Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemA terrible honesty : the development of a personal voice in musical improvisation(University of Melbourne, 1996)
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ItemClinical teaching : an exploration in three health professions(University of Melbourne, 1996)
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ItemThe influence of the ideas of progressive education on teacher training in Victoria, c.1920 to c.1950(University of Melbourne, 1996)To what extent did 'progressivism' influence Victorian teacher training, 1920-1950? The thesis examines the various contributions of such figures as George Browne and Dorothy Ross and the role of the directors of education, Tate, Hansen and McRae. Among the events discussed are the re-opening of the Psychological Laboratory at the Teachers' College, the revision of the primary curriculum in 1934, the influence of the 1929 Elsinore Conference of the New Education Fellowship and the 1937 international conference of the NEF in Australia. The acceptance or rejection of progressive ideas in teacher training in the State, and the reasons for this, are a binding theme in the investigation. When the new education' was introduced at the turn of the century, the educational debate in Victoria became largely an argument between those who considered that all children should have the benefit of a liberal, though academic education and those who considered that education should be vocational. Both sides ignored the reformers' advocacy of a new way of looking at the all-round development of the child being educated. When progressive education was introduced by George Browne in the early 1920s some attention was paid to its ideas and its practice, but it was generally ignored in favour of the orthodox transmission model of teaching, learning and schooling. Teacher training reflected this and wider social values that were dominant. In the State system, the relative rejection of innovation was based on apparently entrenched cultural and educational ideas and practices, ministerial intransigence, the timidity or indifference of some in official positions and, more generally, the inertia inherent in the maintenance functions of a large public system. There was some teacher training based on progressive ideas at the Associated Teachers' Training Institution under Catherine Remington and Dorothy Ross. The relative smallness of this operation left it open to the personal influence of innovative individuals. Ross became Headmistress of Melbourne Church of England Girls' Grammar School in 1939 and George Browne used the school extensively as a practical example of the progressive ideas promoted in the School of Education at the University of Melbourne. By the 1950s the progressive movement had lost much of its momentum world-wide. Victoria was no exception. Coincidentally, both Ross and Browne retired from their formal educational positions at this time. In a different form, progressivism re-surfaced in the late sixties and early seventies, i
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ItemThe rapid characterisation of pulpwood quality of plantation eucalypts using near-infrared spectroscopy( 1996)Chemical pulp yield is a tree breeding trait of great importance to the pulp and paper industry. Small improvements in pulp yield can provide large economic benefits for forest owners with a successful breeding program. Laborious and expensive methods of direct measurement for pulp yield presently limit the number of trees that are tested and therefore hinder potential improvement. A method that provides a rapid, cheap measure of yield is required. Attempts to do so through correlating easily measured parameters such as hot water extractives and basic density with yield have been unsuccessful. Recent studies have indicated that vibrational spectroscopic methods such as near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS and MIRS) have the potential to predict pulp yield. The major objective of this study is to determine whether near-infrared spectroscopy could be used to predict the pulpwood quality, specifically pulp yield, of plantation eucalypts with sufficient accuracy to be of use in evaluating woods from tree improvement programs. Analysis of any product by NIRS is subject to several sources of error. A review of the agricultural industry literature identifies several important sources of error in NIRS analysis. Important factors include: the particle size distribution and mean particle size of the sample; the type of mill used for grinding; the moisture content of the sample; the sample temperature at the time of testing; the basic density of the sample and the species. In this thesis, the influence of a number of these factors on the NIRS analysis of wood is examined and a protocol for the analysis of wood using NIRS developed. Initially, NIRS is used to model and predict pulp yield in thirty samples of native forest E. globulus woods that gave a very wide range of pulp yields (37.6 % to 60.2 %). Regions of the second derivative NIR spectra display variation that could be directly related to variations in pulp yield. Calibration