Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 16
-
ItemThe link between secondary education and the chemical industry in Victoria( 1994)This study investigates the existing links between the chemical industry and secondary education in Victoria. The current views of the chemical industry towards their involvement with secondary schools and secondary teachers' perceptions of industry are examined. The authors' personal perspective based on professional participation in industry and in education forms an integral part of the study. The major factors that currently impact on the link between education and industry are outlined. The effectiveness of recent initiatives, both national and international for the development of closer links are examined. Key personnel in schools. and industry were interviewed in order to examine the current relationship between secondary schools and industry. The extent to which each party takes responsibility for incorporating this relationship as an important factor contributing to the chemical industry's future is also examined. This study reveals that the number of initiatives aimed at securing a closer link between secondary schools and industry within Victoria are limited and the overall coordination and direction of this link is inadequate. Recommendations are therefore put forward to improve this situation.
-
ItemGeelong High School 1909-16 : a study of local response( 1978)The years 1909-16 saw the expansion of public secondary education within Victoria. It represents the working out of certain aims and policies for secondary schools between a centralised Education Department in Melbourne and the local communities that were financially involved in the provision of these facilities. This thesis will attempt to identify the forces shaping the development of Geelong High School. It will outline the aims and values of this community and evaluate the significance of their perception of what secondary education should be about. The study will look at the role of the Education Department - its director, its administrative philosophy and the attitude of the State Government towards the expansion of secondary education. The study will examine the interplay of these factors with the significant contribution of the school's educational leadership and philosophy. The main argument of the thesis is that the success of Geelong High School was to a large extent due to its support from a middle class. They saw in the school opportunities for their children resulting from an education that was financially beyond them at the prestigious fee-paying public schools. In responding to these needs the school would survive in spite of almost overwhelming odds in its early years. A comparative study with Colac Agricultural High School will be made to clarify the point that it was community support, and not legislation and regulations from the Department, that was to be the main reason for the success of Geelong High School.
-
ItemAn inquiry into the success of the integration process in Victorian Post Primary schools( 2016-01-20)This study sets out to examine how teachers with integration responsibility within Post Primary schools and the student participants in integration perceive the levels and forms of success of the programs. After reviewing the relevant literature it became clear to the writer that the major barriers to success of integration are organizational and structural in nature and that the perceived level of success of programs appears to be linked to the ways particular schools are structured and administered. A survey of a sample of integration teachers and a sample of their students was conducted to examine whether there was a difference between the success of integration programs in schools that were collaboratively organized compared to those organized in a traditional way. Most Victorian Post Primary schools are basically conservative and traditional, but under pressure from many sources there is a shift towards being more flexible, open and collaborative. Integration teachers in all schools were expected by the Ministry of Education to act as agents of change but in general teachers appear to have assumed the role ascribed the remedial teacher. The findings of this study indicate that curriculum changes are taking place at a much faster rate in collaborative schools which place a value on student-centred learning. The administration of these schools was found to be active in initiating integration policy and programs, whilst in traditional schools it was the parents who were the significant initiators of integration. The collaborative schools also tended to provide more successful individual programs for their integrated students and obtained a higher allocation of physical and professional resources although both types of schools indicated a high failure rate in the area of needed resources. Overall there is evidence of a shift towards flexibility and co-operation in secondary schools but this is happening within a context of inadequate policy formulation, poor organization and sensitive resource provision, so it is not clear cut. The study indicates a need for policy orientated research regarding the provision of resources and investigation into professional development programs for teachers involved in meeting the needs of integrated students.
-
ItemThe effectiveness of curriculum co-ordinator networks for Catholic secondary schools in Victoria( 1990)This study into the effectiveness of curriculum co-ordinator networks for Catholic secondary schools in Victoria focused on the evaluation of a pilot project in 1989. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine whether the availability of pilot convenors would enhance curriculum co-ordinators' perceptions of professional development, curriculum information and peer support via the networks. Simultaneously, the study described the pilot convenor role, thereby identifying the characteristics ascribed to effective network convenors and attempting to isolate factors which influence network effectiveness. Under the umbrella of illuminative evaluation, a range of research instruments were used, including interviews and questionnaires. Most curriculum co-ordinators who participated in this study believed they had informally rather than formally skilled themselves for their role, despite being multiply credentialled. Prior to the study they had a limited understanding of how the network could improve their professional skills -- this consciousness was only marginally heightened during the project. Similarly evidence of peer support from within the network was scant prior to the pilot project and increased minimally during the study. Attitudes to the accessibility of curriculum information were very high prior to the project and increased slightly during the study. Curriculum co-ordinators placed a high value on information access via the network and the curriculum knowledge of convenors. There is evidence from this study that convenor commitment and accessibility affect network success : further, that professional knowledge, managerial competence and responsive, non-directive interpersonal convenor skills positively influence network effectiveness. Environmental factors such as network size, the mix of schools and the professional experience of participants also impact on network effectiveness. Conceptual flaws in the networking model being trialled were revealed during this study: namely, the use of school-based personnel as pilot convenors did not inherently add to their credibility with curriculum co-ordinators but likely detracted from their effectiveness. Further, the availability of a pilot convenor as 'critical friend' appeared to undermine peer support rather than enhance it. iii
-
ItemProvision for students experiencing learning difficulties in independent, single campus, Protestant secondary girls' schools in Victoria( 1996)This study examines the support policies and provisions for students experiencing learning difficulties in five Protestant, independent, secondary girls' schools in Victoria. A multiple case study, utilising special teacher interviews and surveys of students' parents, was preferred. Supplementary information came from examination of school related documentation, school directories and selected interviews with students, parents and education professionals. Schools' reluctance to provide sensitive information impeded data collection in this study. Schools would not allow direct access to families and two even refused to forward a survey to students' parents. During interviews teachers showed considerable reluctance to share information concerning numbers of students experiencing learning difficulties, selection procedures and programs. Four major influences were revealed in the study: religion, government policies, funding and market forces. Other significant issues emerging included teachers' expressed need for on-going teacher training, and concern about the Disability Discrimination Act (1992). Parents highlighted the need to preserve student confidentiality. Both teachers and parents expressed positive views of the wide range of support services available in their schools, particularly increased parent involvement, inclusive/integrated education and the need for increased funds. Christian ethics rather than Protestantism influenced school provisions and hidden agendas revealed were selective enrolment practices and competition among the schools. Five recommendations were formulated: the need to clarify the implications of the 1992 Disability Discrimination Act for independent schools, further inter-school cooperation, employment of special education staff in all independent schools, formation of a parent lobby and further theological research into the religious and social responsibilities of church founded schools.
