Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 6 of 6
-
ItemAnother world like here : futures studies and early childhood education( 1995)This thesis examines the discipline of futures studies and its potential for application in early childhood education. The need for an increased futures-orientation in education is established by a survey of the overwhelmingly negative commentaries of youths on the topic of the future. These comments, it is argued, point to a vacuum of understanding about the future which educators should seek to counterbalance. This task should be particularly emphasised by early childhood educators since they share a commitment to the central objective of laying foundations for life-long learning. Futures studies offers a useful methodology for this task. The thesis examines the major tenets of futures studies and its translation into primary and secondary educational settings. The applicability of futures studies to early childhood education is established by demonstrating the many principles which futures studies and early childhood education share in common. A futures-focused curriculum need not involve the educator in any radically new philosophical and educational frameworks. It, rather, provides a means of extending and re-articulating existing developmental objectives from the vantage point of new perspectives. The thesis resolves the issue of whether or not futures concerns are beyond the reach of four and five year olds by examining how pre-school children conceive time and the future. Young children are seen to possess many of the qualities which futures studies seek to re-instill in adults and older children. The educator should seek to capitalize on this by combining the positive aspects of children's innate perceptions of future time with the more abstract 'adult' understanding of time. A research project on pre-school children's attitudes towards the future sheds further light on their understandings of the future while also enabling their own opinions on the topic to be heard. The thesis then defines the principal objectives of a futures-focused curriculum and translates them into practical learning experiences. It concludes by exploring the implications of the findings contained in the thesis for early childhood education and by discussing some of the ways in which the educators themselves might come to terms with the issues articulated in this study.
-
ItemMy place Tempatku : a search for meaning, a cross cultural study that investigates the ways in which children in Australia and Indonesia reveal their ideas and feelings about places of significance in their lives( 2000)The study aimed to investigate ways in which groups of primary aged children in Australia and Indonesia responded to the metaphor My Place Tempatku, developed their ideas, and presented these using a range of visual art media and written stories. It grew out of the researcher's experiences and reflections as an art teacher, an artist in schools and a teacher educator. The study was designed with a travelling exhibition in mind and this intention was clearly communicated to all participants. It encouraged dialogue between the participants and the researcher with a particular focus on the art work and written stories as vehicles for communication within a cultural context. The researcher sought, at all times, to exclude from the study notions of racism or superiority. As such, the basis of the My Place Tempatku study was never intended to be a comparison of the techniques of drawings, the teaching methodologies nor of one curriculum to another. Rather, the study sought to document and so illuminate the emic views of the participants, the children in schools in Victoria and Bali and the views of the researcher as this particular study progressed. The instrumental case study is presented in a narrative style designed to evoke key features of the stages of the project and provide engaging interpretative accounts from the participants' perspectives. The My Place Tempatku study reveals that when children in a cross cultural context are engaged in art making that is relevant, challenging, expressive and personal, their imagery and final art work generate intense levels of interest for other children and their communities. The informal exhibition emerged as a significant phase and as the cultural exchange agent, facilitating observation and direct interpretation by children and teachers. In this cross cultural context the art work and bi-lingual translated written stories, served as vehicles for communication and exchange, substituting for face-to-face interrelationships. The children demonstrated shifts in their thinking and levels of understanding as a consequence of their observation and prolonged engagement with the exhibition My Place Tempatku
-
ItemPhenomenal robotics! : so what are students' perceptions about the robotics experience?( 2006)Robotics as a learning experience is becoming very popular in Australian schools and is being offered to students at primary and secondary level. It is considered to be a valuable integrated unit particularly in the areas of science and mathematics but also provides an ideal environment for students to engage and learn via constructionist principles. But what do young students perceive to gain from participating in a robotics experience? This investigation looks at the lived experience of doing robotics through the eyes of a group of students who were of mixed ages but had participated in the robotics' experience when they were in grade six as 12 year olds. The students were interviewed regarding the effect of the robotics experience on their learning during and after the experience ended. Students reflected on the phenomenon and made strong connections with the social value of the program. Their emphasis was not so much on academic skills gained but on the sense of self and its relationship to the group. The robotics experience provided an environment that allowed the students to feel valued and motivated to strive for goals, without realising they were gaining valuable information and skills as well as enjoying themselves.
