Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    Absenteeism amongst international students
    McCracken, Rowena M ( 2000)
    International students are a significant factor in contemporary Australian education. However, despite the good efforts of the many stakeholders, a number of these students do not succeed. One major element common among many who fail is absenteeism. While there have been attempts to remedy the problem, most have not succeeded. One reason for this has been the lack of information sought on how students viewed their own experience and behaviour. The present study attempts to redress this lack by investigating the views and experience of a group of long-term absentee students from Indonesia and Thailand who were enrolled in a Diploma of Business at a private commercial provider of TAFE. The findings reveal a habit of absenteeism in the majority of participants which preceded their entry to Australia. Indeed, this pattern was not infrequently the catalyst for parents to send the student abroad in the hope that it would develop self-reliance and ensure academic achievement. In reality, the move not only did little to change old habits, but actually exacerbated feelings of low self esteem which, coupled with the loneliness and difficulties with study in a foreign city, tended to turn participants more and more to socialising with compatriot groups, increasing their alienation from local society and study, even to the point of turning to substance abuse. The study concludes that, as with all students with social difficulties, help in developing the attitude and skills needed to engender self-esteem and self-reliance, as well as open and frequent communication between students, parents, support staff and significant peers, are essential if any improvement is to be made in the situation.
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    Adopting portfolios: a tool for ongoing explicit collaborative reflective learning and teaching
    Johnson, Rachel Ann ( 2000)
    This thesis explores, analyses and evaluates the use of portfolios in improving learning through enhanced reflection and, in particular, improving students' responsibility for, and control of their learning through explicit discussion and reflection. The researcher has critically reviewed the research literature relevant to the area. Many conference papers, journal articles and books relating to portfolio assessment have been critically viewed and various issues noted. Whilst experiencing the process of reading, examining, reviewing and reflecting, the researcher's goal was to cultivate some of the issues and questions underpinning this research study. The research study involved a group of six middle primary students who had varying capabilities and knowledge of portfolios. A comprehensive case study was chosen primarily because of the indepth descriptive and qualitative methodological nature of the information needed from students, parents and the teacher. There was a need to understand and explain the meaning of social phenomena with as little disruption to the natural setting as possible. This study examines what portfolios are and how they can be used to link children and teachers with different ways of knowing and thinking. For students, the emphasis was on the potential learning power of them becoming more reflective; and for teachers the emphasis was on informing them of the effectiveness of the arrangements they are making to support student learning. The study employed observation, discussion and interviews to investigate student and teacher reflective practices as the students used portfolios over a duration of six months. In addition to this, parent observation and comments regarding the impact of portfolios on their children's ability to reflectively discuss their learning were obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire. Final analysis of the data provided understandings of the nature of the portfolio process by revealing a number of significant findings upon which effective teaching and learning was dependent. It demonstrated how measures to increase student self-reflection and assessment takes time and effort by all stakeholders. Of specific interest was the nature of the relationship between the stakeholders as revealed through discussion of the findings.
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    The implementation of a personal development curriculum program in a boys' secondary school
    Begg, Beverley J. ( 2000)
    his research project is investigating the implementation of a personal development curriculum program that has a cognitive-behavioural basis in a year 8 Pastoral/Personal Development (PPD) subject in a boys' secondary school. The Gatehouse Project curriculum program was used as a framework for the PPD program. This curriculum approach is designed to be integrated into other curriculum contexts. It is based on helping young people deal with difficult emotions by teaching them the key skill of reframing negative, unhelpful self-talk so that they can think, feel and act more optimistically. This project explores the factors that influence the effectiveness of the implementation of this personal development program in the masculine dominant culture of a boys' school through qualitative research methods: field observations, questionnaires and interviews. A commonly held perception of boys is that they are uncomfortable talking about feelings and consider any setting in which they do so to be 'sissy' and effeminate, and therefore not acceptable. The factors identified in this research are described under the themes of the boys' culture, the classroom climate, the teacher factor and the school culture. The macho culture in this boys-only setting influenced the ability of the boys to discuss feelings and sensitive issues in the classroom and the acceptance of the curriculum approach and curriculum context. These insights enable some recommendations to be made for the future development of the Pastoral/Personal Development program in the school and for the rewriting of the Gatehouse Project materials for use in a boys only setting.
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    Learning to write scientific discourse
    Barker, Gayle ( 2000)
    This thesis describes the perceptions of a group of first year science students about writing tasks during first semester of their tertiary studies. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from students. An interview was also conducted with one key science lecturer. The questionnaire and interview responses were analysed using the framework of four features of scientific academic writing - Generic Structure, Content, Surface Level Features and Access. The students' questionnaire and interview responses provided insights about their perceptions of the differences between writing at school and at university and also about the difficulties they experienced with learning to write scientific discourse. The students came to realise during the semester that they were not adequately prepared to cope with writing across the range of scientific genres or with the more sophisticated level of contextual knowledge required in their university studies. The interview with the science lecturer revealed a gap between the students' and the lecturer's perceptions that may be a factor in the problematic nature of learning to write scientific discourse at university. While the students did not appear to consider the language of science relevant to their contextual knowledge, the lecturer indicated that he perceived the language of science to be intrinsically bound with a command of the content. The students also indicated that the lecturer's expectations about discourse requirements were not sufficiently explicit. The lecturer, on the other hand, indicated that explicit instructions about discourse requirements were provided for students. This study signals the need for closer collaboration between Communication Skills lecturers and science subject lecturers in bringing the perceptions of the students and the lecturers closer together. The Communication Skills lecturer can assist students to learn the required scientific discourse by working alongside science subject lecturers to collaboratively provide in-context, explicit instruction, scaffolding and modelling of specific written tasks.