-
ItemUniversity High School oral history project( 1994)This Project has been designed to provide the necessary basic historical research and guidelines for a continuing oral history project based at the University High School. The Project will have minimum supervision and volunteer involvement. The University High School Alumni Association plans to support this project as a continuing activity. The Project will rely on volunteer-interviewers and the research in this study has been designed to provide the basic knowledge required to conduct an informed interview. This Project is a school-based activity that draws its research material from school history publications, school literature and school archival material. The completed tapes can be used as a source of raw data. Chapter One introduces oral history. Chapters Two, Three and Four deal with secondary education history and Chapters Five to Eleven cover the school-sourced history of the University High School 1910-1985. Chapter Twelve gives guidelines for interview procedure and the processing of the completed audio-tapes for inclusion in the University High School Library Archives.
-
ItemVCE course development days, 1991 : an appraisal( 1992)This minor thesis traces the evolution and rationale of the development and implementation of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) from its inception in 1987 to its first full year of operation in 1992. It outlines the design and operation of the professional development program undertaken to assist the implementation of the certificate. Its focus is an appraisal of the major element of the professional development program - the 1991 course development days. Three perspectives are offered in this account of the effectiveness of the 1991 course development days - a district evaluation, individual presenter's responses and a regional survey. The appraisal concludes with an overview and a set of recommendations for continuing professional development for VCE teachers beyond 1992.
-
ItemTaking social capital into account when implementing educational policy : implications of the Kirby report for social capital in Ironbark( 2002)There is a growing body of research around the concept of social capital that suggests that there are connections evident in relation to successful educational achievement and employment, and high rates of social capital. Social connectedness - one of the outcomes of having social capital - is held to be very important for young people of post-compulsory school age, particularly in the current economic climate. This exploratory study will examine the problem: What can social capital mean in post-compulsory education policy, and in the manifestation of that policy?' This study examines The Ministerial Review of Post Compulsory Education and Training Pathways in Victoria, commonly referred to as The Kirby Report. Kirby takes the view that the links are strong between community and social values, the economic future of the state, and educational outcomes for young people. Within this report and its recommendations, the concept of social capital and its contribution to building community values is deemed to be one of the broad requirements of the community in relation to young people and their experiences in education and training. The concept of social capital and the effects of the growth or reduction of social capital within rural communities is also examined, and it is the links between social capital, the implementation of the recommendations of a report such as Kirby, and the ramifications of these links for a rural town in North-East Victoria of 2,500 residents, that provide the framework for this study.
-
ItemAn analysis of the recent reform movement in education, with special reference to Victorian secondary schools in the late nineteen sixties( 1977)The school reform movement in the nineteen sixties accompanied unprecedented change in culture and society. Curriculum reform was attempted throughout much of the developed world; in Victoria, the Curriculum Advisory Board was formed, and the Education Department initiated the Curriculum Reform Project for secondary schools. But the reform movement was complex; there were several distinct groups within it (deschoolers, educational technologists, and liberal humanists) whose aims and methods were often contradictory. The major reform philosophy in Victoria was liberal humanist and expressed most notably in the writings of the Director of Secondary Education, R.A. Reed, whose Curriculum Reform Project was not necessarily successful in its own terms, but nevertheless had a significant effect on secondary schooling in Victoria. The reform movement demonstrated how complex is the phenomenon of educational change; it is obviously more complicated than is suggested by the ideas of circular change or pendulum swing, and is perhaps best seen as resulting from the disturbance of equilibrium in a strong field of forces. Attempted liberal reform in Australia has led to the formation in 1973 of the Australian Council for Educational Standards, a group dedicated to the resistance of reform. There is presently a crisis in education, a crisis marked by uncertainty. The crisis should be resolved by encouraging alternatives in education, and by reorganizing educational institutions so that they can become more flexible and adaptable.
-
ItemMarket orientation case study( 2001)The importance of this research is reflected in the changing face of education. There is increasing pressure for accountability of schools in the private and public sector, for their programs, their financial viability and ultimately their capacity to survive in the marketplace. While the education industry is rapidly becoming a competitiveness business, the legitimacy of marketing as a means of recruitment, the marketing concept and embracing market orientation sits uneasily with many educational administrators. School X provides an illustrative case study of a well-established school in the international education sector. It has a strong business focus and is part of a global educational network. The management structure is similar to that in private sector industry. As a successful enterprise operational practices and marketing strategies are worthy of study. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies will be applied. The researcher will discover how School X has embraced the concept of market orientation and whether the organisations growth is related to its approach to the marketing concept.