Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe art of intersubjectivity(University of Melbourne, 2004)
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ItemTeachers' perceptions and expectations of religious and lay principals in Catholic secondary schools in the Melbourne metropolitan area(University of Melbourne, 2004)Catholic education is in the middle of a time of change, as the Religious, who have led Catholic schools throughout Australia for over a century, now pass on the leadership of the majority of Catholic schools to Lay teachers. The role of Catholic Principal needs to be reconsidered, especially with reference to the Religious role. This research explored teachers' perceptions of Religious and Lay Principals by exploring three research questions: 1. What do teachers value in a Catholic secondary school Principal? 2. How do teachers see the role of a Catholic secondary school Principal? 3. Are the answers to Questions One and Two different depending on whether teachers are considering a Religious or a Lay Principal? A survey of the teaching staff of five Catholic secondary schools in metropolitan Melbourne was conducted. There were 262 surveys returned for a response rate of approximately 65 percent. Results indicated that overall teachers value strong leadership, approachability and a humanness in Principals. Teachers see the main role of a Principal as creating a culture of learning within the school, and value a Principal who has contact with students both inside and outside the classroom. Overall, there were very few differences in the expectations teachers have of Religious and Lay Principals, with the exception of religious leadership, religious knowledge and experience. While most teachers believe it is quite desirable, the majority of teachers felt it was neither important nor unimportant for a school to have a Religious Principal.
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ItemWhich students may benefit from talking computers : an investigation of the effect of a computer text reader on reading comprehension(University of Melbourne, 2003)This study investigated the use of a computer text reader with speech output as support for the reading comprehension of secondary school students. Synthesised speech reading of text by a computer allows users to access information aurally as well as, or instead of, reading it. The students in the study were not previously , identified as having reading difficulties. Secondary students who experience reading difficulties are likely to be disadvantaged in all subjects that require the reading of texts. Computer text reading programs may be valuable in an assistive role, in that they may provide an alternative method of independent access to more complex texts than would be possible without such assistance. The process of selecting assistive technology, should include the gathering of information about the individual learner, the task, and the technology under consideration, as the suitability of a particular technology varies among individuals and contexts of use. The characteristics of the learner in this study were examined through a general reading assessment using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (Neale, 1999). A trial of the task and technology was conducted in which measurements were made of the students' reading comprehension with and without the use of the text reader feature of the software Read and Write, Version 5.0. (textHELP, 2001).
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ItemGender specificity of mathematical test item types : a comparison between the Netherlands and Australia(University of Melbourne, 2004)Gender differences in performance have been reported for Dutch students, both in their. national testing and in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. These differences have been evident for grade 6 Dutch students both in overall performance, with boys outperforming girls, and for particular item types. Similar gender differences have not been reported for Australian students. The rationale of this study was to compare the gender specificity of types of mathematical test items in the performance of a sample of grade 6 Australian students with that reported for students from the Netherlands. Whilst the results of other testing seem to indicate otherwise, findings from this study suggest that gender equality in performance may not be able to be assumed for Australian students completing primary school. The markedly better performance of boys on a measurement question involving the change of units, and the better performance of girls on questions involving the accurate use of algorithms seem to indicate that there are types of items which function differently for girls and boys in Australia as well as in the Netherlands. The importance of this study lies in this unexpected difference in performance of Australian boys and girls on these item types as. well as the marked similarities found with the gender specificity of item types reported in the Netherlands. It may be that the gender differences in mathematical achievements reported for Dutch primary school students are not unusual, but may reflect gender-specific tendencies in mathematical thinking from a wider international perspective.
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ItemThe piano accordion in music education in China(University of Melbourne, 2003)Musical learning on the accordion has been well established in China over the last fifty years. Although it is not a national instrument, the accordion was once the most popular instrument in China. However, music education literature has neglected the importance of the accordion. Little research on the instrument, and its education in China can be found in the literature and the descriptions of accordion found in many musical encyclopaedias and dictionaries are severely lacking in detail. Although the accordion has been one of the instruments for study within the Australian Music Examination Board (AMEB) for many years, most school teachers have little or no understanding of the instrument. There are few music schools in Australia offering a course teaching students the art of playing the accordion. As a result of this, the current generation of music students is especially ignorant of the importance and capabilities of the instrument, and the accordion has not received its proper status as a truly special instrument. As an accordion player I find this situation disappointing, therefore, it is my intention to provide an insight into the role the accordion has played in modern Chinese society. Hopefully, this might assist the accordion to become more recognised in Australia.
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ItemTeachers' storytelling techniques and comprehension of narratives in Singaporean preschool children( 2004)There is growing body of evidence supporting the many connections between competent comprehension of narratives and the effective use of storytelling strategies. This study d?fines the cluster of concepts related to storytelling and narrative comprehension in young children and synthesizes the research on the role of storytelling in children's language development, in this case, the development of narrative comprehension. A critical review on storytelling beliefs and practices of preschool teachers in Singapore revealed that the espoused theories of the benefits of effective storytelling have not been distinguished from their own practices in the classrooms. This is due to a set of mitigating circumstances. The study notes the teachers' changing attitudes towards the use of more engaging storytelling techniques as emerging evidence suggest that a more engaging storytelling approach facilitates children's perspective taking and later abstract thought. This research also notes that there is a need for an inclusion of a more comprehensive storytelling course in the present Early Childhood training programme, thus identifying implications for understanding preschool teachers' development as storytellers. This study provides direction for further research in children's responses to storytelling.
