Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe experience of transition and adjustment for mature-age, undergraduate students in their first year of university(University of Melbourne, 2015)
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ItemDevelopmental assessment and metacognition in teachers' professional learning and differentiated teaching(University of Melbourne, 2014)
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ItemMeasurement of the ability to generate higher order learning in MOOCs(University of Melbourne, 2016)
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ItemRetheorising equity in everyday routines in early childhood : a poststructuralist action research story(University of Melbourne, 2010)
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ItemParent-professional relationships in early intervention for children with hearing impairment : the Malaysian experience(University of Melbourne, 2010)Establishing collaborative parent-professional relationships is one of the central values of the family-centred approach to early intervention (Blue-Banning, Summers, Frankland, Nelson, & Beegle, 2004; Dunst, 2002; Park & Turnbull, 2002). The shift from a professionally-centred to a family-centred approach in early intervention has been documented in western countries over the last three decades (Brader, 2000; Espe-Sherwindt, 2008). However, there is a dearth of similar reports based on studies conducted in Asian countries, such as Malaysia. This study describes parent-professional relationships in the context of early intervention for children with hearing impairment in Malaysia. Twenty-two parents of children with hearing impairment and ten professionals who provided early intervention services to the parents were recruited from four programs in Kuala Lumpur and surrounds. The majority of parents were mothers, and all the professionals were speech-language pathologists who had been consistently working with the family for at least one year prior to this study. There were two stages of data collection. During Stage 1, all the parent and professional participants individually completed questionnaires. The questionnaires investigated the beliefs, interaction behaviours, and quality of relationships of the parents and professionals involved in this study. The parent participants also responded to two additional domains of investigation: family functioning and service satisfaction. Five parent-professional pairs who reported highly positive relationships in their questionnaires participated in Stage 2. They were firstly videotaped during an intervention session, and then interviewed separately about their parent-professional interactions. The videotapes were used to study the pairs� interaction behaviours. The interviews provided insights from these participants on their roles and interactions in their parent-professional relationships. The questionnaire, video, and interview data were firstly analysed separately, and then were triangulated to generate case studies. Results yielded from all sources of data have been reframed according to the relational and participatory helpgiving practices (Dunst, Johanson, Trivette, & Hamby, 1991; Dunst & Trivette, 1996). Relational helpgiving practices were strongly evident in this study, such as professionals displaying positive interpersonal skills, and establishing positive relationships with parents. Furthermore, positive attitudes towards parent capabilities were also found, where the parents� knowledge about their child, and the parents� roles as their child�s teachers at home, were highly valued by the professionals. The participants in this study not only believed in equal relationships, they also ranked their parent-professional relationships as equal. However, the participatory helpgiving practices were markedly absent from this study�s findings. The professionals� specialized knowledge and skills, decisions, and behaviours, were the driving factors in the intervention. The professionals also assumed many leading roles in intervention, such as the decision maker, planner, controller, and instructor to parent. Parent involvement, although deemed as important, was defined by the professionals as parent compliance to professionals� instructions. Other less empowering roles assumed by the parents, such as the non-participating observer in intervention session, indicate inequality in the parent-professional relationships. Being trained in a professionally-centred model, the professionals focussed their intervention on the child, rather than on the family. A generic program for all families was also implemented by the professionals. This may help to explain the family�s report that their own strengths and resources being under-utilized, and their specific family needs not addressed by the professionals. The presence of relational helpgiving and the absence of participatory help giving identify the parent-professional relationships in this study as characteristic of a family-allied model of intervention rather than family-centred.
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ItemRelationships between innovative learning environments, teacher mind frames and deep learning( 2020)The opening decades of the 21st century have seen a shift in school architecture in favour of open and flexible learning spaces. Driving this trend has been the view, held widely among education providers and policy makers, that learning spaces with these features, commonly labelled ‘innovative,’ are conducive to the development of so called 21st century learning skills, including collaboration, creativity and deep learning. This study tests whether the adoption of deep learning is greater among students taught in innovative learning spaces. It also investigates how teaching moderates the relationship between learning environment design and deep learning. This is done via the concept of teacher mind frames, identified by Hattie as ways of thinking about and approaching teaching that are more likely to have major positive impact on student learning. A theoretical and evidentiary basis is advanced for a hypothesised model of intervariable relationships that predicts greater levels of deep learning among students taught in innovative learning spaces by teachers who report greater holding of the mind frames. Students in 23 Australian and New Zealand secondary schools comprising predominantly traditional or innovative learning spaces, completed a questionnaire measuring the degree to which they adopt surface and deep learning approaches. Teachers completed a survey gauging the degree to which they hold the mind frames. Both measurement instruments were validated as part of this PhD. Reporting of a deep approach to learning was significantly higher among students taught in innovative learning environments. Holding of the teacher mind frames varied significantly by learning space type, with levels of seven of eight mind frames greater among teachers in innovative space-predominant schools. Hierarchical linear modelling of an interaction effect between innovative space and holding of the mind frames on deep learning did not identify a significant relationship. The results lend support to the policies of education authorities that endorse an innovative learning space-21st century skills link. Non-identification of a relationship between holding of teacher mind frames and greater deep learning, despite both being greater within innovative learning spaces, is noteworthy. This result is discussed as a possible artefact of the research design. A model for further investigation of these relationships is proposed. This incorporates a broader array of environmental variables and more targeted investigation of the possible moderating effect of teaching through a focus on the mind frames that exhibited the greatest variation by learning space type, the use of dialogue and differentiation of instruction.
