Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 6 of 6
-
ItemThe poetical understanding of children's imagery of nature : how is poetical understanding evident in children's art?( 2005)This study explores the way in which preschool children engage in the creative process and how their sensory engagement with nature leads to invention of poetical attributes and symbols in their art. The study also examines the teacher's role in creating an environment that nurtures sensory learning, provides new energy and fosters discovery. This study also inquires into the educational theories of 'Reggio Emilia', 'emergent curriculum' and 'phenomenological pedagogy' and their influence in exploring significant moments of children's art creating within the process of 'aesthetic engagement' and 'aesthetic cognition'. The data related to these moments consists of children's visual and verbal images of nature that allowed me to unfold their perceptions of nature associated with beauty and make them evident to the viewer. In that sense data analysis reveals both mine and children's discoveries, with an emphasis on utilizing children's voices within the arts curriculum and making them protagonists of their own learning.
-
ItemImplementation and implications of the National English Profile for improving assessment strategies in a primary classroom( 1996)The National English Profile provides the framework for teachers to use in assessing the literacy development of children in Australian schools. This study documents how one school and, in particular, one teacher, implemented the National English Profile. In order to place this initiative in the context of educational change in Victoria today, recent initiatives and changes to the teaching of language have been examined. Current literature in the field of literacy and assessment have been critically reviewed. As a foreground to the study, the process of educational change is examined in two interrelated case studies. The first looks at how the site school reviewed their Assessment and Reporting Policy. The second examines personal educational change of the researcher with regard to the teaching and assessment of literacy. Both of these case studies refer to current literature in the field and refined the focus of the research in one classroom. This research study draws on and investigates a national initiative in assessment. It traces the implementation and implications of the National English Profile on classroom based assessment strategies. It took place over two years, at a time of quite dramatic change in state education in Victoria. The study provides insight into how teachers managed and adjusted to these changes in one particular school. The research design is drawn from naturalistic inquiry methodology. Data were collected from teachers, parents and children of the site school through questionnaires and interviews. From an analysis of these data, generalisations were made about the understandings a group of teachers, parents and children have about the worth of the National English Profile and the usefulness of particular classroom based assessment strategies. The use of Portfolios as a system of work sample collection that is both manageable and purposeful for teachers and children has been examined in this study.
-
ItemThe Language Development Project, Phase II : a case study in co-operative curriculum development and the role of formative evaluation( 1985)The Language Development Project was a major initiative in national curriculum development, the first of its kind in language education in Australia. The study focuses on three major themes or constructs underlying Phase II of the project, its developmental phase and explores their implications for national curriculum development in the Australian federal context and for English language education in Australian schools. As such it is essentially an exercise in construct evaluation, a formative approach to the evaluation of outcomes. Central to the conception of Phase II of the Language Development Project was a view of language and learning inherited from Phase I of the project and encapsulated in its tripartite model of language education learning language, learning through language, learning about language. Equally central to the work of the project was a view of curriculum development predicated on the belief that there was a need for a national approach to language education and that this national approach could best be achieved through a co-operative effort involving the centre (CDC) and the States and Territories. Underlying this co-operative model was a commitment to school-based curriculum development and to involving teachers in the development of curriculum materials. The most important feature of these central constructs was that they were developing models, based on the assumption that curriculum development, at least in the language area, is an evolutionary process, moving through exploration and discovery towards definition. This open-ended, emergent quality, together with the co-operative nature of the project, placed particular demands on the design of an evaluation which would be responsive to the changing needs of the project at the national level while respecting the autonomous nature of the component projects. The study analyses the development of these three major constructs - the tripartite model of language education, the cooperative model of curriculum development and the collaborative evaluation model - as they were exemplified in the experience of the project examines their relationship to the wider context of practice, and explores their implications for the development of a practical framework for the English language curriculum the resolution of ambiguities in the co-operative model of curriculum development and the development of a reconstructed model for the formative evaluation of co-operative national programs.
