Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemSimilarities and differences between the parent and teacher observations of potential communicative acts in a child presenting with autistic tendencies( 2006)The involvement of parents and teachers have an important role as decision-makers and communicators in the lives of children with developmental disabilities. A process that leads to increased exchange of information regarding a child's communicative behaviour is likely to enhance the communicative learning environment of homes and early childhood intervention centres. The aim of the present study is to compare teacher and parent observations of children's communicative behaviours with a child presenting with autistic tendencies through a single case study approach. A parent and a teacher of a child presenting with autistic tendencies participated in the study. The observational profile of children with autism was used to collect baseline data about the child's social and communicative abilities. Subsequently an interview using the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA) was conducted on the teacher and the parent. The baseline data obtained from the observation profile indicated a cross-section of results and demonstrated that the child has fluent and developing skills in several aspects of social interaction. The results of communicative ability demonstrated that the use of gestures featured highly and the use of verbal expression was virtually not present. The IPCA interview results showed that there were significant differences between the parent and teacher in interpreting the child's communicative behaviours. The study suggests that gathering information from parents as well as teachers has a critical role in providing valuable information for the development and implementation of intervention programs for language and communicative development in children with autistic tendencies.
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ItemThe parent-child mother goose program : a case study of a family-centred early intervention literacy initiative( 2006)Research related to early childhood education and development indicates the importance of the quality of social services provided to children in the early years. The Parent-Child Mother Goose study looks at the effectiveness of an early childhood program as a preventative intervention for children with additional needs through action research. The study was conducted over two cycles during 2005. It uncovers the characteristics of the Mother Goose Program; the role of the professional; and the effects of the intervention on parents and children. The study also introduces some of the most important concepts in early childhood education which include: Parent-Focused Programs, Family-Centred Practice, Inclusive Practice, and Retention in Early Intervention. Last the research examines the gaps in the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program and discusses issues such as: Concept Clarity, Cultural Competence, Access and Participation, Follow ups and Feedback, Fathers in the Early Years and Evaluation in Early Childhood Programs. The research addresses each issue separately and provides future recommendations for early childhood professionals in the context of a small scale study. The research concludes that the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program is an affective preventative intervention for parents and children who are committed to consistent participation.
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ItemProcess, product and exhibition : phenomenology in media education( 2006)Our world is an increasingly visual one that is dominated by the visual media. Therefore, the role of Media education has never been more relevant or fundamental to curriculum as it is today. As a subject, Media has long served to teach students the skills to become not only visually literate and critical viewers of the media, but also to become producers of the media itself. These dual components of formally studying the literacies of 'Media' in a classroom (as compared to being exposed to the media without instruction by a trained teacher) and the practical element of creating a media product for exhibition are central to the media student's individual experience. From these core ideas came key questions - what is the lived experience of the media student? Process, Product and Exhibition: Phenomenology in Media Education explores the lived experience of three participants who each studied Media in their final year of secondary school in Victoria, Australia. Using a Phenomenological methodology, each experience was transcribed, reduced and distilled to two core themes - 'The Process: Creative Control/Freedom, the making of a Product and the Experience of Exhibition', and 'Media Literacy, Texts and Hermeneutical Readings'. This thesis concludes by exploring the suggestion that producing a media product is an exercise in lived experience, one that the student journeys through as an existential rite of passage. It also explores the experience of interpretation and how the phenomenological-hermeneutic readings of media texts enable students to feel like "insiders" who are more visually literate that those who have not formally studied Media.
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ItemFacilitating school improvement through strategic and effective decision making: a case study of a Victorian rural secondary college( 2006)Having taught in three different secondary colleges, in terms of size and location and the way in which each school operates, I developed an interest in decision making processes used in schools. I believe that certain decision making processes are more effective than others in terms of facilitating school improvement. I have observed certain decision making processes that were ineffective and caused disharmony among staff, particularly with members of staff who were left out of the decision making process. Hence, I chose this study to highlight effective decision making processes and also to encapsulate the impact of effective decision making. Due to the broad nature of the topic of decision making and the volume of information on this subject, this study concentrates on two main theories. The first theory looks at methods of school management that increases the effectiveness of the school by drawing on the experience of the teaching staff and involving them in the decision making process within the school. By this method the principal might use a `collaborative' approach. This theory encapsulates the idea that more staff contributing towards making a decision is `better' than the individual making a decision, based on the view that this approach shows greater resourcefulness. The second theory comes from the notion that the school community is `better off' allowing the principal and the administrators who have experience and expertise in making decisions on particular matters using the individual decision making model. The underlying assumption for this theory is that the teaching staff will have more time in their classrooms, rather than spending time in making decisions that have little to do with the classroom teacher. This will then allow teaching staff to get on with the job of classroom teaching.
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ItemLiteracy, thinking and engagement in a middle years classroom community of philosophical inquiry: a reflection on practice( 2006)I present the introduction and concluding chapter in the first person in an ontological acknowledgement of self as one who practised my profession and reformed my practice, and who has reflected on my practice as a teacher, as a researcher, and as teacher-researcher. I wrote the other chapters in the formal language of the third person to assist me in developing some degree of objectivity about my practice; it served as a constant reminder to me that I was writing about something that could be considered, to some degree, as other than myself. I was investigating a teacher's practice, my past practice, and as such I strove for a non-egocentric assessment, yet acknowledge that it was my practice at a unique time in my career, a period through which my practice has now grown. This reflection on- practice was not easy, either intellectually or emotionally, and I needed to constantly remind myself that I could be simultaneously a merciless critic, and an empathic one. I moved from the role of teacher to researcher and into teacher-researcher as the moment required and used the third person to present my experience from these perspectives as seemed most appropriate and for presenting the narrative elements of the lived moment. I concluded by uniting those three perspectives into the one, whole self and so wrote the conclusion in the first person.
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ItemEquity funding: how is it used?( 2006)Using a case study approach this research investigates some of the different aspects of disadvantage within the school system. It looks at the ways in which equity funding is used in a variety of schools. The purpose of this research was to ascertain the stages, or processes, that schools go through before the equity dollar is spent. It investigates the decision making process, and the kinds of information or projections taken into account. It also looks at the issue of what it is that schools define as issues of equity, and the programs that they put in place to deal with those issues. This thesis focuses on the equity component of the Victorian Education Department's Student Resource Package. Beginning with an explanation of the current funding model used in Victoria, it goes on to explore the implications of this funding model on students in six metropolitan government schools. These schools differ in terms of the amount of equity funding they receive, their student intake and the strategies that they use to try to make education more equitable. Each school is examined through three key areas. The first key area is the decision making process within the school. This is found, across all six schools, to be robust and systematic. The second area is the programs that the school believes address equity issues. There was found to be a great variance in the type of programs run in schools, and the amount of programs run within schools. Essentially the schools that are eligible for the most equity funding are running the highest concentration of equity programs. The third key area for this thesis was that of staffing in schools, with the neediest schools pointing out difficulties in building talented staff teams. The key finding of this thesis is that more equity money needs to be made available to the most disadvantaged schools.