Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemA terrible honesty : the development of a personal voice in musical improvisation(University of Melbourne, 1996)
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ItemClinical teaching : an exploration in three health professions(University of Melbourne, 1996)
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ItemThe influence of the ideas of progressive education on teacher training in Victoria, c.1920 to c.1950(University of Melbourne, 1996)To what extent did 'progressivism' influence Victorian teacher training, 1920-1950? The thesis examines the various contributions of such figures as George Browne and Dorothy Ross and the role of the directors of education, Tate, Hansen and McRae. Among the events discussed are the re-opening of the Psychological Laboratory at the Teachers' College, the revision of the primary curriculum in 1934, the influence of the 1929 Elsinore Conference of the New Education Fellowship and the 1937 international conference of the NEF in Australia. The acceptance or rejection of progressive ideas in teacher training in the State, and the reasons for this, are a binding theme in the investigation. When the new education' was introduced at the turn of the century, the educational debate in Victoria became largely an argument between those who considered that all children should have the benefit of a liberal, though academic education and those who considered that education should be vocational. Both sides ignored the reformers' advocacy of a new way of looking at the all-round development of the child being educated. When progressive education was introduced by George Browne in the early 1920s some attention was paid to its ideas and its practice, but it was generally ignored in favour of the orthodox transmission model of teaching, learning and schooling. Teacher training reflected this and wider social values that were dominant. In the State system, the relative rejection of innovation was based on apparently entrenched cultural and educational ideas and practices, ministerial intransigence, the timidity or indifference of some in official positions and, more generally, the inertia inherent in the maintenance functions of a large public system. There was some teacher training based on progressive ideas at the Associated Teachers' Training Institution under Catherine Remington and Dorothy Ross. The relative smallness of this operation left it open to the personal influence of innovative individuals. Ross became Headmistress of Melbourne Church of England Girls' Grammar School in 1939 and George Browne used the school extensively as a practical example of the progressive ideas promoted in the School of Education at the University of Melbourne. By the 1950s the progressive movement had lost much of its momentum world-wide. Victoria was no exception. Coincidentally, both Ross and Browne retired from their formal educational positions at this time. In a different form, progressivism re-surfaced in the late sixties and early seventies, i
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ItemTowards a model for colleague support : matching support to needs and contexts( 1999)This thesis explores the issue of colleague support in schools observed in five case site schools over several years. The study sought to ascertain how colleagues perceive, rate, utilise and value colleague support and the effect of colleague support across a school culture. The research study is predominantly qualitative using participant observation and interviews, over several years. The interviews are based on an earlier pilot study (conducted in 1995-96) and a later survey of each of the five case site schools that make up this research study. The thesis outlines how colleagues describe, value, and utilise colleague support and proposes a typology of support based in grounded theory. This typology asserts that schools have definable `colleague-shape; based in characteristics and protocols of support that have an increasing degree of school-wide consciousness. The typology, and emerging protocols, it is hoped, have both a descriptive and diagnostic facility and an adaptive utility. This thesis concludes with a chapter on adaptive facility proposing suggestions, arising from this study, that might increase a school's conscious awareness and use of colleague support.
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ItemThe rapid characterisation of pulpwood quality of plantation eucalypts using near-infrared spectroscopy( 1996)Chemical pulp yield is a tree breeding trait of great importance to the pulp and paper industry. Small improvements in pulp yield can provide large economic benefits for forest owners with a successful breeding program. Laborious and expensive methods of direct measurement for pulp yield presently limit the number of trees that are tested and therefore hinder potential improvement. A method that provides a rapid, cheap measure of yield is required. Attempts to do so through correlating easily measured parameters such as hot water extractives and basic density with yield have been unsuccessful. Recent studies have indicated that vibrational spectroscopic methods such as near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS and MIRS) have the potential to predict pulp yield. The major objective of this study is to determine whether near-infrared spectroscopy could be used to predict the pulpwood quality, specifically pulp yield, of plantation eucalypts with sufficient accuracy to be of use in evaluating woods from tree improvement programs. Analysis of any product by NIRS is subject to several sources of error. A review of the agricultural industry literature identifies several important sources of error in NIRS analysis. Important factors include: the particle size distribution