-
ItemAustralian studies and the Geelong College( 1988)The Geelong College pioneered the teaching of Australian Studies as part of the secondary school curriculum. The notion of teaching about Australia through an inter-disciplinary course was seen as revolutionary in its early days of the mid-1970s. Since that time, however, the teaching of Australian Studies has become increasingly widespread in schools, and also in some tertiary institutions. Over the same period, the Australian Studies course at The Geelong College has undergone review and change according to staff interests, student reaction and the contemporary situation. In the early 1980s, the face of Victorian Education was to change through the effects of the "Blackburn Report", an enquiry into post-compulsory schooling, of which a major recommendation was that all students should undertake a study of Australian society at Levels 11 and 12. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board has used this recommendation as the basis for introducing a compulsory two-unit course titled "Work and Australian Society" as part of the new Victorian Certificate of Education, which will be fully operational by 1991. The Geelong College, like all other secondary schools in the state, is having to prepare for the introduction of Australian Studies in this form. Although this school has had the advantage of experience with an established Australian Studies course, the present course does not fully satisfy the requirements of the VCAB guidelines; therefore some degree of modification and rewriting is necessary. This thesis will attempt to design, implement and evaluate some units of work for Year 11 Australian Studies students at The Geelong College, units which satisfy both the VCAB requirements and the needs of the student clientele of this particular school. In order to undertake such a project, this thesis initially examines the development in the study of Australian society and culture. It then attempts to identify a methodology which could be used as a model for the planning of curriculum modfications for this course. The nature of the particular institution in question will be examined as a preparatory step to the development of a curriculum. The thesis concludes with a review of the process undertaken and discusses its applicability as a general methodology.
-
ItemThe decentralisation of curriculum decision making in Australia : developments and effects in three states( 1988)The decentralisation of educational decision making and the involvement of a wider range of participants in decision-making processes have been key features of the administration of education in Australia over the past two decades. Among the arguments supporting reforms to the centralised education systems in Australia was the belief that decentralisation would lead to the development of curricula more suited to the needs of students. However, the relationship between changes in the control of curriculum decision making and the nature of the curriculum has not been well researched. This study was designed to address this deficiency. The freedom of teachers to make decisions about the curriculum is constrained by many factors. These can be grouped into a number of 'frames': the system, school, community and individual. The system frame refers to the influence of educational offices and assessment authorities; the school frame is concerned with the role of different school-based personnel such as administrators and faculty coordinators; the community frame refers to the participation of parents or other community members; and the individual frame is concerned with how individual teachers' values or epistemologies might translate into curriculum practices or preferences. These frames relate to different types of decentralisation that have emerged to a lesser or greater extent in Australia: regionalisation, school-based decision making, teacher-based decision making and community participation. This study sought to address the effects on the curriculum of types of decentralisation by examining the relative influence of the four frames. Three States, which had experienced different degrees of decentralisation, were selected for historical and current comparison and within each a number of schools were selected for case study. The schools were grouped according to their administrative and curricular styles, and according to teachers' perceptions of the influence of the community. Within schools, teachers were grouped according to their epistemological views. Data were collected through the administration of questionnaires and through interviews with teachers and administrators. The analyses revealed that in the program in practice there were considerable similarities in teachers' responses. Notwithstanding this, the system, school and individual frame were important influences on the curriculum. There was little evidence that the community was directly affecting curriculum decision making, although this frame did have an indirect influence. In the ideal program, the State differences were reduced and the school differences almost completely disappeared. On the other hand, teachers' epistemological views continued to be associated with the curriculum variables measured and teachers argued that the community should have somewhat greater influence than it had in practice. Among the findings reported, it was found that teachers in the most centralised system, in more tightly coupled schools and with a 'technicist' epistemology were, compared with their counterparts in decentralised systems, in loosely coupled schools and with an 'hermeneutic' epistemology, more likely to favour what might be called traditional curriculum structures and teaching practices.
-
ItemThe Australian Science Education Project: a case study in curriculum implementation( 1991)The Australian Science Education Project (ASEP) was developed between 1969-74 as Australia's first national curriculum project. ASEP was designed to introduce major changes for years 7-10 science in materials, content and assigned roles for teachers and students. While initial sales of the ASEP materials were excellent in Victoria the extent of implementation was low. This study examines reasons for this unsuccessful implementation from a user (i.e. teacher and schools) perspective. Determinants or causes of the extent of implementation relating to the nature of the ASEP materials, the strategies for implementation and the nature of teaching and schools are examined. The fundamental cause of the low level of implementation in Victoria is related to the development of the ASEP materials from a 'technological' perspective with limited input by classroom teachers. The materials developed in this way could only be successful if the implementation strategies included extensive in-service and curriculum support for science teachers and this did not happen in Victoria. Based on Havelock's 'Problem Solver' perspective of curriculum change a model for effective implementation is proposed which incorporates a 'user' perspective and the notion of mutual adaptation between the innovation and the user system.