Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemTeacher Becoming: Investigating the role of personal core values in the emerging professional identities of preservice primary teachers( 2023)This thesis examines the role that personal core values may have in primary preservice teachers’ professional identity emergence, through their articulation and exploration in a series of reflective, conversational workshops. Debate about how ITE can most effectively provide programs to ensure the graduation of quality teachers, comprehensively prepared to have positive impact on students in today’s primary classrooms, is an ongoing, and highly contested tension-filled space. The mandated requirement for increased emphasis on building curriculum content knowledge—the ‘what’—and pedagogical acuity—the ‘how’—has seen the sidelining of focus on the ‘who’—the identity of the preservice teacher. This is despite increased research indicating the importance of building a congruent professional identity, as a teacher entering the profession. Graduate teachers’ coherent sense of professional identity has been linked with self-efficacy, has been shown to affect professional wellbeing and is a factor in teachers’ decisions to stay in the profession. The purpose of this qualitative study was therefore to explore ways to give direct attention to preservice teachers’ professional identity emergence before graduation through an exploration of their personal core values, considering the role they may play in supporting this development. This three-month long ethnographic, multiple case study project conducted a series of four sequential workshops of facilitated dialogues amongst peers, named the ‘Values in Emerging Teacher Identity’ Conversations (VETIC) program. The recruited participants were at the beginning of their second year of a two-year Master of Teaching program. Three different groups participated, with two primary preservice teachers in each group: six participants in total. The workshop conversations explored participants’ personal values data, supported and facilitated using a variety of ongoing, active metaphors and Appreciative Mentoring. Two key questions were explored: What happens to a preservice teacher’s emerging sense of professional identity when they engage with their personal core values within a program of intentional conversation? How useful is the workshop approach in deepening an understanding of preservice teacher professional identity formation? A Bakhtinian dialogic lens was used for the audio and written data analysis, combined with consideration of the themes generated from the core values data and examined for the specific unfolding of themes of identity emergence through professional discourse. The findings showed that the construction of a discrete space for transformative identity work separate from other curricula supported professional identity emergence. The workshop process revealed important features of the specific professional natures and capacities of these preservice teachers’ identities before they had fully emerged. Findings also indicated that articulation, exploration, and expression of core values has an important role in the activation of professional agency for preservice teachers. These findings usefully contribute to the ongoing discourse about future ITE program design, including advocating for the creation of a different ‘third space’ in ITE, adjacent to coursework and placement, and for finetuning the approach to preservice teacher mentoring. Supporting preservice teachers to teach in classrooms using their unique capacities and underpinned by their valued priorities is another step towards more effectively facilitating the graduation and then employment, of quality teachers.
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ItemRe-engineering education in the shadow of the future: Examining national policy frameworks in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore( 2022)Abstract As a comparative policy study, the thesis explores how practices in education policy making in Australia, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ((HKSAR) – referred to throughout the thesis as Hong Kong) and Singapore, three advanced regional economies, work to re-engineer education in the shadow of the future. A policy sociology approach is taken to examine how education policy is used discursively and influenced by power, regimes of truth, acts of governmentality and biopolitics to administer and shape individuals and societies. Additionally, the thesis investigates the ways in which policy making for education is influenced by a country’s culture and history, globalisation, economic needs, and neoliberal agendas in order to construct the contributing subject-citizen. The sites chosen for analysis, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, were part of a broader study of education landscapes in the Asia Pacific region in a global childhood’s project (see Lee et al., 2023; Yelland et al., 2020). All three sites, subject to regional and global flows, have undertaken schooling reform in order to address wider societal and political needs. Moreover, the improvement and restructuring of schooling in the three sites has been in response to notions of crises or radically shifting times, and these presses have been used as an opportunity for policy reform. The thesis begins with an interrogation of the key policy documents, political speeches and authoritative statements that provided explicit direction to the education sector and launched education policy reform in the three locations. The analysis of policy texts also includes insights from social semiotics as education policy makers around the world increasingly employ a range of modalities and make use of options for