Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemParent professional partnerships in IEP development : a case study of a MAPS process( 2007)The practices, language and behaviours which professionals adopt when they meet with parents prior to Individual Education Program (IEP) planning may have a significant effect on the attitudes and capabilities families bring to the educational setting. During this case study the adult family members of a child with additional needs were observed as they addressed the developmental and programming needs of their child by participating in the McGill Action Planning System (MAPS) and a subsequent Program Support Group (PSG) meeting. Themes indicating attitudes or perceptions that empowered the family towards continued participation in collaborative teams for IEP development emerged in the observational data and were defined through the methods of informant diaries and semi-structured interviews. Less dominant quantitative methods were used to verify that the participant's ongoing attitudes towards parent professional collaboration corroborated with the final themes of flexibility, unification, satisfaction and function.
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ItemWilling and able : teacher readiness to differentiate behaviour management in the classroom( 2009)Utilising the concepts of self-efficacy and readiness, this study investigated the attitudes of 257 teachers from 16 schools throughout Melbourne to their use of behaviour management techniques with a view to enable better targeted teacher professional development and better support to behaviourally challenging students. Teachers were found to consider themselves more 'willing' than 'able' to utilise a wide range of behavioural approaches. Teachers felt more 'willing', 'able', and self-efficacious to use classroom based, teacher mediated approaches to deal with low level behaviour compared with more intensive approaches used in dealing with more challenging behaviour. This was especially true with reference to systemic interventions that incorporated team approaches which were perceived to be an area of particular weakness throughout the study. Individual differences such as experience and qualification exerted influence on teachers 'ability' to differentiate behaviour management. Greater experience correlated significantly with most 'ability' factors but showed that the improvement was not consistent over the teaching career. Investigation into the relevance of qualification suggested that greater training (in-service and preservice) did not correlate into greater perceptions of 'ability' and that a significant proportion of teachers (20%) considered that they had experienced no training in relation to behaviour management. Regional and schoolwide differences were significantly related to self-efficacy and as such, recommendations for improving self-efficacy in relation to behaviour management were centred on schoolwide, systemic improvements in training and support. Use of a professional learning team model with integrated 'expert' and management involvement was recommended to benefit from the preference towards colleague assistance whilst taking advantage of 'peer' social persuasion and vicarious involvement which are strong sources of self-efficacy.
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ItemFace-to-face : cross-cultural communication with Somali-speaking parents( 2008)This research thesis reports on an investigation of cross-cultural communication at one Victorian primary school, at which the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the staff and a sizeable proportion of the parents differ markedly. This qualitative, case study investigated the perspectives of one group of parents, all from a Somali speaking background, and school staff about the current levels of cross-cultural communication and how these key stakeholders believed home/school links could be improved. Data for this investigation were gathered from parent participants through group and individual interviews, some of which were conducted in Somali with the assistance of a bilingual research assistant. Consideration of these participants' vulnerable social status (Liamputtong, 2007), was an important aspect of this research process thus ensuring these parents, seldom heard within the school environment, had the opportunity to express their opinions and relate their experiences of cross-cultural communication with school staff. The data collection process, therefore, provides a model for excellent cross-cultural communication between an institution, such as a school, and a marginalised parent community. Written questionnaires, comprising open-ended and some ranked questions were used to investigate staff perspectives of cross-cultural communication. This was followed by a group interview with some staff members in which issues were discussed with greater depth. This research project revealed that the low-levels of cross-cultural communication noted at this school are not an indication of the level of goodwill held by Somali-speaking parents and school staff. On the contrary, all participants expressed a strong desire to learn more about the other and for communication levels to improve, recognising the importance of strong home/school links in improving educational outcomes for students. Through the suggestions, opinions and experiences of participants, a series of recommendations are made in this report, so that the momentum of improved communication, initiated by the research project, might be continued at the school, or within similar educational contexts.
