Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPsycholinguistic and cognitive factors that influence inferential reading comprehension by primary school students( 2018)While the ability to engage in inferential reading comprehension is central to success as a reader, many students have difficulty with this type of comprehension. This study examined the relationship between inferential reading comprehension of both narrative and factual text by primary school students, and psycholinguistic and cognitive factors such as vocabulary knowledge, working memory, text interrogative and paraphrasing ability. Results of this study provide increased knowledge of inferential reading comprehension and its implications for improved literacy teaching.
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ItemThe espoused and enacted personal practical theories of early childhood teachers inclusive classrooms( 2018)Using the lens of Personal Practical Theories (PPTs), this study investigated the complex interplay of early childhood teacher beliefs, knowledge and practice in inclusive classrooms within the boundaries of a typical preschool session. Broadly, this study sought to identify and explicate the driving forces behind how teachers conceptualised their practices when teaching in inclusive classrooms. This study also aimed to uncover the extent to which the espoused beliefs and knowledge of teachers are congruent with their enacted practices. Four highly experienced early childhood teachers in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, participated in this study, which used case study methodology. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. Results of this study show that these early childhood teachers had positive PPTs about inclusive education and beliefs about child-centeredness that are generally consistent with existing research. Also consistent with existing research is the finding that preschool routines and child diversity influence the types and frequency of teacher interactions, as well as the extent of congruence observed between early childhood teacher beliefs, knowledge and practice. Teacher professed learning goals for children were found to be congruent with their observed practice through the activity contexts within a typical preschool session. Findings of this study support that teaching experience and teacher ‘craft’ knowledge were significant in influencing beliefs and practice in inclusive classrooms, and impact on the extent of classroom adaptations and differentiated learning experiences for the children. Also evident from the results of this study were strong beliefs towards the socio-emotional development of children and limited evidence of teacher engagement with research and evidence-based practices.
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ItemMusic therapy as an anti-oppressive practice: critically exploring gender and power with young people in school( 2018)This project sought to locate music therapy within broader health, research, and education contexts, as a participatory and anti-oppressive practice for young people in school to explore issues related to gender and power. In parallel, the research aimed to expand music therapy as an anti-oppressive practice (Baines, 2013), specifically focusing on deepening music therapists’ understanding of critical issues related to gender, power, and young people in education settings. Predicated on the notion that schools can be both sites of violence, and microcosms for change-making, the project occurred during a time of significant shifts across education settings worldwide to respond to endemic gender-based violence (Chandra-Mouli et al., 2017). Meanwhile, young people themselves continue to demonstrate new forms of resistance to gender-based violence and dominant gender and sexuality norms (Bragg et al., 2018; Keller et al., 2018). This project responds to a need for approaches that support young people’s autonomy and challenge processes of pathologisation and individualisation; approaches that seek to understand social structures, and the ways in which young people are shaped by their relationships with these social structures, and with each other (Brunila & Rossi, 2018). Framed broadly as a participatory action research project, the study was informed by a series of music-based workshops conducted in the first year, exploring the issues that young people identified as most important in relation to gender. The project then established a music therapy group program in a government school. The school was located in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, with an index of community socio-educational advantage below the national average, and a high percentage of students with a language background other than English. This primary project took the form of a critical ethnography, and generated a wide range of data over nine months. Interviews were conducted with five staff and sixteen of the young people who participated in music therapy groups exploring issues related to gender and power. Discourses of risk and deficit emerged as critical issues to respond to in the project, and became a key focus of the four chapters of results. The research revealed the complex forms of violence that can occur when exploring gender-based violence in a school context, and how these relate to young people’s layered subjectivities and social positioning. The findings demonstrated a need to problematise and expand upon current responses to gender-based violence in the context of Australian education settings, especially where Whiteness and colonial relations remain profoundly underexamined. Chapter Six overviews the five broad, salient themes that emerged in relation to the role of music in creating conditions for young people to explore gender. Chapter Seven outlines the role of music therapists in supporting young people to do so, the unique skillset and critical lens required in this emerging practice, and a new method developed in the project: ‘Insight-Oriented Narrative Songwriting’. Informed by anti-oppressive and decolonial approaches to reframing violence and harm, music therapy is ultimately constructed as a practice congruent with shifting understandings and paradigms related to trauma. Overarchingly, the research exposes the complex conditions of power in schools, and explicates the potential of music therapy within these conditions, to support young people to resist discursive positioning, and rewrite their own subjectivities.