dynamic and visually appealing presentation of information and ideas to represent education and its attendant goals. Additionally, the thesis examines the responses of the Singaporean and Australian media to the 2018 PISA results, along with the commentary by policy makers that made its way into newspaper articles and discourse. Finally, the thesis investigates the ways in which policy makers and politicians used the COVID 19 pandemic crisis as an opportunity to reinforce political agendas and to justify new technologies of governance. In particular, the thesis provides new insights into the ways in which policy making functions in the service of broader goals that idealise learner-citizens in ways that align with policy agendas, cultural values and the best interest of national futures to ensure the current and future economy is perpetuated and protected. The three key findings of the thesis are: a) the policies in all three locations reflect the national imaginaries of what the youngest citizens should look like including their capacities, attitudes, beliefs, and capabilities, b) education policy in the high performing education systems of Hong Kong and Singapore have shifted towards constructing more multidimensional learner-citizens than previous policy iterations have allowed for, and c) differently configured education systems in the Asia Pacific region discursively employed policy rhetoric to rationalise and justify national reform agendas with varying levels of success. The findings of this work underscore that reform tacitly reiterates ideological narratives concerned with education’s purposes and potential to primarily produce workers with the skills needed for global economic success and the pursuit of nationalist agendas. However, it is recommended that these ideological narratives must be challenged, and that policy makers should instead look to the intrinsic purposes of education and the opportunity education offers for genuine transformation. Indeed, returning to Foucault’s (1980) theorisations of power and its capillary nature, the prospect for citizens to collectively reject their subject positions and push back on the neoliberal discourses that dominate is entirely possible.
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ItemTowards a Continuing Professional Development Framework for English-as-a-Foreign-Language Lecturers in Vietnam( 2022)This study aims to explore key elements of a continuing professional development (CPD) framework for English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) lecturers in Vietnam to support professional identity development for teaching with technology. Such a framework is of significance since previous research indicates that CPD for EFL lecturers in Vietnam has not sufficiently supported lecturers in terms of the competencies required to teach with technology, nor has it supported the development of self, e.g., motivation for professional practice. The literature reviewed here reveals several dimensions of this problem, including (1) the conceptualisation of CPD as a ‘top-down’ approach in Vietnam, (2) the lack of a strong theoretical base to guide CPD regarding teaching with technology, (3) a limited implementation of CPD to support EFL lecturers to effectively teach with technology, and (4) CPD as an under- researched area to guide policy and practice in Vietnamese higher education (VHE). The CPD framework developed here is grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and was used as a conceptual framework to guide the investigation of which elements are perceived to be important in a CPD framework for EFL lecturers in Vietnam. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used with two phases of data collection. In the first phase, a focus group was conducted with nine Vietnamese EFL experts in February 2018, to explore their perceptions of the key elements of the CPD framework to support EFL lecturers in Vietnam to effectively teach with technology while also developing other professional qualities. In the second phase, an online survey was administrated to EFL lecturers across Vietnam (n = 434) during October – November 2018 to examine their perceptions of how the elements are evident in their current teaching practice and CPD experiences. Four key findings emerging from the focus group and survey data helped to refine the final CPD framework. First, TPACK competence was considered the most important element of the CPD framework. It is conceptualised in VHE as three competence constructs: non- technological competence (referring to EFL lecturers’ competence in applying CK, PK, and PCK in teaching practice), Simple technological competence (referring to EFL lecturers’ competence in using TK), and Complex technological competence (referring to EFL lecturers’ competence in adopting complex TPK, TCK, and TPACK in their teaching practice). Second, autonomy and relatedness were perceived as additional important elements of the CPD framework, but less so than competence. Autonomy is defined as having (1) freedom and choice in teaching practice; (2) free choice to self-direct professional learning, and to choose what CPD activities will meet needs; (3) confidence to make decisions; and (4) support in terms of guidance and resources to make decisions. Relatedness is conceptualised in the VHE context as (1) having trust and respect from others (e.g., colleagues, students, leaders, the higher education system); (2) being connected to and having good relationships with people at work; and (3) having a sense of belonging to an institution or a community of practice with colleagues who share a profession. Third, context was considered an important overarching element in the CPD framework that impacted EFL lecturers’ CPD. It includes the external