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ItemInteractions between first and second language writing skills in Macedonian bilingual children in Australia( 2009)The theoretical belief arising from the interdependence hypothesis suggests that there is a common underlying proficiency in bilingual literacy development, particularly with respect to literacy skills, strategies and knowledge transfer across different languages. According to this view a strong establishment in one language not only develops skills in that language, but also facilitates the development of a second language. The aim of this research was to look at the interactions between literacy in Macedonian and English and to analyse the role of the first language literacy in second language acquisition in two dissimilar languages. Although the research explored the relationships between first language (Macedonian) and second language (English) writing skills, strategies and knowledge, the influence of motivation and the performance in English were also discussed. Namely this research investigated the skills and strategies that Macedonian bilingual children use for writing in Macedonian script and whether these strategies have a positive or negative transfer to English literacy. This research also analysed the writing behaviours, and attitude towards the two languages and how they affect the transfer of literacy skills and strategies. To address the aim of this research and gain an in-depth understanding about bilingual children's language acquisition and development a qualitative case-study method was employed. The subjects for this research were six nine year old children from a Macedonian/ English bilingual school. They were asked to write recounts in both languages, Macedonian and English, in order to investigate the transfer of skills, strategies and knowledge across both languages. The think-aloud protocols were used to look into the writing process and to categorise the types of writing strategies that the children can transfer from Macedonian to English literacy. This method was used to observe children's writing processes while writing and simultaneously discussing what thoughts were going through their mind. The childrens' attitudes towards learning in two languages were discovered by using semistructured interviews. The official results from the literacy assessment conducted at the school were also analysed and compared. The discussion of findings from the six children focussed on the transferable skills and strategies and the relationship between Macedonian and English writing. This research confirms that writing behaviours and strategies that the children displayed were consistent across both languages, even though the languages have different writing systems. In fact this research provided a better understanding of children's biliteracy development from an early age in a bilingual setting. Results of the study indicated that there is an interdependent ability between the first language and the second language writing and that there is a positive transfer of skills, strategies and knowledge from Macedonian to English. Therefore the conclusion is that the development of the stronger language literacy (Macedonian) facilitates literacy development in the second language (English) and that access to two languages from an early age and the possibility of learning those languages can facilitate literacy development.
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ItemApplying program theory development to a study of restorative practices in Victorian schools( 2007)The application of restorative justice principles and practices in Victorian schools is beginning to consolidate as an area of educational interest and reform. While there is enthusiastic support for a philosophy that focuses on problem solving and repair of relationships following an incident or crime, this is tempered by some hesitation about how restorative justice works, what impact it may have on current approaches and how it is measured. This study investigates the context and conditions in which restorative practices were introduced in eighteen Victorian schools. A deductive approach, drawing on the literature to identify relevant theories and assumptions, together with findings from interviews and surveys were used to draft a program theory for the application of restorative practices in schools. Questions about program interpretation, quality and delivery were investigated to comment more specifically on the causal links between program activities and intended outcomes. Restorative justice offers a problem-solving philosophy that promotes a wide range of prevention and intervention strategies for school administrators and teachers searching for ways to better manage relationships and promote engaging, participatory learning environments. However, the findings from this study show that while the school environment is ideally suited to introduce restorative practices, and teachers report numerous examples of success, this is juxtaposed against the challenge of maintaining plausibility and sustainability in a climate of change. For some teachers and school administrators who participated in this study, the use of restorative practices represented a fundamental shift in thinking about school justice and discipline. Lack of clarity in program design and planning led to uncertainty and wide discretion in the application of restorative practice, particularly conferencing. The findings suggest the need to progress thinking about the operational factors that contribute to the effective use of restorative practices. This study presents a program theory of restorative practices that should be of use to administrators seeking to introduce such interventions or clarify existing efforts in their schools. Program theory development has been used successfully as a clarificative evaluation approach to plan the logical and progressive introduction of similar interventions in other social settings. The use of program theory development for interventions such as restorative practices is timely, as higher standards of reporting and accountability for student engagement, retention as well as student learning are expected from school councils and administrators. This also comes at a time when the relationship between student well-being and curriculum outcomes is coming under scrutiny, as teachers and administrators look more closely at discipline regimes. The findings from this study indicate that the use of restorative practices is rapidly expanding in Victorian schools. This interest and activity would benefit from a complementary research agenda that productively involves those who have most to benefit from the use of restorative practices: students, teachers and parents.
