Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemUnveiling the Third Teacher in the Early Years: Investigating early childhood teachers’ conceptual understandings of learning environments in International Baccalaureate World Schools( 2023-04)Since the 1960’s, educators in the municipal pre-schools and infant-toddler centres of Reggio Emilia have described the environment as the “third teacher”. This declaration has prompted early childhood educators around the globe to re-consider the role of learning spaces in a quest to understand its pedagogic, cognitive and affective impacts on young children’s learning. Contemporary learning environments research highlights the relationship between teachers’ spatial analysis competencies, the iterative design/construction of learning environments and the resulting impact on learning/experience. Much good work has already been done in this field; however, little empirical research exists to guide early childhood teachers’ conceptual spatial analysis processes, particularly those in International Baccalaureate (IB) World Schools. This study examines data from IB early childhood teachers undertaking a conceptual approach, to interrogate their learning environments, unveiling them as the third teacher. The conceptual framework for this investigation is derived from the IB Primary Years Program (PYP) framework and is based on the seven PYP key concepts: form, function, change, causation, connection, perspective and responsibility. Through collaborative and conceptual analysis of learning environments, this study addresses the following research questions: a) How do IB Early Years Teachers’ understandings of the term environment as the third teacher change through a process of collaborative concept-based analysis? b) How do the seven key concepts of the PYP support educators to unpack and expand their understandings of the structure, function, purpose and impact of their learning environments? c) What are the benefits, limitations and possible applications of using concept-based analysis processes to explore teachers’ co-constructed professional learning about the learning environment? This research draws on an interpretivist approach through a multi-site case study and rhizomatic analysis; it produces contextual descriptions of the educational potential of early childhood learning environments. It examines a sample of four early childhood teams across three IB Schools, that draw upon the educational approach of Reggio Emilia to extend implementation of the PYP. Adopting the PYP concepts as tools for constructivist investigation, participants engaged collaboratively over a five-month period to extend their understandings of the design, assemblage, influence and aesthetic vibrations of their learning environments. Discussions with participants, across three phases of participatory action research (PAR), identified four lenses for data analysis: purpose, structure, function and impact. Findings assert two arguments: advocacy for the creation of professional learning experiences that target the development of spatial competency skills, and validation of the concept as method approach as a suitable and relevant scaffold for learning within the IB education community. This study contributes to the field of early childhood education and learning environment design in three specific ways: to increase understanding of the pedagogical role and educational potential of learning environments in the early years; to heighten educator awareness of the applicability of the PYP curricular concepts in professional learning; and to propose a strategy for constructing and applying informed understandings to iterative learning environment re/design.
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ItemAn investigation of principals’ views on the factors that influence the place and provision of music in primary schools( 2023-03)Though music remains an historically strong part of Australian school life, it is vulnerable to low resourcing and lack of status. Much of the literature specifically references the barriers to achieving a level of music provision that meets the needs of students in each individual school community. Research indicates that the principal is a significant influence on music provision in schools compared to other factors, although this is often overlooked in the literature. While the principal as change agent is well documented in certain music education literature, it is unusual to see their views explored in great depth. To investigate this gap, three primary principals from state schools in Melbourne’s northern suburbs in Victoria, Australia, were recruited for an interview-based study that sought to explore the question: What are the perspectives and ideas that shape principals’ views of music education? The study design used semi-structured interviews following a pre-interview survey and used an interpretivist paradigm due to the study’s emphasis on observation and interpretation. Interview data was categorised by theme, and language use was analysed using Conversational Analysis and Discourse Analysis methods. Critical theory, with its emphasis on social and power structures, was chosen as a theoretical framework. Findings suggested that the constraints on principals in Victorian schools, that had been identified in other, non-music education literature, could impact their capacity for provision of music. Principals are identified as possibly the strongest factor in the level and quality of provision, and as provision has been shown to be inconsistent, it is reasonable to assume that the capacity of individual principals is also inconsistent. While many principals value music and will endeavour to resource it in spite of barriers, it is suggested that the benefits of having music in schools be more broadly communicated to all stakeholders to elevate its status. All participants demonstrated a commitment to prioritising music provision at their school, and a willingness to learn more about its benefits. Furthermore, they also articulated the broader concept of needing to extend the knowledge about music’s benefits at a system and / or principal network level, in order to better support principals’ capacity to ensure music provision.