-
ItemFrom I can't and I don't to I can and I want to : a study in teaching and learning( 1998)In recent years, the teaching and learning of science in primary schools has been a major concern within professional sectors and at all levels of education. This study reveals teachers' responses and personal growth within a long term professional development program. Through an analysis of workshop session transcripts the researcher identifies a range of meanings made by the participant primary teachers about the teaching and learning of science in their classrooms. The findings indicate that positive changes in the teachers' views of themselves as learners of science takes place when teachers and tertiary teacher educators work together in long term collaborative inquiry. A further outcome is that the teachers develop new confidence and abilities which inform their classroom practice.
-
ItemA report on the relationship between family literacy practices and attitudes and those of year one boys who were referred to reading recovery intervention after one year of schooling( 2007)An overview of recent research in Australia has found that boys perform lower in literacy-related areas of the curriculum and that gender is a key predict�r of literacy attainment. Specifically, boys comprise about two-thirds of all students referred to Reading Recovery Intervention in Australian schools. The purpose of this study therefore was to report on the literacy practices and attitudes of four Year One boys who were referred to Reading Recovery Intervention after one year of schooling and how these relate to the literacy practices and attitudes valued in their families. In particular, this study investigates how these boys appropriate those highly situated literacy practices valued in the home and then transfer them to the school context. This qualitative case study undertaken at an inner suburban Government Primary school in Melbourne (Victoria) is informed by a socio-cultural view of learning which acknowledges the significant role of family enculturative practices on children's literacy development. Unlike previous studies which have explored traditional variables such as ethnicity, race and poverty on literacy development, this research is significant because it specifically examines families with high levels of physical and cultural capital who initiate and participate in supportive and rich literacy practices in the home. Therefore, it was of interest to the study why some boys did not engage with reading and writing as their parents and teachers might have assumed.. Also, throughout this study the intention was to elicit the boys' `voice' to determine their perceptions of literacy and their own learning. Interview data were gathered from the boys, their parents and classroom teachers in the form of semi-structured interviews, responses to fictional scenarios and peephole observations of home literacy practices. McNaughton's (1995) Socialisation Model of Emergent Literacy incorporating issues of gendered preferences, guided participation and appropriation provided the theoretical and conceptual framework for data analysis. The research findings provided confirmation of strong enculturative literacy practices operating within families of the study. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated the notion of identity played a key role in the boys' literacy choices. The study also provided evidence of dissonance between the home and the school with regards to writing practices and highlighted the narrow definition of literacy operating in both these contexts.
-
ItemAn investigation of the effect of teachers' reflection on their development of pedagogical content knowledge for teaching primary mathematics( 2008)In recent years, teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has become the subject of an increasing volume of research. Another body of literature has grown around the subject of reflection, and its effect on practice. Although a link between the two has often been assumed, few have attempted to map this link explicitly. This study investigates the possibility of such a link, and explores possible descriptions of the link. This case study compared two primary (elementary) teachers, investigating both their PCK and their reflection. The teachers were asked to complete a written questionnaire about mathematics teaching, including some questions requiring a response to hypothetical classroom situations. They were then interviewed about the questionnaire. The teachers were observed as they taught, and interviewed about those lessons. The questionnaire and first interview were used to investigate the teachers' PCK, and all interviews were used to investigate the teachers' reflection. One teacher was found to have both rich and well-connected PCK, and a strong tendency to reflect. The second teacher was found to have much weaker PCK than the first, and also demonstrated less reflection. Some examples of the first teacher's reflection were examined, to investigate the possibility that the teacher's reflection had an influence on the development of PCK. PCK was observed to develop during reflection, suggesting that reflection influences the development of PCK.