Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemUnpacking mindfulness: An exploration of mindfulness interventions in children through a developed conceptual framework( 2019)Mindfulness interventions continue to exhibit popularity with children and youth with many demonstrating impacts on a range of cognitive, social and behavioural outcomes. However, research on mindfulness with children is troubled by the lack of conceptual clarity of what mindfulness actually is and the failure of many interventions to adequately define or conceptualise mindfulness at the outset. Mindfulness is variously described as a psychological and meditative construct that has been increasingly used to treat or prevent a range of physical and psychological problems. It is commonly defined as present moment awareness with an attitude of openness and acceptance (Kabat-Zinn, 2013) with its purist origins beginning in Buddhist philosophy. Nonetheless, many models, definitions and measures have been put forward in the literature. The challenge for research on mindfulness is to manage these multiple conceptualisations. Perhaps the solution to the current vexation of what is mindfulness is not to definitively capture it, but to provide a broader framework to accommodate a range of perspectives and theoretical underpinnings? This research explicated and synthesised theoretical accounts of mindfulness to construct a conceptual framework of common mindfulness domains. This developed framework was then utilised to understand the scope and focus of mindfulness in interventions with children and youth. The first study synthesised 14 theoretical accounts of mindfulness to develop a Conceptual Framework of Mindfulness explicating three underlying domains of this construct: Attitude, Cognition and Ontology. The framework was then utilised in Study 2 to map 178 mindfulness interventions with children (4-18 years) to understand the representation of these three domains in interventions and the effect sizes associated with each domain. The mapping study also explored how consistent studies were in their concept of mindfulness across the theory of change. Most studies demonstrated coverage of 2 domains of mindfulness: Attitude and Cognition with the Attitude domain demonstrating largest effect sizes where outcome measures of this nature were reported. Findings also indicated that very few studies demonstrated conceptual alignment across theory, activity and outcomes. The framework proved a valid and useful tool through which interventions could be mapped to understand conceptual scope. Findings generated from the framework have important implications for interventionists and program developers around the design of mindfulness interventions with children and the need to ensure conceptual consistency throughout an intervention’s theory of change. The framework could be applied in the planning and design of interventions and measures of mindfulness to ensure conceptual consistency. Furthermore, it allows for more meaningful aggregation of mindfulness research through the identification and comparison of interventions with similar conceptualisations of mindfulness.
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ItemActing with care: how actor practice is shaped by creating theatre with and for children( 2017)Research has investigated the backgrounds, dispositions and skills of artists working with children in both school and in out-of-school contexts (Ascenso, 2016; Brown, 2014; Galton, 2008; Jeanneret & Brown, 2013; Pringle, 2002; Pringle, 2009; Rabkin, Reynolds, Hedberg, & Shelby, 2008; Waldorf, 2002). Actors make a significant contribution to this work but few studies focus in depth on how they create theatre with and for children. Incorporating constructivist, phenomenological (Van Manen, 1990) and case study methodologies, this research investigates the practice of nine actors who create theatre with and for children in diverse contexts. Drawing on document analysis, surveys, semi-structured interviews and performance observations, the research explores two key questions: What characterises the practice of actors who create theatre with and for children? and How is actor practice shaped by working with children? This thesis explores actor practice in relation to being, doing, knowing and becoming (Ewing & Smith, 2001). Shaped to be outward facing and ‘pedagogically tactful’ (Van Manen, 2015), actor practice gives emphasis to four key qualities: listening, reciprocating, imagining and empathising. When creating theatre with and for children, pedagogically tactful actors are guided by a sense of care and respect. This thesis adds to the discourse about artists working with children, making actor practice visible and drawing attention to their beliefs, goals, motivations and acting techniques.
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ItemSupporting children's oral language through play and teacher questioning( 2014)Through practitioner research, this small-scale study sought to examine the inclusion of play-based experiences and subsequent teacher-led reflective discussions within an early years language and literacy program to support children’s oral language development. Comparisons were made between children’s ‘language in action’ during play and ‘language as reflection’ during the teacher-facilitated discussions. The study also examined the use of teacher questions in terms of their capacity to scaffold children’s language during small-group discussions. Based upon principles of qualitative research, six children in their first year of school were selected to participate in the study, with the intent of being able to provide a rich qualitative data set and deliver findings specific to the research site. The participants’ talk interactions during the play episodes and reflective discussions, form the data collected for this study. The data collection process was cyclical, with three cycles taking place during the second semester of the school year. Due to the nature of the research design, data was collected, interpreted and reported on by the teacher-researcher. Three key themes emerged from the data analysis. Firstly, the role of imaginative play and the affordances this makes for children’s language learning, secondly, the challenges of ‘context reduced’ language for the school-aged language learner, and finally the importance of teacher questioning in scaffolding children’s language. The findings from the study urge teachers to consider the role of play in facilitating children’s ‘language in action’ and the importance of effective teacher questioning during children’s use of ‘language as reflection’ to augment children’s oral language development during the first year of school.