models are developed using simple linear regression and partial least squares (PLS) regression on data from both normal NIR spectra and second derivative NIR spectra. The model developed by using PLS regression with second derivative NIR spectra demonstrates the best predictive ability (R-value = 0.983, standard error of calibration (SEC) = 1.34 and standard error of prediction (SEP) = 1.65). However, the SEP is too high for practical purposes. The errors are high because insufficient samples were available to represent the extreme variation. Calibration models are also developed with regions of the NIR spectrum removed. Removal of the water bands (1350-1450 and 1848-1968 nm) improves the SEP only marginally. It was decided that future models would be developed with full spectrum second derivative spectra and PLS regression. Twelve models for the prediction of kraft pulp yield are developed using plantation grown E. globulus and E. nitens from sites in Tasmania and Victoria. R-values range from 0.892 to 0.963, SEC values range from 0.32 to 0.92 and SEP values range from 0.63 to 1.46. Seven models have SEP values of less than one. The low SEP values of several of the models indicate that NIRS could be used as a practical alternative to laboratory pulping. The improvement is attributed to having larger sample sets and samples that were able to better represent the narrower range of environmental and genetic variation found in plantation forests. The chemical components of eucalypt woods that influence pulp yield are modelled and predicted using NIRS analysis. Eleven E. globulus and twenty-one E. nitens samples are used. The chemical components modelled include: cellulose, glucan, hemicellulose and xylan. Models for E. globulus have R-values ranging from 0.995 to 0.731 and SEC values ranging from 0.04 to 1.64. The qualities of the models were judged by cross validation procedures as there were too few samples to reserve a separate test set. Models for E. nitens have R-values ranging from 0.988 to 0.894, SEC values that range from 0.19 to 0.93 and SEP values that range from 0.78 to 1.85. The use of larger sample sets should improve the models and reduce errors. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to classify samples based on their NIR spectra. PCA is a data decomposition technique that can be used to extract the systematic variation that exists in a single data set. Two-dimensional PCA scores plots can be used to examine how a number of samples relate to each other. Such plots are used to distinguish between woods of high and low pulp yield; between hardwoods and softwoods; between eucalypt species (E. globulus, E. grandis and E. nitens) and between sites the trees of specific species were grown on (Tasmania and Victoria). PCA could be a very useful tool for breeding programs, perhaps providing a simple means of eliminating poor performing trees. The within-tree variation of pulp yield is also examined using NIRS. If trees are to be sampled non-destructively, ie. by cores, an understanding of within-tree variation is necessary for the identification of representative sampling points. Individual ring samples have different NIR spectra. The spectra of rings 5 and 6 (where the heartwood-sapwood boundary is located) demonstrate the greatest differences. Patterns of radial and longitudinal variation are different for each tree. Radial variation of pulp yield at 5, 20 and 60 % of total tree height is basically linear (average of 15 trees). Longitudinal variation (average of 3 trees) of pulp yield is not linear, the model used to describe it is of the form y = a + bx + cxA. Maps of withintree variation demonstrate that yield is variable within trees and that each tree has a different pattern of variation. The outer region of the tree between 15 and 40 % of total tree height has wood giving the highest pulp yield. Samples from 10 % of total tree height (2.2 m) gives the best correlation with whole tree pulp yield. The north and south hemispheres of a single tree are examined. Within this tree the yield variation is found to be symmetrical. The heritability (h2) of pulp yield for 7 year old E. nitens is estimated using 588 samples whose yield has been estimated using NIRS. Heritability estimates of 0.34 and 0.31 are obtained for the inner and outer rings respectively. The estimates are lower than expected based on previous estimates. PCA is used to examine the variation present in the calibration and the unknown data sets. It is found that the calibration data derived from whole-tree average samples do not contain all the variation present in the unknown data obtained from within the inner and outer rings. Improved heritability estimates are expected to be obtained by adding data to the calibration obtained from within the rings. It is demonstrated that NIRS can successfully predict pulp yield and a number of other chemical components of wood. The success of several models indicates that NIRS has the potential to be a very important tool for tree breeding programs. Consistency in sample preparation and presentation is important. Care must be taken that the proper samples are selected for calibration.