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ItemFostering students’ dialogic imagination: the potential of CLIL to promote cosmopolitan learning( 2023-02)In the context of global connections, there has been a widespread recognition of the potential of language learning to promote intercultural skills. However, current language teaching practices seem to promote a fixed notion of culture by focussing on teaching cultural achievements and celebrations. In order to recognise the complexity of cultural practices engendered by globalisation, this thesis argues that the teaching of intercultural skills in language education might be best conceived within a cosmopolitan paradigm. This thesis adopts a view of cosmopolitanism as a cultural attitude towards others based on our dialogic imagination. What makes a cosmopolitan attitude possible is our imagination, our capacity to explore and incorporate other ways of living and thinking. The thesis develops a view of cosmopolitan learning as a teaching approach aimed at fostering students’ dialogic imagination by providing them with the necessary conditions to develop a cosmopolitan attitude. The thesis articulates the idea that to be cosmopolitan, learning needs to be dialogic, transformative and ethical. To explore how intercultural competence and understanding might be better developed from a cosmopolitan lens, this study examines the potential of the Content and Language Integrated Leaning (CLIL) approach to foster students’ dialogic imagination. CLIL emerged in transnational Europe in the mid-1990s as an innovative approach to language learning whose key principle is to teach content in an additional language. A case study of a year 9 class studying history in French was conducted and data was generated from classroom discourse and students’ interviews. Findings shows that by creating transnational and translingual spaces, CLIL promotes an interactive learning space where students critically engage and dialogue with a multiplicity of voices, suggesting that the CLIL approach has the potential to promote cosmopolitan ideals. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that adopting a cosmopolitan lens to the teaching of intercultural understanding and competence allows us to articulate a dynamic view of culture that recognises the cultural complexity brought about by globalisation.
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ItemInverting the Past: The Flipped Pedagogical Model and Historical Understanding( 2022)This thesis explores how a flipped pedagogical approach can foster historical understanding. The study adopts the model of historical thinking advanced by Seixas (2017) and the Historical Thinking Project (2015). Historical thinking encompasses substantive and procedural knowledge: the former is concerned with the content of the past, the latter with the method of history. They are interrelated concepts that are equally important to historical thinking. Effective historical thinking enables students to demonstrate historical understanding. The flipped pedagogical model requires teachers to invert the teaching and learning process. Work traditionally learnt in class is completed prior to class as preparatory activities. Class time is subsequently devoted to in class activities that facilitate higher-order thinking. The flipped pedagogical model advanced in this study contains four interrelated components: required preparation, consolidation activities, in class activities, and summative assessment. This model can be applied to history curricular in order to facilitate historical understanding. Substantive knowledge is learnt prior to class as required preparation and reviewed during consolidation activities. Procedural knowledge is then learnt during in class activities as historical thinking concepts are applied to substantive matter. In the final component, students complete summative assessment to showcase historical understanding. There is a dearth of study evaluating the flipped pedagogical approach in history education generally, and the flipped pedagogical approach in Australian history classrooms specifically. This study is therefore concerned with examining the four components of the approach and the extent to which they can foster historical understanding. An action research strategy was used within a teacher research framework to investigate students’ perception of the flipped pedagogical approach in a Year 10 History classroom. Three forms of data were collected: student work samples, surveys, and focus groups. The project provides recommendations, in the form of a model of flipped pedagogy, that can assist teachers to deliver curricula that promotes historical understanding. This model addresses the role of the teacher, the role of the student, the interconnectedness of the four components of the flipped pedagogical model, criteria for resources or activities used and suggested teaching and learning activities.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHow Makerspaces Encourage Deep Learning in Young Children: A Case Study( 2022)Globalisation and rapid technological change have created an ever-changing workforce with more importance being placed on the ability to think creatively and strategically problem solve than ever before. If we want today’s learners to thrive now and in the future by rising to meet new challenges then learning and schooling must be reimagined. The Maker Movement is making an increasingly significant impact on the educational landscape around the world and school makerspaces are an example of a pioneering change education organisations are adopting as they rethink traditional classrooms and pedagogies to better equip students with skills required for a successful future. Research indicates that makerspaces have the potential to generate significant contributions to student learning; however, there is little information about how a dedicated makerspace contributes to the teaching and learning in early years settings. This thesis aims to provide insights into and suggestions for education systems and schools in implementing a school makerspace by: 1. Identifying connections between the teaching and learning of creativity, collaboration and critical thinking and the physical makerspace 2. Outlining the benefits and challenges of teaching and learning in a makerspace and connections that can be made to the curriculum. 3. Creating a case study of a primary school makerspace, including detailed vignettes of makerspace lessons, which will act as an exemplar for widespread inspiration and transformative pedagogies. The overall research design of the study was an Exploratory Case Study (Yin, 1994). The research site was a makerspace in a metropolitan Victorian government primary school, involving teachers and children in the early years of school. Subsequent data collection involved makerspace lesson observations, teacher semi-structured interviews and the collection of learning artefacts in the form of photographs and student work samples. This thesis seeks to make a contribution to the discourse around new imaginings for the future of schooling by exploring the pedagogies and learning experiences in a school makerspace and examining the impact that they have on the development of Deep Learning Capabilities (Fullan, 2012) required for a successful future, exploring the potential they have to revolutionise education.
