Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemThe class teaching of music in state-supported schools in Victoria, 1853-1905( 1956)While studying recent developments in the class teaching of music in schools both overseas and in Australia, I became interested in the way in which music had been introduced into the early schools of Victoria, and began to ask these questions. Who were the first teachers of music in Victoria? What methods did they use? From whom did they learn their methods and what was the content of their lessons? After some background reading and thought I decided to begin this investigation, limiting it for the present, to the content and method of teaching music in the state-controlled schools in Victoria from 1853 - 1905. In the pages which follow, I hope to show how a tradition of music teaching was established in Victorian schools, tracing through England, influences from Germany and France. So that the methods of teaching used and the content of the lessons may be revealed, a survey will be made of the life and work of those concerned with the introduction of music into the elementary schools of England and Victoria. The training; of teachers of class music in Victoria will be discussed and, in so far as it is relevent to the period being investigated, music in secondary education will be included. As far as I can discover, no other research has been carried out in this subject in Australia. I hope that what I have written will not only arouse interest, but assist in increasing among leaders in education an appreciation of the value of music in schools. I should like to thank the following people, all of whom have shown great interest and have given me help and encouragement: Mr. E.L.French and Dr. T.II.Coates, School of Education, The University of Melbourne; Mr. !1.C.Brideson, Research Service of The Public Library of South Australia; officers of The Mitchell and Public Libraries, Sydney, The Public Library of Victoria, The Library of The Australian Council of Educational Research, Melbourne, and the Library of The Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Melbourne; Mr. Geoff. H.Allan, Managing Director of Allan & Co., Melbourne, for the access to the diary of Mr. George Leavis Allan; Mr. bar' of Allan & Co., for his assistance in locating copies of early music published by Allan & Co.; Mr. J.Alex. Allan, Clifton Hill, Melbourne, author of "The Old Model School", who lent me relevent original documents; Mrs. A.L.Eastaugh, South Lyndurst, Seaford, for information about her relative Mr. August Siede; Miss Gladys Rhys Davies, Beach Street, East Malvern, author of "Music Makers of the Sunny South", for a copy of her book and access to the original notes from which it was written; and Mr. A.E.H.Nickson of the University Conservatorium, Melbourne, who gave me valuable advice.
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ItemSelection in Queensland secondary education( 1952)The aim of the present thesis is to survey the origin and mature of selection in secondary education in Queensland and to compare the prognostic value of different methods of selection in the State schools in the metropolitan area with a view to suggesting better methods of educational selection and guidance.
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ItemEducation in Papua New Guinea( 1951)Material advances in living standards over the whole area and throughout total communities are necessary to promote the social welfare and development of the native peoples of Papua New Guinea. The terms, Fundamental Education, Community Development and Mass Education, are more comprehensive than the traditional term, Native Education, and indicate a much wider field for the educational sociologist. The project in Fundamental Education in Papua New Guinea, which is an integrated plan of sociological and technological advance for the native people, is known as the New Order, and took form as the Japanese were driven from the territories. More than usually difficult tropical environments have retarded scattered groups of native people, of great ethnic variety, speaking different languages, using primitive and restricted technology and living in varying stages of physical debility, disease, superstition, ignorance, malnutrition and helplessness in the face of increasing westernization. The recent war increased welfare problems. Although the natives show unexpected adaptability and resilience, westernization, with absentee labour, 'bully beef economy' and introduced disease, has added to the poverty and weakness of the native societies. The natives need urgently basic techniques of living. Later, there will have to be considerable material and technological advances to enable these native people to take a full share in the development of their country. The educationists have two important tasks : (1) The task of designing the community projects and directing the practical, material enterprises towards desirable social development. In Papua New Guinea this task is the responsibility of the Administrator. The departmentalised form of organisation of the Administration of Papua New Guinea tends to conceal the share of the Director of Education and other heads of departments in this task. (2) We must not assume that the native people will acquire our ideas and attitudes or follow the course that we consider desirable. Material changes, and enrichment of native communities need changes in attitude and ideas on the part of the native. The techniques of Mass Education must be used to explain, cajole, coerce, persuade, enlighten and discipline the native people about the new materials and new methods. Universal primary education is the aim of long range plans for this purpose; but the present needs of the native people require these long range plans to be supplemented by all available means of propagation and mass conditioning. The present Director of Education is specially qualified to resolve disconformities of acculturation, from a psychological viewpoint. The evidence indicates that the natives react favourably to large scale and seemingly disruptive material change, and that psychological problems of westernization can be exaggerated. It is helpful to maintain the native's sense of security, and one of the ways of doing this is to preserve the dignity of native languages, ceremonies and cultural life. Voluntary bodies, the Christian Missions, have been engaged in the work of welfare and development of the native people for more than sixty years. With the advance of their civilising mission, they have been able to introduce refinements of method and have extended their range. Following the war, many of the missions have staged a brilliant recovery. They are progressive in educational method and take a large share in the social welfare and development of the native people. The diffusion of essential westernization and the propagation of desirable attitudes among the native people are very important aspects of education in Papua New Guinea. Particular attention is paid to formal and informal methods of diffusion, and mass communication. Films, broadcasting and publishing receive attention, for they seem to present efficient mechanical means of disseminating and humanising knowledge at a level that may be useful in the conditioning of illiterates. Diffusion, propagation and general and thorough dispersion to all the native people, of the new ways of living, is the task of education. Indeed, this is almost a definition of education. The present Director has boldly pioneered the use of films and broadcasting, and, as far as the preparatory organisation, has been most successful. There is no comparable achievement amongst retarded multilanguage