and mean particle size of the sample; the type of mill used for grinding; the moisture content of the sample; the sample temperature at the time of testing; the basic density of the sample and the species. In this thesis, the influence of a number of these factors on the NIRS analysis of wood is examined and a protocol for the analysis of wood using NIRS developed. Initially, NIRS is used to model and predict pulp yield in thirty samples of native forest E. globulus woods that gave a very wide range of pulp yields (37.6 % to 60.2 %). Regions of the second derivative NIR spectra display variation that could be directly related to variations in pulp yield. Calibration models are developed using simple linear regression and partial least squares (PLS) regression on data from both normal NIR spectra and second derivative NIR spectra. The model developed by using PLS regression with second derivative NIR spectra demonstrates the best predictive ability (R-value = 0.983, standard error of calibration (SEC) = 1.34 and standard error of prediction (SEP) = 1.65). However, the SEP is too high for practical purposes. The errors are high because insufficient samples were available to represent the extreme variation. Calibration models are also developed with regions of the NIR spectrum removed. Removal of the water bands (1350-1450 and 1848-1968 nm) improves the SEP only marginally. It was decided that future models would be developed with full spectrum second derivative spectra and PLS regression. Twelve models for the prediction of kraft pulp yield are developed using plantation grown E. globulus and E. nitens from sites in Tasmania and Victoria. R-values range from 0.892 to 0.963, SEC values range from 0.32 to 0.92 and SEP values range from 0.63 to 1.46. Seven models have SEP values of less than one. The low SEP values of several of the models indicate that NIRS could be used as a practical alternative to laboratory pulping. The improvement is attributed to having larger sample sets and samples that were able to better represent the narrower range of environmental and genetic variation found in plantation forests. The chemical components of eucalypt woods that influence pulp yield are modelled and predicted using NIRS analysis. Eleven E. globulus and twenty-one E. nitens samples are used. The chemical components modelled include: cellulose, glucan, hemicellulose and xylan. Models for E. globulus have R-values ranging from 0.995 to 0.731 and SEC values ranging from 0.04 to 1.64. The qualities of the models were judged by cross validation procedures as there were too few samples to reserve a separate test set. Models for E. nitens have R-values ranging from 0.988 to 0.894, SEC values that range from 0.19 to 0.93 and SEP values that range from 0.78 to 1.85. The use of larger sample sets should improve the models and reduce errors. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to classify samples based on their NIR spectra. PCA is a data decomposition technique that can be used to extract the systematic variation that exists in a single data set. Two-dimensional PCA scores plots can be used to examine how a number of samples relate to each other. Such plots are used to distinguish between woods of high and low pulp yield; between hardwoods and softwoods; between eucalypt species (E. globulus, E. grandis and E. nitens) and between sites the trees of specific species were grown on (Tasmania and Victoria). PCA could be a very useful tool for breeding programs, perhaps providing a simple means of eliminating poor performing trees. The within-tree variation of pulp yield is also examined using NIRS. If trees are to be sampled non-destructively, ie. by cores, an understanding of within-tree variation is necessary for the identification of representative sampling points. Individual ring samples have different NIR spectra. The spectra of rings 5 and 6 (where the heartwood-sapwood boundary is located) demonstrate the greatest differences. Patterns of radial and longitudinal variation are different for each tree. Radial variation of pulp yield at 5, 20 and 60 % of total tree height is basically linear (average of 15 trees). Longitudinal variation (average of 3 trees) of pulp yield is not linear, the model used to describe it is of the form y = a + bx + cxA. Maps of withintree variation demonstrate that yield is variable within trees and that each tree has a different pattern of variation. The outer region of the tree between 15 and 40 % of total tree height has wood giving the highest pulp yield. Samples from 10 % of total tree height (2.2 m) gives the best correlation with whole tree pulp yield. The north and south hemispheres of a single tree are examined. Within this tree the yield variation is found to be symmetrical. The heritability (h2) of pulp yield for 7 year old E. nitens is estimated using 588 samples whose yield has been estimated using NIRS. Heritability estimates of 0.34 and 0.31 are obtained for the inner and outer rings respectively. The estimates are lower than expected based on previous estimates. PCA is used to examine the variation present in the calibration and the unknown data sets. It is found that the calibration data derived from whole-tree average samples do not contain all the variation present in the unknown data obtained from within the inner and outer rings. Improved heritability estimates are expected to be obtained by adding data to the calibration obtained from within the rings. It is demonstrated that NIRS can successfully predict pulp yield and a number of other chemical components of wood. The success of several models indicates that NIRS has the potential to be a very important tool for tree breeding programs. Consistency in sample preparation and presentation is important. Care must be taken that the proper samples are selected for calibration.
