Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemThe teaching of history in state-supported elementary schools in Victoria, 1852-1954( 1965)The major concern of this thesis, then, is to trace and account for the introduction of History as a subject in 1886, to show its development in an initial period of transition as the implications of the new subject were explored, to follow it through the years of the "New Education" to the time when it became an established and accepted subject, changing little, to examine a period of exciting rediscovery and revision in the early 1930's, and finally, after another twenty years of relative but deceptive calm,to describe the changes which led to the introduction of Social Studies at the expense of History, Geography and Civics in 1954.
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ItemCan children in the early years of primary schooling say from whom or what or where they acquired their scientific understandings ?( 2006)Young children bring with them to school a certain amount of science knowledge gained from their everyday lives. What they "know", whether right or wrong, may be the result of interactions with family, television, computer programs, books, peers or visits to environmental locations, museums or science centres. In this study, children who have been at primary school for between two and three years are asked to describe their knowledge and their sources of information. The extent to which school factors are influencing their science knowledge is investigated. A survey was developed and protocols trialled before fifty-seven children aged eight and nine years at a provincial Victorian government primary school were surveyed to establish their home background and family interest in science, their own attitudes and feelings toward science and the efficacy of their science experiences at school. Interviews were carried out with nine students, selected to represent a broad range of attitudes to science, in order to gain more detailed information about their specific understandings of a number of topics within the primary school science curriculum and the sources of their information. The students' responses revealed that where they were knowledgeable about a subject they could indeed say from where they obtained their knowledge. Books were the most commonly cited source of information, followed by school, personal home experiences and family. Computers and the internet had little influence. Students who appeared to have "better" understandings quoted multiple sources of information. Positive correlations were found between enjoyment of school lessons and remembering science information, liking to watch science television or videos and remembering science information, and liking to read science books and remembering science information. Mothers were also linked to the use of science books at home, and the watching of nature TV shows at home. There are several implications for the teaching of science at early years level. Teachers need to be aware of powerful influences, from both within and outside of the classroom, which may impact on children, and which may be enlisted to help make learning more meaningful. The research indicates the importance of home background, parental interest and access to books, and notes the under utilisation of computers and lack of visits to museums and interactive science centres.
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ItemPredictors of performance in arithmetic in the middle years of primary school( 2002)While the amount of research into difficulties in mathematics has increased markedly over recent years there continues to be a need for more research into mathematics in the middle years of Primary School. The present study examined the extent to which performance on various maths related processing tasks (e.g. reading numbers, reading number statements, mental arithmetic) and measures of maths understanding (e.g. numeration and counting) predicted maths computation ability as determined by performance on typical Year 3-5 un-timed pen and paper arithmetic tasks. Analysis consisted of a stepwise regression for each of the three year levels. Some of these tasks were found to be highly predictive of achievement in arithmetic. The multiple regression was not only significant at each of the three year levels but accounted for a substantial proportion of achievement criterion variance: Year 3: 61%, Year 4: 59.8% and Year 5: 61.5%. Achievement in arithmetic was best predicted by a combination of factors at each year level with some similarities occurring across levels. The most striking of these is Mental Arithmetic: multiplication which was found to be a predictive factor at all three levels. Other significant predictive factors included Mental Arithmetic: subtraction (Year 3), Numeration: tens of thousands (Years 3 & 4), Processing of 4-digit numerals (Years 4 & 5), and Mental Arithmetic: addition (Year 5).
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ItemTeaching children to use metalanguage : what they say they know( 2002)What should be explicitly taught to primary school children in writing has been hotly debated over a number of decades in Australia. At the heart of this debate are questions of how much knowledge about their language children can learn and how much is really useful in order to use language effectively. This study, a case study from one Year Six classroom, proposes that teaching students some overt knowledge of their language, and developing a metalanguage in the Systemic Functional Grammar tradition with which to define this knowledge, is possible and assists children to write more successfully. The study analysed the students' progress in writing texts across factual and fictional genres as well as tracking the reflections students made on their own knowledge. The students not only identified how they had been able to improve their writing, but express satisfaction in possessing such knowledge about language.
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ItemAnother world like here : futures studies and early childhood education( 1995)This thesis examines the discipline of futures studies and its potential for application in early childhood education. The need for an increased futures-orientation in education is established by a survey of the overwhelmingly negative commentaries of youths on the topic of the future. These comments, it is argued, point to a vacuum of understanding about the future which educators should seek to counterbalance. This task should be particularly emphasised by early childhood educators since they share a commitment to the central objective of laying foundations for life-long learning. Futures studies offers a useful methodology for this task. The thesis examines the major tenets of futures studies and its translation into primary and secondary educational settings. The applicability of futures studies to early childhood education is established by demonstrating the many principles which futures studies and early childhood education share in common. A futures-focused curriculum need not involve the educator in any radically new philosophical and educational frameworks. It, rather, provides a means of extending and re-articulating existing developmental objectives from the vantage point of new perspectives. The thesis resolves the issue of whether or not futures concerns are beyond the reach of four and five year olds by examining how pre-school children conceive time and the future. Young children are seen to possess many of the qualities which futures studies seek to re-instill in adults and older children. The educator should seek to capitalize on this by combining the positive aspects of children's innate perceptions of future time with the more abstract 'adult' understanding of time. A research project on pre-school children's attitudes towards the future sheds further light on their understandings of the future while also enabling their own opinions on the topic to be heard. The thesis then defines the principal objectives of a futures-focused curriculum and translates them into practical learning experiences. It concludes by exploring the implications of the findings contained in the thesis for early childhood education and by discussing some of the ways in which the educators themselves might come to terms with the issues articulated in this study.
