Faculty of Education - Theses

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End date: 2020 × Subject: informal learning ×

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    Lying on the floor: young peoples' approaches to creativity in the music classroom
    BOYLE, ROSEMARY ( 2012)
    In recent times, the importance of fostering creativity in music education has been at the forefront of discussion and writing about music curricula. By asking students to explore their creativity in the music classroom we allow them to investigate their originality and help them to become more expressive, self-assured, and independent individuals. However, adolescents are often inhibited in their quest for self-expression. Although there are studies looking at the processes involved in creative music activities for kindergarten, primary and tertiary students, less attention has been paid to fostering creativity in secondary students. And because the notion of creativity has many interpretations, this study includes a review of literature exploring perceptions of this concept. As my pedagogy is situated in student centered music education, it also traces the growth of this movement. The aim of the study is to explore the inhibiting factors that impinge on adolescents who are asked to produce creative musical responses. The setting is a unique rural school, with a mixed population of Australian and international students, that offers education leading to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. This action research involves semi-structured interviews, students’ reflections on these music activities as well as my participant observations. The analysis of the data is used to review current classroom practices and inform new teaching directions.
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    Informal learning at work: the art of learning by doing
    Hancock, Peter G. ( 2011)
    In contemporary Australian society, educational institutes – schools, TAFE Colleges and universities – are well-recognised as places of formal education. However, there are many people who, upon reflection, would admit that much of what they know and can do, particularly at work, has been acquired, not during formal institutional education but outside of those institutions, while at work, either doing or attempting to do, their work. This research draws on the works of educational researchers and theorists including Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Ryle, Knowles, Nonaka, Illeris, Choo, Jarvis, Schön, Billett, Hager, Beckett, and others. The research initially reviews theories relating to learning such as behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. I then move on to those relating to adult and workplace learning, such as Knowles’ Andragogy, Dewey’s purpose, and Illeris’ three dimensions of learning, before finally reviewing the more holistic or organic theories of human learning put forward by Jarvis, Beckett and Hager, Schön, and others. This framework of theories is then used to provide the base upon which this research is built. Eight case studies of adults at work, and their encounters with novel situations, are analysed and discussed to formulate an understanding of the processes involved in this type of learning and the value it provides to both the informal learners and the organisations in which they work. Finally, what is learned from both the literature and the eight cases studied, is combined and distilled to provide an understanding of this type of learning, and identify its defining characteristics.