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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ItemPaper dolls : an analysis of the culture of femininity as represented in the teenage magazine, Dolly( 1984)With the growth of the women's movement, there has been an increasing interest in the place of women in history. This has produced evidence that women have had a far greater part to play in history than has been previously recognized. This absence is now being rectified by works such as Dale Spender's Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them, which gives short accounts of the philosophies and work of individual women. While they had considerable impact in their own time, most of these women have been unaccountably "lost" in male histories. The retrieval of their stories, and of the general history of day-to-day female existence, is an important area. It is not merely a matter of inserting female figures into existing histories, but of rewriting history to incorporate them. However, in the context of my study, I am more interested in the history of images of women, rather than a factual account of their lives. It is unfortunate but true that these images of "Woman" have an impact on our culture that supersedes the actions of the many women throughout history who have diverged from these images; therefore when studying women in relationship to society it is of more use it understanding the position assigned them rather than accounts of the achievements of individuals. I will touch on various writers who have studied attitudes to women at different times during the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon culture that Australia has inherited. DOLLY is a particularly blatant example of that control and interpretation. Inevitably, the contradictions inherent in the female culture, the conflict between ideology and the lived experience, are there as well. Capitalism is all-important, in the guise of consumerism, as advertising is the economic rationale of DOLLY. Similarly, DOLLY's relationship to that other massive ideological framework, the patriarchy, needs to be explored, as well as the impact the combination of the two has upon women. DOLLY is also about incorporation: it works to reconcile images and ideologies of the feminine that appear to be contradictory or disturbing. The increasing sexual freedom has to be dealt with; the role of the family and the cult of the individual, female solidarity and female competition have to be reconciled. All these and other factors have to be adjusted and smoothed over under a glossy surface. In its own way, DOLLY is a hegemonic masterpiece. Studying DOLLY does not merely involve locking at the magazine in isolation, but also reviewing the circumstances that give rise to this form of cultural artifact. The position of Woman in our culture, as embodying all the qualities not included in the "norm", is based on a male perspective of what the "norm" might be. This is taken to the point where even. women accept this image of themselves.
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ItemRemediating the elementary mathematics of prospective primary school teachers( 1980)Three areas are reviewed: the knowledge of prospective primary teachers of basic mathematics, remediation programs in mathematics and the use of calculators as a learning aid in mathematics. A remediation program is described involving a diagnostic pre-test and consequent assignment to one of three treatments: self-study, group tutorials or individual tutorials. The purpose of the 10 week program is to help prospective primary teachers meet a competency requirement in mathematics which is mandatory for progress beyond the third semester of a six-semester course of primary teacher training at a Victorian university. The program covers understanding and knowledge of place value, whole number decimals and fraction operations, percentages, averages and measurement including metrics. The group tutorials were given one of two treatments: the use of calculators during the remedial program, or the same program without calculators. Seven hypotheses related to the effects of the program are described. Post-testing after the 10 weeks of the program showed very large gains by each of the three groups. However the calculator group showed no difference from the non-calculator group, a finding consistent with the literature. Discussion of the results and pointers for future study conclude the study, with one recommendation being that mathematics specialists be appointed to primary schools.
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ItemMaking the transition : cultural reproduction in the market-place( 1985)This work relates to the cultural, economic and behavioural characteristics of two groups of young people who have recently left school and, either embarked upon a career pathway via tertiary education or on to long-term unemployment. Theories of cultural reproduction and anomie were examined in an attempt to account for the pathways that the two groups had taken. Two anomalies were discovered; students from migrant or working-class backgrounds who were succeeding in higher education and some working class unemployed young people who were beginning the slide into the under class. Cultural reproduction theory was found not to exactly or accurately account for outcomes and life chances whereas anomie theory was found to be a reasonable explication for the state of malaise of a number of those young people interviewed.
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ItemRaymond Williams : a critique of his theory of culture and education( 1980)This thesis is a critical exposition of Williams' theory of culture as expounded in two of his early works, Culture and Society 1780-1950, and The Long Revolution, and of the influence of that theory on his views on education. Williams' views on man, on valued knowledge and on the ideal society, being fundamental to an understanding of his theory of culture and its connection with education, are given particular attention. Williams sees man as evolving into a being with a unique brain and hence as having the potential to learn, to reason, to communicate and to create. The process of realising this potential is identified by Williams as both the process of interaction within culture and also the characteristic achievement of culture. However, this thesis argues that such a view of man, allegedly drawn from experience, is selectively based and conjectural. Williams' account of what constitutes valued knowledge is based partly on his attempt to re-define culture by a synthesis of previous definitions, and partly on his argument that knowledge is socially created. But, despite his own overt objections to a distinctive 'high' culture, it is evident that Williams himself is extending the selection of valued knowledge and activity, not avoiding selection. At the same time, he is preserving the distinction between skilled intellectual activities (associated with the ideal of 'high culture') and the more 'ordinary' activities of a culture. The thesis also questions Williams' proposition that knowledge is a social creation based ideally on a pooling of common experience. It argues that 'experience' is not invariably the sound basis for knowledge that Williams assumes it to be and it questions the need for his strong emphasis on commonly shared experience. A 'common culture' functioning both for the expression of, and as the necessary basis for an egalitarian society is the distinctive mark of Williams' ideal society, a society which he believes will nurture man's evolving potential and hence his cultural progress. The characteristics of that ideal society - communal solidarity, participating democracy, consensus by open communication, and the principal of 'equality of being' - are critically examined, and attention is drawn to some ambiguities and apparent contradictions in their exposition. Finally, the function Williams ascribes to education, namely, that of being an important means of developing man's individual and collective potential, is examined. Williams' concern for developing intellectual skills, and for directing these towards the changing of society, is contrasted with his tendency to subordinate education to stated social ends. This, it is argued, may lead in practice to less dynamic results and be more open to distortion than Williams obviously intends. In summary, it is maintained that Williams' arguments from experience form an inadequate base for the claims his theory of culture is called on to support; that his attempt to redefine culture by a synthesis of existing and to some degree conflicting definitions leaves unresolved a number of ambiguities and contradictions; and that these weaknesses are reflected in some of his prescriptions for education.