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ItemPre-anthesis development in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) : evaluation of factors affecting apical development and spikelet number per spike on the main culm( 1995)The influence of a number of environmental factors and cultivar differences on the pre-anthesis period of development in barley were investigated in this thesis. Preanthesis development in barley was examined by dividing this period into three phases, namely the leaf initiation, spikelet initiation and spikelet growth phases. The lengths of the latter two phases showed substantial variation between cultivars, which indicates that it may be feasible to manipulate the durations of these phases, while maintaining a constant time to anthesis. In particular, there was a negative association between durations of the spikelet initiation and spikelet growth phases, making it possible to maintain a constant time to anthesis despite variation in the duration of these phases. The number of spikelet primordia formed in the developing spike of the main culm exhibited little variation between cultivars. The rate and duration of spikelet initiation were negatively correlated and both had no association with either maximum spikelet primordia number or final spikelet number. Variation in spikelet number per spike appeared to be maintained more because of a varying level of spikelet abortion rather than differences in the number of spikelet primordia formed in the developing spike of the main culm. A separate study examining the related species Hordeum spontaneum, confirmed variation for the durations of the three phases, combinations of which indicated the feasibility that such variation could provide genotypes wherein a constant time to anthesis could be maintained. Investigations of the effects of four environmental factors, photoperiod, temperature, irradiance and fertilizer addition, on pre-anthesis development in barley were also undertaken. Increased photoperiod was shown to reduce the durations of the three phases in photoperiod-sensitive barley cultivars. Differences between the three phases in their sensitivity to photoperiod were observed, with the spikelet initiation phase proportionately the most sensitive phase and the leaf initation phase the least sensitive. This difference in sensitivity between phases also differed in magnitude between cultivars. That is, in one study, the spring cultivar Galleon showed a greater sensitivity to photoperiod in the spikelet initiation than the leaf initiation phase in contrast to Bandulla, where the difference between photoperiod sensitivities of each phase was small. Both of these cultivars exhibited satisfaction of the photoperiod response at a similar photoperiod (ca. 14-15 h). That is, no further changes in durations of the leaf initiation and spikelet initiation phases occurred under longer photoperiods. Transfer of cultivars between different photoperiods indicated that the duration of a particular development phase was determined by both the influence of prior photoperiod as well as current photoperiod, indicating the presence of a 'memorized photoperiod effect'. This effect was present from the beginning of spikelet primordia production to anthesis. The 'memory effect' of photoperiod on development appears to be interactive with current photoperiod, rather than additive, because the effects of the direct influence of photoperiod and those of prior photoperiods were smaller when they were coincident compared with independently. The duration of the pre-anthesis period of photoperiod-sensitive cultivars grown at similar levels of irradiance, but different photoperiods was found to respond more to variation in photoperiod than irradiance. High irradiance levels reduced the duration of the pre-anthesis period slightly, and increased both final leaf and spikelet numbers. The rate of change of photoperiod has been found in other cereal crops to influence the time to anthesis. The present study indicated that the rate of change of photoperiod had no effect on the durations of the leaf and spikelet initation phases independent of that of mean photoperiod. There were also no effects on leaf or spikelet number per spike, or the rate of leaf appearance, in contrast to earlier reports. Increasing the mean daily temperature within the range of 11-27C was found to reduce the duration of the spikelet growth phase (expressed in calendar time) in barley, although this was dependent on photoperiod. However, in terms of thermal time, increased temperature lengthened the amount of thermal time taken to complete the spikelet growth phase, which is in agreement with several wheat studies (Pirasteh & Walsh, 1980; Rawson, 1993). The relationship between temperature and rate of development did not appear to be linear at supra-optimal temperatures (above X19C, Ellis et al., 1988) although this was not conclusively tested. Further research is required to fully understand the relationship between the rate of development in barley and temperature. The proportion of spikelet abortion in the developing spike of the main culm was found to be increase with high temperatures and this was dependent upon cultivar, but longer durations of the spikelet growth phase were not associated with increased spikelet numbers. The application of fertilizer nitrogen and phosphorus had no significantly consistent effects on time from sowing to anthesis in barley, or the durations of the three individual developmental phases, suggesting that models of phenological development need not incorporate fertilizer parameters. Irradiance level was shown to influence the level of spikelet abortion of the main culm spike and occurred in barley 11-15 days before anthesis when the spike and culm were rapidly accumulating dry matter. Spikelets found to abort were later-developing and smaller in size than those which survived. The coincidence of abortion of spikelets with maximum accumulation of dry matter in the culm and spike indicates the possibility that the level of abortion in barley may be associated with culm-spike assimilate competition. Spikelet number and grain number per spike, and tiller number increased with increasing nitrogen application. It is proposed that breeding to achieve lower levels of abortion of spikelet primordia could possibly lead to an increased yield potential of the barley spike. The thesis contains a seven chapters; a review, five experimental chapters and a concluding chapter.
