the interviewees and recorded on a data chart. It was found that the cultures were not clearly technical or high school, but rather based more around practical and non-practical teaching subject orientation. In this sense it would see that there might be as much difference in the culture of teaching groups within a school as in the culture between the two types of school. It could be proposed that the apparent differences between the two systems may well have depended more on the different nature of the teaching, in that one system valued practicality more than the other.
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ItemTradition and change in the establishment of Mount St Joseph Girls' College 1964-1970( 1991)Social, political and economic influences invariably have bearing on the development of a school's philosophy, policies and practices, and must be considered integral to any school history. This is most evident in the post-war period, when the 'explosion' in numbers in post-primary schooling resulted not only in an expansion of schools but also, in a restructuring of traditional secondary school organisation and practice. For the first time post-primary schooling came to be recognised as a distinct and essential sphere of education. The establishment of Mt St Joseph Girls' College in 1964 by the Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart was in direct response to changes in Australian society during the 1950s and 1960s. The Sisters of St Joseph, an Australian teaching Order, was established in the 1860s by Father Julian Tenison-Woods and Mary McKillop to provide Catholic primary education to the poor. However, in the 1960s, the Institute was prepared to adapt and meet the demand for secondary education by establishing secondary colleges. This thesis traces the establishment and development of the first secondary Josephite school in Victoria - Mt St Joseph Girls' College between the period 1964 and 1970. The recollections of students reveal that despite the Josephites' efforts to widen educational and occupational opportunities for working-class girls, school organisation, curriculum and practices, implicitly and explicitly directed girls to gender-specific educational and occupational paths; and to the notion that culturally valued womanhood was intrinsically related to marriage and motherhood. The study also indicates that it was not until 1969 that the Josephites introduced curriculum reform by replacing the multilateral form of school organisation (professional, commercial and domestic sciences), with a more integrated and comprehensive curriculum which cut across these divisions and catered for the needs and interests of a wide range of students. Although the benefits of this were not evident until the following decade, it must be emphasized that the Josephites had taken the first steps to remove the limitations placed on girls' aspirations, abilities and opportunities. v
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ItemThe impact of year twelve restructuring in Victoria on teaching and learning in three urban schools( 1995)In this study Year Twelve teachers were surveyed to determine whether they believed the educational needs of their Year Twelve students were better served by the earlier public policy of multiple Year Twelve courses, or by the current policy of a common course and certificate for all Year Twelve students in Victoria. The study was based on the experience of eighteen teachers in three schools which had developed strong alternative Year Twelve courses in the 1980s. An attempt is not made in this thesis to construct public policy, but rather to offer a critique of policy formation which appears to have been largely separated from socially responsive policy development at the school level. The Year Twelve teachers surveyed in this study believed that the final form of the Victorian Certificate of Education, settled under the influence of social functionalism, individualism and expertism, has failed to enhance motivation, commitment or competence in either themselves or their students.