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ItemSport, femininity and feminism( 1985)This thesis explores the culture of sport from a feminist perspective. It reviews the masculine nature of sport and the apparent incompatibility between female athleticism and the traditional femininity; and indicates feminists' concerns with the existing sports culture. The details of interviews with ten university sports women in an interactive setting are set out, covering both sporting and non-sporting areas. Many of the women report experiencing the conflict between their athletic involvement and the demands of traditional femininity but resolve the conflict in favour of sport in an individualistic way. Their feminist awareness and feeling of sisterhood appear to be comparatively undeveloped. Finally, some options for increasing the attractiveness of sport for girls and women are suggested, including not only easier access to the existing culture, but the development of alternatives based specifically on women's physiology and lifestyle.
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ItemAn evaluation of computer science in the Victorian Higher Schools Certificate( 1984)This thesis evaluates certain aspects of the Victorian Higher Schools Certificate subject, Computer Science. Firstly, an overview is taken of the subject as it was intended to function in the first three years of its accreditation, 1981 - 83. In the light of this, the draft proposal for changes to the course in 1984 is reviewed. Secondly, a number of specific areas of the course are examined in more detail. A questionnaire to course designers and teachers is the basis of this investigation. The relationship between stated objectives of the course and items of course content is explored. An analysis is conducted on the extent to which the four option components are equitable in terms of time. The relative importance of the three components of assessment is explored, especially in the case of a 'barely passing' student. Actual raw mark components for the 1981 students have been used in connection with the latter investigation.
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ItemA preliminary investigation of language function and educational success in primary school children( 1980)This study is an attempt to establish if there exist differences in pupil performance at the level of language function which will support teachers' intuitive judgements of pupil ability in the context of the primary school classroom. The type of study was naturalistic and descriptive and involved children in grades two and six of a regional city State Primary School. The 12 subjects were selected by the respective grade teachers on perceived performance, and allocated by them to either an upper or lower ability grouping. Each group consisted of three pupils and the same teacher conducted each lesson in the same classroom situation. The task was concerned with the developing concept of floating and sinking and involved pupils having to initially classify 82 items as either float or sink objects. After this task was completed the pupils tested each object to establish if their initial hypothesis was correct. Results were analysed using an interaction based functional model of language and subjected to statistical analyses to establish which functions reached a level of significance. Results indicate that significant differences do exist at the level of function between ability groups at each grade level and between respective grades. The lower ability pupils at grade two appear to interpret the demands of the educational task differently from their upper ability counterparts. At the level of cognitive discourse function the lower ability group interpreted the task as requiring the use of the hypothesis discourse function which was linguistically realised principally by use of the one term/single response strategy and by general statement. The upper group however interpreted the task as requiring the use of evidence in support of any hypothesis made in an initial response and this function was linguistically expressed by using the causal statement strategies. The lower ability group also used the procedural function as a continuous commentary on their ongoing actions but the upper group employed this function significantly less. There was no significant difference in the choice of cognitive discourse function between groups at grade six, and both groups interpreted the task as demanding a different approach than that adopted by grade two. Both groups employed the 'use evidence' function as an initial response and the procedural function virtually disappeared. Differences did emerge in the selection of linguistic strategies to realise the cognitive discourse functions and three of these reached a level of significant difference. These were the one word/single term, single attribute, and no response strategies which were consistently employed by the lower ability group. The upper ability group employed more anecdote and affirm/ deny strategies than the lower group. The use of the social discourse function also changed between grades. At grade two both ability groups interposed their own social discourse between educational exchanges with the teacher. By grade six this function was almost exclusively used by both groups to support peer statements and acted as a cohesive element in the discourse. At the level of teacher reaction the teacher used significantly more of those reaction types which extended discourse with upper ability groups at both grade levels. The teacher also employed 'request for extension' significantly more at the grade six level than with the grade two groups. In this study, because only two groups of three subjects each have been compared, individual differences could influence the results obtained and therefore any interpretation and generalisation from the results found in this study will have to be limited and tentative in nature.
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ItemThe implications of adolescent food practices and attitudes for the nutrition educator( 1984)This study examines food practices and attitudes to food of adolescents. A stratified random sample of year nine students from Catholic, non-Catholic Independent and Government schools was constructed, with socio-economic status as one of the criteria of choice. The study makes a contribution to the understanding of the way in which year nine students relate to questions of food consumption and production. In addition, the study explores the extent to which nutrition educators should bear in mind the class, culture and gender of students. Constraints established by classroom practices and family organisation are shown to be significant, as are the small scale relations within adolescent. sub-culture. Because students are found to be unsure of the proportions of a balanced diet, recommendations are made to nutrition educators so that they might assist their students in the recognition of the long-term effects of poor nutrition. Formal education is not seen as the sole influence on food knowledge. The power of the media as a nutrition educator is recognised, images created by media being paralleled by some of the food behaviours apparent in the students.