Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 32
-
ItemConflicting demands affecting the development of secondary education in Victoria, 1910-1970(University of Melbourne, 1971)
-
ItemThe concept of accountability and some implications of educational accountability in the Karmel report(University of Melbourne, 1975)The central themes dealt with in this thesis are, firstly, that the notion one has of educational accountability is partly derived from one's understanding of what education means; and, secondly, that two senses of accountability may be distinguished - - a restricted and largely quantifiable sense, and a more inclusive sense which embraces both those elements of education which' secure and those which elude the quantifiable. The central arguments in this thesis are, firstly, that the notion of accountability in terms of bureaucratic answerability of educat�rs, which is explicitly projected by the Karmel Report in Chapter 13, is too narrow to serve a concept of education that is complex and subtle; and, secondly, that more, not less, accountability of an enriched kind, expressed in implicit and muted tones in Chapter 2 of the Report, is required in education. The inclusive and enriched notion of accountability, argued for in this thesis, is one that demands of all the agents of education (e.g.,teachers, pupils, parents, the state, churches,) that they provide optimum conditions for worthwhile learning to occur and that they be accountable to one another for the provision of those conditions.
-
ItemAn analysis of the logic of film criticism with special reference to film study courses in schools( 1970)The distinctive concepts, relationships between concepts, criteria and procedures for judgement-making which constitute the logic of film criticism have been left largely unexplored. As a consequence, film critics and film teachers, lacking an understanding of the distinot body of concepts and procedures characteristic of this form of discourse, have been unable to offer convincing justifications for critical judgements on the one hand, and f o r the belief that film study i s properly an educational activity on the other. In each case, factors or principles extrinsic to the internal logic of film criticism have been offered as justifications. It is shown that the search for justifications for both aesthetic and educational judgements which appeal to necessary formal or moral principles, or to the consequences believed to follow from an experiencing of films, cannot withstand analysis. A critical scourse in the arts i s properly effected by presenting descriptions of the works, expressed i n terms of, and justified with reference to, those concepts and criteriadistinctive of the form of art i n question. It is argued that the work of the English film critic, Robin Wood, and some recent semiological studies on the nature of meaning i n films, represent the beginnings of a clarification of the logic of film criticism. The matter is of central importance to the form and purpose of film study courses. If, to be counted as educational, an activity must be concerned with judgements publicly testable for truth or appropriateness, and if such judgements can occur only within the logical structure of a form of knowledge or discourse, then film teaching can properly be termed educational only if film study courses are informed by an understanding of the logic of film criticism. It follows then that Robin Wood's criticism and the small body of semiological work at present available could well serve as the source of this understanding.
-
ItemSecondary education in Van Diemen's Land, 1820-1857( 1972)The history of the establishment of any school system is necessarily an account of contrasting individuals and their diverse attitudes and efforts. Van Diemen's Land is no exception; the only factor enjoyed in common by nearly all of the private schoolmasters was their motivation - want of a more lucrative or appropriate occupation. Few schools prospered in Tasmania in the period up to 1850 for the colony lacked the prosperous middle-class that supported the English public and proprietary schools. A convict, Thomas Fitzgerald, was appointed as the first public schoolmaster in 1807 but nothing of a secondary nature was attempted until 1819. From that point a number of schools can be traced. The most remarkable would be those conducted at Pressland House, Melville Street, Hobart Town, by a succession of capable schoolmasters, in Launceston by Charles Price, and at Ellinthorp Hall, near Ross, by Mrs.G.C.Clark. However, the most insignificant seminary made some contribution to the traditions of culture and education in Tasmania, and for this reason, each founder deserves to be considered, whether of the English or Scottish tradition, Rugbeian or parochial school derivation, trained or self-taught, emancipist or free settler. Whilst free enterprise provided the temporary educational needs of Van Diemen's Land, Church and State pondered ways to establish more permanent institutions. The efforts of Archdeacons T.H.Scott and W.G.Broughton came to nought but activities commenced with the arrival of Sir John Franklin in 1837, a governor determined to set up a public school of the Arnoldian pattern in Tasmania. John Philip Gell was selected as foundation headmaster and, until the College could be built, he conducted the Queen's School. This venture failed during the severe economic depression in 1843. Sir John Franklin's successor, Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, did not share his predecessor's enthusiasm for the College so in its place the Church of England planned a Church-sponsored system of schools. Bishop F.R.Nixon promoted a fund-raising drive, largely in England, which resulted in the establishment in 1846 of Christ's College, a grammar school and quasi-university, and two feeder schools, Hutchins School in Hobart Town and the Launceston Church Grammar School. At about the same time another group, composed largely of Dissenters, launched a High School in Hobart Town. Both the High School and Christ's College failed during the 1850's but the two feeder schools survived the economic troubles and Tractarian disputes of the period. It is clear that in all these schools, although economic and political factors played decisive roles, the most significant factor was the character of the persons organizing and controlling the schools. It is necessary therefore to see what manner of men worked for education in Van Diemen's Land in the first half of the nineteenth century.