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ItemA path to flourishing: the role of emotion regulation in adolescent wellbeing and positive education( 2018)Emotion regulation (ER) is a widely recognized contributor to adaptive psychological functioning, and an important developmental task of adolescence. Positive education programs (PEPs) are school-based interventions that seek to enhance wellbeing and protect young people against the development of psychological distress and dysfunction. To date, the role and relevance of ER to PEPs remains unknown. The central objective of this thesis was to evaluate the relationship of ER with the full spectrum of mental health in an adolescent sample, and to determine the relevance of ER to outcomes of a best-practice PEP. A literature review explored methodological and conceptual considerations in the examination of ER in adolescent wellbeing. A second, targeted review of the literature (Publication 1) synthesized two fields of research, ER and positive psychology interventions, to reveal that processes of ER are meaningfully related to domains of wellbeing, including positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and health (i.e., the PERMA model). An exploratory study of 101 adolescents (age 14 -16; 36% female) was then conducted to assess the degree of covariance between change in physiological (i.e., heart rate variability; HRV) and self-report measures of ER (i.e., the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; DERS) over the school year, to determine if including both measures in subsequent analyses provides a more comprehensive measure of ER than using one alone. Small, significant relationships were found between HRV and DERS total score, indicating that HRV and self-report represent related but largely distinct processes contributing to the ER construct. A second study of 119 adolescents (age 14-17; 50% female) then evaluated the cross-sectional relationship between multiple ER measures and domains of positive and negative psychological functioning. As predicted, after controlling for covariates (i.e., age and school), hierarchical regression analyses revealed that self-reported ER predicted resilience, perseverance, connectedness, and happiness; and fewer depression and anxiety symptoms. Higher HRV also predicted resilience and perseverance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. To explore the longitudinal relationship between ER and wellbeing, and to determine the role of ER in PEP outcomes, a third empirical study was conducted. This study examined the relationship between two self-report measures of ER and changes in wellbeing scores of 44 Year 10 adolescents (50% female, m age = 15.07) following a year-long PEP compared to a treatment-as-usual control condition (n = 36; m age = 15.11; 18.8% female,). Results of linear mixed modelling revealed that ER meaningfully predicted wellbeing over time. A time-by-group-by-ER interaction revealed that adolescents with low ER capacity enrolled in PEP reported improvements in happiness and social connection following PEP exposure, and benefits were sustained at least 6-months post treatment. Irrespective of treatment group, greater ER capacity was associated with higher wellbeing and resilience, and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety over time. PEP did not improve students’ ER capacity. Overall, this thesis underscores the importance of ER capacity to the full spectrum of adolescent mental health, and indicates that PEP interventions may be extended and enhanced by conceptualizing them within a broader, theoretical ER framework. Finally, results provide preliminary support for the value of ER in differentiating students who are more likely to benefit from PEP participation, and suggest that current PEP models might benefit from the inclusion of explicit ER training and interventions.
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ItemAssessing the scientific inquiry practices of teachers and investigating their relationship with student learning( 2018)This study explored the nature of classroom instruction of teachers in the Philippines, particularly their enactment of specific inquiry-based teaching practices as they implemented the newly designed Grade 7 chemistry curriculum, and how each specific practice related to student learning outcomes. Specifically, it examined whether teachers’ inquiry practices of engaging in questioning, designing and conducting investigations, collecting data, analyzing data, developing explanations, and communicating information were related to students’ chemistry achievement. Data were collected from chemistry tests (pretest and posttest) of 495 Grade 7 students, 57 lesson observations in 12 classes, and questionnaire responses of ten chemistry teachers. Test data were analyzed using Rasch (1960) modeling. The relationship between each practice of scientific inquiry and chemistry achievement was determined using multilevel modeling with Bayesian estimation. Observations revealed that teachers enacted the six practices of scientific inquiry in varying degrees in their classrooms. They seemed to be more comfortable to enact the practices of engaging in questioning and communicating information than the practices of designing and conducting investigations, collecting data, analyzing data, and developing explanations in chemistry teaching. Teacher-centered inquiry instruction was more evident than student-centered inquiry instruction, which suggests that inquiry in most chemistry classrooms was structured. The study found that out of six scientific inquiry practices, only engaging in questioning showed a significant positive relationship with students’ chemistry achievement. The findings have direct implications for education administrators in designing professional development programs, as well as science curriculum development, the teaching of science through inquiry, and future research.