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ItemPre-anthesis development in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) : evaluation of factors affecting apical development and spikelet number per spike on the main culm( 1995)The influence of a number of environmental factors and cultivar differences on the pre-anthesis period of development in barley were investigated in this thesis. Preanthesis development in barley was examined by dividing this period into three phases, namely the leaf initiation, spikelet initiation and spikelet growth phases. The lengths of the latter two phases showed substantial variation between cultivars, which indicates that it may be feasible to manipulate the durations of these phases, while maintaining a constant time to anthesis. In particular, there was a negative association between durations of the spikelet initiation and spikelet growth phases, making it possible to maintain a constant time to anthesis despite variation in the duration of these phases. The number of spikelet primordia formed in the developing spike of the main culm exhibited little variation between cultivars. The rate and duration of spikelet initiation were negatively correlated and both had no association with either maximum spikelet primordia number or final spikelet number. Variation in spikelet number per spike appeared to be maintained more because of a varying level of spikelet abortion rather than differences in the number of spikelet primordia formed in the developing spike of the main culm. A separate study examining the related species Hordeum spontaneum, confirmed variation for the durations of the three phases, combinations of which indicated the feasibility that such variation could provide genotypes wherein a constant time to anthesis could be maintained. Investigations of the effects of four environmental factors, photoperiod, temperature, irradiance and fertilizer addition, on pre-anthesis development in barley were also undertaken. Increased photoperiod was shown to reduce the durations of the three phases in photoperiod-sensitive barley cultivars. Differences between the three phases in their sensitivity to photoperiod were observed, with the spikelet initiation phase proportionately the most sensitive phase and the leaf initation phase the least sensitive. This difference in sensitivity between phases also differed in magnitude between cultivars. That is, in one study, the spring cultivar Galleon showed a greater sensitivity to photoperiod in the spikelet initiation than the leaf initiation phase in contrast to Bandulla, where the difference between photoperiod sensitivities of each phase was small. Both of these cultivars exhibited satisfaction of the photoperiod response at a similar photoperiod (ca. 14-15 h). That is, no further changes in durations of the leaf initiation and spikelet initiation phases occurred under longer photoperiods. Transfer of cultivars between different photoperiods indicated that the duration of a particular development phase was determined by both the influence of prior photoperiod as well as current photoperiod, indicating the presence of a 'memorized photoperiod effect'. This effect was present from the beginning of spikelet primordia production to anthesis. The 'memory effect' of photoperiod on development appears to be interactive with current photoperiod, rather than additive, because the effects of the direct influence of photoperiod and those of prior photoperiods were smaller when they were coincident compared with independently. The duration of the pre-anthesis period of photoperiod-sensitive cultivars grown at similar levels of irradiance, but different photoperiods was found to respond more to variation in photoperiod than irradiance. High irradiance levels reduced the duration of the pre-anthesis period slightly, and increased both final leaf and spikelet numbers. The rate of change of photoperiod has been found in other cereal crops to influence the time to anthesis. The present study indicated that the rate of change of photoperiod had no effect on the durations of the leaf and spikelet initation phases independent of that of mean photoperiod. There were also no effects on leaf or spikelet number per spike, or the rate of leaf appearance, in contrast to earlier reports. Increasing the mean daily temperature within the range of 11-27C was found to reduce the duration of the spikelet growth phase (expressed in calendar time) in barley, although this was dependent on photoperiod. However, in terms of thermal time, increased temperature lengthened the amount of thermal time taken to complete the spikelet growth phase, which is in agreement with several wheat studies (Pirasteh & Walsh, 1980; Rawson, 1993). The relationship between temperature and rate of development did not appear to be linear at supra-optimal temperatures (above X19C, Ellis et al., 1988) although this was not conclusively tested. Further research is required to fully understand the relationship between the rate of development in barley and temperature. The proportion of spikelet abortion in the developing spike of the main culm was found to be increase with high temperatures and this was dependent upon cultivar, but longer durations of the spikelet growth phase were not associated with increased spikelet numbers. The application of fertilizer nitrogen and phosphorus had no significantly consistent effects on time from sowing to anthesis in barley, or the durations of the three individual developmental phases, suggesting that models of phenological development need not incorporate fertilizer parameters. Irradiance level was shown to influence the level of spikelet abortion of the main culm spike and occurred in barley 11-15 days before anthesis when the spike and culm were rapidly accumulating dry matter. Spikelets found to abort were later-developing and smaller in size than those which survived. The coincidence of abortion of spikelets with maximum accumulation of dry matter in the culm and spike indicates the possibility that the level of abortion in barley may be associated with culm-spike assimilate competition. Spikelet number and grain number per spike, and tiller number increased with increasing nitrogen application. It is proposed that breeding to achieve lower levels of abortion of spikelet primordia could possibly lead to an increased yield potential of the barley spike. The thesis contains a seven chapters; a review, five experimental chapters and a concluding chapter.
