Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemExamining Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Practice of Geography Inquiry in Australian Secondary Schools( 2022)Despite an international turn towards using inquiry as a core approach for teaching and learning in school geography, there is limited understanding of how jurisdictions represent knowledge and pedagogy in the intended geography curricula, and what teachers what teachers in these jurisdictions know and believe about geography inquiry and how they actually enact it. This study set out to address these research gaps on teaching geography through inquiry and to explore the intersections between inquiry and subject knowledge in the intended and enacted geography curricula. Taking Victoria one of the most populous states of Australia as a case, the central research question was “What are the knowledge, beliefs and practice of geography inquiry amongst secondary teachers in Victoria?” Employing mixed methods research, the study comprised three phases of investigation. The first phase made use of document analysis to compare secondary geography curriculum documents from six international jurisdictions including Australia. This global context provided the backdrop for understanding the secondary geography curriculum documents from Victoria. The second phase surveyed the state’s secondary teachers about their beliefs, knowledge and practice of teaching geography through inquiry. The third phase employed case studies research exploring in-depth the practice of three teachers in three different school settings in metropolitan Melbourne. An extensive literature review led to the development of an original analytical framework which guided the analyses of the data. In the final discussion, the analyses from all three phases are considered together with the goal of refining and extending existing theory. Overall, this study’s findings suggest that the knowledge for teaching geography through inquiry is a dynamic collection of rich and situated knowledge constructed through experiences and social interactions in and with practice. At the same time, teachers’ beliefs are deeply intertwined in these experiences and interactions. Powerful professional knowledge for teaching geography through inquiry therefore is generated in and through teachers’ curriculum-making of high epistemic-quality geography inquiry lessons. As a contribution to the powerful knowledge debate, this study argues that the nature of knowledge in geography is such that geography inquiry is key to experiencing and developing powerful knowledge in geography. Additionally this study argues that everyday knowledge contributes to the construction of new specialised knowledge in geography. Powerful geography inquiry teaching practices that enable students to make epistemic gains during inquiry learning therefore include maintaining a stance that values and builds on students’ everyday knowledge, providing opportunities for all students for epistemic access, activating students’ commitment towards and effort in assuming epistemic agency, and enabling students to make epistemic ascent through purposeful use of dialogue and questions. This study concludes by proposing a model for ‘enacting powerful teaching of geography through inquiry’ which both augments concepts of pedagogical content knowledge and incorporates concepts of powerful knowledge and knowing.
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ItemHow are teachers' pedagogic practices and students' learning about metacognition associated with what teachers know about teaching for metacognition?( 2012)Teaching for metacognition (TfM) is important for student learning. It develops students’ ability to examine critically how to complete cognitive tasks effectively and efficiently within and outside of academic contexts, independent of teacher guidance. Despite the importance of TfM, there are few studies on what teachers know about teaching it, and none examines how teachers’ pedagogic practices and students’ learning about metacognition may be associated with what they know about teaching metacognition. It is important to understand how teachers’ pedagogic practices and students’ learning about metacognition may be associated with what they know because it can highlight kinds of knowledge that are essential for teaching metacognition, and this can inform teaching and teacher training. This thesis investigated how 14 Singaporean Humanities teachers’ pedagogic practices and their students’ learning about metacognition were associated with what they knew about TfM. It was a multiple-case study which triangulated findings from multiple sources of evidence, and took into consideration the perspectives of teacher- and student-participants and their contextual specificities. The data suggested that though the teacher-participants knew the value of TfM, they did not have adequate empirically validated knowledge about TfM and this may have impinged on their pedagogic practices and students’ learning about metacognition in various ways. If teaching metacognition is encouraged, it is essential that teachers have adequate knowledge about TfM so that they can adopt pedagogic practices which are rooted in empirically validated knowledge. Details of the findings and their implications on teaching and teacher training are discussed in this thesis.
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ItemRethinking Thinking Schools, Learning Nation: teachers’ and students’ perspectives of critical thinking in Singaporean education( 2009)One of the key thrusts in Singapore’s Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) educational vision, launched in 1997, is the emphasis on critical thinking in schools. This entails pedagogical changes and challenges for teachers, especially, in terms of their knowledge, dispositions and practices of critical thinking, which are argued to be fundamental in fulfilling the TSLN thrust. Although TSLN is now 10 years into its implementation, to date, there has been little research undertaken to determine the efficacy of the implementation of the critical thinking policy thrust through the perspectives and voices of both teachers and students — the key stakeholders of education and the ultimate agents in the successful implementation of educational initiatives. Therefore, in gaining an in-depth understanding of teachers’ and students’ perspectives of the implementation of critical thinking from the ‘swampy lowlands’, a qualitative case study approach was used. Six government school teachers and their students participated in the case study and data were gathered through lesson observations, interviews, and the analysis of documents. Findings suggest that a multitude of interrelated systemic and contextual factors, which are predisposed by underlying ‘technocratic and instrumental rationalities’ that govern Singaporean education, remain major barriers to the realisation of TSLN’s critical thinking thrust. The study found that there are gaps and uncertainties in the teachers’ knowledge base of critical thinking and that the incorporation of critical thinking as part of their pedagogy and classroom practice is marginal. Student data corroborate the general lack of emphasis and the limited role of critical thinking in the classroom and they indicate that the hegemony of both school curricula and high stakes examination perpetuate rote learning and didactic pedagogies. Implications of the study suggest the need to reorientate teacher education and professional development programmes with the explicit aim of transforming teachers’ knowledge base and dispositions to engage with the pedagogical changes that TSLN’s critical thinking policy thrust necessitates. However, to effect deep change and realize the core aspiration of ‘thinking learners’, there must not only be restructuring; reculturing also needs to occur across and beyond the educational system. Importantly, such changes need to be primarily informed by the reconceptualisation of teachers — from mere ‘technicians’ to ‘transformative intellectuals’ — and teachers’ work — from ‘technical work’ to ‘intellectual work’. It is also vital that teachers who are entrusted with the task of developing ‘thinking learners’ under TSLN teach curricula and work in school contexts that explicitly encourage, value and reward critical thinking.