Faculty of Education - Theses
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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.
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ItemSome approaches to differences in entrants to pre-school, primary, and secondary teaching( 1972)In Australia, because of differences in training, qualifications, salary, unions, and prestige, teachers see themselves primarily as teachers at particular levels in the, educational structure, rather than members of a united "teaching profession". But whether these institutional and prestige differences are based on more fundamental differences has rarely been investigated. The present study considered 900 recent entrants to pre-school, primary, and secondary teaching, with the aim of identifying the strongest bases of inter-group differentiation among them, according to level of teaching entered and sex of student. Community stereotypes have concentrated on differences in academic ability as most fundamental; certainly selection processes based on academic achievement ensure that these exist. This investigation has compared academic ability measures with derived scales in a number of other areas, basically in two dimensions: the choice of teaching as an occupation, and the background (social and school) of teaching entrants. In the first area, both a factor analysis of expressed reasons for entry to teaching and a derived measure of commitment to teaching revealed marked differences in response patterns, according to sex and to level of teaching entered. In the second area, social background was measured on a socio-economic status index, based on six variables, and by a status discrepancy score. With these, identification of sex and level differences was confounded by inter-college differences, resulting from the private or state nature of the institution, and the impact of residential allocation to state primary teachers' colleges. The investigation of background also included school background of students, in terms of academic achievement at final school year level, and students' recollections of their own school experience. Again marked level and sex differences emerged. Thus real differences in many areas exist; which most strongly differentiated entering groups by level or sex? Not academic achievement, despite the community stereotype. Only when reasons for entry to teaching were excluded from analysis was this the strongest discriminator, dividing students according to a hierarchy of institutions attended and scholarships awarded (university, then state colleges, then private colleges). But to understand differences among pre-school, primary, and secondary entrants, or male and female recruits, analysis had to include the reasons for becoming a teacher; these and commitment to teaching were the most powerful sources of differentiation by level or sex.
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ItemA comparative study of three New South Wales directorates( 1972)Eleven regional directorates have been established in New South Wales over the past 25 years for the purpose of 'decentralizing' to some extent the formerly highly centralized administration of the N.S.W. Education Department. The introduction of the area system was expected to bring about a number of benefits relating to the , maintenance and staffing of schools, the professional morale of teachers, and the level of community interest in and support for local schools. A comparative study of three N.S.W. directorates was carried out (during 1971-2) by this researcher. My conclusion is that the area system has not in fact led to educational decentralization, and that claims for its success as an administrative innovation have been characterized by optimism rather than by accuracy. With respect to buildings maintenance, certain benefits have followed the area systems introduction, particularly in rural areas where superior provisions are currently being made for school maintenance than in the metropolitan areas surveyed. With greater autonomy and less dependence upon the Public Works Department, directorates would experience even greater benefits in this field. However; the impact of the system upon the average classroom, teacher has not been that personalized administration which is often referred to as being one of the significant gains resulting from the establishment of area directorates in N.S.W. The average teacher seldom comes into contact with the area director or his staff, and Area Office is still generally regarded as a clearing house for correspondence to Head Office, where most important decisions are made. This tendency appeared to be more pronounced in the metropolitan directorates studied; it was also more common amongst secondary teachers than primary staff. Possibly some reduction in the present size of all directorates would assist area directors and their officers to become better known to local teaching personnel.