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ItemLanguages and Learning amongst Orang Asli Students in Malaysia( 2020)This thesis reports a research project conducted with and for the Orang Asli (OA) of Malaysia by an OA researcher. The OA (literally means original people) are the Indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. Among many other struggles faced by the OA of Malaysia, two educational issues that have constantly been highlighted in the literature are the high dropout rates and the low educational attainment amongst OA students. Across the subjects, English language is one of the weakest areas of learning for the students despite the language being a key requirement to maximize employability in the local and global workforce. This highlights the complex multilingual challenge that many OA students are facing in order to succeed in their formal education and subsequently navigate the globalised workforce. This study aimed to understand the English language learning of OA students in Malaysia by looking into the complex interplay of the main languages (OA languages, Malay and English) that coexist in the language ecology of OA students in Malaysia. It also aimed to explore the attitudes of OA students and parents towards these languages and their formal language learning in school. In addition, beliefs of teachers of OA students were also explored for a comprehensive picture of the subject. This mixed-methods study has been framed within a transformative framework that is embedded with elements of Indigenous methodologies. To ensure a comprehensive understanding of the subject under investigation, voices of OA students, OA parents and their teachers were foregrounded using multiple data collection strategies such as survey, interview, classroom observation, photovoice and an Indigenous method called sharing circle. To analyse and interpret the data, the works of various notable scholars such as the affordance theory (Gibson, 1979; Aronin & Singleton, 2012), the Dominant Language Constellation theory (Aronin, 2014) as well as the notions of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1991) have been used to frame the discussion of findings. Several significant findings resulted from the data analysis. First, new insights into the complex linguistic repertoires of OA students, highlighting limitations around fixed notions of local, national and international languages have been found in this study. Secondly, the participating OA students and their parents demonstrated mixed attitudes towards the languages in their language ecology reflecting issues of both OA identity and global aspirations. Thirdly, in terms of the use of OA students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge, it was found that only the linguistic knowledge is used to support their language learning in the classrooms while their cultural knowledge receives no major emphasis in their formal learning. It was also found that teachers hold mixed beliefs about their OA students, and many of these teachers view their OA students through a deficit lens. Finally, findings of this study also highlight the emergence of a group of high achieving OA students, which should be further explored in future research. This research proposes innovative ways of conceptualising OA students that will inform current and future policy development for the OA in Malaysia.
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ItemThe Right to Education Act (2009) and school enactments of inclusion in India( 2020)This thesis is concerned with the landmark right to education legislation, which was included as a fundamental right in the Indian constitution, in 2002, and enacted as law as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act, 2009). This Act makes free and compulsory elementary education of children between 6 and 14 years of age a fundamental constitutional right. It also details conditions for provision of education, specifying minimum standards of school infrastructure, teacher qualifications, teaching norms, assessment, and curriculum. Importantly, it includes a provision for the reservation of entry-level seats for children from underprivileged backgrounds in private schools, to create more inclusive school communities. At a time when policy focus is on learning outcomes and the issue of quality of education, this research instead draws attention to the objectives of inclusion and social justice implied by the constitutional mandate for the right to education and is concerned with the ways in which schools have responded to and enacted this provision for inclusion in classrooms. Using theoretical resources drawn from recent literature on policy enactment approaches, this thesis focuses on the materializing practices that enact the right to education in two school settings in India. School leaders’ and teachers’ readings of policy discourses, and teachers’ negotiations of multiple ideas and policy objects encountered in the post-RTE classroom settings, are explored. Concepts from new materialism are used to analyse interview and ethnographic observation data by mapping the meanings, discourses and affects assembled in practices of schooling. The role of affect in learning, and the ways in which it produces new capacities to teach, and learn, in school settings are explored. Pedagogies that include and exclude become visible at the confluence of policy discourses, practices of educational reform and institutional histories. The potential of ethical pedagogies of affect to enact inclusion in the context of the right to education in India is shown.
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ItemPrinciples, practices and priorities of teaching reading in the early years of schooling( 2020)The teaching of literacy (particularly reading) in the early years of schooling remains an ongoing area of interest and evokes media attention (Adoniou, 2017; Hall, 2010; Torgerson, Brooks, Gascoine & Higgins, 2019). This is particularly the case in Victoria since a retreat there from systematically supported (even mandated) practices associated with the Early Years Literacy Research Project (EYLRP) of the 1990s and early 2000s. This PhD thesis reports on a qualitative case study (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018; Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2014; Schwandt & Gates, 2018) that investigates how contemporary primary teachers make pedagogic decisions that inform their planning and teaching of early reading. Through data collected via an online questionnaire, lesson observation, document and artefact analysis, and teacher interviews, the underpinning principles, practices and priorities of 16 Foundation to Year Two teachers of early reading were examined. Dewey’s model of reflective thought (1933) provided the framework to analyse the nexus between these principles, practices and priorities and determine how each element influenced and contributed to pedagogic decision-making about the teaching of reading. Findings from this study revealed the influence of reflective thought on teacher practice, regardless of what principles and priorities teachers tacitly or consciously endorsed. This outcome has future implications for system-wide and school-based leadership and teacher professional development and support.