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ItemSpeech production skills, vocabulary development, and speech perception abilities in children with hearing loss: intervention and outcomes( 2007)Despite early diagnosis, early fitting of more advanced sensory aids, early intervention, and intensive educational management, many children with severe to profound hearing loss are delayed in their acquisition of spoken language compared with their peers with normal hearing. Some of the greatest challenges facing educators of children with hearing loss include determining where to focus intervention in order to maximise benefit, and establishing the most effective strategies for the development of age-appropriate language. The experimental research in this thesis, conducted across three studies, examined the relationship between hearing, speech production, and vocabulary knowledge, and investigated the contributions of these factors to the overall speech perception performance of children with hearing loss. This research also investigated the areas in which intervention would be most beneficial, and examined the effects of different types of intervention on the development of spoken language and speech perception skills in children with hearing loss. The first study collected and analysed data to validate a simple non-linear mathematical model that describes the effects of hearing, vocabulary knowledge, and speech production on the perception test scores for monosyllabic words by children with hearing loss. Thirty-three primary-school children with hearing loss, fitted with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, were evaluated, using speech perception, reading-aloud, speech production, and language measures. Results from these measures were analysed using the mathematical model. It was found that performance on an open-set speech perception word test in the auditory-alone mode is strongly dependent on residual hearing levels, lexical knowledge, and speech production abilities. Further applications of the model provided an estimate of the effect of each component on the overall speech perception score for each child. The separation of these components made it possible to ascertain which children would benefit most from specific language intervention, and which children would benefit from more advanced sensory aids. However, further investigation of the effectiveness of different intervention strategies on the development of speech perception skills is required. In the second study, 12 primary school-aged children with hearing loss participated in two types of speech production intervention to determine which was the most effective in improving speech production skills. After an 8-week intensive program, speech production skills improved for all children, with greater improvements evident in the articulation of phonemes trained at a phonological level. Untrained vowels and consonants also improved after intervention. These findings suggest that intensive speech production intervention in the context of words, sentences, and discourse is effective not only in improving the production of those phonemes trained, but may also result in the generalisation of taught speech skills into other aspects of children's spoken language. The final study applied the mathematical model postulated in the first study to the speech perception scores of 21 primary school-aged children with hearing loss. The children participated in intensive speech production and vocabulary intervention programs. The speech production intervention program implemented the strategies that were found to be effective in the second study, while the vocabulary intervention involved learning the meanings of words. The speech production intervention produced a small but significant improvement in the production of consonants in words, while the vocabulary intervention improved knowledge of word meanings substantially. Both types of intervention significantly improved speech perception performance. These findings demonstrate that the relationships between speech perception, speech production, and vocabulary knowledge are causal rather than merely associative. The application of the model also assisted in identifying the most effective methods of improving receptive and expressive spoken language skills for individual children with hearing loss. In summary, the results from this research provided further evidence of the complex relationship between hearing, speech perception, vocabulary knowledge, and speech production. This research highlights the factors requiring consideration in the interpretation of speech perception scores. Separation of the contributions of hearing, lexical knowledge, and speech production to speech perception scores enabled a better understanding of factors contributing to children's performance levels, and facilitated the development of more appropriate intervention. Speech production and vocabulary intervention were shown to be valuable and beneficial in the individual education programs of many children with hearing loss who exhibit delays in spoken language skills. The evaluation, analysis, and intervention methods reported in this thesis provide an experimentally validated program for improving speech perception, speech production, and spoken language skills of school-aged children with hearing loss.
