Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe morning after : a novella based on a study of a drama performance exploring young people's views of teenage pregnancy( 2004)This thesis is in two parts. Firstly I describe my research, which centred on a Drama performance devised for the 2002 Monash Schools Drama Festival. The performance project was coordinated by myself, as the school Drama teacher, and involved twelve students from Years 9 and 10. The performance focused on the theme of teenage pregnancy and explored some of the difficulties a young girl encounters when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. The story created for the performance project then became the basis for the second part of this thesis, a novella - 'The Morning After'. As a practitioner teacher-researcher, I collected data through interviews with my students and observations of their work in drama as they created the storyline and constructed the performance for the Monash Drama Festival. Through the process of discussion and improvisation, students revealed their perceptions, life experiences, questions and concerns around the issue of teenage pregnancy. These insights were reflected in the play and then this data was analyzed, organized into themes, interpreted and transformed into the novella - The Morning After'. This study reveals a need for more effective forums for discussing sex education and teenage relationships and pregnancy with young people in schools. The Morning After' aims to preserve the story at the heart of the students' play by offering it in fictional form to other young people.
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ItemArticulating the theatre experience : ways in which students respond to the theatre experience, individually, collectively & within the context of the curriculum( 2005)This thesis investigates how a class of senior Drama students experience the event that is theatre performance. The theatre experience is at the very heart of this study, both as a personal one, and as it is framed within the parameters of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Drama Curriculum. Five themes emerge from the study: the role of cultural contexts; the role of prior experience; knowing versus not knowing measuring the theatre experience; and the impact of curriculum and assessment criteria on student responses. The findings of the study suggest that the subject of Drama provides entry into an aesthetic world that is not necessarily accessible through other subjects. It indicates that a range of cultural contexts and prior experiences create a frame through which students experience new theatre performances. The study indicates that the immediate and transient nature of a performance text is inherently difficult to measure but rather, relies on the measuring of the memory of that experience. Finally, the study suggests that there is a gap between the process through which students make meaning from their experiences, and the process by which the curriculum asks them to respond to the aesthetic experience that is theatre. The implications of this investigation are that the teaching of theatre text and the design of curriculum documents needs to more carefully acknowledge the cultural framing, prior experiences, and personal aesthetics that students bring to that experience. Further, it asks Drama educators to consider whether aesthetic experiences are indeed assessable and, if so, how that can be achieved in ways that acknowledge the complex nature of responses to a text that exists only in the memory of those who have seen it.
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ItemIssues of curriculum transition from secondary to tertiary drama education( 2005)This case study aims to explore issues of curriculum transition for those students moving from secondary to tertiary study in drama and theatre studies. Its purpose is to examine the relationship between first year tertiary drama and theatre studies courses and VCE Drama/Theatre Studies, and whether these tertiary courses are meeting the needs of those students who have this particular VCE study as their foundation. As a means of investigating this issue, a group of first year tertiary students was selected as participants after they had enrolled in the unit Body, Text and Performance offered by the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne through the Theatre Studies stream. Other participants included the coordinating lecturer, as well as the tutors delivering the practical component of the curriculum. This qualitative study seeks to examine the nature of this unit through the responses and attitudes of both students and staff. As a secondary drama teacher, VCAA Examiner and Auditor, the researcher has witnessed directly the marked improvement in senior drama education since the introduction of VCE in 1991. This study seeks to ascertain to what extent tertiary courses have responded to these changes in the VCE and whether curriculum at this level is informed by students' previous experiences, knowledge and learning from their secondary senior schooling.
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ItemHide and seek: examining the relationship between student understanding and the drama devising process through the development of three senior secondary ensemble performances in drama( 2007)This thesis examines how a student's understanding of their world can be informed through the development of an ensemble performance in drama. It is a qualitative study that presents the findings of three groups in three comparative case studies in a single site. The teacher-researcher observed a year eleven drama class preparing a group performance task at the end of Unit Two Drama in the Victorian Certificate of Education. The research explored the development of student understanding through the ensemble performance by addressing connections with personal understanding, expression through drama understanding, the refining of understanding through the drama process and interaction with other group members and the teacher's contribution. It also uncovers the tension for the teacher in evaluating student outcomes in terms of VCE criteria at the expense of learning gained through process. This study suggests that student understanding can be expanded through making personal connections to stories from everyday life, opinions and beliefs and influences from the student world. The research explains that the group can build on these personal understandings using different interactive methods and formulates a 'toolkit' to assist the individual to participate effectively in the cultural context of the drama ensemble. Developing understanding through drama-making is described in terms of the movement between play, the common aesthetic and art; and through the benefits of expressing ideas in practice and embodied understanding. The final performance product is shown to contribute to the development of student understanding in two ways: through student considerations of the audience in their performance-making; and through the ways in which performance elements were employed by the students for expression and communication. The final performance was a culmination of the knowledge and skills that each individual had offered and the decisions of the group as it expressed a group understanding through dramatic form.
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ItemThe impact of the group dynamic in the drama classroom( 2004)This study investigated the impact of the group dynamic in the collaborative context of the drama classroom. Involved in the study were seventeen year nine and ten students (ages 14 to 15) enrolled in an elective subject "Community Drama" at a coeducational Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia. I spent a semester as a 'student' in the class integrally involved in all classroom activities. Literature in the field of Drama in Education mentions participants working in group formation but it appears that drama educators do not overtly incorporate group development theory in their teaching practice. The study explores the benefits of incorporating group development theory in the context of Drama in Education, and invites drama educators to consider explicitly using group development theory in their work with students and participants in their classrooms and workshops. The study focuses on the patterns of group development for this class. Using ethnographic methods, I set out to describe and interpret the patterns of meaning that informed the student's actions and made up the culture of the group. Participant observation techniques, interviews, audience and completion surveys were used as part of the data collection process to expose the theme of belonging that governed the behaviour of the class.
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ItemDrama in education: words into action( 1989)The senior years of education in Victorian schools will undergo significant changes as a result of the introduction of the new Victorian Certificate of Education in 1991. This study examines the ways in which the Victorian Certificate of Education will influence: the perceived purpose of schooling at this level, the method of developing curriculum, and the discipline of drama. The Study Design Drama is explored, in a hypothetical situation, in order to assess the efficacy of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board's Study Structure Approach to curriculum construction. Focus is placed upon the question: Is it possible for the teacher to maintain ownership of the curriculum under the Victorian Certificate of Education?