Faculty of Education - Theses

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Start date: 1980 × Type: Masters Research thesis × Subject: Australia × Subject: Study and teaching (Secondary) ×

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Understanding student engagement with gymnastics in physical education classes by way of Dewey's notions of interest, occupation and purpose
    Peters, Jacqueline L ( 2008)
    This study examines the engagement of two secondary school students participating in a compulsory gymnastics unit within a physical education class. Using Dewey's notions of engagement, interest, occupation and purpose, the student experience has been considered. An important element of the outcome has been the consideration of the occupations of the student-gymnast and gymnast-student. These arise as important factors in the planning and teaching of secondary school gymnastics.
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    Student learning with Internet: is it emancipatory?
    Bennett, Peter ( 1996)
    Learning is regarded by some educators to be of great value only when it contributes to an enlightened, empowered and emancipated view of the student's role in their own education (Barthes, 1977, Brunner, 1994, Freire, 1972, Grundy and Henry, 1995). Internet is a relatively inexpensive computer technology which some have seen to offer a practical vision of such 'new age' learning (Goodman, 1995). The study took place at a 1500 student K-12 co-educational single campus independent school, south-east of Melbourne, at which the author is a teacher of English and Economics. Since 1994 the school has attempted to integrate Internet computing across the curriculum. One entrepreneurial curriculum investment has been the establishment of a small group of senior students whose interest and technical competence in computer based electronic communication has led the school to license it to take on a key role, with privileges, across the school's computer resources. The challenge was not to perceive the information technology as extending individual instruction, but to examine instructional reform in methods by which students learn in the context of group problem solving and how the computer would be used in this regard (Koschmann, 1994). Largely autonomous and self-evaluating, this School Internet Group (known as the SIG) provided the data for this study. Utilizing an interview based case study methodology (Scheurich, 1995) the study sought to elicit responses from five of the group members relating to their emergent understanding of their own 'SIG-thinking' and its personal significance. The subjects were asked first to characterise SIG-thinking in a metaphor which were treated as complex semantically creative 'signs' that represent a blending of imaginal and symbolic thinking. This metaphoric projection provided a narrative structuring device to each student's story. These subjects' self-defining metaphors became their psuedonyms in their stories. The study was concerned both with the public realm of social interaction and with the private realm of autonomous cognition. The students' stories were incorporated within a narrative analysis in which the concepts derived from theoretical sources and empirical possibilities were applied to the data to determine whether instances of these concepts of emancipation and empowerment were to be found (Polkinghorne, 1995). The narrative style findings of the study may inform school policy at the research site, where a number of associated staff were able to read or sense implications for a loosening of the 'straight jacket of academic success' that restricts resonant, adaptive curriculum reform. The study may be useful for schools considering different principled policies or their own action research in the educational use of computers. For the reader beyond there are four criteria for judging the emancipatory quality of the educational experience.
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    The implementation of a personal development curriculum program in a boys' secondary school
    Begg, Beverley J. ( 2000)
    his research project is investigating the implementation of a personal development curriculum program that has a cognitive-behavioural basis in a year 8 Pastoral/Personal Development (PPD) subject in a boys' secondary school. The Gatehouse Project curriculum program was used as a framework for the PPD program. This curriculum approach is designed to be integrated into other curriculum contexts. It is based on helping young people deal with difficult emotions by teaching them the key skill of reframing negative, unhelpful self-talk so that they can think, feel and act more optimistically. This project explores the factors that influence the effectiveness of the implementation of this personal development program in the masculine dominant culture of a boys' school through qualitative research methods: field observations, questionnaires and interviews. A commonly held perception of boys is that they are uncomfortable talking about feelings and consider any setting in which they do so to be 'sissy' and effeminate, and therefore not acceptable. The factors identified in this research are described under the themes of the boys' culture, the classroom climate, the teacher factor and the school culture. The macho culture in this boys-only setting influenced the ability of the boys to discuss feelings and sensitive issues in the classroom and the acceptance of the curriculum approach and curriculum context. These insights enable some recommendations to be made for the future development of the Pastoral/Personal Development program in the school and for the rewriting of the Gatehouse Project materials for use in a boys only setting.