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ItemChildren's perceptions of changes in families( 1991)The three studies reported in this thesis take as their subjects over one thousand "ordinary primary school children" from state primary schols in the western region of Melbourne. The sample has not been drawn using methods such as newspaper requests (Burns, 1980), from Parents without Partners groups (Kurdek and Siesky, 1978), from university towns (Franz and Mell, 1981) or through court records (Hess and Camara, 1979; Dunlop and Burns, 1988). The western region of Melbourne is socioeconomically and ethnically diverse and predicted to grow faster than most other areas of Melbourne in the next decades. In essence, these children are that future. Certainly, their perceptions of families and of changes in families will help to shape their own futures. Children have much to say about families as has been noted in studies by Ochiltree and Amato (1985) and Goodnow and Burns (1985). Children in Studies 1 and 2 in this thesis wrote eloquently and often with passion about families generally and about family changes specifically. Previous studies (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Silcock and Sadler, 1980; Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980; Riach, 1983; Ochiltree and Amato (1985) and Cooper (1986) have looked at children's perceptions of families. Some, like Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, (1981) and Cooper (1986) have drawn attention to gender differences; others, like Silcock and Sadler, (1980), to techniques employed in the collection of data. In addition, Selman and his colleagues (1979, 1980, 1986) have focussed on children's developing understanding of social relations. Selman's stages of development of social understanding, like those of Hoffman (1983) for empathy development are based on Piagetian stages of cognitive development. The present studies are an attempt to draw together around a single theme, children's perceptions of families, the impact of a range of techniques for data collection (as Silcock and Sadler, (1980) have suggested is appropriate) and consideration of age/stage differences as defined by Selman et al. Additionally, gender differences are investigated as suggested by Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg -Halton, (1981). In Study 1, a group of forty Grade 5/6 children completed a questionnaire, Children's Perceptions of Changes in Families. Subsequently, this group of forty was divided into a target and a control group. The target group of children took part in an eight week videotape/discussion program with family matters as content while the control group continued with general classroom activities. At the completion of this, children were presented with the responses they had prepared previously to the questionnaire and invited to change these in any way they considered appropriate. Analysis revealed that elaboration occurred in the responses of children in both target and control groups. Statistical analysis revealed very little in the way of differences between the responses made by those children who had taken part in the videotape/discussion program and those who had not. Coming out of this study, however, were gender differences and tendencies for children to describe parents in stereotypic roles which are reminescent of other larger studies (Goodnow and Burns, 1985; Cooper, 1986; Ochiltree and Amato, 1985). Girls, for example, expressed far more interest than boys in the experience of caring for a new baby; boys referred more than did girls to the fights likely to ensue should a new child come into the family. Father's movement from the children's home to live elsewhere was considered unhappy because of his loss as a playmate; in mother's case, it was her inability to continue caring for the children which was noted. Such patterns were revealed in the content analysis of the children's responses to the questionnaire. The children in this first study served as a window into the other studies reported in this thesis in that the researcher spent considerable time speaking with both groups through their two completions of the questionnaire and with the target group during the videotape/discussion program. In addition, statements made by these forty children were used as the basis of Study 3. In Studies 2 and 3, children prepared written responses to the tasks set them. In Study 3, 1118 Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6 children drawn from twelve state primary schools in the western region of Melbourne were read statements by their teacher and invited, on one occasion, to indicate their thoughts about each statement and, on another, to indicate their feelings. The phrases from which children were invited to select in indicating their responses were based on the definition of problem and expression of feelings components of the Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies Model (Selman et al., 1986b) and were representative of levels of complexity of thought and feeling described in the model. Girls' marked superiority over boys in their choice of feeling responses representing higher levels of complexity was the most significant finding in this study. This finding coupled with findings from Study 2 that girls made significantly more references than boys in their descriptions of families to emotional aspects of families makes gender differences a powerful finding in the studies presented in the thesis. The emotional aspects of families to which girls referred significantly more often than boys in responses to the question, "What is a Family?" were love, care, sharing/belonging, understanding problems/talking. In contrast, boys and younger children (Grade 3/4) referred significantly more often than girls and older children (Grade 5/6) to family structure. The finding that older children made significantly more references than did the younger children to many aspects of families is not surprising and likely to be due to their general experience and superior verbal ability (Jacklin and Maccoby, 1983). The gender differences in the content analysis was reinforced in coding undertaken of children's responses according to levels based on Bruss-Saunders' levels (1978) of social understanding of parent-child relationships. Here, the descriptions written by Grade 5/6 girls were coded as representing highest levels of complexity and the descriptions written by Grade 3/4 boys as representing lowest levels of complexity. In the studies, levels of complexity of children's responses are considered according to theories of cognitive development. In addition, the influence of contextual factors on the thoughts and feelings children express about families are discussed. Questions about the relationship between these two are raised with regard to the capacity children acquire for coping in their present and future families.
