Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemValues and the teaching of history to junior secondary school students( 2006)Entitled 'Values and the teaching of history to junior secondary school students' this thesis aims to explore the value of history as a subject for study by junior secondary school students and the role of values in the teaching of history. A focus on the types of knowledge that teachers bring to their professional practice forms part of the groundwork for the study. Professional knowledge is considered as pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 1999; Shulman, 1986, 1987). These branches of a teacher's knowledge are discussed in relation to the teaching of history. History is broadly identified as a field of knowledge (Carr, 1961; Hexter, 1971; Leinhardt, 1994; Marwick, 1983), a discipline for study (Ang, 2001; Collingwood, 1946; Leinhardt, 1994; Levstik, 2000; Marwick, 1983; Rogers, 1984; Skilbeck, 1979) and a subject within the school curriculum (Board of Studies, 2000; Foshay, 2000; Macintrye, 1997; Mays, 1974; Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), 2004, 2005). The value of teaching history to junior secondary school students is broadly considered in terms of the knowledge and understanding that can be developed through the study of history as a school subject. The embedded nature of values within teaching is acknowledged and distinctions drawn between social/community values, general educational values taught through history and more specific values associated with the study of history. The research is situated within the qualitative paradigm (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, 2005; Flick, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and involved a case study (Bassey, 1999; Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Merriam, 1988; Stake, 1995, 2000, 2005; Stenhouse, 1985; Yin, 2003a, 2003b) conducted at the junior secondary level that included the participation of the researcher, three other history teachers and students from Year 7 and Year 8 history classes. The methods used to collect data included an initial session with the teacher-participants and, at the conclusion of the study, a debriefing focus group with the teacher-participants, lesson observation and post lesson small-scale student discussions. The data gathered from this investigation is presented as a number of narratives (Bage, 1999; Bruner, 1986; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Freebody, 2003; Mishler, 1986; Stake, 2000). The researcher contributes to these narratives as a teacher of history. The study affirms the value of teaching history to junior secondary students, recognizing an association with broad educational values (Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), 2005; Gilbert & Hoepper, 1996, 2004) and subject specific values, such as, sharing knowledge about the past (Fitzgerald, 1977). Values that are imparted through the study of history are categorized as general and specific and are closely linked to skills. The study is premised on the beliefs that thinking about practice (the past and the present) may enlighten future history teaching and learning (Schtin, 1996) and that 'mindfulness' (Leinhardt, 1994) is an essential characteristic of history teaching that engages both the teacher and student in the learning process.
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ItemDeveloping better practice: towards a reconceptualization of clinical nursing education( 2007)On the commencement of professional practice, most nursing graduates experience difficulties in making the transition from student to beginning practitioner. New graduates, as well as their more experienced colleagues, consider the inadequate clinical practice component of undergraduate nursing education preparation as a major factor contributing to poor graduate performance on entering the workforce. In the education of nurses over the past forty years, emphasis has been placed on the development of theoretical knowledge. During this time contemporary learning theories from general education have been employed to support nursing education. These learning theories, developed specifically for classroom learning, have extended beyond the classroom to support clinical learning as well. The underlying assumption is that knowledge learnt in the classroom will transfer to the clinical area when required. This thesis is a critical examination of past and present approaches to clinical practice in nursing education. Specifically, it is argued that contemporary learning theory supporting nursing education is insufficient for clinical practice, and that learning does not transfer in the manner assumed by current nursing educational practices. While situated learning theories, developed specifically in practice, are more suited to clinical practice, they remain limited because they do not account for how humans actually learn. Recent advances in the neurosciences can give an inclusive scientific account for learning, and are therefore more suitable to support both the theory and practice of nursing education. It is argued that viewing clinical nursing as vector coding, processing, and neural weight development, frees nursing practice from the conception that it is a subsidiary of the theoretical knowledge developed as part of the theoretical component of nursing knowledge. In order to develop better nursing practice, nursing education requires a new theoretical framework that properly reflects our current best knowledge of human learning and information processing.