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ItemPortrait of the artist who works with children( 2014)In both school and non-school based studies, the significant role of artists is often cited but rarely researched in any depth, except for a few notable exceptions (Brice-Heath and Wolf, 2005; Galton, 2008; Rabkin, Reynolds, Hedberg, & Shelby, 2011; Pringle, 2002; Selkrig, 2011; Waldorf, 2002). Despite the view that artists are a rich resource for the community (Mulligan & Smith, 2009), and the claim that there is much to learn from these professionals in relation to their work with children (Galton, 2008; Pringle, 2002; Waldorf, 2002), there are no known interpretive frameworks that provide artists, and the organizations that employ them, with a guide to reflect deeply and critically on their practice involving children in non-school contexts. This research maps the backgrounds, goals and practices of over fifty artists working in a public arts facility, ArtPlay. Located in the heart of Melbourne, ArtPlay provides a wide range of artist-led programs for children aged from three-to-thirteen years. Involving a blend of discovery and constructivist methodologies, aligned with ethnography and case study, this research sought understanding through immersion and dialogue, informed by a hermeneutic model of inquiry (Hammersley, 2011). The key questions for the study were, Why do artists work with children? How do artists work with children? and How does context influence why, and how, artists work with children? To answer these questions, data, gathered through interviews, observations and surveys was analysed through a process of ‘progressive focusing’ (Stake, 2000). Highlighted in this research are the complex factors that influence the artist’s goals and practices, including child age, other adult support, length of program, and the environment. The multi-faceted and contextualised portrait constructed indicates that artists aim to promote child confidence, creativity, aesthetic awareness and joy, through practices that give emphasis to personalized and informal connections, modeling, co-construction, and creative inquiry.
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ItemAn investigation into early childhood science within an emergent curriculum framework( 1997)A considerable interest in the concept of emergent curriculum has been generated by the early childhood centres of Reggio Emilia in Italy. This study traces the progress of a science project on spiders in an Australian early childhood centre which purports to have an emergent curriculum. In particular, this study sought to answer the question: What form does a science learning project take in an early childhood class that purports to have an emergent curriculum philosophy? What are the processes involved? What are the roles of the main players? Was this curriculum truly an emergent one? How did it fit with the different perspectives being taken to emergent curriculum in the literature? Did science learning take place? How did this learning fit with current views on science learning in the literature? Using a participant observation approach, this study looks at factors that characterise the processes and the players in this project and considers these in the context of current views on emergent curriculum and early childhood science. Results indicate that while the curriculum in this centre was clearly ‘emergent’, it differed in some minor aspects from both the Reggio Emilia model and the American model of emergent curriculum. The approach used was consistent with the social constructivist approach to science teaching and was clearly conductive to the children's science learning. The study shows that emergent curriculum is a very appropriate approach for science learning.
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ItemRoadSmart : an evaluation : an impact evaluation of a road safety education program and the road crossing behaviour of 7 year old children( 1997)National and international studies and statistics show that road trauma is the leading cause of injury and death of children to age 14 years. One contributing element of this trauma among children relates to pedestrian accidents. Reducing child pedestrian trauma is a complex problem requiring a multi-faceted approach. One approach is through education. This evaluative study explored the links between the implementation of RoadSmart, a new primary school road safety education program developed by VicRoads, and the road crossing behaviour of children in year 2.A process-outcome approach was employed which focused on both the implementation and outcome components of the year 2 "Walking safely" component of the RoadSmart program. RoadSmart offers children first-hand experiences of real-traffic situations and comprises two major parts - school based learning sequences and take-home activities, designed to involve parents/carers in educating their children about road safety. Pre and post unobtrusive observations were undertaken of participating children crossing the road at an unmarked mid-block location and were matched for 44 children. The program was also systematically observed in the classrooms of these students. The findings imply that if teachers implement RoadSmart in the intended manner, students cross roads more safely. Overall findings from this evaluation concur with those of other researchers(Demetre et al., 1993; Rivara, 1990; Roberts, 1980; Thomson et al., 1996), that children under 9 possess capabilities that can be fostered through education and real-street experience to enable them to function more effectively in the traffic environment.