context in which the EFL lecturers work (e.g., at a macro, meso, and micro level), and internal context (e.g., lecturers’ motivation, teaching experience, expertise, and qualifications). Finally, statistical tests showed positive correlations between perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness in both Vietnamese EFL lecturers’ teaching practice and CPD needs. The relationship between perceived autonomy and relatedness is the strongest, followed by perceived competence and autonomy, then perceived competence and relatedness. The proposed CPD framework for EFL lecturers in Vietnam, therefore, includes the following four elements: TPACK competence, autonomy, relatedness, and context (internal and external) as an overarching element. The three elements of competence, autonomy, and relatedness are inter-related. The study makes theoretical, practical, and methodological contributions to the field of CPD. Theoretically, it adds a new perspective to the literature by exploring CPD in VHE through the combined lens of SDT and TPACK, viewing CPD as the process of professional becoming in TPACK competence, autonomy, and relatedness, within the influence of context. It also confirms the relevance of the use of SDT and TPACK in an Eastern context, offering new insights from a Vietnamese case to enrich the SDT and TPACK literature, respectively. Practically, the proposed CPD framework could provide guidance for different CPD stakeholders (e.g., EFL lecturers, CPD program designers, policy makers, and higher education leaders) in developing lecturer TPACK competence, autonomy, and relatedness in CPD. Methodologically, the study develops a survey instrument that could be used in similar settings to explore lecturers’ TPACK competence, autonomy, and relatedness in their teaching practice and CPD. It also contributes to the CPD literature with the findings of a large-scale study that considers attributes other than competencies in CPD for EFL lecturers in Vietnam.
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ItemEffectiveness of computer-assisted instruction to teach vocabulary to students with mild Intellectual Disability( 2022)Students with mild Intellectual Disability (ID) may have significant vocabulary knowledge gaps as compared to typically developing students because of limitations in their phonological loop, the part of working memory that processes language. This limits their academic growth and participation in employment and society post-school. This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of delivering a rich vocabulary intervention consisting of association, comprehension, and generation tasks based on Stahl’s Depth of Processing model delivered via a web-based Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) system designed using Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The original contribution to knowledge is that students with mild ID can make long-term vocabulary knowledge gains through a rich vocabulary intervention that manages cognitive load and delivered through CAI. A Design-Based Research methodology was used to test and refine an intervention implemented at a special school for students with mild ID in Victoria, Australia. A mixed methods approach captured quantitative knowledge gains from before and after the intervention and qualitative data in the form of teacher interviews, student focus groups, and observation notes. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 compared a rich vocabulary intervention design delivered using CAI versus traditional instruction. Study 2 was designed based on feedback from Study 1 and delivered the rich vocabulary intervention via CAI compared to a blended model of instruction. In the blended model association and comprehension tasks were delivered via CAI and generation tasks were delivered via traditional instruction. This thesis demonstrates that students with a mild ID can learn new vocabulary through a rich and robust intervention that includes deep-thinking tasks delivered via a computer and, importantly, that they can retain new knowledge five months later. Despite the purported benefits of multimedia’s moving images, audio, and interactive games, the intervention design used in this thesis was effective in CAI, traditional, and blended instruction modes. Additionally, qualitative data from teachers and students found positive responses to the interventions. Students particularly responded positively to entertaining animated characters and the natural-sounding voices used in story-telling and definitional videos. Teachers' responses suggest that they should design their own rich and robust vocabulary interventions considerate of cognitive load as they are in the best position to know the unique needs and existing knowledge of their students. As a result of this research, teachers should be encouraged to use more imagery and story context in their vocabulary instruction that challenges students to actively think about the target words, associations, contexts, and how they relate to existing knowledge. Teachers should also incorporate many generation tasks such as semantic mapping, semantic feature analysis, and drawing into their instruction as this research found a positive relationship between the number of these types of tasks and word knowledge gains. Researchers should continue this area of research with larger groups of students with mild ID, as opposed to case study research. The Word Associates Format test should also be studied further as the design used in this study was modified slightly from Read’s original format. Finally, this thesis encourages other researcher-practitioners to study vulnerable populations in authentic environments in order to reduce gaps between them and typically developing children.
