Faculty of Education - Theses

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    The academic achievements of language centre students at a secondary college
    Warrick, Geoff ( 2001)
    What are the academic achievements of adolescent new-arrival English as a Second Language (ESL) students at secondary schools in Victoria, Australia? Research on Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students in Australia has tended to neglect new arrival ESL students. To examine the academic achievements of this important subgroup of NESB students, the current study will highlight the academic achievements of a cohort of Victorian Language Centre students at a Secondary College over six years with interruption to schooling in their first language (L1) as the key variable linked to academic achievement in their second language (L2). Victorian Language Centres provide new-arrival ESL students with the English skills they need to start their secondary educations in L2. The current study examined the academic achievement of two groups of Language Centre students, those who completed their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and those who left the Secondary College prior to completing VCE. Their academic results were summarised into spreadsheets for quantitative analysis. Subsequent to the quantitative analysis interviews were conducted with four ESL students from the Language Centre currently completing their VCE studies to provide further insight into the factors that enabled them to do their VCE. Results indicate that the academic achievements of this cohort of ESL Language Centre students are poor and that interruption to education in Ll had a major impact on the students' ability to achieve academically at the Secondary College. The study suggests that L1 education is the key variable influencing the student's ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of secondary education, particularly the VCE. Other factors such as support for learning and strong motivation were found to help students overcome difficulties encountered in their secondary education. However, students who were unable to overcome these difficulties left the College prior to completing VCE. It was concluded that the majority of Language Centre students faced uncertain economic futures once they left the Secondary College. The results of the study suggest that Language Centre students need more support and assistance to enable them to complete VCE or to access educational alternatives to the VCE. This study also suggests that more research into the effect of L1 education on L2 education be conducted as this was found to be the key variable in the students' ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of VCE.
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    Professional development : returning to industry : implications for VET trainers and teachers of hospitality
    Williams, Kim Marianne ( 2000)
    This study was designed to investigate the practices of professional development within the vocational education and training, hospitality sector. The study aimed to explore the effectiveness of the learning arising out of a return to industry activity. Qualitative research offered the opportunity to explore the rich contextual elements central to this type of study. Particular methods applied were questionnaires, a group interview and in-depth interviews. Data were collected and collated concerning the experiences of trainers and teachers during a return to industry activity. Findings generally indicated that a return to industry activity was a very valuable form of professional development for vocational education and training trainers and teachers. A model is posed for return to industry activities. However, critical analysis of the data revealed numerous difficulties associated with the accomplishment of a return to industry activity. Among the implications of this study is a suggestion that Registered Training Organisations and the hospitality industry must embrace greater responsibility for the implementation of return to industry experiences. The study furnished findings with important implications to contribute to the understanding of effective professional development practices of VET hospitality trainers and teachers and also identified critical directions for further research.
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    The quality of postgraduate training in Vietnam : definitions, criteria and measurement scales
    Pham Xuan Thanh ( 2000)
    Postgraduate training is one of the most important issues in education in Vietnam. However, the quality of such training has recently become a controversial issue. There has never been any appraisal of the quality of postgraduate training in Vietnam's higher education institutions. The purpose of this study was to provide instruments to explore the quality of postgraduate training in higher education institutions in Vietnam. The study employed the Rasch rating model and the confirmatory factor analysis method to define variables. Definitions and criteria of quality were provided. These definitions and criteria were accepted by higher education institutions. The perceptions of quality differed across the group of universities and the group of research institutes. These perceptions also differed across groups of institutions classified by training programmes. The study also indicated that a large proportion of institutions still did not meet the government guidelines and requirements in term of organisation, management and academic staff. Further studies such as an in-depth study of one or more similar universities and research institutes, even nation-wide studies, could usefully make use of the definitions, criteria and measurement scales set up in this study to assess the quality of postgraduate training.
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    Parents' and staff' perception of quality in preschools
    Schaper, Clare ( 2003)
    Effective working partnerships between parents and staff are widely recognized as a major factor that contributes to the delivery of high quality preschool services. Available research suggest that while parents and staff embrace a number of similar attitudes about quality in early childhood services, they also hold some differing perceptions. This study, conducted in a rural city in Victoria, explored how parents and staff agree and differ in their perceptions of preschool quality. Throughout the duration of the study both parents and staff expressed their beliefs about the importance of quality preschool services. The study found that parents and staff held similar perceptions relating to a number of factors which the literature has shown to contribute to quality, such as staff-child interactions, teachers experience and professional development. The study also found that their perceptions were divided in other areas which the literature identified as contributing factors such as the suggestion for the need to introduce a standard curriculum framework for all preschools as well as the need for parents to be involved in their children's preschool. The findings from this study can highlight the importance of strengthening the partnerships between parents and staff, necessary to enhance the delivery of high quality preschool services.
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    Preservice teacher education for the preparation of secondary teachers of english as a second language in Australia
    Jeevaratnam, Christina ( 2003)
    English as a Second Language (ESL) education in Australia has undergone tremendous changes in the last thirty years or so. Along with the changes in policy, the roles of the ESL teacher have also changed, reflecting the changing socio-cultural, economic and political climate of the time. Several new roles that have emerged can be seen as being particular only to this group of teachers. Student-teachers need to be effectively prepared for the roles that they will take on upon completion of their teacher education programs. This study investigates the effectiveness of one preservice ESL teacher education program, particularly from the perspectives of student-teachers, in preparing them for their future roles as ESL teachers. The study reveals the varied opinions that student-teachers have regarding different aspects of their course di study and the factors which influence their perceptions. It also discusses suggestions of improvement made for such a teacher education program, from the perspectives of student-teachers, their course lecturers and a sample of trained ESL teachers.
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    Integrating formative and summative assessments: finding time-efficient ways to support student learning and teacher reporting
    Baroudi, Ziad Mitri ( 2009)
    This study has set out to find ways in which the formative and summative goals of assessment could be achieved using the same instruments. The motivation for this integration of goals was to achieve time efficiencies, so that teachers could implement formative assessment in a way that would have minimal impact on their time. The researcher developed five short questionnaires, referred to in this thesis as recap sheets. These consisted of questions on the Measurement topic and were used by the researcher as well as another teacher at the same school with their respective Year Seven classes. A third teacher participated in the study and did not use the recap sheets. At the end of the teaching sequence, all three teachers predicted the marks that their students would achieve on a summative test. The researcher then interviewed the other two teachers to ascertain the sources of their predictions. The quantitative analysis of the teachers' predictions has shown that they were capable of predicting the performance of the majority of their students within an accuracy margin of 10%. Furthermore, when used to allocate grades, the predictions of the most experienced teacher in the study discriminated between the students more sensitively than did the marks achieved on the summative test. Another finding of the study was that all participating teachers were most accurate in predicting the performance of the students who achieved the lowest 25% of the test marks. Furthermore, the recap sheets were found to be effective in supporting student learning. In summary, the findings of this study suggest that neither continuous formative assessment instruments nor an end of unit summative test are, by themselves, sufficient to generate an accurate report of a student's performance. The use of recap sheets and teacher predictions as described above was shown to be a minimally demanding way of increasing the accuracy of summative assessments for grading purposes, while providing great benefits to student learning.