-
ItemColin Campbell : religion and education, 1852-1872( 1974)This thesis investigates the role of Colin Campbell in the church-state struggles over education. Having found squatting precarious, and possessing a large capacity for public life, Campbell was pleased to become involved in colonial events on the conservative side. As democracy advanced and his worst fears proved groundless, he endeavoured to liberalize his outlook. A spokesman for pastoral tenants, he was held accountable for squatter misdeeds. Only at the district level and within his church, was he allowed a full contribution. These aspects are illustrated throughout, but especially in chapters 1 and 7. Campbell believed in universal education bestowing on it temporal and religious responsibilities. He allotted church and state complementary functions, requiring them to work harmoniously in institutionalizing national education. His early concept of denominationalism is explored in chapter 2. However, in the 1850s society proved incapable of deciding the respective roles for church and state in education. This and Campbell's efforts in seeking a national school system are explored in chapters 3 and 4. Secretaryship of the Denominational School Board provided Campbell with an opportunity of applying administrative solutions to denominational school problems. He always endeavoured to apply educational principles and obtain an adequate and fair distribution of funds. But events smothered him. Rather than become a political tool,he resigned the secretaryship in 1859. Chapters 5 and 6 treat these themes. From the perimeter Campbell tried to save national education from secularism prior to 1872. Applying the principle of freedom of conscience, he asked that the state remain neutral on religious instruction. But unable to meet all requirements of society concurrently, it chose to equate secularism with neutrality. Campbell advised Anglicans to seek a "common Scriptural basis" compromise with other Protestant churches from which they might stand firm against secular liberalism. However, as chapters 8 and 9 demonstrate, his advice went unheeded. Finally, Campbell was reluctant to concede secularism a victory and accept the consequences, still hoping to revive a defunct church-state partnership. Although historically ignored, it is argued throughout that he made a considerable and worthy contribution to 19th century education.
-
ItemFormal adult education in Victoria, 1890 to 1950( 1971)This history deals mainly with four official groups: a sub-committee of the University of Melbourne, the Extension Board; a voluntary agency symbiotic with the university, the Workers' Educational Association; the Joint Committee of these two; and a later, separate statutory body, the Council of Adult Education. Because, however, it is concerned with education it also takes note of some social history, history of ideas, and biographies. Adult education in Victoria has always been an offering made by its providers, rather than the result of a demand from potential students; and the innovations made, as each provision proved inappropriate to the community, have been based on an ideal or an idea. Those ideas appear to have been formed largely from two sets of pre-suppositions: some overall view of the nature of man, and some view of educational rigour - what degree of systematic teaching or learning was appropriate. In particular, the period under review saw the end of the motivating force of philanthropy in adult education, and the rise of something closer to the concept of a welfare service for all taxpayers. Chapter One covers the background of ideas abroad before 1891, and the institutions that embodied them in Victoria. Chapter Two takes the beginning of University Extension as the first major provision of adult education, embodying a philanthropic ideal originating in England. Chapter Three introduces the W.E.A., who challenged philanthropy and achieved state subsidy for the learning of the workers, now called upon by universal suffrage to share in government. The workers failed to cooperate with the movement, and Chapter Four details the hopelessness of both the Extension and the W.E.A. ideals as guides to practice, and the consequent parasitism of the Victorian W.E.A. on the university. Chapter Five covers the rejection of the W.E.A. from its entanglement in the counsels and finances of the university, its eventual extinction, and the successful move of the Director of Extension to push the management of adult education off the campus. Chapter Six is a brief overview.
