Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemValidation of the state-trait distinction in curiosity( 1976)To further validate the state-trait distinction in the study of curiosity, the present experiment aimed to investigate the effects of situational variables on a measure of state-curiosity. Introductory chapters contain a discussion of the historical background to contemporary research and theory on curiosity, and a rationale for the specific hypotheses put forward in the study. A group of 177 student subjects were given three tasks assumed to produce high, medium, and low levels of state-curiosity. Four measures of C-State were taken during the task: after instructions, after five minutes, after ten minutes, and after debriefing. Measures of C-Trait were administered two weeks before and two weeks after the testing session. Results were analysed using both a product moment correlation and a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. It was concluded that situational variables influence both overall levels of state-curiosity between tasks and over the duration of each task. Specific predictions were only partly confirmed.
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ItemComputer-based learning in an Australian setting : a study of the development and use of a foreign language vocabulary program at the University of Melbourne( 1976)This thesis is the first Australian study of the use of computer-based learning by non-Science students. It begins with a review of research and developments in computer applications in education overseas, and looks in particular at the use of computers in the teaching of foreign languages. It then examines the development, use and evaluation of a foreign language vocabulary practice program for students in first year undergraduate Swedish courses at the University of Melbourne. Since non-Science students might be expected to be more wary of technological innovations, student attitudes to the program and to the computer as a learning medium were of particular interest in this study. As had been reported in overseas studies, a majority of students showed very favourable attitudes to computer-based learning, largely because of their opinion that the program ensured thorough learning of the material presented. A smaller group were found to have strongly negative attitudes to the technique. The proportion of students who made a great deal of use of the program was quite small. This was attributable mainly to the limited aim of the program, acquisition of vocabulary, although inconvenience due to unsuitability of the available computing facilities for educational applications was also a contributing factor.
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ItemInfluences on engineering education in Australia( 1976)This thesis is concerned with the identification and examination of the various types of influences on professional engineering education in Australia. It commences with a study of what a professional person in general, and a professional engineer in particular, should be, and describes the functions and characteristics of such a person. This is followed by an examination of curriculum design, and how the curricula of professional courses are controlled by professional societies. The various influences on engineering curricula are then considered in detail in four broad categories, namely historical influences, formal influences, informal influences, and societal influences within each of these categories, various tapes of influences are identified, and their method of application, and relative effectiveness, discussed. Apart from the chapters on terminology and historical influences, which have been researched from existing publications, the content of the thesis is original, and, as far as can be ascertained, is the first attempt to examine the subject of Australian engineering education in a sociological context.
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ItemA comparative study of primary school social studies in three Australian states : Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, 1952-1975( 1976)This study is concerned with the way in which Primary school Social Studies curricula have been revised, organized and developed from 1952 to 1975 in three Australian States - Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. As few commercially produced Social Studies courses, or indeed Social Studies units, have been forthcoming in these States, coverage in this thesis concentrates on those syllabus revisions which have been produced by Revision Committees organized by the respective Education Departments in these States. Underlying factors which have been instrumental in Social Studies revisions and their final outcome - a Social Studies Syllabus - have been analyzed by considering those constraints which form a part of the Curriculum Materials Analysis System (1967). The constituent six part cluster questions have been used in horizontal analysis to highlight features of Social Studies courses in the 1950's as compared to those of the 1960's, and the most significant changes which have occurred in the most current revisions. From courses which presented a high degree of uniformity in their emphasis on facts, social living and citizenship, have emerged State revisions which, though differing in format and degree of inclusiveness, reflect attributes commonly associated with 'new' Social Studies.