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ItemGraduate nurse preceptorship( 2004)Recent research has established that the supervision relationship is the single most important factor for the effectiveness of any professional supervision (Kilminster & Jolly 2000). However there is a lack of reliable research identifying the effects of supervision in health care and, until recently, little research in Australia or internationally acknowledging the effectiveness of supervision specifically in acute health care settings (Sloan 1998, Palsson, Hallberg & Norberg 1994, Begat, Severisson & Berggren 1997, Hyrkas, Koivula & Paunomen 1999). The established research highlights the importance of developing Australian based graduate preceptorship research, particularly from the perspective of the graduate nurse and nurse preceptor, focusing on these nurses' experiences in the context of the acute health care setting. This pilot study was therefore intended to provide insights into the effectiveness of the preceptor in the supervision role within the Australian acute healthcare setting. The primary focus of this project was to ascertain the extent to which nurse preceptors effectively address graduate nurses' professional needs. The data collected in this study enabled the identification, exploration and cross checking of shared and alternate themes, and the development of a theoretical framework, encompassing these participants' graduate preceptorship experiences, incorporating a range of interrelationships and interactions.
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ItemCreativity in literacy : making meaning in the middle years( 2004)Literacy is often described as either a social phenomenon or a functional one - it is rarely viewed as an imaginative or creative phenomenon. Yet the processes involved in the development of literate identities are akin to roleplay; readers and writers try on different stances as they engage in various ways with diverse texts, and this requires a capacity for imaginative projection. A `creative age' has been proclaimed in Western societies. Creativity and high levels of literacy are prized for their perceived capacity to fit people for the anticipated rapidly changing circumstances of the future. However, while vast resources are devoted to developing literacy in education, aspects of schooling may discourage creativity, and, indeed, the kind of literacy (or 'literacies') required for this new era. This thesis argues that much might be gained by reconsidering imagination and creativity for educational purposes. It recounts psychological approaches to studying creativity, which, despite limitations, have led to a model that is useful for identifying the `locus of creativity' - a systems model of creativity (Feldman, Csikszentmihalyi & Gardner, 1994). This model is re-evaluated so as to theorise a systems model of student creativity. The term `literacy' has come to signify many different things in education, and the complexity of the phenomenon is discussed to show how imagination and creativity are integral to it. An acknowledgment of their role offers exciting possibilities for middle years curriculum in particular. This investigation into the place of imagination and creativity in literacy involved the analysis of `official' curriculum documents and of two case studies - one Year 9 and one Grade 5/6 teacher and their English/literacy classes. This permitted observations of the ways in which curriculum is enacted in classrooms. The fieldwork revealed data about common constructions of creativity, and where it inheres in literacy.
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ItemUneasy lies the head : the repositioning of heads of English in independent schools in Victoria in the age of new learning technologies( 2004)This study explores the discursive practice of six Heads of English in Independent Schools in Victoria during a period of major cultural change. This change has been associated with huge public investment in New Learning Technologies and shifting perceptions and expectations of cultural agency in communities of practice such as English Departments in Schools. In this social milieu tensions exist between the societal rhetoric of school management and marketing of the efficacy of NLTs as educational realities and discursive practices at a departmental level, embodying and embedding academic values and attainments. In their conversations with the author, the Heads of English reveal much about themselves and the nature and distribution of their duties and responsibilities within the local moral order of their schools and with their individual communities of practice. A model is developed of the dual praxis of the Heads of the Heads of English, mediated by autobiography and historically available cultural resources in a community of practice. As agents concerned to both maintain and transform their local culture of English teaching, and consequently the whole school culture, the Heads of English account for themselves as responding to their own `sense of place' in their own community of practice, but also the `structure of feeling' of the period by which their achievements and standing are known. This study of the persons of the English co-ordinators draws upon both Positioning Theory and critical realism to reveal the dynamic nature of both their identity and the social organization of English teaching in schools.
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ItemGlobalisation and cultural management : leading from the margins( 2004)This thesis commenced with the purpose of examining a case study of cultural management within an institution of higher education and questioning whether the manner in which we negotiate our identity, reflect a sense of belonging and create a responsibility within a labyrinth of impersonal spaces with this local/global dilemma will be the premises upon which new answers to old questions, as well as a whole set of new questions about cultural management within higher educational institutions, will be asked. The development of the Intercultural Projects and Resources Unit (IPRU) was examined as a reflective case study analysis, whilst drawing on the researcher's biography as a key component of this thesis, operating at several different but interconnected levels, negotiating simultaneously the space between mainstream Western academic concerns, the researcher's intellectual and geographical/spatial dislocation and working with a diverse range of students, university staff, community groups and places in the world. This thesis contends that when there are 'spaces' that enable all voices to be heard and considered, then the outcome is always far better than anticipated. Such 'spaces' or 'structures' will always start with, and privilege, the perspectives (and participation) of those with the least power and those who are most disadvantaged (margins). Any decision needs to involve a deep consideration of effects in a range of domains, grounded in an appreciation of the layered cultural contexts in which choices are made and implemented. This thesis has proposed that it is in the linking of current debates about difference, identity and marginality with the management of 'culture', ,and in facilitating a space within which these issues can be negotiated, that meaningful work and outcomes as educational administrators within a global knowledge economy becomes possible..