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ItemAn evaluation of a short, intensive mathematics program( 1999)This thesis evaluates a short intensive mathematics program for primary and secondary students that was conducted at the University of Melbourne in April 1997. The methodology of the evaluation can be described as action-research: a collaborative investigation where researchers, teachers and students cooperate in order to gain insights into a specific learning environment. This process is conducive to various improvement and modifications that the participants can apply to their respective practices. The primary aim of the thesis was to explore factors affecting the success of such programs and the learning which results. The findings suggest that while mathematical self-esteem is closely associated with mathematical achievement actual changes in mathematical self-esteem might not be easily detectable in programs of such short duration. The strength of the Program seemed to be the 'learning atmosphere' fostered by the instructors as well as in the choice of non-routine tasks. A possible weakness was the lack of clear focus regarding the pedagogical aims of the Program.
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ItemA Further investigation of decimal misconceptions held by primary and secondary students( 2005)This study investigates Australian students' thinking about decimals. A Decimal Comparison Test was used to diagnose thousands of Victorian primary and secondary students' misconceptions of decimal notation. Data from 1998 to 1999 were extracted (from a study funded by the Australian Research Council) and analysed. These data were analysed with the use of cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. The cross-sectional approach adopted in this study focuses on the tests while the longitudinal approach focuses on the students. Analysis of students' decimal misconceptions was conducted at both the coarse level (4 behaviours) and fine level (12 ways of thinking). Firstly, the variability of the prevalence of expertise by class was investigated, as well as the various misconceptions. It was determined that there were large variations especially in the prevalence of expertise by class, in particular Grade 6 (anywhere between 5% and 95%). The second analysis involved tests that do not match any predicted pattern of correct and incorrect responses (referred to as unclass feeds). From the results, there were Grade 6 students who answered the test inconsistently and have a tendency towards choosing the decimal with the most digits as the largest number. Also, there were Grade 10 students who answered the test inconsistently and have a tendency towards choosing the decimal with the fewest digits as the largest number. The third analysis involved 122 students who completed their first test as experts but made more errors in their second test approximately 6 months later. The analysis of responses to individual test items indicated some of these students were consistent in using various incomplete algorithms to choose correctly on many of the decimal comparisons. However, when the incomplete algorithm failed to give a definite answer, they might guess or revert to a latent misconception.
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ItemThe communicative interactions of hearing impaired students with hearing peers and regular teachers( 2001)This project examined the levels of control used in interaction by regular teachers and normally hearing peers with mainstreamed hearing impaired students. The communicative interaction of thirteen students; ten normally hearing and three hearing impaired, and their teacher was observed. Observations were recorded and then analysed based on the characteristics of communication developed by Wood.D, Wood.H, Griffiths.A & Howarthl (1986). The interactions experienced by hearing impaired students are important to the development of their communicative competence. It is through interaction with more mature users of language that communicative development takes place (Wood, Wood, Griffiths & Howarth,1986). The literature suggests that the hearing-impaired student experience high levels of control in interactions with others, in particular from their parents and teachers. Webster (1986) used the expression that mothers of deaf students 'command' the child. High control does not allow the hearing-impaired child freedom in response, or the development of extended communication acts in which both partners, can participate, learn and share responsibility. Both partners, parents and children, need to search for meaning in their communication with each other (Webster, 1986). It is through accessing meaning that language makes sense. Paul (1994) suggests that hearing impaired students are exposed to a lower quality of oral communication because they are labelled as deaf. Activities, such as speech or listening training, often take the place of meaningful conversation. The data suggests little difference in the level of control used by teachers when interacting with hearing and hearing impaired students. Similarly, there was little difference found with the level of control used by hearing students in their interactions with either normally hearing of hearing impaired peers. Interactions were short involving few exchanges. The characteristics of the language used consisted of mainly wh type questions, personal contributions, instructions and gesture. The information gathered would suggest that the input to interaction in this regular mainstream setting are not consistent with research of parent -child interaction and pre-school settings and provide opportunity for interaction and promotion or development of communicative skills.
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ItemPerceptions of writing tasks and the quality of written pieces in a senior primary classroom( 1992)This integrated study explores teachers' and children's perceptions of classroom writing tasks and the quality of children's writing in a Grade Five/Six classroom. In particular, it focuses on the children's perceptions of the processes involved in writing specific genres: narratives; reports; poetry; descriptions; and arguments, and their judgements of their own and others' pieces. These perceptions are then considered in the context of the instructional strategies used by the researcher and the teacher. Instructional strategies include: the use of models as demonstrations of writer options; the use of direct audiences of peers; and the production and use of lists of criteria (or scales) of quality. Central to the study is the development and use of a shared language within the community of writers in order to define writing tasks more clearly and to provide guidance for the judgement of written products. The research adopts an interpretative case study approach and was designed to change as well as to study the particular situation. All Grade Five/Six children were included in the study although, in the analysis, reference is made to six case histories in order to illuminate particular patterns and relationships. The changes in children's perceptions of writing tasks and outcomes has implications for teachers, not only for what they teach, but also, how they teach.