Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemStudent expectations of the future( 1992)Specific aims of the study To investigate how present-day students view the future and their place in the workforce of the future. To establish whether or not students regard their present educational experiences as an adequate preparation for their future work. To investigate acceptance of unconventional futures scenarios as possible futures.
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ItemThe effect of the employment of an overwhelming majority of lay persons as staff members on the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus at Genazzano F.C.J. College, Kew( 1988)This paper will show how the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (F.C.J.) has been influenced by the laicization of staff since the advent of Commonwealth funding following the establishment of the Schools Commission in 1972 and will document the ways in which structures have changed and the composition of staff has been altered.
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ItemThe impact of the zone based professional development program, "Skill review and professional development", on knowledge, understanding and practice within selected school communities( 1995)While engaged in documenting a retrospective account of a zone based professional development program, Skill Review and Professional Development, which aimed to support school communities in the implementation of skill review and professional development according to the Tripartite Agreement on School Development Planning, I reflected on a statement by Harwayne (1992): 'We take courses. We attend workshops. We read books, We get lots of information. But the really important information comes later on. It comes when we take that seed information back to our classrooms, when we experiment and innovate and invent, when we make it our own. The story really is 'to be continued' (p.337 ). This reflection led to the following questions which drove my investigation: # has the 'seed information' collected during the program been taken back to the school level?; # have school communities been able to 'experiment', 'innovate' and 'invent' in order to make skill review and professional development their own?; and, # in what areas has the zone based professional development program, Skill Review and Professional Development, impacted at the school level? The information gathered to discover the answers to these questions was qualitative in nature and comes from those involved directly with the delivery and implementation of the program. The information draws on what happened at the zone level and what is now happening at the school level. The gathered data took the form of words: written and anecdotal; record and document observations; and transcripts of discussions and interviews, as words captured the spirit of the happenings. The writings of Joyce and Showers (1987), Joyce and Weil (1992), Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991), Hargreaves (1992), Fullan (1993), Johnson (1993), Guskey (1994) and others have helped make sense of the impact of this program at the school level.
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ItemAn administrative review of the Commonwealth English as a Second Language (ESL) Program within the Office of Schools Administration, Ministry of Education, Victoria( 1990)This thesis presents an administrative review of the Commonwealth English as a Second Language (ESL) Program within the Office of Schools Administration, Ministry of Education, Victoria. The approach and framework adopted are similar to those used by Campbell et al. in their review of the Commonwealth ESL Program for the Commonwealth Schools Commission in 1984. There are no prejudgements concerning major issues, but an interest in monitoring events from program establishment at a Commonwealth level to program organisation issues in schools. A number of "Levels of Administrative Reality" are identified through which the following educational agencies are examined - the Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET), the Office of Schools Adminstration, and schools. The "Levels of Administrative Reality" used are Intentions, Structure, Resource Allocations Mechanisms, and Program Organisation. These are considered broad enough to enable major issues to be raised. Data have been collected over a two year period from a variety of sources including policy documents, questionnaires, memoranda and minutes of meetings. Major issues raised include : (a) the development of a nationwide curriculum framework/syllabus for the teaching of ESL; (b) the location of ESL within the Office of Schools Administration; (c) the location of consultancy support to schools; (d) the level of resourcing; (e) the qualifications of ESL teachers.
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ItemArticulating the theatre experience : ways in which students respond to the theatre experience, individually, collectively & within the context of the curriculum( 2005)This thesis investigates how a class of senior Drama students experience the event that is theatre performance. The theatre experience is at the very heart of this study, both as a personal one, and as it is framed within the parameters of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Drama Curriculum. Five themes emerge from the study: the role of cultural contexts; the role of prior experience; knowing versus not knowing measuring the theatre experience; and the impact of curriculum and assessment criteria on student responses. The findings of the study suggest that the subject of Drama provides entry into an aesthetic world that is not necessarily accessible through other subjects. It indicates that a range of cultural contexts and prior experiences create a frame through which students experience new theatre performances. The study indicates that the immediate and transient nature of a performance text is inherently difficult to measure but rather, relies on the measuring of the memory of that experience. Finally, the study suggests that there is a gap between the process through which students make meaning from their experiences, and the process by which the curriculum asks them to respond to the aesthetic experience that is theatre. The implications of this investigation are that the teaching of theatre text and the design of curriculum documents needs to more carefully acknowledge the cultural framing, prior experiences, and personal aesthetics that students bring to that experience. Further, it asks Drama educators to consider whether aesthetic experiences are indeed assessable and, if so, how that can be achieved in ways that acknowledge the complex nature of responses to a text that exists only in the memory of those who have seen it.