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ItemExamining Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Practice of Geography Inquiry in Australian Secondary Schools( 2022)Despite an international turn towards using inquiry as a core approach for teaching and learning in school geography, there is limited understanding of how jurisdictions represent knowledge and pedagogy in the intended geography curricula, and what teachers what teachers in these jurisdictions know and believe about geography inquiry and how they actually enact it. This study set out to address these research gaps on teaching geography through inquiry and to explore the intersections between inquiry and subject knowledge in the intended and enacted geography curricula. Taking Victoria one of the most populous states of Australia as a case, the central research question was “What are the knowledge, beliefs and practice of geography inquiry amongst secondary teachers in Victoria?” Employing mixed methods research, the study comprised three phases of investigation. The first phase made use of document analysis to compare secondary geography curriculum documents from six international jurisdictions including Australia. This global context provided the backdrop for understanding the secondary geography curriculum documents from Victoria. The second phase surveyed the state’s secondary teachers about their beliefs, knowledge and practice of teaching geography through inquiry. The third phase employed case studies research exploring in-depth the practice of three teachers in three different school settings in metropolitan Melbourne. An extensive literature review led to the development of an original analytical framework which guided the analyses of the data. In the final discussion, the analyses from all three phases are considered together with the goal of refining and extending existing theory. Overall, this study’s findings suggest that the knowledge for teaching geography through inquiry is a dynamic collection of rich and situated knowledge constructed through experiences and social interactions in and with practice. At the same time, teachers’ beliefs are deeply intertwined in these experiences and interactions. Powerful professional knowledge for teaching geography through inquiry therefore is generated in and through teachers’ curriculum-making of high epistemic-quality geography inquiry lessons. As a contribution to the powerful knowledge debate, this study argues that the nature of knowledge in geography is such that geography inquiry is key to experiencing and developing powerful knowledge in geography. Additionally this study argues that everyday knowledge contributes to the construction of new specialised knowledge in geography. Powerful geography inquiry teaching practices that enable students to make epistemic gains during inquiry learning therefore include maintaining a stance that values and builds on students’ everyday knowledge, providing opportunities for all students for epistemic access, activating students’ commitment towards and effort in assuming epistemic agency, and enabling students to make epistemic ascent through purposeful use of dialogue and questions. This study concludes by proposing a model for ‘enacting powerful teaching of geography through inquiry’ which both augments concepts of pedagogical content knowledge and incorporates concepts of powerful knowledge and knowing.
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ItemDeveloping effective wellbeing interventions using universal bite-sized, online, school-based PPIs( 2022)With high rates of mental illness and illbeing among children worldwide, it is important to find ways of building the vocabulary, knowledge and skills needed to protect and nurture student wellbeing. Schools provide an opportune place for teaching children about wellbeing. Universal, bite-sized, online positive psychology interventions (PPIs) designed to build wellbeing among school aged cohorts, provide one option for all schools, including resource poor schools. However, understanding effectiveness is important. The RE-AIM framework was used here to plan for and evaluate PPI effectiveness, and to guide answers to the overarching thesis question: Is the brief universal online PPI HQthrive effective in increasing primary school students’ wellbeing, in terms of process and outcome effectiveness? This thesis includes discovery, development and evaluation phases of HQthrive. The discovery phases included a systematic literature review and focus group research to determine existing needs, value and fit for PPIs within the primary school context. Focus groups involved 44 grade 5/6 students and 38 teachers, from six country and three city Victorian primary schools. Focus groups included rich picture mapping, as well as focus group discussion. The development phase included co-design of the online PPI HQthrive, for grade 5/6 primary school classes. The final evaluation phase involved a pilot study of HQthrive at six Victorian primary schools, including 20 classes, 20 classroom teachers, and paired data from 131 students. Evaluation included examination of the adoption and implementation process, and examination of indicators of success, including participant feedback, researcher observations, emotional vocabulary data, subjective survey data of hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, and objective physiological data. Overall pedagogy, implementation and learning processes, and alternative outcome measures for PPIs are highlighted as important consideration for future research.
