Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
-
Item
-
ItemInfluences on the academic progress of males in a TAFE business course : a case-study approach( 1998)This study is concerned with the academic achievement of young Post-VCE male students undertaking the TAFE Associate Diploma of Business (Marketing) at Swinburne University of Technology's Hawthorn Campus. All had failed to secure a university place. The research sheds light on the influences that contribute to an apparent lack of achievement among these young men while in TAFE. Specifically, it identifies, as significant, inflated expectations of their academic ability, threatened identities as successful learners, the socio-cultural construction of masculinity in their predominantly middle-class secondary schools, and their perceptions that TAFE is best suited to tradesmen. These many influences on academic outcomes can be drawn into two interrelated themes concerning socio-cultural constructions of hegemonic masculinity within their secondary schools, and how this generates a particular view of what it is to be a successful male learner. Thus conditions are established under which these young males have a tendency to over-estimate their academic ability, leading to unrealistic course choices at the end of VCE, which then positioned them for failure. Their inability to secure a university place was, for many, a point of rupture, presenting a threat to their identity, both as a successful learner and as a successful young man. In an effort to protect their 'threatened identities' they sought out a TAFE business course at a multi-sectoral institution to disguise their student status. However, once enrolled in this course they came to realise that their preconceptions of TAFE were unfounded, the classes were not peopled with tradesmen, and the standard was more professional and 'harder' than they had anticipated. This together with the realisation that many other students were similar to themselves, allowed them to maintain their identity as successful learners and ultimately provided them with the opportunity to articulate into a degree course or secure a valued 'white collar' position.
-
ItemPost-world war II development of commercial courses for girls in Victorian technical schools, with special reference to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 1945-1970( 1974)In the inter-war years (1919- 1939), commercial courses, traditionally part of the technical system of education and fast becoming the province of girls, suffered from the effects of the economic depression, made some slight gains during the recovery years and achieved importance in the war years. In the post-World War II years growing community interest in education in general, and technical education in particular, reflected the social and economic climate of the rapidly changing 1950s and 1960s. High population growth and an affluent society created new educational needs, and industry required new technical college courses to meet technological developments and the continuing emergence of new knowledge. Occurring initially when Victorian resources were being channelled mainly into other priorities owing to post-war conditions, these demands caused a crisis in education in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, the Victorian Government being unable to support the expansion of tertiary education to its fullest extent. Therefore the Commonwealth Government granted, under certain conditions, financial aid to tertiary technical education and, in Victoria, the already existing Victoria Institute of Colleges became the guardian of the course standards of its affiliated C.A.E.s. Thus technical education at the tertiary level was eventually in a position to offer its own degrees and provide what promised to be a viable alternative to university education. The technical system of education appeared to represent a man's world and echoed the general education practice of the day as far as girls were concerned, thus reflecting the community's attitude to the place of women in Australian society. Tradition was the over-riding influence on what girls were taught and, as a necessary corollary, the kind of careers they followed. Hence it transpired that girls confined their abilities to a narrow range of female occupations, one of the chief of these being office work. The popularity of office work in the 1950s and 1960s was reflected in the growing number of students enrolling for commercial courses in the technical system. Technical commercial education responded increasingly to community and industrial demands, and endeavoured to maintain relevance to the changing times as it pursued higher standards and created a new concept of vocational training at both junior and senior levels. With the onset of the 1970s commercial education in the Victorian technical system provided all but one of the known commercial courses and, in keeping with the technical educational philosophy of the times, retained its established diploma. In the pursuit of professional status for the potential secretary, degree courses in secretarial work were foreshadowed in two Victorian C.A.E.s, while the Institute of Private Secretaries (Australia) sought professional status for the secretary already within the workforce.
-
ItemSelected correlates of academic performance( 1992)The 1990 intake of students in Business Studies in the Institute of Education at the University of Melbourne were investigated and their performance was noted at the conclusion of the year. A number of performance indicators were used including an average score of all subjects attempted and a measure of the proportion of course completed by the end of first year studies. A range of predictor variables were used and the SAAS model of tertiary performance was developed to take account of Scores on entry to University, Approaches to study, Attitudes to University and Student opinions about themselves and their course. Extensive use was made of questionnaires developed by Biggs (1987) on approaches to study and Genn (1972) on attitudes to university, with much of the data being collected by a computerised questionnaire. Correlations between cognitive predictor and criterion variables were sought and differences between various demographic groupings were investigated. Single entry scores (Anderson score) were found to have very low correlations with academic performance while responses to approaches to study were found to have significantly higher associations. Students who had completed Accounting or Mathematics in year 12 were found to perform significantly better in all aspects of their course than students who had not completed these subjects.