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ItemA rime based orthographic analogy training program for improving word identification skills in poor readers( 2000)Many poor readers experience difficulties in word identification, the critical first step of the reading pathway (Foorman, Fletcher & Francis. 1997; Lyon, 1996). They lack the ability to decode words accurately and rapidly. Phonological and or orthographic deficits contribute to this inability. Poor readers must be explicitly trained to recognize and manipulate orthographic and phonological units of varying sizes as well as understand the predictability of their mapping system. Rime based orthographic analogy training, it was thought, would improve written word naming performance in children who were poor readers. The ability to transfer a letter-sound link such as 'ew' from one word to another is necessary for efficient reading. The purpose of the study was to determine whether explicit training in grapheme-phoneme units within the rime unit would lead to greater retention and transfer of the orthographic rime unit and greater gain in phonemic awareness than teaching the rime unit as a whole. Thirty poor readers were randomly assigned to one of two training groups. Children were trained on sets of ‘like’ words via mechanical segmenting and blending procedures with emphasis placed on the active transfer of the rime unit between words. Words were presented and rehearsed as either onset and rime units or grapheme-phoneme units. Words were positioned directly one beneath the other in reading and writing tasks to stress the pattern match and the notion of transferability of the rime unit and its phonological translation. Guided transfer to pseudo words and prose was incorporated into the training regime to consolidate pattern knowledge and to promote analogy as a reading strategy amongst this group. Children's retention of trained words and transfer to unfamiliar words were examined at progressive intervals throughout training. Phonological awareness was assessed pre and post training. For students who displayed a higher level of word reading efficiency, the grapheme-phoneme strategy was more useful.
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ItemChildren aged nine to twelve years in Outside School Hours Care in Australia( 2013)Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Services provide care, leisure and education for children aged five to twelve years in the hours before and after school and during vacation times. The number of children using OSHC in Australia has grown significantly over the last ten years. This thesis is a qualitative research project into the experiences of nine older children aged nine to twelve years attending OSHC at one of three research sites in Melbourne, Australia. In OSHC, older children are a minority group that practitioners have long regarded as more challenging than those aged 5 to 8 years. How practitioners currently understand older children appears to be greatly influenced by developmental theory. This study investigated the experiences of the nine participants using poststructural theories of knowledge, power, discourse and binary oppositions in order to provide new knowledge of how older children participate in and experience OSHC. The analysis provided evidence of how developmental discourses operate in OSHC and how older children and practitioners use them differently. Older children use the discourse to advantage themselves and position themselves as superior to younger children. Practitioners, in enacting the discourse, sometimes privilege younger children at the expense of the minority older child. The analysis showed that what is considered ‘true’ about older children can vary depending on the perspective of who is creating the truth, and that these truths can have power effects. The study also documents how binaries are used to create knowledge about older children and younger children and that the knowledge these binaries create differs depending on whose perspective is adopted. This project also chose to adopt postmodern views of children by positioning the participants as co-researchers rather than research subjects, with the power to influence research method and implementation. The participants embraced this level of involvement in the project and demonstrated themselves to be capable decision makers and researchers. Their involvement in this way contributed to data that more closely represented their own opinions, experiences and understandings of OSHC. In applying poststructural theories to the question of older children in OSHC, this study has provided new knowledge about a question that has concerned practitioners for many years. It provides knowledge that will add to that already afforded by developmental theory and represents an opportunity for practitioners to develop new approaches to working more equitably with older children.
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ItemA study of self-beliefs in children aged 8 to 12 years old in the domain of mathematics( 2002)Theories of self-efficacy, self-concept, self-worth and causal attributions have formed the framework for a large number of studies in educational fields. The reflections children make in learning contexts have rarely been linked to these concepts. Just as rare has been the qualitative classroom-based research on these concepts. This study provides information and analysis on qualitative and quantitative data related to 8 to 12 year old children's capability beliefs, self-worth and reflections in the subject of mathematics. It recognizes that children are agents of their learning as well as affected by their learning; their beliefs are integral to successful learning. The investigator and children attend a medium sized primary school in a middle socio-economic area of metropolitan Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. The range of data is examined in two sections: one for the whole sample of 154 students, one for a grade 3 class taught by the researcher. Findings of the study indicate children tend to maintain positive maths self-beliefs in a year, self-concept effects performance more than other researched beliefs, and, while there is a substantial relationship between various capability beliefs, they also differentiate within particular contexts. Some quantitative results confirm prior research; some are contrary to expectations, for example, maths self-concept tended to predict maths achievement better than specific self-efficacy. A learning/intervention program trialled with one class led to improvement in children's subject value, self-beliefs and task behaviour, though alternative explanations for this are reasonable. All names used in this document are fictional, thereby protecting the confidentiality guaranteed to participants consenting to this study.