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ItemFit for purpose: the extent to which perceptions of effective curriculum leadership align with the AITSL Lead Standards( 2022)The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership is responsible for professional standards for teachers in Australia. This study examined the Lead level Standards to ascertain possible alignment with practices of middle curriculum leaders in secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Ten middle curriculum leaders with various curriculum responsibilities were interviewed from across six Catholic and independent school settings in Melbourne, Australia. Curriculum leadership practices were found to align closely to Standard 2; ‘Know the content and how to teach it’, Standard 3; ‘Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’, and Standard 6; ‘Engage in professional learning’, as these Standards broadly detail curriculum development activities. Practices discussed by participants which did not align closely with the Standards were collaboration and management of staff, suggesting that there are gaps within Standards. Gaps between practice and the Standards are apparent as leadership actions are not addressed specifically, but rather the Standards aim to describe actions that promote quality teaching. As middle leaders can simultaneously be understood as teachers and as leaders, this gap demonstrates that the Lead Standards are not completely fit for purpose. The middle leadership work was shown to be context sensitive and context responsive, with significant possibility to impact on student learning.
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ItemReading their stories: Year Four students describe and reflect on learning to read( 2022)Reading engagement is a growing area of research as the connection to reading achievement is explored and documented (Cullinan, 2000; Guthrie, 2008). This qualitative research explores reading engagement in a primary school setting by using case study and narrative inquiry methodology to connect theoretical research with the lived experience of six Year Four students. Using data collected through individual interviews and a reading attitude survey, six individual narratives trace the students' memories of learning to read from preschool to their current classroom. These narratives offer some insights into the diversity of student experiences of learning to read and how experiences can shape reading engagement.
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ItemAbraham Isaac (Alf) Salkin (1923-2005): An Investigation of his Contributions and Legacy in the Fields of Botany, Conservation and Environmental Education( 2022)This historical narrative explores Alf Salkin's salient contributions to the fields of botany, conservation and environmental education from the 1960s until his death in 2005. The thesis is not intended to be a chronology of events nor a biography of Alf Salkin, but rather an historical narrative focusing on Salkin's endeavours and the global, local and personal circumstances that might have influenced his activities. Alf Salkin contributed to botany through his academic articles and through his writings for a wider non-specialist audience, particularly with his focus on Banksias. He participated extensively in the Society for Growing Australian Plants (SGAP) and he established the Special Collections Area at Cranbourne Gardens. He was extremely generous with his sharing of botanical knowledge and materials and he inspired many people to further grow and research Australian plants. Salkin's contributions to conservation included initiating a program of student planting of Australian plants at Mount Waverley High School, establishing the 'Friends of Valley Reserve' in Mount Waverley and playing a leading role in the development of the concept of the importance of plant provenance in regeneration projects. Salkin based his teaching on the theories of learning that emphasised the need to align learning with real-life social and physical settings and he subscribed passionately to the viewpoint that art is an important element of environmental education. Consequently, he acquainted his students with the works and lifestyles of some relevant Australian artists in his attempts to create greater environmental awareness among the student cohort. Furthermore, he attempted to increase environmental awareness in his art students by discussing the distribution and variation of Banksias and by having students make leaf prints of various Banksia species. He contributed to environmental education outside formal education settings by increasing popular knowledge of Banksias through SGAP publications and through articles on the history of their European discovery and naming. This thesis contributes to knowledge through an analysis of Alf Salkin's accomplishments. It has the potential to be influential with regard to botany, conservation and environmental education by demonstrating what can be achieved by a modest individual imbued with passion, commitment and generosity.