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ItemExploring the Role and In-service Professional Development of Government Secondary Schools Headteachers in Sindh, Pakistan( 2022)This qualitative phenomenological study explored the role of government secondary school headteachers and their in-service professional development (PD) in Sindh, Pakistan to understand their responsibilities and challenges, how they were supported to develop professionally, and the influence this development had on their work. A hermeneutic phenomenology methodology was employed by conducting semi-structured interviews and using thematic analysis of the interview transcripts to understand the experiences of participants. In total, forty-five semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with twenty-five research participants – twenty headteachers (two interviews with each headteacher) and five system managers (one interview with each system manager) selected to represent schools and systems in the province of Sindh. There were ten male and ten female principals from seven boys’ schools, six girls’ schools and seven co-educational schools. The system managers were all experienced educators and males. It was found that headteachers were performing several academic and administrative responsibilities, although the involvement was more administrative than academic. However, headteachers faced enormous challenges in leading their schools. Some critical challenges were a lack of basics due to electricity load-shedding, a shortage of furniture and a lack of clean drinking water. Others included a lack of funds, a shortage of teachers, managing professionally weak teachers, teachers’ unions’ issues, a lack of authority and COVID-19 problems. Nevertheless, some headteachers were making admirable efforts to address these challenges. Five PD features were uncovered: a lack of needs assessment to construct PD programs; curriculum was focussed on leadership and management, teaching and learning and financial management; PD programs relied on activity-based, and lecture-based teaching strategies; trainer selection needed to be based more on merit; evaluation of the learning relied on pre-test and post-test, and there was an absence of follow-up after the completion of a particular PD program. The findings reported benefits not only for the headteachers but also for teachers and students. Personally, headteachers’ confidence, communication and behaviour improved professionally; they learnt about new techniques, management trends, and innovations in school leadership and developed networking with other headteachers. Other PD benefits included headteachers helping teachers in academic and assessment matters, organising school-based PD and delegating tasks to teachers. This often resulted in a change in teaching practice, which was beneficial for students. Finally, this research may open a window for university professors, consultants, institutes, and governments to understand the role and challenges of headteachers, identify gaps and improve the design, delivery, and evaluation of headteachers PD. Keywords: school leadership, principals, headteachers, professional development, headteachers’ role, qualitative research, Sindh, Pakistan
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ItemUnderstanding the adoption of STEM teacher education in Australian universities( 2022)Over the past two decades, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has arisen internationally. This emphasis on STEM has come from considerable dialogue around the need for economic growth, stability arising from innovation and 21st century skills in contemporary workplaces, and concern that there is declining student interest, enrolment, and performance in STEM subjects, courses, and careers (Hoyle, 2016; Huber et al., 2017). As STEM has become more prolific, the need for teacher preparation in this field has resulted in the introduction of STEM teacher education courses across many countries. Despite this growing number of programs, existing understanding is limited to the impact of individual programs on teacher learning, focus on singular perspectives, and predominance in the United States. Therefore, there is limited understanding and guidance available for individuals and institutes adopting STEM teacher education, which may impact the implementation of STEM education in schools and thus the achievement of the intended outcomes of this educational approach. To develop further understanding of STEM teacher education, this thesis studies its curriculum through the eyes of those involved in teacher education programs in Australia. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, this thesis investigates the experiences of course coordinators (n = 11), teacher educators (n = 13), and teachers (n = 10) across multiple sites (n = 13) and courses at Australian universities. Data were collected through qualitative surveys and semistructured interviews that explored participant perceptions of the influential factors, processes, and features of STEM teacher education curriculum. In doing so, this research contributes to a broader and deeper understanding of the uptake, development, and enactment of STEM teacher education, revealing the key influences, important procedures and contributors, and valued knowledge areas and learning activities in its curriculum. Highlighting the complexity of STEM teacher education, this thesis offers valuable insight for individuals and institutes adopting STEM teacher education.