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ItemThe attribution of open-mindedness : the effects of education and age instructions on responses to the balanced dogmatism scale( 1976)The theoretical and research literature related to . authoritarianism and dogmatism, and their relationship with educational level and age level, was reviewed. A study dealing with the attributions by schoolteachers of open-mindedness to students at different educational levels, and the implications of this study concerning self-fulfilling prophecies in education, was critically reviewed, and some unresolved issues were discussed. Within this contextual framework a study was proposed to investigate one of the issues needing clarification. Differently prefaced Balanced Dogmatism Scales were administered to 57 male and 103 female teachers/ college students, approximately between the ages of 19 and 23 years. The testing took place during late 1974 and early 1975. The main aim of the study was to investigate the hypothesis that the age and education instructions prefacing the Balanced Dogmatism Scale would be confounded in subjects attributions, and would therefore be reducible to one another. This hypothesis was only partly supported by the results. For: the two lower levels of age and education instructions, that is, 12 year old and first-form 'students, and 17 year old and sixth form student, the instructions were confounded. For the two upper levels, that is, 21 year old and university undergraduate, and 19 year old and teachers P. college student, the instructions were found to be independent of one another. Since the confounding occurred only in part, there was an overall lack of interaction between the age and education instructions. Because of the insignificance of this interaction effect, a post-hoc analysis was carried out on the main effects of age and educational level instructions. It was found that increased open-mindedness was attributed both as a function of educational level, and as a function of age level, and that the direction and form of these attributions were similar. Discussion centred on an attempted explanation of the findings in the light of other evidence, and on their implications for further research.
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ItemThe measurement of curiosity : development of the state trait model of curiosity for children( 1976)The State Trait model of Curiosity developed by Drs. Naylor and Gaudry was modified for use with seventh grade subjects. Extra items were written, making a thirty--six item four choice Likert scale for trait and for state curiosity. 150 boys and 159 girls completed the trait scale, a word knowledge test, a curiosity stimulating task, and the state scale. The scales were analysed using the computer program Testat. Items were selected on the basis of their point biserial correlations. Splitting the subjects on their sex and vocabulary scores showed that many items had considerable bias. Reducing the reversed and the non-reversed subscales by removing small groups of items produced scales almost identical to those containing the items with the highest correlations. A factor analysis justified the distinction between state and trait curiosity and between reversed and non-reversed items. The loadings on the three factor Varimax rotation were highly correlated with the items' point biserial correlations. Sample-free item analysis attempts to analyse data so that the resulting statistics are independent of the sample used. Similarly it enables comparisons between individuals independently of the tests used. The program Calfit, based on this model, was used to analyse the data rescored at the three possible levels of curiosity. The trait scale fitted the model quite well but the state scale fitted poorly. This was due to the different behaviour of the three curiosity levels and the interaction of a subject's curiosity and the response on many items. Testat proved more effective for item selection but Calfit enabled the linking to previous research. Scales for future use are recommended.
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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.
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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".
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ItemThe development and validation of a test of economic literacy( 1976)In this work it is argued that there is a need for standardized tests of economic literacy of similar kinds to tests produced in the U.S.A. The notion of economic literacy is examined and from a general definition a detailed content specification is produced. That specification consists of categories of inter-related concepts. A description is given of the way in which multiple-choice test items were written to sample those concepts and to give what was considered appropriate representation to the various categories, while at the same time attempting to cover a range of cognitive processes. A method of classifying the test items according to the number of concepts and categories represented is discussed and it is argued that this aspect of concept-extensiveness is an important dimension of the test specification. Trial testing, analyses of trial test results and the compilation of the final form of the test are described, as also is the administration of the test to groups of Grade 12 students, first-year university students and trainee teachers of economics. It is argued that the data lend support to the claim that the test is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring economic literacy.
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ItemStatistics of public expenditure on education in Australia : requirements for the formation of national policy( 1976)In Australia's federal system the provision of educational services is the responsibility of the state governments. However, the federal government has also acquired responsibilities for. education. Since the second world war, the state governments have been dependent on the federal government for a large proportion of the funds needed to discharge their responsibilities. More directly, the federal government has greatly extended the scope of its activities in education, mainly through the use of specific. purpose grants to the states. By 1970 these grants affected all levels of education in the states. To be effective, national 'educational policies should take account of differences between the states as well as of 'national needs. Necessary information includes national statistics which are compiled on the same basis for each of . the states. The coverage and quality of national educational statistics has improved considerably, but there are still deficiencies. In particular, the statistics of public expenditure on education do not provide an adequate account of the states individually, or of national trends. Unpublished records of the Australian Bureau of Statistics provide the basis for a set of figures of public expenditure on education which are both more comprehensive and more detailed than those published. Analysis of these figures for the period 1963-64 to 1973-74 shows large differences in the patterns of educational expenditure in each of the states. Nationally there have been considerable changes in the composition of total public outlay on education, the rapid growth of the tertiary sector outside universities being particularly noteworthy. Official statistics of this kind are needed to make possible an effective assessment of the priorities and directions of Australian education.