Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAnother world like here : futures studies and early childhood education( 1995)This thesis examines the discipline of futures studies and its potential for application in early childhood education. The need for an increased futures-orientation in education is established by a survey of the overwhelmingly negative commentaries of youths on the topic of the future. These comments, it is argued, point to a vacuum of understanding about the future which educators should seek to counterbalance. This task should be particularly emphasised by early childhood educators since they share a commitment to the central objective of laying foundations for life-long learning. Futures studies offers a useful methodology for this task. The thesis examines the major tenets of futures studies and its translation into primary and secondary educational settings. The applicability of futures studies to early childhood education is established by demonstrating the many principles which futures studies and early childhood education share in common. A futures-focused curriculum need not involve the educator in any radically new philosophical and educational frameworks. It, rather, provides a means of extending and re-articulating existing developmental objectives from the vantage point of new perspectives. The thesis resolves the issue of whether or not futures concerns are beyond the reach of four and five year olds by examining how pre-school children conceive time and the future. Young children are seen to possess many of the qualities which futures studies seek to re-instill in adults and older children. The educator should seek to capitalize on this by combining the positive aspects of children's innate perceptions of future time with the more abstract 'adult' understanding of time. A research project on pre-school children's attitudes towards the future sheds further light on their understandings of the future while also enabling their own opinions on the topic to be heard. The thesis then defines the principal objectives of a futures-focused curriculum and translates them into practical learning experiences. It concludes by exploring the implications of the findings contained in the thesis for early childhood education and by discussing some of the ways in which the educators themselves might come to terms with the issues articulated in this study.
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ItemHuman capital : a case study of the AMEP( 1995)This study is an investigation of the Human Capital Approach to education in Australia. It examines whether or not the Commonwealth Government is steering education towards the incorporation of policies that invest greater emphasis and resources into human beings as contributors to economic productivity than it invests in their cultural and aesthetic value. The study incorporates the philosophies of the Human Capitalists and how successive Commonwealth and State Governments apply these philosophies in education policy formulation - particularly the provision of English language to adult migrants through the Adult Migrant Education Program in Victoria. The methodology used is a questionnaire of closed and open-ended questions distributed to AMEP teachers. The researcher duly followed up the questionnaire with interviews of four AMEP teachers in an endeavour to shed more light on the reasons behind the responses given by teachers in the questionnaire. The researcher undertook an analysis of the responses in order to investigate whether or not the Commonwealth Government gives primacy to economic objectives of the migration program over its social, cultural and linguistic objectives. The findings are that the AMEP teachers surveyed believe that the Commonwealth Government does emphasize economic objectives over all other objectives of the migration program. A Human Capital approach to education, reflected in the application of Economic Rationalism, is apparent in Australia's education system according to AMEP teachers surveyed and that such has been the case since the late 1970s. The literary works of Schultz, Smith, Dawkins, Piore, Crittenden, Benovat, Green, Pusey, Kennedy, Marginson and Grubb are included in this study. These works form the literature review of the Human Capital approach. As well, the Reports chaired by Karmel, Williams, Kirby, Fitzgerald and Campbell, and a variety of Commonwealth Reports and Working Party Papers into various aspects of education in Australia are represented in an investigation of the application of the Human Capital approach to education in Australia's main education policies. The findings of this research are that the Human Capital approach to education is influencing the AMEP and that this has wider implications for the national education system in Australia. Almost all AMEP teachers surveyed believe the AMEP no longer follows its own National Plan, in which it spells out its aims and objectives, but pursues the Commonwealth Government's primary objective of pursuing the economic aims and benefits of the migration program.
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ItemThe emergence of consonants in severe to profoundly hearing impaired pre-school aged children using hearing aids or cochlear implant( 1997)The Nucleus 22 Electrode Cochlear Implant is being implanted in young, severe to profound hearing impaired children with the anticipation that spontaneous speech production will develop more in line with what is expected in normal hearing children This study investigated the early emergence of consonantal sounds in the spontaneous speech production of two groups of pre school aged children. The first group consisted of five children implanted with the Nucleus 22 Electrode Cochlear Implant and using the Multipeak Speech Processor (MSP). The second group of five children wore electronic hearing aids and had at least some aided thresholds in the speech spectrum. The consonantal inventories of each subject, collected over a thirteen month period, were compared within the subject groups, between the subject groups and also to literature discussing consonantal emergence in children with normal hearing. All subjects in this study were found to have increased the number of consonants in their consonantal inventories by the end of the thirteen month period. This result indicated that both devices were of some use to the subjects. Neither group showed a consistently larger increase in the number of new consonants that had emerged by the final inventory. The assortment of consonants emerging in the consonantal inventories of the subjects was also investigated and found to vary more on an individual basis rather than a group basis. However, the results did show that more implanted subjects had the consonants /s/, /w/ and / / in their inventories by the end of the study. More aided subjects had / / and /h/ in their consonantal inventories by the end of the study. Although being an average 12 months older than the aided subjects, more implanted subjects had consonants in their inventories that required the perception of high frequency cues. This study also showed two other interesting trends. Firstly, both subject groups had individuals that did not progress as well as expected. Secondly, the implanted subjects produced the unvoiced stops /p,t,k/ and the unvoiced fricative / / more often than the aided subjects.