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ItemInvestigating teachers’ knowledge, practice and change following an oral language professional learning program( 2018)Language and literacy are increasingly topics of educational and public health interest, and research suggests that these skills are significantly impacted by early educational experiences. Crucially, there is wide agreement that teaching quality is a key determinant of student achievement. In a series of three studies, the knowledge and classroom practices of early years’ teachers, and teachers’ self-perceived and measured changes that occurred during and following a sustained oral language professional learning program were explored. These investigations were informed by Desimone’s (2009) model of professional development and Hoy and Miskel’s social system model for schools (2008). In Study 1, the knowledge of language constructs and associated self-rated ability of 78 Victorian teachers was measured. Consistent with a number of earlier Australian and international studies, teachers’ explicit and implicit knowledge of basic linguistic constructs was limited and highly variable. Despite rating their skills and knowledge as either moderate or very good, the collective knowledge of this cohort was found to be limited and variable. A statistically significant correlation was found between total self-rated ability and experience teaching the early years of primary school, but no relationship was found between self-rated ability and overall performance on knowledge items, indicating that participants’ knowledge was not well calibrated. In Study 2, the feasibility of a novel approach to collecting teacher talk data was investigated, as was the application of an existing framework to describe talk. This approach was then applied to measure change in 12 teachers’ talk over the course of the professional learning program. Over the course of the professional learning program teachers used proportionately more talk that explained strategies that students could use to support their language and literacy learning, and this increase was sustained 12 months later. The aim of Study 3 was to describe the observed and self-perceived changes in knowledge, practice and beliefs of teachers who participated in the professional learning program, and whether change was adequately accounted for by current models of professional development. In three case studies it was illustrated that despite participating in the same sustained professional learning program, teachers’ growth in knowledge was variable. Change in self-rated ability was influenced by observed student outcomes (which teachers attributed to change in their practice). In one case, professional growth was restricted by factors within the school environment. Conclusions drawn from this body of research are that (i) oral language is rarely disaggregated from early literacy and lacks visibility in the early years of primary school, (ii) teachers’ knowledge of language and literacy is variable, often limited and poorly calibrated, and (iii) the construct of teacher cognition and theoretical models of teacher practice change can and should inform the design and implementation of professional learning.
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ItemReframing graffiti writing as a community practice: sites of youth learning and social engagement( 2018)This study investigates how graffiti writing is learnt and how graffiti writers experience this learning. Drawing on the concept of communities of practice, it frames graffiti as a skillful and aesthetic practice that is learned in a communally- situated context. This shifts the focus from graffiti as a stigmatised practice to a demonstration of the expert knowledge that young men develop over time through their engagement with a learning community. The research consisted of semi-structured interviews and observations of graffiti practice with eleven male graffiti writers. The thesis argues that graffiti writing involves a wide range of cognitive, social, emotional and bodily skills. These skills coalesce at the site of practice where they in turn inform the learning of novice graffiti writers. This thesis shows that the way writers experience the learning of graffiti occurs within a highly masculine space that can serve to exclude women’s participation. By developing an understanding of the lived experiences of male graffiti writers, this research contributes new knowledge about youth cultural practice as a site of learning and production.
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ItemGoverning universities for the knowledge society( 2018)Australia’s higher education system, and its public universities, have been subject to significant external and internal challenges and changes over the past half century or more. Changes in the external environment for higher education are seen in the rapid expansion in access (“massification”), the growth and infiltration off information and communications technologies (primarily the creation of the internet) and globalisation, to name a few. At the same time, the concept of national higher education systems has emerged across the western world creating a new aspect to the consideration of higher education. The combination of changes and trends have irreversibly changed the role and operations of universities. A key governance change has been the introduction of the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm that implemented a new approach by governments to the governance, development and delivery of public services (including higher education) and pushing the provision of those services towards a more market-based and networked approach. The external environmental changes have moved higher education from the societal and economic periphery to now being the centre of a workforce, social and economic development engine and a more market-oriented education service provider. During this period, higher education in Australia has completed a regulation and funding transition from being mainly state based, to now being substantially a national government funded, driven and regulated activity. Despite these significant changes the governance arrangements of Australia’s public universities have remained substantially unchanged. It is contended that higher education in Australia has reached a point where the current approaches to governance are no longer fit for purpose. Much of the research on higher education governance has focussed on issues relating to the loss of power and engagement of academe; the impact of the market-oriented approach on academic work; power within universities; values and culture. It has been summarised as the rise of managerialism. However, very little research has addressed the fundamentals of the governance arrangements. The research has assumed the structures remain relatively unchanged and has not questioned their current utility or efficacy. In this Thesis I seek to address that gap in the research. Using a mixed methods approach combining a detailed literature review, conceptual analysis and interviews with Australia’s higher education leaders, I identify the key challenges facing the governance of Australia’s higher education system and public universities, and then develop a set of proposals to transition the current approaches to a more fit for purpose approach.