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ItemWhat is a quality rubric? : curriculum design, state frameworks and local assessment of secondary science( 2009)In explicating Science the science teacher is likely to say, 'I have reached Chapter 9!' Bureaucracy has its own logic and State curriculum writers have pushed for results that looked rational: results that could codify, sort and explain to their masters. The schools and universities have responded. The rubric has recently entered the teacher lexicon as a quasi professional tool for instructional planning and student assessment in the public domain as a response to central accountability requirements in relation to mandated curricula and standards of student and teacher performance. The rubric is characteristically a grid which defines any piece of instruction, a list of anticipated educational attainments, stated as criteria, against levels or standards of attainment, stated as descriptors. The rubric has become a public statement, a quasi contract written by groups of teachers in a school that identifies what can be expected in terms of teaching behaviours and student learning, in the name of a school or the state. But how would the quality of a rubric be discussed or assessed in relation to science education? The study explores the use of rubrics to support situated cognition and social constructivist science teaching. This thesis does not investigate the question of educational 'quality' per se. It does not set out to prescribe or stipulate ideals. Nor does it recommend how teachers ought to use rubrics to measure or assess such ideals. Rather it is an ethnogenic study of the judgements made about the qualities of the rubrics designed and used by science teachers and a particular group of students in an inner urban secondary school. The students in this study are enrolled in the Select Entry Accelerated Learning program at Hill View Secondary College which seeks to engage them in higher levels of educational involvement and attainment.
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ItemPower relations in policy making : a study of the emergence of TAFE degrees( 2008)In 2002, the Victorian state government moved decisively to settle the long standing policy debate in relation to the role of TAFE (Technical and Further Education) in higher education, by allowing TAFE institutes to offer specialist undergraduate degrees to full fee paying students. For over a decade CEOs of the largest metropolitan TAFE institutes had campaigned for a policy change to allow TAFE institutes to offer higher education qualifications. Their political actions challenged the dominant policy discourses which constructed TAFE as a provider of vocational entry level training. Given the long standing opposition to the concept of degrees in TAPE from within and without the TAFE sector, the purpose of this study is to analyse how the policy to allow TAFE institutes to offer higher education was articulated, formulated and implemented and with what effects. The conceptual framework in this poststructural policy analysis draws on the British sociologist Ball (1990a, 1990b, 1993, 1994) and his colleagues Bowe and Gold (1992) and the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault (1977, 1978, 1980, 1984a, 1984b, 1984c, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c, 2003, 2004). Ball's (2007) analysis of the competition state is used to interpret the relationship between the state, the economy and TAFE policy. Foucault's concepts of discourse, power, disciplinary technologies and governmentality are used to analyse policy making. Power relations in policy making are analysed in the contexts. identified by Bowe, Ball and Gold (1992), the context of influence, policy text production and practice and Ball's (1993, 1994) contexts of outcomes and political strategy.
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ItemProblem based learning and information and communications technology: can problem based learning improve year 9 students' motivation to learn ?( 2009)This study investigated the use of Problem Based Learning (PBL) as a teaching and learning strategy in Year 9 (15 year olds) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) classes. Researchers (Ahlfeldt, Mehta & Sellnow, 2005; Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Colliver, 2000; Albanese & Mitchell, 1993) claim that PBL improves the educational motivation of tertiary students through its use of small groups working collaboratively to solve a real problem. Researchers also claim that PBL requires a high level of maturity (Drinan, 1997) and that secondary school students lack the necessary social skills to work effectively in a team (Achilles & Hoover, 1996). It is reported that Year 9 students have a low rate of engagement with their learning and a decreased level of motivation to learn (Cole 2006, Weiss, 2003; Johnson, Crosnoe & Elder 2001, Woods, 1995; Lumsden, 1994). Hence, this study was undertaken to see if PBL could be used at Year 9 level to motivate students while maintaining the required curriculum outcomes. Student motivation was assessed by administering Martin's Student Motivation Scale (SMS) (Martin, 2002) at regular intervals throughout the year in two Year 9 ICT classes. These two classes were run using different mixes of traditional teacher-directed classrooms and PBL classrooms. Additional attitudes and activities, considered important to students' motivation to learn, were assessed using the Samford Attitudes and Activities Assessment Scale (SAAAS). This study found that PBL was a teaching and learning strategy that enabled the required educational standards to be addressed. Results from the SMS and SAAAS showed that the introduction of PBL into these Year 9 ICT classrooms led to improvements in student Motivation, Learning Attitudes and Learning Activities as measured by the SMS and SAAAS while achieving the required curriculum outcomes for Year 9 ICT. This study also found that the use of PBL over an extended period of time maintained these positive effects.