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ItemThe role of an early childhood educator in children's emerging literacy( 1996)During the two years of this semi longitudinal study, one early childhood educator reflected on and developed her practice. The particular focus of this study was the pre-school children's literacy development and how best this could be facilitated and supported. Action Research was chosen as the most suitable research methodology which enabled the investigation to develop in an iterative manner. In the first instance an analysis of the literature concerning children's early learning, their literacy development and the role of the adult during these early years was reviewed. The next stage involved a critical evaluation of both the provisions and resources for literacy in the pre-school classroom under investigation and also the most appropriate role for the teacher in relation to these children's emerging literacy. While the focus of this study has been the development of the teacher's knowledge base and practice, it was also possible to monitor the literacy development of the children from ages three to six years. In addition, highly favourable results were obtained by those children who took part in the study when they were compared with others who did not after the start of formal schooling. Consideration has also been given to the role of parents of these children in the pre-school environment and their role with respect to childrens emerging literacy.
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ItemThe utility of Schoenfeld's protocol parsing technique for detecting and illustrating control-based behaviour in non-routine problem solving episodes( 1996)A non-routine mathematical problem was used to gather case studies of problem solving behaviour of undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics students observed working individually or in groups during a thirty minute think aloud problem solving session. A component of each of the case studies was a parsed representation of the participants' solution developed using a technique devised by Schoenfeld which highlights aspects of control-related problem solving behaviour. A series of questions relating to the utility of Schoenfeld's parsing technique, aspects of its validity, and the source difficulty of the problem are considered through the analysis of the ten protocols. Solutions from three protocols all relate to the "deep structure" of the problem. The remaining seven protocols generally had solutions that concentrated on "surface features" of the problem. The protocols provided no evidence that control, on its own, can necessarily promote the solution of a non-routine problem. Effective control behaviour relies on the problem solvers' knowledge of the problem solving strategies or heuristics available. In general, only a combination of deep structural investigation, the targeted use of examples and appropriately placed global solution assessments assisted significantly with solution progress. Where examples were specifically chosen to illuminate insights or confirm or refute assertions, they could effectively be used as a way of advancing in the problem. This use of examples was not seen in solutions that focused on surface features of the problem. There was little difference in the way that local solution assessments were made or acted upon by participants and such assessments did not generally assist solution progress. Schoenfeld's parsing process does not necessarily produce an accurate narrative of a solution-the episodes reflect "surface level" decisions and actions and often cannot indicate the quality and depth of thinking. No one graphical form of a parsed protocol was able to represent a successful solution to the problem used in this study, or control-related behaviour on the part of the problem solver.
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ItemSpiritual health: its nature and place in the school curriculum( 1998-04)As spirituality first appeared in Australian curriculum documents in 1994, it was important to establish how educators thought it related to student well- being. In this research a description and four accounts of spirituality - spiritual rationalism, monism, dualism, and multidimensional unity - were developed from available literature. The literature also revealed four sets of relationships important to spiritual well-being. These were the relationships of a person with themself, others, environment, and Transcendent Other. The model of spiritual health proposed here claims that these four sets of relationships can be developed in corresponding Personal, Communal, Environmental and Global domains of human existence, each of which has two aspects - knowledge and inspiration. Progressive synergism describes the inter-relationship between the four domains. The quality of relationships in the four domains constitutes , spiritual well-being in each domain. Spiritual health is indicated by the combined effect of spiritual well-being in each of the domains embraced by a person. The principles of grounded theory qualitative research methodology were used to investigate the views of 98 teachers from a variety of schools near Melbourne. Feedback from 23 Australian experts, on the researcher’s definitions, is discussed. To encompass all the teachers’ views of spiritual health, to the initial categories of Personalist, Communalist, Environmentalist and Globalist, a fifth category was added for the small group Rationalists, who embraced the knowledge, but not the inspiration/transcendent aspects, of the first three domains of spiritual well-being. All the teachers believed spiritual health should be included in the school curriculum, most rating it of high importance, two-thirds believing it should be integral to the curriculum. The teachers’ major curriculum concerns focussed on Self, Others, the Transcendent, or Wholeness. Investigation of those teacher characteristics seen as important for promoting spiritual health, with associated hindrances and ideals, showed variation by gender, personal view of spiritual health, major curriculum concern, teacher and school type. Greatest variation was noticed when comparing school type. State school teachers emphasised care for the individual student from a humanistic perspective. Catholic school teachers were concerned for the individual, with religious activities being implemented by dedicated teachers. Other Christian school teachers focussed on corporate, not individualistic, activities, and emphasised relationship with God. Other non-government school teachers emphasised tradition, with attendant moral values. Implications of these variations on school choice are discussed. Principals’ behaviour, speech and attitude were considered by the teachers to be vital in providing opportunities for spiritual development in schools. A 30-item Spiritual Health Measure (of Humanistic and Religious Aspects of Spiritual Health) was developed using the researcher’s model of spiritual health and data from 300 UK teachers. The SHM should be useful as a diagnostic for individuals or groups to provide base data from which to plan enhancement of their spiritual health. This thesis contains an analysis of how well the Victorian Curriculum & Standards Framework provides guidelines for promoting spiritual health. A position of responsibility, called Spiritual Facilitator, is proposed to help ensure that the rhetoric about spiritual well-being is put into practice in schools.