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ItemThe cognitive levels of grade VI, form II and form IV students when solving social studies type problems and the influence upon performance of varying the method of question presentation( 1972)An examination was made of the thinking abilities of students measured on social studies type tests and the influence upon performance of varying the method of presentation. The study was undertaken with subjects drawn from grade 6, form II and formlV. The social studies tests were five in number. Two were based upon verbal materials, two upon photographs and one upon actual objects. For the questions asked, each testing situation provided conflicting information which the subject could either ignore or attempt to resolve. Three treatment groups were used to assess the impact of varying the method of test presentation. In the first the subjects were given each set of data and the appropriate questions were posed. With the second variation the subjects were asked to consider possible answers to each question before they saw the data. The third variation involved a short teaching sequence where individual subjects were shown model answers to a question based upon a situation that was not part of the testing program. The qualities of these model answers were indicated and the subject was asked to replicate similar attributes in his own responses. This brief introduction was given to each subject in Treatment Three on five occasions, just prior to each of the five testing situations. Aside from the two major issues investigated, the study also examined the relationship between performance on the social studies situations and performance on the A.C.E.R. Intermediate Test D; A.C.E.R. Word Knowledge, Form B; a multi-choice social studies reasoning test; and a test of current affairs. In addition performance on the social studies tasks was related to the socio-economic status of parents and to performance on a replication of Piaget's colourless chemicals experiment. The results of the study are based upon an examination of the responses of 171 subjects from two different socio-economic areas and assigned at random to the three treatment groups. Performance was rated against the stages of cognitive growth proposed by Piaget together with some additional sub-sections. Overall, 8 categories were used to classify the responses; the categories ranged from the intuitive stage to the stage of formal operations. The analysis of results indicated that the performance of the three grade levels differed significantly from one another. The mean score of grade six, across the five tasks, was at the early level of concrete operations. Form II was still within the concrete stage although at a higher or more sophisticated level. Form IV mean score almost reached the transitional stage between concrete and formal operations. Performance on the three groups of social studies tests - verbal, visual and objects - differed significantly from each other. This result was interpreted with caution. Although the verbal material situations were more difficult than the visual materials which in turn were more difficult than the objects test, this sequence of decreasing difficulty also corresponded to the order of test administration. Thus the change in difficulty level could have been due to a learning phenomenon rather than to the nature of the test materials. The differences in scores between Treatment Three and the other two treatments was accepted as a real difference and a significant interaction was discovered between grade 6 and Treatment Three. The correlations between the social studies tasks and other variables followed the order sequence of intelligence test scores, vocabulary, social studies reasoning, chronological age, social studies knowledge, colourless chemicals experiment, and socio economic status of parents. The lower correlation between the last two measures and the five social studies tasks was not anticipated.
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ItemA comparison of the educational set of students in two introductory physics courses( 1972)The P.S.S.C. physics course and a traditional physics course taught in Tasmania were examined for differences in aims that might lead to differences in the educational set developed in students taking the two courses. A six-category model of educational set in physics involving recall of specifics, practical applications, mathematical generalizations, verbal generalizations, constructive criticism and destructive criticism was developed and a 24 item test instrument (Test E.S. (Physics)) constructed, subsequent to two different trials. Test E.S. (Physics), the Educational Set Scale of Siegal and Siegal and tests AL and AQ were administered to a sample of 389 students made up as follows:- Form IV - 97 in Tasmania and 58 in Victoria Form V - 49 in Tasmania and 82 in Victoria Form VI - 51 in Tasmania and 50 in Victoria Classes from two schools were included in each sub-sample. AL plus AQ was used as the covariate and the appropriate corrections were made before the technique of planned comparisons was used in a variety of within-state and between-state comparisons. The only significant between-state difference detected was in the categories of mathematical generalization. Within each state the comparison between Form IV students and students in later years resulted in significant differences in all comparison except for category 1 (specific facts). A number of correlations were investigated without any clear pattern emerging although category 3 (mathematical generalizations) was involved in several significant correlations. An off-shoot of the major study lead to the development of an Education Set Test based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The administration of the test gave results consistent with the order between categories suggested by the Bloom model. The major finding of the study was that both physics courses probably produced significant changes in students' educational set but these changes did not seem to be consistent with the differences between their aims.
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ItemDifferential arousal of state anxiety and problem solving performance( 1972)In Part A of an experiment, tertiary students were assigned at random to either failure or success experiences with three types of task materials. The effects of manipulations on reported state anxiety levels were examined using pro-treatment levels as the covariate. Data from ten replications indicated that, although adjusted means of failure groups were significantly higher than those of success groups, the magnitude of anxiety arousal depended upon the material used in the experimental treatment. Results indicated that exposure to anagram materials produced more marked variation in anxiety levels than either number or vocabulary materials. It was clear that students experiencing stronger failure showed higher adjusted state anxiety scores than did students experiencing milder failure or success. Greater lability of scores was found for female subjects and state anxiety arousal was found to be correlated significantly with proneness to test anxiety. In Part B, which was quasi-experimental, all subjects worked through a set of letter series problems. In post-hoc analyses, subjects within the failure or success treatments were classified by degree of proneness to test anxiety and level of orientation towards achievement. Levels of test anxiety and aroused state anxiety were associated with differences in both number of problems attempted and number of items abandoned. A significant triple interaction on the log time spent correctly solving problems, suggested that high state anxiety could either facilitate or debilitate performance depending on the strength of the trait differences. These results were consistent with the hypothesised operation of either impulsive or reflective strategies activated to cope with high anxiety arousal. It was found that reversed items of the State Anxiety Scale tended to reflect increases in situational stress to a greater extent than did directly stated items. The practice of reversing the scoring weights on reversed items to derive state anxiety scores does not appear to produce an exact alignment with the meaning of the directly stated anxiety items.