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ItemHide and seek: examining the relationship between student understanding and the drama devising process through the development of three senior secondary ensemble performances in drama( 2007)This thesis examines how a student's understanding of their world can be informed through the development of an ensemble performance in drama. It is a qualitative study that presents the findings of three groups in three comparative case studies in a single site. The teacher-researcher observed a year eleven drama class preparing a group performance task at the end of Unit Two Drama in the Victorian Certificate of Education. The research explored the development of student understanding through the ensemble performance by addressing connections with personal understanding, expression through drama understanding, the refining of understanding through the drama process and interaction with other group members and the teacher's contribution. It also uncovers the tension for the teacher in evaluating student outcomes in terms of VCE criteria at the expense of learning gained through process. This study suggests that student understanding can be expanded through making personal connections to stories from everyday life, opinions and beliefs and influences from the student world. The research explains that the group can build on these personal understandings using different interactive methods and formulates a 'toolkit' to assist the individual to participate effectively in the cultural context of the drama ensemble. Developing understanding through drama-making is described in terms of the movement between play, the common aesthetic and art; and through the benefits of expressing ideas in practice and embodied understanding. The final performance product is shown to contribute to the development of student understanding in two ways: through student considerations of the audience in their performance-making; and through the ways in which performance elements were employed by the students for expression and communication. The final performance was a culmination of the knowledge and skills that each individual had offered and the decisions of the group as it expressed a group understanding through dramatic form.
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ItemEvaluating the Santa Maria College information literacy program( 2007)This is an impact study, which evaluates an Information Literacy Program that has been running in the Santa Maria College Library since February 2000. It investigates the effectiveness of the Program inputs and processes and seeks to identify impacts on learning in student outputs and College wide outcomes. The study builds on previous research that was conducted from 2000 to 2004 and seeks to develop new understandings through new methods. This study draws on literature that examines methods of collecting evidence of learning impact in school libraries. The literature recommends micro-research in secondary schools that examines students' skills before and after they have been involved in integrated information literacy instruction, as well as empirical studies about the impact of the six step research process model on learning. The literature also suggests investigation of the impact of school libraries on the broad aspects of learning, and the development and application of new methods for collecting qualitative data in the library setting. From Terms One to Term Four in 2005, mixed methods were used to capture evidence of student learning in the Santa Maria College Library. Students were observed as they carried out Program research tasks. The assignments that they produced at the end of the research process were assessed. Surveys and focus group interviews explored the perceptions of a sample of the students and teachers who participated in the Program. In exploring the data, changes in learning behaviour and attitudes to the research process were identified and analysed. The effectiveness of various aspects of the Program such as task design, explicit process instruction, cognitive strategies, note taking scaffolds and assessment practices were examined. Two theoretical frameworks synthesised from the literature were used in the research. The first framework is based on criteria for effective libraries such as staffing, funding, collection size and technological infrastructure. The second framework combines the effective approaches to learning in school libraries that are evident in the literature. Those frameworks were applied to assess the pre-conditions for learning in the Santa Maria Library. A third framework based on criteria that identify outcomes and indicators of student learning in school libraries, was used to identify evidence of student learning across the data sets. The key research questions were used to organise the discussion of the findings. The findings demonstrated that student outcomes have improved in a broad range of learning experiences. The study deepened my understanding of the distinctive features of the Program and its strengths and weaknesses. The strengths included: the use of constructivist pedagogy and inquiry learning; the collaborative planning, implementation and review processes; the infusion of the learning activities in real units of work; the learning scaffolds and instructional interventions at the point of need; and the assessment and feedback strategies. All of those inputs and processes are critical success factors in the Program. The note taking grids and the associated skill development in reading for meaning, identifying and recording key points, and combining information for final products are particularly effective aspects of the Program, which were highly regarded by the students. The weaknesses of the Program included: the gradual erosion of collaborative planning, implementation and evaluation processes; a general feeling of Program fatigue; the fact that the assessment of student outputs to track Progress is not standard practice; and the lack of a process for fading scaffolds in the Year 9 and 10 levels to shift control of the learning process from the teachers and teacher librarians to the students as they move through the Program. The study incorporates a series of recommendations for ongoing monitoring, and future Program delivery and implementation.