Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe waterhole: using educational drama as apedagogical tool in a foreign languageclass at a public primary school in Japan( 2006-07)This study investigates Japanese primary school students’ and teachers’ responses to educational drama as a pedagogical tool in their English language classes. Along with the participants’ responses, the applicability of educational drama as a teaching method for the Japanese teachers is also discussed. The study was conducted in Japan as ateacher-researcher using participatory action research methods. The participants of the study are three Year Six classes and their teachers in a public primary school in Japan. Educational drama is introduced as an alternative teaching and learning method to these participants who have had no experience of drama in education.
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ItemDrama, history and autonomy: an examination of teacher interventions and student autonomy in two drama contexts( 2008)This study investigates the relationship between teacher interventions and student autonomy in the teaching of process drama. The data for the research was conducted over time in the teacher’s natural setting using reflective practitioner and case study methods. The principles of narrative inquiry have suited the personal and historical influences that led to this research study. The study addresses the research questions which ask: What teaching interventions are evident in a primary school drama program that supports a narratively framed integrated curriculum? How do teaching interventions invite self‐directed learning when using process drama in a narratively framed integrated curriculum? The questions arose from an interest in the claims that are generally made for learning through the arts. The investigation set out to identify and classify process drama interventions and their relationship to self‐directed learning in a school where the disposition and skills associated with student self‐directed learning is paramount. A review of literature concerning teacher interventions and student autonomy identifies important features that are relevant to drama education and curriculum. The research was conducted in a primary school setting where drama was a specialist subject, integrated with classroom themes. Curriculum frameworks based on storied ways of working were important features of existing classroom practices. Collaborative practices with a generalist teacher led to a two year study with Year 4 classes in two drama contexts. Data was first collected in a specialist drama room called The Playhouse. With the help of a student teaching intern, data included audiotapes, videotapes, reflective notes, transcribed peer discussions and student focus groups. The second year of data collection took place in a drama‐driven narrative curriculum design called The History Centre. Interviews with students, colleagues, visitors and student groups were collected alongside additional tapes, reflective notes and transcripts. The two teaching contexts enabled a comparison between drama teaching as a specialist model and a community model where in both cases, integrated storied approaches framed teaching and learning. The transcripts from both settings were analysed and rewritten as story episodes with indictors of teacher interventions and student self‐directed learning signposted in the case study texts. The study identifies key findings which relate to shifts in power relationships, authorship and teacher roles when a community model of integrated teaching and learning is adopted.
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ItemBigger, better brains: neuroscience, music education and the pre-service early childhood and primary (elementary) generalist teacher( 2012)Since the early 1990s, there has been an enormous amount of research into the ways in which music listening and music training can improve our understanding of the structural and functional aspects of the human brain. As research in this interdisciplinary field, known as neuromusical research, advanced, it was also discovered that formal music training may have significant effects on brain development. As this is a relatively new field of research, the findings from these studies have remained predominantly in the area of neuroscience and have not been widely disseminated to educators or applied to educational practice. This thesis initially aimed to explore the possible applications of these findings in music education practice. It was then modified, due to the outcomes of the literature review, to examine the effects of these findings on the values that pre-service generalist primary (elementary) teachers hold towards music education. This thesis consisted of two interrelated studies. Study A mapped the current neuromusical research literature related to the effects of formal music training and summarised the significant findings to date. The mapping methodology included a four-stage process to determine the breadth of the field and identify categories, connections, correlations and contradictions across the findings. Study A revealed that neuromusical research findings are not advanced enough to be confidently applied to music education practices, which indicated the need to modify the initial focus of the thesis. This resulted in Study B, which consisted of a quasi- experimental quantitative study to measure the possible impact of neuromusical research findings on the perceptions of music education held by pre-service generalist primary (elementary) teachers. This study took the form of a ten-week teaching intervention with a pre- and post-test survey, and the resultant data was analysed for changes in values towards music education. Study B revealed that the values held by the participant group towards music education improved significantly after the teaching intervention. Furthermore, the experiment group, who were exposed to the neuromusical research findings, had more positive values than the control group in the majority of measures. Exposure to the neuromusical research findings was shown to affect the experiment group participants’ values in a number of ways: they indicated a higher level of confidence in the delivery of music education, rated music education at a higher level of importance in the curriculum, used higher levels of critical thinking and educational philosophy to justify the value of music education and performed better in their assessment items. This study has shown that exposure to the neuroscientific and aesthetic benefits of music education can positively influence the values pre-service generalist teachers hold towards the discipline. This is worthy of further research, as it could help improve the rate and quality of the delivery of music education by generalist teachers when they enter the profession.