-
ItemMatthew Arnold's perception of culture and the implications of that perception for his educational writing( 1976)The first chapter centres around an analysis of the concept of culture and, in particular, three uses of the concept which recur consistently throughout Arnold's works: culture as a pursuit of our total perfection, as a means of social transformation, and as an inward operation. The question is raised: Why, according to Arnold, did men need to be transformed, and in what ways could culture effect this transformation? Chapter two is concerned with answering the first part of the question; chapter three the second. An exploration of the need for men to be transformed involves an analysis of Victorian society as Arnold perceived it. How, on the Arnoldian analysis, could culture transform society? Culture is concerned with the pursuit of perfection by man's coming to know 'the best which has been thought and said in the world'. Though it begins as an inward operation, it never rests there. The man who seeks perfection comes to see that 'totality' entails social commitment. Hence the importance of culture for Arnold's social theory. The agents of social transformation are thought to be, in particular, the 'aliens', those 'generous and humane souls' whose concern is the development not of their 'ordinary self' but of their 'best self'. These 'men of culture', acting through their 'collective best self', are seen as instruments of social transformation. The weaknesses of Arnold's social theory are now explored. What are the implications of Arnold's perception of culture for his educational theory? He never really sees the elementary schools as centres of 'culture'. They are, at best, centres of 'light' and 'civilization'. This attitude reflects not only Arnold's realism, but also his unconscious acceptance of a middle class view which sees culture, specifically, as 'literary culture'. It is in his approach to the question of middle class education that the close link between Arnold's social theory and his educational theory can best be seen. The transformation of the middle class through culture is a pre-condition of the transformation of society. And it is through education that 'general liberal culture' is to be fostered. Thus, Arnold's commitment to middle class education is not only compatible with his commitment to culture, but also an important aspect of that commitment.
-
ItemClassroom effects of manipulating the expectations of teachers of differential pupil control ideology( 1975)The consequences of the differential arousal of teacher expectancy for child performance were investigated by the giving of false information about pupil reading potential to teachers. Subsequent academic measures adjusted for pretest scores on the same measures were used to investigate the treatment effect. Coder scores on a number of selected teacher behaviours were analysed to identify possible mediators of expectancy. The behaviours were analysed as a set and individually. Sixty student teachers classified as either custodial or humanistic taught reading to "potential bloomers" and "non bloomers" of both high and low ability for eight weeks. Ten teachers, five of each type, were randomly allocated to each grade from 1 - V1. Pupils were randomly assigned to treatment groups. The tightly structured replication of the Rosenthal and Jacobson study featured investigation of the relationship of teacher expectancy and teacher type. Results showed treatment effect differences in favour of "potential bloomers" for reading comprehension (p< 0.037) but not on other achievement measures for the full sample. These differences were dependent on the type of teacher (p< 0.032) with differences favouring "potential bloomers" being due to groups taught by humanistic teachers. A predicted' interaction of treatment and grade level did not appear. The teacher expectancy by teacher type interaction was also significant for reading comprehension (p< 0.021) and intelligence (p< 0.012) for a sub sample identified as having accepted the attempted experimental manipulation. "Potential bloomers" outscored controls when taught by humanistic teachers but the pattern: was reversed for custodial teachers. Full sample teacher behaviour results showed a trend in the predicted direction for direct questions (p< 0.083) but no other predicted relationships appeared. "Potential bloomers" received more direct questions. An unpredicted close to significant full sample (p < 0.065) and highly significant (p< 0.008) sub sample pupil ability by teacher expectancy by teacher type interaction shoved teachers varied in their behaviour towards expectancy groups. This was for a measure showing the number of times teachers responded to incorrect responses by giving clues, repeating questions or rephrasing questions. This finding and a number of other unpredicted findings which appear related to the investigation's hypotheses are discussed. The investigation suggests teacher expectancies can affect pupil performance but parameters within which experimental manipulations are accepted and/or communicated need to be further defined in relation to teacher type. Custodial teachers appear unable to stet the results they expect. The data did not contradict the proposition that teachers' expectancies of pupil potential in specific school related tasks influence pupil's self expectancy states and these in turn influence performance.