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ItemIdeology critique and the production of meaning : a critical approach to selected urban education material( 1989)Ideology critique, when applied by educational research to the ideational content of curriculum materials, has evoked negative connotations of partiality and bias, mis-representation of social reality, and ultimately, of untruth. This thesis attempts to assert a more positive sense of "meaning production" for curriculum critique and shift emphasis away from representation towards signification. Part 1 reviews the management of questions of ideology and education by the sociology of school knowledge and curriculum research. I argue in Chapter 1 that strategies of ideology critique, along structuralist and culturalist lines of difference, have inadequately addressed issues of critical subjectivity, hegemony, and social transformation that is posed by radical education. Four curriculum studies of text book analysis are discussed in detail, in terms of their attachment to the sociology of school knowledge and in terms of the "bias and balance" discourses that they produce. Meaning production is used to enhance, rather than displace, practices of ideology critique, in ways that the case study analysis seeks to develop. The urbanism kit that is analysed in Part 2 is undertaken as a means to ground these issues, rather than to render a consummate curriculum analysis. Critical reading of the case study materials in Chapter 2 is enabled by the urban theory of Manual Castells. His ideology critique of urbanism and reformulations of urban system, urban planning, and urban social movements, are utilised to the extent that theoretic productions of the case study materials in Chapter 3 are analysed in terms of their constitutive discourses, rather than in terms of determinations about whether they are biased or ideological. Chapter 4 examines this process of signification further. Our inquiry shows that not only are understandings about "the city" produced, but, discourses about knowledge-production and about individual subjects are set up at the same time. Analysis of the case study material also indicates that balance is not necessarily built-in as a result of a commitment to provide diverse expert opinion. This has implications for those practices of curriculum criticism and curriculum construction which attempt to locate and redress bias as well as promote critical thinking. The directions suggested here are disposed towards problematising categories of analysis, especially categories such as "society" and the "individual", and towards opening up questions about what is produced as knowledge.
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ItemThe struggle to achieve : the Vietnamese experience of secondary schools in working class neighbourhoods of Melbourne, 1986( 1990)Within the vast scope and complexity of the refugee experience this study deals with a simply defined, yet central issue to the settlement of young immigrants from Viet Nam in Australia. That is, the differing impact of personal factors preconditioning attitudes and values towards education, and school ecology on their educational trajectories and social destinations. To answer this question, the location occupied by this immigrant group within the school system was initially determined, and subsequently the influence of school organizational structure and classroom practice on educational performance in these settings was described and explained. Vietnamese pupils, their teachers and peers in 16 randomly selected government high schools in Victoria, and those persons responsible for the child's welfare in Australia provided rich and varied information for analysis. Detailed interpretation of this comprehensive data-base focused on one school representative of the wider sample. The study found that while educational trajectories and social destinations are largely controlled by the working class location Vietnamese youth occupy in the secondary school system, the impact of this setting is mediated by an exceptional determination, on their part, to escape the influence of multiple social factors which influence the outlooks and achievements of children, whoever they may be, who occupy these sites. Despite an heroic commitment by teachers in these schools and the determination of the Vietnamese to exploit, to the maximum, the limited opportunities available to them, the dependence of these young immigrants and their families on education for social advancement renders them vulnerable to failure. The study demonstrates, that despite the illusion of democratized educational theory and practice that these educational settings suggest, the reality is that educational conservative structures mitigate against social advancement. These institutional barriers, it is shown, operate on two levels. Firstly, the comprehensive curriculum plays a central role by disproportionately directing these young immigrants into the theoretical mathematics and physical sciences, a process consecrating them as an academic elite, while at the same time confirming the lowly position they occupy in the social hierarchy of their school and neighbourhood peers. Secondly, the study demonstrates how academic streaming is an aggravating circumstance coming on top of the other inequalities suffered by all children in these settings. Not only do the out-of-school activities of these young immigrants not support their curriculum placement, but teachers tend to misjudge Vietnamese classroom conformity as scholasticism, not passivity. Thus, rather than viewing this exceptional behaviour in working class settings as an indication of the struggle with which these young people have to cope, teacher definition of their school experience sees it as proof of an effective classroom process and of learning taking place. The study concludes that while the actual relationship that exists between the teachers and Vietnamese youth, and the schools they attend and the neighbourhoods these schools serve, remains unchanged, the price the Vietnamese have to pay for perceived scholasticism is loss of control of their immediate school experience and authorship of their own lives.