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ItemThe attitudes and concerns of school principals and teachers regarding the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools in Delhi, India( 2001)This study was undertaken to explore the attitudes and concerns of primary school principals and teachers regarding the integration of students with disabilities into regular school programs in Delhi, India and, to determine whether there were significant differences between them regarding such attitudes and concerns. Additionally, the study sought to determine whether the attitudes and concerns held by principals and teachers were significantly related to their background variables. A three-part questionnaire, consisting of: Part I -Background Information, Part II -Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale- Modified (ATIES-M), and Part III -Concerns about Integrated Education (CIE), was used to collect the data from 310 principals and 484 teachers. An analysis of the data was undertaken using one-way analysis of variance, multiple regression and Pearson product-moment correlation techniques. The major findings of this study were: 1. There were no significant differences between the overall attitudes of the principals and the teachers. Significant differences were observed, however, for one of the four attitude factors which dealt with the integration of students who required curricular changes. 2. ‘Perceived parental support for integrated education’, ‘length of teaching experience’ and ‘contact with a student with a disability’ were found to be the significant predictors of teachers' attitudes toward integrated education. In the case of principals, however, the only significant predictor of attitudes was ‘perceived parental support for integrated education’. 3. ‘School size’, ‘school location’ and ‘perceived knowledge of The Persons with Disabilities Act’ (PDA) had some influence on at least one of the four factors of the ATIES-Modified scale for principals. In the case of teachers, ‘age’, ‘school location’, ‘training in special education’ and ‘perceived knowledge of The Persons with Disabilities Act’ were significantly related to at least one of the four factors of the ATIES-Modified scale. 4. Both principals and teachers were concerned about the lack of resources (such as para-professional staff and special education teachers), the non-availability of instructional materials, their lack of training to implement integration and the lack of funding. 5. ‘Gender’, ‘having a relative with a disability’ and ‘perceived parental support for integrated education’ were significant predictors of both principals' and teachers' concerns about integrated education. 6. In the case of principals, there were two further predictors of their concerns about. integrated education viz. ‘age’ and ‘having a family member with a disability’. In the case of teachers, ‘years of teaching experience’ and ‘perceived level of confidence in teaching students with disabilities’ emerged as additional predictors of their concerns. 7. There were significant negative correlations between the mean attitude scores and the mean concern scores of both principals and teachers. 8. Five strategies were suggested by the focus group participants to alleviate the concerns they expressed about integrating students with disabilities. These were: provision of in-service training, collaboration with non-government organisations, availability of aids and appliances, availability of resource teachers, and provision of resource rooms.
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ItemPrimary teachers and the Information and Communications Technology domain: figuring worlds, identities, knowledge and practices( 2010)This study investigates the development of teacher professional practice in the context of government education policy in Victoria (Australia) that aims, through the education of its youth, to shape a successful economy that capitalises on information and communications technology (ICT). Specifically, the study examines how selected primary teachers from an ICT network conceptualise, articulate and develop a body of knowledge to teach and implement the Information and Communications Technology domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (Victorian Government, 2005) curriculum framework. Through a constructivist grounded theory approach, the study investigates the practices of six female teachers in three government primary schools as they implement changes to curriculum in response to government reforms and local expectations. The three primary schools are within close proximity of each other in a residential growth corridor on the fringes of metropolitan Melbourne, and serve a diverse and multicultural community. Innovation with ICT is seen as necessary for addressing the challenges that arise from the social and economic context of the research sites, and is integral to improvement plans in each of these schools. The participating teachers are regarded as leaders with ICT within their schools and their efforts are deemed intrinsic to their school’s plan. Rich descriptive data of these six teachers and how they construct their worlds is utilised to develop a theory of how teachers learn to teach with ICT, with a view to understanding how they continue to learn in the context of these changes. Change efforts often focus on the importance of knowledge building to empower professionals for new directions, however while a critical component, knowledge is not the only factor in increasing capability. The study highlights that learning to teach the ICT domain is more complex than developing content knowledge, pedagogical repertoire and skills in the use of ICT. It involves networked learning where values, beliefs, vision, practice and identities are made and remade. In making changes, teachers consider new ideas in light of the old, and through the lens of their core values and beliefs, they figure a technologically rich world of vast imaginings that they can embody. They author identities to assert themselves in relation to imposed positioning and prior conceptualisations. Through changed activity related to ICT, they redefine their conception of teaching and inhabit it with their activity and energy.