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ItemThe First Year Experience of university students in Chile( 2022)The first year of university constitutes a crucial stage in students’ adjustment to university. The first-year experience (FYE) of students in Chile is the subject of public policy efforts and scholarly discussions about access to higher education and retention. While there have been some empirical studies investigating student attrition and retention in Chile, the research to date has been narrow in scope, focussing mainly on factors affecting access and attrition. There is limited research that captures the complexity of students’ experiences in the first year of university, and particularly their experiences of university in times of major social disruption. This mixed-methods study investigated the first-year student experience in Chile during a period of mass demonstrations and the Covid-19 pandemic and analysed the factors influencing students’ transition and adjustment to universities over two years. One hundred and seventy-nine first-year students responded to an online survey about their university experience. Eight students participated in a series of semi-structured interviews over the first two years of their university studies. The findings suggest that commencing university studies with clear goals fostered students’ motivation and engagement in their studies. Peer interactions encouraged students’ sense of belonging to university, providing vital academic and emotional support, especially during times of isolation. Supportive interactions with teachers and adjusting teaching to accommodate students’ circumstances promoted students’ engagement with their studies and supported their wellbeing in challenging times. The findings of the present study reaffirm that supportive experiences with peers and teachers can facilitate students’ transition and adjustment to university. This aligns with international evidence and highlights the critical role that peers and teachers play in challenging times. The findings provide insights into the complexity of students’ FYE in Chile, highlighting its individual and context-dependent qualities. The findings of the present study have implications for universities and academic staff to better support students in their transition to university, especially during times of disruption.
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ItemDeveloping and validating an operationalisable model of critical thinking for assessment in different cultures( 2022)Critical thinking has become an educational priority worldwide, as it is considered to play a fundamental role in problem-solving, decision-making and creativity. Yet the evidence is mixed about whether and how our education system produces good critical thinkers, and this is particularly evident in studies of the relative performance of Chinese and Western students. This study began with the assumption that the mixed evidence might in part be understood as resulting from a mismatch between the expectations of critical thinkers and the model of critical thinking adopted for its assessment. A review of literature suggested that the mismatch might stem from difficulties in operationalising the current theories of critical thinking in assessments. Drawing on a range of multidisciplinary studies of critical thinking, an operationalisable model of critical thinking was developed that includes a cognitive skill dimension and an epistemological belief dimension. Three assessment instruments were designed to validate the multidimensional model. The two dimensions of critical thinking were assessed separately as per existing assessments practices, and in an integrated manner. Performances on the three assessments were examined based on the data collected from a convenience sample of 480 higher education students in Australia (N=233) and China (N=247). Rasch analysis was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the three instruments. Latent regression analysis with Rasch modelling and latent profile analysis were conducted to compare the performance patterns of critical thinking competency between the sampled groups. The results showed that the instruments were reliable for the measurement of the intended construct model and performed in an unbiased manner across the sampled groups. The results produced by the two approaches (separate and integrated assessment) were consistent. The two approaches can provide useful information for different purposes. It was found that the students in the Chinese sample performed at a lower level than the students in the Australian sample on all of the assessment instruments, and the two samples showed different performance patterns between the groups in the two components of the model. The study concluded that the operationalisable model provides a way of understanding conflicting evidence about patterns of critical thinking found in different cultures, and may inform tailored strategies for teaching critical thinking.