-
ItemEducation in a general sense( 1976)R. S. Peters, in his article, The Justification of Education, refers to a specific sense and a general sense of education. Peters elaborates, and justifies, education in the specific sense. In this thesis, I examine the general sense of education, which is that referred to when people, generally, believe it is true that education is needed. I assume, also, that it. is true that education involves learning. By examining what it means to say that something is needed, I determine that statements of need embody judgements as to what is necessary for the achievement of an objective. Before people can make veridical judgements of need, then, they need knowledge both of the authorizing criteria of the objective to be achieved, and of the law-like statements which express the relationships between the criteria and significant factors in their realization. They must be able to determine which of these significant factors is relevant to the person or object judged to need them - they must, in fact, be able to reason. All these things must be learned, or developed, as part of education. I see this as education in the specific sense. The basis for my explication of the "general sense" of education is that there is general agreement that education is needed. Since statements of need have been shown to embody judgements as to what is necessary for the achievement of an objective, agreement that education is needed is most likely to exist when there is agreement as to the objective which is to be achieved as a consequence of education. I suggest, as a common objective to be achieved by education, that people generally should satisfy the criteria for inclusion in the social group. Education in the general sense, then, includes all that should be learned that this objective might be achieved. Although I indicate, in the Appendix, how a traditional account of value would support the thesis that education in this sense has value, I deny that the judgement education is needed entails that either the objective, or the means of achieving it, has value. Overall, I see education in the general sense as including education in the specific sense, and I ask if the two concepts of education, the specific and the general, should share the name "education".
-
ItemPost-world war II development of commercial courses for girls in Victorian technical schools, with special reference to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 1945-1970( 1974)In the inter-war years (1919- 1939), commercial courses, traditionally part of the technical system of education and fast becoming the province of girls, suffered from the effects of the economic depression, made some slight gains during the recovery years and achieved importance in the war years. In the post-World War II years growing community interest in education in general, and technical education in particular, reflected the social and economic climate of the rapidly changing 1950s and 1960s. High population growth and an affluent society created new educational needs, and industry required new technical college courses to meet technological developments and the continuing emergence of new knowledge. Occurring initially when Victorian resources were being channelled mainly into other priorities owing to post-war conditions, these demands caused a crisis in education in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, the Victorian Government being unable to support the expansion of tertiary education to its fullest extent. Therefore the Commonwealth Government granted, under certain conditions, financial aid to tertiary technical education and, in Victoria, the already existing Victoria Institute of Colleges became the guardian of the course standards of its affiliated C.A.E.s. Thus technical education at the tertiary level was eventually in a position to offer its own degrees and provide what promised to be a viable alternative to university education. The technical system of education appeared to represent a man's world and echoed the general education practice of the day as far as girls were concerned, thus reflecting the community's attitude to the place of women in Australian society. Tradition was the over-riding influence on what girls were taught and, as a necessary corollary, the kind of careers they followed. Hence it transpired that girls confined their abilities to a narrow range of female occupations, one of the chief of these being office work. The popularity of office work in the 1950s and 1960s was reflected in the growing number of students enrolling for commercial courses in the technical system. Technical commercial education responded increasingly to community and industrial demands, and endeavoured to maintain relevance to the changing times as it pursued higher standards and created a new concept of vocational training at both junior and senior levels. With the onset of the 1970s commercial education in the Victorian technical system provided all but one of the known commercial courses and, in keeping with the technical educational philosophy of the times, retained its established diploma. In the pursuit of professional status for the potential secretary, degree courses in secretarial work were foreshadowed in two Victorian C.A.E.s, while the Institute of Private Secretaries (Australia) sought professional status for the secretary already within the workforce.