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ItemThe institutional provision for the education of intending teachers: a comparative study of changes in Canada and Australia( 1972)The thesis which has been explored has been that one major determinant of change in the institutional provision for the education of intending teachers has been the school system itself. This has acted partly through the numerical demands for teachers and also through qualitative changes in schools. Such things as the type of primary and secondary education, the curriculum, and the numbers of children at school in each age level all seem related to changes in the way that teacher education is provided. A theoretical basis for such a hypothesis has been developed and the hypothesis then tested through a consideration of the pattern of changes in Australia and Canada. In both countries teacher education systems can be considered to have evolved from a fundamentally dichotomous model. The education of secondary teachers had taken place in the universities while that of intending primary teachers took place in specialist institutions controlled by the employing authority. As the distinction between elementary and secondary education became less marked so there occurred changes in the pattern of teacher education. In Australia the changes in the provision of teacher education in the late sixties and early seventies have followed a period when there was an expansion of secondary school enrolments and a series of curriculum changes at both the primary and secondary level. In Canada a more detailed comparison of changes in each province was made and a similar relation emerged. Those provinces which first made changes in the provision of teacher education were those which experienced first an expansion of secondary school enrolments and an intensive period of curriculum revision. As a result of these comparisons it is suggested that these changes in schools are best described as initiating factors in this change. A comparison of the different form of the changes which occurred in Australia and Canada suggests that to some extent the nature of the general provision of tertiary education in a given country can be regarded as a formative factor in the changes discussed. The solutions to the problem of a need to change the control of teacher education which have been adopted in each of these countries have been coloured by the form of tertiary education which prevailed. It is suggested that while these factors are contributing rather than controlling factors, and that while they do not provide a closed set of determinants, at least this is a useful framework for discussing these changes. They may also provide a useful starting point for a further analysis of the provision of teacher education in other countries.
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ItemThe influence of federal-state financial relationships on government provision of funds for education in Victoria, 1945-1970( 1972)The central proposition of the study is that defects in revenue sharing arrangements between the Federal and State Governments have been a major contributing factor to the shortage of funds for government financed education in Victoria. Attention has therefore been concentrated on total funds available to the Victorian Government whether in the form of State revenue, general revenue grants from the Commonwealth, loan funds or specific purpose grants. The increase during the period in specific purpose grants for education is seen as important but not central to the problem of government provision of funds for education. It will be argued that the increasing proportion of Federal Government funds for education provided through specific purpose grants is in large part the result of the unsatisfactory arrangements by which government revenue and loan funds are distributed between Federal and State governments. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the Victorian education system, considering first the inter-relationship of government finance and the provision of finance for education. Attention is given to the method of financing education and to changes in funding patterns over a period of time. The influences leading to the above changes are then analysed. The general conclusion from this section is that, despite increased State effort in provision of funds for education, funds available have not kept pace with the needs of education. The Victorian Government has only limited control over the funds available for education because of its dependence on Federal funds and the absence of State growth taxes. This conclusion indicates the need to examine the financial arrangements between the two levels of government and their influence on education. The discussion of this section takes as its basis a theory of fiscal federal ism which suggests the legitimate goals of Federal financial transfers and appropriate forms of such transfers to achieve these goals. Many financial transfers influencing funds made available for education are shown to be inadequate or in a form inappropriate to the goals established. The strong interrelationships between the types of transfer from the Commonwealth are clearly established, supporting the total pattern of funding approach adopted in the study. As an added dimension to the problem of Federal financial transfers to Victoria, the history of direct Federal involvement in State education is then traced. The unsatisfactory revenue sharing arrangements of the period and the theoretical framework of financial transfers shape the discussion in this section. Finally, some general conclusions suggested by the discussion in the previous chapters are attempted. The issues considered here are:- (a) The extent to which Federal finance for education has replaced State funds or stimulated total resources devoted to education. (c) The extent to which Federal initiatives have led to structural alterations in Victorian education. In addition to the above issues which are specific to Federal and Victorian financing of education during the period covered, a number of other issues which appear to have more general relevance, are considered. (a) The influence of the method by which funds are provided on the effectiveness of their application to educational purposes. (b) The influence of general economic conditions on funds made available for education. (c) The advantages and disadvantages of multiple sources of funding for education.