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ItemSpatial reasoning and geometry in early childhood: educator observations, assessment, and curriculum planning( 2018)Children are innately mathematical and explore mathematical concepts through play. Recent research has suggested that spatial reasoning is a key concept that forms the foundations of all mathematics learning. The theoretical argument underpinning this research project is that children, from a young age, benefit from explicit teaching specifically focused on supporting the learning of spatial reasoning skills. This research project investigated the implementation of a suite of assessment activities on educator beliefs about mathematics in early childhood education, by analysing teaching practices that included observations, assessments, and evidence-based planning of mathematics curricula. The study found reciprocal influences between the three key areas of the research project, which included the implementation of the assessment activities, educator beliefs about mathematics in early childhood education, and mathematics teaching practice. The findings have implications for further research, policymaking, and practice, which include the need for play-based mathematics assessment strategies, research methodologies that can contribute to professional learning enacted in practice, and the contribution of a focus on spatial reasoning to early childhood mathematics curricula.
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ItemCreative investigation of the embodiment of womanhood through dance: bodies, gender and becoming( 2018)This thesis uses dance as a method to explore and problematise young women’s embodiment from a feminist perspective. Drawing on a rich history of feminist research on the body (Grosz 1994, 2017, Birke 1999, Bordo 1993, Bray & Colebrook 1998, Braidotti 2002, 2011, 2013), I seek to contribute to advancing a more inclusive perspective on the embodiment of womanhood by emphasising the potentiality of what young women sense, feel, think, imagine and do. In doing so, I develop a rhizomatic, diffractive and aesthetic exploration of the embodiment of womanhood that evolved through collaborative performance ethnography with a group of tertiary students interested in creative methods and feminist issues. Much has been said about embodiment, young womanhood and gender. Young women’s bodies are a prominent theme in the media, in public culture, and across a range of sciences. Across the wide range of perspectives and debates, a common presumption is that women’s bodies are a problem. They are objectified, sexualised, controlled, abused, gazed at, misrepresented, to name just a few most prevalent descriptors. In contemporary discourses on women’s embodiment, women’s bodies are portrayed as fixed, passive objects subject to socio-cultural-historical inscription. Young women’s bodies I engage with and explore in this research are neither finished nor passive, and the meanings that inform, challenge or produce them are not static. To explore ways in which young women create their embodied beings, I draw from relational materialist ontologies (Spinozian, Deleuzo-Guattarian, Baradian and Braidottian) to inform dance as a way of knowing and as a method in this research, with creative writing as a means of sense-making. In this research, I borrow from Braidotti (2011) to consider women’s bodies as complex assemblages that cut across natural and cultural domains and that can be seen as flows of becoming. To explore this complex entanglement of the natural and cultural in young women’s becomings, a group of non-dancers danced together to produce and explore feelings, thoughts, ideas, sensations and/or creative artefacts about embodied womanhood. To this end, this thesis presents an exploration of the embodiment of womanhood as a series of multidirectional processes of connecting to, and disconnecting from, different material and virtual bodies, the effects of which were sometimes complimentary and sometimes conflicting. I suggest that young womanhood is actively produced (and provoked) through events of becoming, in a range of ways, often simultaneously contradicting its own production. Gendering, as a complex socio-material process, informed and limited young women’s becomings in this research, as much as it kindled and provoked their further unpredictable becomings. This conception of womanhood as a movement towards and away from social avoids seeing gender only in segmented, striated spaces; instead it invites conceptualisation of gendering as a purposeful but also free-flowing process. To this end, by moving away from simplistic notions of passive, gendered bodies, this thesis offers a look at how bodies, things, concepts, and energies continuously make and remake possibilities for embodiment and gendering.