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ItemBuilding social relationships with peers for children with developmental delay( 1993)The focus of the study was to examine the peer social interaction skills of four preschool aged children with developmental delay, across two terms. A case study methodology was chosen because of the variability of skill amongst children with developmental delay. The children's interaction with peers was measured under three different teaching methods in their early intervention and integrated preschool settings Videoed observation of the children's free play interactions were analysed using an observational instrument developed from the literature. Results demonstrated consistently that children with delayed development had difficulty in integrating basic skills to become socially effective. The study reinforced the need for intervention and found several factors that were consistent in promoting social competence. There was a clear finding that was consistent across all four children and the eight contexts. The social interaction between these children and their peers was increased when staff facilitated interaction through group composition selection of activities and the scaffolding of interactive tasks to an appropriate developmental level. Peer interaction was further enhanced when staff used subtle cues suggestions and encouragement at critical moments.
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ItemStanding strong or standing weak? Equal opportunity, violence against women and the school curriculum : a case study( 1994)Despite violence against women becoming a very public issue in recent years, remarkably little material on this subject has so far found its way into the school curriculum. This thesis examines a set of curriculum materials called Standing Strong, which specifically aims to help students make sense of violent and sexually abusive relationships. The thesis outlines and evaluates the materials in light of their ability to achieve one of the major objectives of recent equal opportunity policy, namely, to help achieve "equality between the sexes, and...improv(e) the conditions of life for girls and women...taking account of their cultural, language, and socio-economic diversity...". (Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1987: Recommendation 2, p. 25). The evaluation takes two main forms, one theoretical, the other empirical. The theoretical evaluation draws upon recent post structuralist and constructionist feminist writings. The empirical evaluation is undertaken by drawing upon the research findings derived from in-depth interviews with 24 young women who had used the Standing Strong materials during their secondary school education. The thesis argues that Standing Strong is flawed theoretically, and that this is likely to hamper its usefulness in practice. The research data confirm this pessimistic conclusion. The thesis concludes by reflecting on whether a focus on education might be more of a hindrance than a help to the development of a meaningful and effective solutions to violence against women.
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ItemDefining education: Kieran Egan's contribution to current educational theory and practice( 1990)Kieran Egan has suggested a stage theory for education in which the student moves through four periods of development. The theory is predicated upon a notion of education being a particular type of discipline, different from other areas of study such as philosophy and psychology. The difference, according to Egan, is found in the definition of education as a cultural act. The dominance of psychologists like Piaget and theorists like Dewey has, according to Egan, allowed non-educational theories and practices to erode the proper function of education, that being the creation of a particular type of person. That type of person would be best described as having the characteristics of Egan's "Ironic" scholar, a person with intelligence, humanity and acceptance. Egan also suggests a particular curriculum and teaching methodology in the light of his stage theory. This curriculum is based on the cultural heritage of humanity's quest for enlightenment. The methodology used is to present this cultural heritage in story-form so that it engages children's interest. The story-form is also the most appropriate manner of presenting information to children because information is most easily understood in that format. Egan is critical of current trends in education which, he claims, tend to be destructive of its true function. Empiricism and socialization, according to Egan, have caused education to become mundane and soulless. Education needs to be redefined and theories need to be relevant and pertinent to the process of education. Egan's theory does serve to centre debate about education. His thoughts on educational development and methodology, although salutory, are at times idiosyncratic. His rejection of empiricism in education tends to make his ideas problematic.
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ItemAn evaluation of the Australian Paediatric Review Training Program in Victoria( 1999)The Australian Paediatric Review Training Program (APRTP) is a continuing medical education program in paediatric and adolescent health for general practitioners. The educational structure of the APRTP includes a pre-meeting quiz, attendance at a meeting, a post-meeting quiz and quiz feedback, with completion of the post-meeting quiz optional. This evaluation of the APRTP in Victoria was undertaken two and a half years after the commencement of the Program, as a pilot for a national evaluation of the Program. A "critical multiplist" approach was used in evaluating the APRTP in Victoria, combining data from a number of different evaluation methodologies - participant meeting evaluation, pre and post meeting quiz analysis, one-to-one semi-structured interviews and a participant survey. The interviews and participant survey were informed by the development of a program theory for the APRTP, based on the literature on continuing medical education and behaviour change theories. As the Medical Educator in the Program my role includes designing the Program process, developing the educational objectives and material for each of the meetings, and coding and interpreting evaluation data from the meeting and quizzes. This role expanded to include all aspects of the evaluation of the Program apart from the analysis of quiz and survey data which was undertaken by the external consultant statistician employed by the Program. There were good response rates to the various evaluation instruments (69%-82%). The evaluation results confirmed the process, components and educational activities described in the program theory and further strengthened the program theory. Overall, the data gathered confirmed that participants were positive about the value of the Program and its various components, reinforcing that the structure of the Program should be maintained. The evaluation also identified areas of the Program which require change - the meeting format (meeting group size and more effective small group work), meeting delivery (appropriate selection and adequate briefing of resource people to ensure relevance for general practice), administrative problems (more reliable mailout), and access to the Program (distance education, more venues etc). The evaluation results identified that sessions within a meeting were valued differently by participants and had differing impact. The extent of changes identified varied from meeting to meeting and knowledge acquisition was more likely to occur than identification of a change in practice, which is consistent with the literature. While the evaluation gathered evidence that change was most likely when new clinical knowledge or information about new clinical approaches was presented, the actual content and delivery of the material were also important in influencing change. The evaluation also highlighted that the Program does not assess actual physician performance and therefore does not identify whether changes due to Program participation are translated into actual clinical practice.