Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAn analysis of how an innovation is disseminated by using the origins of the vertical curriculum concept in Victorian State Secondary Schools( 1985)The purpose of this investigation was twofold. One aim was to discover the origins of the vertical curriculum structure that has made a considerable impact on state secondary schools in the last decade. The other aim was to establish how the idea spread throughout the system and why schools made this major change away from the horizontal curriculum. Three research methods were used in this study. Firstly, Education Department Secondary School Handbooks were studied to identify the vertically structured schools in 1975 and 1982. Secondly, a telephone survey was undertaken in order to find more information about each of the forty-four vertical models discovered in the 1983 Handbook. This survey also enabled the original innovative schools to be identified, key individuals to be established and communication links between schools to be drawn up. Finally, the key carriers of the concept were interviewed to gain in depth information on the innovation. The outcome from the data collected should assist in the understanding of how a major curriculum change can disseminate throughout the schools in an education system. These implications should apply to educational systems outside of both Victoria and Australia.
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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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ItemHigh schools with technical components: the first decade, 1969-1978( 1978)Historically, state post-primary education in Victoria has been shared between the Technical Schools Divsion and the Secondary Schools Division, with each establishing separate schools in proximity to the other. However, by the late 1960's, country centres without technical schools were seen to have potential student populations too small to justify a technical school in addition to the existing high school. Yet in certain of these small centres a vocal demand existed for technical education, this demand originating from a variety of sources. The response was to place technical studies in existing high schools. The schools developed integrated courses over all levels, and significant educational advantages were claimed from this. However, the location of technical components was determined not so much by educational ideas, as by a reaction to community stimulus. This was illustrated in the development of policy concerning technical components, for it was aggregative in nature, adapting to changing pressures and circumstances. The technical component innovation did not occur in isolation. Curriculum developments which occurred in both Divisions, facilitated it, and the associated reduction in external control of schools was but one of a number of other factors which provided encouragement. Both the development and some current features of high schools with technical components are examined, as is their future. It appears that their numbers will not expand significantly, particularly as alternative responses to demands for technical education have been implemented. The future of high schools with existing technical components is also unclear, in part due to the possibility of restructuring in the Education Department.
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ItemSome determinants of students' course selection in mathematics( 1984)In this study some determinants of students' course selection in mathematics. were investigated, with particular attention being given to those factors which may result in differential participation rates between boys and girls. The aim of the study was to assess the relative importance for student decisions of various psychological variables related to achievement attitudes. Such knowledge could then be used in the design of appropriate programs and techniques to increase the likelihood of students continuing to take maths. Questionnaires were administered to the 115 students in Year 9 and to the 107 students in Year 7 at a Melbourne inner-suburban .high school. Specific findings apply to those students in that particular school; without investigation of the effect of such variables as socioeconomic status, ethnic background., administrative structure, course-availability and class size they could not be extrapolated to other students in other schools. Students' estimates of their maths abilities and their expectations for maths performance, decreased with age, as did their perception of their parents' and teachers' beliefs about their ability and expectations for their success. Students' beliefs about the importance of success in maths and their declared interest in and liking'for the subject also decreased with age, while their estimates of the difficulty of maths increased with age. Year 9 boys had higher opinions of their maths ability and were more confident of success in future maths courses, than were Year 9 girls. These girls saw the subject as being more difficult and the cost of the effort required to do well to be higher than did their male classmates. At the Year 7 level, however, the only sex differences were in the stereotyping of the utility of maths for females and in the stereotyping of maths as a male domain. Plans to continue with maths were facilitated by high expectations, by firm beliefs in the value of maths and in one's own ability and by low estimates of the difficulty of maths. Sex differences favouring boys were found on these variables. On the basis of these findings, certain areas for intervention were identified. These areas included the encouragement of positive attitudes towards maths, the provision of career awareness programs, and the attempt to modify parents' and teachers' attitudes as to the maths, ability of girls and the importance of maths for them.
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ItemSucceeding academically at a working-class school: some case studies( 1990)In this pilot study, I chose to interview only academically successful students because I wanted to identify as many as possible of the factors that might be unique to this group. In a larger study it would be necessary to interview the unsuccessful as well to establish whether the characteristics identified were in fact unique to the successful students. (From chapter 1)