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ItemCulturally responsive practice in Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports: a critical analysis of the Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide( 2022)Cultural responsiveness is a consideration when implementing a whole school change framework such as Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This thesis examines guidance for improving culturally responsive practice in Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS) settings. The study mobilises critical policy analysis and Decolonising Race Theory (DRT) to analyse the PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide: Resources for Trainers and Coaches (CRFG) and discusses the possibilities and consequences of the CRFG for educators working with Indigenous students in Australian schools. The research questions guiding this study examine how culturally responsive the CFRG is for Indigenous students in Australian schools and how the tenets of DRT, which present theoretical and practical opportunities for decolonising practice in education, interact with the CRFG. PBIS is a whole school learning and engagement approach that originated in the US and is now implemented in schools and systems around the world, including in other settler colonial states such as Australia. The CRFG is part of a broader PBIS practice advice ensemble and the authors are based in the US, where much of the understanding of cultural responsiveness grows from work seeking justice for African American people and the legacies of slavery. This study analyses the relevance of the advice in the CRFG for educators who are working with Indigenous students in settings that inherit and uphold structural racisms endemic to colonisation. Overall, this study has commenced a conversation about the possible intended and unintended effects of the PBIS CRFG in settler colonial contexts, particularly Australia. Despite clear and well-intentioned attempts to address the problem of cultural inequities in schools through the CRFG, critical analysis using DRT highlighted some silences and erasures within the PBIS cultural responsiveness advice and noted the tendency towards othering, binary thinking, and maintenance of the cultural status quo. However, this study also showed how DRT offers rich opportunities for unsettling settler colonial hegemonies in PBIS and in education more broadly. Further engagement with the tenets of DRT in education would be a strong step towards addressing racial justice and working towards decolonising schools.
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ItemInvestigating First and Second Language English Teachers’ Attitudes to ‘Grammar’ and ‘Grammar Teaching’ in Secondary Schools Using Q-methodology( 2022)Abstract: This thesis investigates first and second language English teachers’ attitudes to ‘grammar’ and ‘grammar teaching’ in secondary schools using Q-methodology. It aims to investigate these key questions: a) What attitudes to ‘grammar’ and ‘grammar teaching’ do subject English and EAL/D teachers hold? b) What factors shape these attitudes? They raise other interesting and important lines of enquiry, beginning with what teachers understand by the terms ‘grammar’ and ‘grammar teaching’, terms that have been defined in different ways and which evoke a range of attitudes. This study is significant in that it provides a unique and contemporary snapshot of teachers’ attitudes to grammar and grammar teaching. Other significant questions include the effect various discourses about ‘grammar’ have on teacher attitudes, the extent to which teachers value grammatical content in the curriculum, their views about their own level of grammar knowledge and their attitudes to various pedagogical approaches to its teaching. In addition, there is the question of beliefs teachers hold about claims of the utility (or otherwise) of grammatical knowledge as a set of tools to improve students writing and text analysis skills. This study involved 25 English and EAL teacher participants. Online data collection was conducted remotely with Q software and questionnaires. From the q-sorts, factors were extracted and rotated, and attitudes represented by six emerging factors were identified, representing distinctive teacher viewpoints towards grammar teaching. These factors were named, characterised and analysed in relation to the research questions. Despite the contested nature of the field of grammar, the findings were significant in that most participants conveyed positive attitudes to grammar and to its teaching. The data also supported the theme of teachers viewing grammar as an important resource and a useful tool for teaching students how to be better writers and text analysers, and viewed grammar as worthy of its place in the curriculum. Other implications of this systematic examination of teacher attitudes to grammar and grammar teaching are considered and will be of interest and of value to stakeholders such as pre-service and in-service teachers, curriculum writers and professional development providers.