groups anywhere. So far it has not been possible to establish rapport, nor to exploit the full possibilities of these and other media. Probably the best means of diffusion of the new techniques is that process herein called social learning and imitation, and left unanalysed. Successful enterprises, in which the natives themselves have taken part, and have shared in the benefits thereof, seem to be the best incentive to the spread of new techniques. A number of circumstances, including the departmentalised system of organisation of the Administration, have tended to restrict the Director of Education to a pedagogic role. There has been an unfortunate tendency to restrict the full sociological significance of important groups (for example, women - the education of women and girls) to a single aspect of their social development, namely, pedagogic institutions. The Director has not had directive control over the sociological aspects of the work of the various technical departments. An isolated school system could do much harm by educating for a non-existent economic situation. The Director has had to resist firmly the establishment of schools ahead of a careful programme of training for native teachers and leaders. At the same time he has encouraged experiments. There are a number of interesting new government schools. Among the many achievements of the present Director of Education has been the provision of schools for the children of the Europeans of the territories, and for the Chinese. The New Order is an enterprise in Fundamental Education worthy of favourable comparison with any oversea project. There is no doubt about the ultimate success. At present the Administration is at the transition stage between welfare work following the war and the preparatory work for development, and the implementation of overall plans for the development of the resources of the territory. The crucial question arises about education in Papua New Guinea. Having already spent, or earmarked for spending, �40 million in reconstruction, welfare and in preparatory organisation for development, will the Commonwealth Government continue to assist with increasing expenditure, without return, a social and economic developmental programme designed to increase permanently the resources of the territory, to enrich the native people and raise their standards of living, and at the same time, to leave them in full control of their government, their land and cultural and ceremonial life?
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ItemThe teaching of French in New South Wales and Victoria 1850-1958( 1958)This thesis is a study of the development of the subject French at the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne and in the schools of New South Wales and Victoria. It seeks to show why French was taught in this land so far from France, by what methods it was taught, to whom and by whom it was taught. It was impossible to discover the answers to these questions without studying the growth of the two Universities and in particular the changes of curriculum in their Faculties of Arts, the relationship between the Universities and the schools and the influence of the University Departments of French on French in the schools, the growth of secondary education and the public examination system, and the reforms in the curriculum of the secondary schools in the twentieth century as a result of changes in educational theory and philosophy. Only against this background is it possible to understand the rise and fall of one particular subject.
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ItemSecondary education in the Australian social order, 1788-1898: a study in the evolution of the theory and the curriculum of secondary education, and the methods of teaching, in the changing Australian social order( 1958)In spite of all the hard words said about educational histories there should be no need to justify the historical study of education. The school, like the Church or the Theatre, is a social institution: if we may write the history of one, we may write the history of the others. As to the peculiar value of the enterprise, there will be differences of opinion; the distinctive values of the study of history are again in question. Suffice to say that it is the writer's suspicion that the debate on the content and method of secondary education, which has been conducted with considerable vigour in Australia in the past twenty years or so, would have been more fruitful if, to the various capacities brought to it, there had been added the capacity to see the problems of secondary education in the perspective of their development. It is surely not unimportant that the architects of educational policy should he enabled to see their problem in depth.
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ItemNew objectives for Indonesian education: a critical account of the present stage of development of a government educational system in Indonesia( 1956)My thesis is: "Taking into consideration all relevant factors, Indonesia is developing a modern educational system which is steadily being adapted to meet the needs of the country". It is inevitable that, in considering the degree to which a system has become modern, a foreigner must be influenced by his own "western" oriented background. I have .spent my educational life in the science section of a government secondary school and in a teachers' college in Australia. My particular interests will be reflected in the attention I have given to the state system and the relative neglect of the private systems in Indonesia. In any case, the total field is too vast for first hand study so that most attention is given to that part of education controlled by the Department of Instruction in the Ministry of Education, Instruction and Culture. (From introduction)
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ItemThe Point Puer experiment: a study of the penal and educational treatment of juvenile transportees in Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1850( 1954)This work is intended to present the results of research into the transportation of juveniles to Van Diemen's Land. Much of the study of necessity was centred around the station at Point Puer, the establishment for boy convicts, an adjunct of Port Arthur, which was opened in 1834. The foundation of this station reflected the perceptible evolution in the character of transportation, which coincided with changes in the relationship of the Mother Country with the colonies. Even by the mid-thirties, convicts were no longer acceptable to the colonies as human junk. The colonies, and Van Diemen's Land in particular, were increasingly demanding that, if convicts were to be admitted at all, it should be on their terms and not Britain's. Point Puer illustrates this state of affairs in two particulars. First, the emphasis was henceforth to be placed on reformation, and the reformation of youth as being the material most likely to benefit the colony. Secondly, the British Government began to modify the transportation system by the "free emigration" scheme, usually associated with the notorious "Pentonvillains", after 1840. The reformation of youthful offenders for citizenship in a new and pioneering society was an ideal stressed by several experienced leaders associated with the transportation system in the thirties. With this end in view, Booth outlined the procedure at the Point, for which he was largely responsible, in his report to the Lieutenant Governor in 1837. The reformative process was designed to centre round three aspects: religious, mechanical, and scholastic training. These were, he stressed, the three skills necessary for a balanced character.