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ItemDeaf children's understanding of the roles of speakers and listeners in face-to-face interaction( 1997-01)The ability to communicate effectively requires individuals to possess knowledge in a number of areas as well as the skill to apply this knowledge in a wide range of practical communication contexts. Understanding the syntactic and semantic systems, and the ability to put this knowledge into practice are necessary, but not sufficient, to be a competent communicator. In order to be considered a competent communicator it is necessary also to be able to apply pragmatic rules appropriately in the variety of interactional contexts which occur in person to person interaction. It has been shown (e.g., Bench, 1992; Luetke-Stahlman & Luckner, 1991) that profoundly deaf children have difficulty in understanding and applying syntactic and semantic rules at the same levels of proficiency as their normally hearing peers. Major causes underlying this difference are the greatly reduced amount of linguistic input typically received by profoundly deaf children and the imperfect quality of that input, even when appropriate amplification is used. These conditions, in association with greatly reduced opportunity for profoundly deaf children to interact with more mature communicators, negatively affect the acquisition and application of syntactic and semantic rules. The hypotheses of this study are: (a) that these same conditions also result in difficulties for profoundly deaf children in understanding and applying pragmatic rules and strategies in various interactional contexts, and, (b)that the nature and extent of this difficulty has a negative impact on profoundly deaf children’s face-to-face interactions through the use of inappropriate or unproductive responses to the demands of the communicative context, to the demands of the listener, and to the demands of the interaction process. A referential communication task paradigm was employed to elicit face-to-face interactions between pairs of normally hearing students and profoundly deaf students, both from oral educational settings and educational settings in which sign is used. The tasks employed to elicit these interactions were designed to necessitate the use of pragmatic skills in order for the interactions to be completed successfully. Transcripts of the interactions were analysed for their effectiveness. A number of pragmatic skills were considered; these included the appropriateness and effectiveness of speakers’ responses to the contextual requirements of the different communication tasks, the appropriateness and effectiveness of speakers’ responses to the requirements of their listener, and the appropriateness and effectiveness of speaker and listener responses of the interactional process. Since the participants’ performances are an overt expression of the speakers’ and listeners’ conceptions of their role in face-to-face interaction, the interactions provide insights into the metacommunication knowledge of profoundly deaf children and normally hearing children. It is predicted that because of the reduction in the quantity and quality of interactions in which profoundly deaf children are involved, their capacity to apply pragmatic rules appropriately in face-to-face interactions will be less effective than that of their normally hearing peers. Other areas considered were the degree to which there was improvement with age in the use of pragmatic skills, and the degree to which the communicative performance of the students from oral settings resembled that of the normally hearing students, given that all the orally educated students were enrolled in integrated educational settings and, thus, had daily interaction with normally hearing students. It is predicted that there will be improvement with age in the skills being considered. It is further predicted that because of the day to day contact the oral students have with normally hearing and normally communicating peers, the performance of the oral students will more closely resemble the performance of the normally hearing group than the profoundly deaf group who sign. The results of the study showed there were significant differences between the normally hearing group and the profoundly deaf group in the overall effectiveness of the interactions, with the normally hearing group being more effective than either the oral group or the sign group. Similarly, there were significant differences between the normally hearing students and the two groups of profoundly deaf students in their ability to apply appropriately pragmatic knowledge to their interactions, suggesting that there are also differences between the normally hearing and the profoundly deaf groups in metacommunication knowledge. Some differences in pragmatic use between the oral group and the sign group were also found. Reasons for the difference in metacommunication knowledge and poor pragmatic performance, which are likely to originate in the early communicative environment and the early educational management of the profoundly deaf children, are suggested. The implications these findings have on current pragmatic acquisition theory for both normally hearing and profoundly deaf children are discussed, as is the significance of the findings on current practice in the education of profoundly deaf children. Areas for subsequent research arising from this study are suggested.