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ItemThe learning needs of non-English-speaking-background student nurses( 1998)This thesis has investigated the learning needs of non-English-speaking-background (NESB) students in a tertiary nursing course and whether they are being met. It has reviewed literature predominently from Australia, Britain and the USA. Whilst there are similarites it has been recognised that all situations are not the same so the literature has been used appropritely to establish the theoretical framework for the study and in the support of the research findings. Qualitative methodology has been used focusing on observation, survey, and interview methods from two groups studied, ie., NESB students and academics. The findings from the two groups researched, are expressed as results; from students who have analysed that their learning as affected by predominently academic factors, such as reading and writing for assessments and professional documentation, and on a minor level by language and cultural expectations in relation to teaching/learning. Academic findings support students responses but also identify some professional nursing issues such as expectations of students as affecting the learning needs of these students. The recommendations of this thesis are to provide better academic support for NESB students and to effect greater academic and university awareness of the learning needs of NESB students.
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ItemWalter Bonwick (1824-1883) : Walter Bonwick and the establishment of music teaching in the national schools of Victoria, 1855-1856( 1990)This thesis examines the development of music teaching in the National Schools in the vicinity of Melbourne for the years 1855 and 1856. While Walter Bonwick was not the first music teacher to be appointed by the National Board, he was the most influential, and from his appointment in February, 1855, began a career which was to span a quarter of a century. He continued as a vocal music teacher and later as a instructor of music teachers with the National Board and. its successors until his death in 1883, at the age of fifty-eight. Walter was a member of a circle of colonial teachers and- writers who were connected by marriage, and his success in obtaining a position with the National Board was certainly in part the result of the influence of his family and their friends. But the significance of his music teaching in 1855 and 1856 was his insistence on a modification of Hullah's system. Walter persuaded the Board that Hullah's system for teaching vocal music was unsuitable for the schools in the colony because the course was too long, the exercises too tedious, and the music not sufficiently pleasing or attractive to children. His solution was to request the Board to sanction the introduction into National schools of a Manual of Vocal. Music to be compiled by him. The Board agreed to his proposal, and so began a series of publications for instruction in the schools. This paralleled a similar request to the Board by his brother James to sanction his publication of a Geography text book for use in the schools. Walter's weekly reports reveal a wealth of detail of the incidents of colonial life; flood, heat, falling trees, death, and even toothache. They also show Walter to be sensitive, hard-working, and dedicated to his music and his pupils. The Secretary and Commissioners of the Board - are treated with respectful familiarity; rather unexpected in a subordinate. One hundred miles a week by horse, Walter was the archetypical peripatetic vocal music teacher.
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ItemTransforming policy into practice : the implementation of the Curriculum and Standards Framework in primary schools in Victoria( 1997)This thesis examines individual school use of a newly introduced curriculum policy, the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF). Its purpose was to explore how a central policy impacted on individual schools and the processes that occurred within the school to transform CSF policy into classroom practice. It examines the way knowledge relating to CSF policy and other knowledge was transferred and used within schools and the factors that affected this process. The context in which this innovation occurred was examined before considering the determinants and outcomes of policy use. Recent knowledge utilisation theory in the area of policy innovation was used to refine ideas further. It was argued that a major determinant of CSF use was the characteristics of the CSF itself. From this a tentative three level conceptual model for CSF policy use was constructed. Variation in. use, it was reasoned, depended on local capacity to utilise curriculum knowledge. These arguments formed the basis of the research questions. A multiple case study approach was used to determine both the general pattern for CSF use and variations in use. An exploratory approach, gaining data from many sources within each of the sites over time, was utilised. Analysis of the data showed that the conceptual model was appropriate and a single factor, defined as "culture of change", accounted for most of the variation between sites. This factor was a conglomerate of sub-factors concerning structures, knowledge, processes and capabilities within individual school sites. In line with other similar studies, the thesis demonstrated the importance of local factors in policy use. The thesis goes further than other studies of this type by identifying the particular structures, practices and expertise that resulted in informed curriculum policy implementation through effective knowledge utilisation. In particular, the study demonstrated the importance of intensive structured professional interaction to maximise knowledge utilisation.