Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCurriculum and programme provisions for gifted and talented children in Victorian J.S.H.A.A. schools( 1992)This study has surveyed the provision of programmes for Children with High Intellectual Potential (C.H.I.P.) in Victorian member schools of the Junior Schools Heads Association Australia. Fifty-nine schools were surveyed; fifty-four responded, representing some 19,000 junior school children. The survey was divided into six sections covering staffing provisions, curriculum and programmes, definition of gifted children, identification procedures, changing perspectives and importance of C.H.I.P., and subscriptions to journals. The literature search was divided into two distinct sections. Within the Australian context the review was historical, marking the modern beginnings of education for C.H.I.P.. There is a dearth of literature with Australian origins on gifted and talented children. The late seventies and early eighties uncover some material, basically funded and inspired by the Commonwealth Schools Commission. The emphasis is on surveys of programmes. The conclusion is clear that what programmes were operating were ad hoc in nature. This was inevitable, as teacher training for C.H.I.P. was non-existent. In the early eighties, promising programmes in the Victorian Education Department and the Catholic Education system were quickly quashed by a change of government. Major writers such as Gallagher, Maker and Van Tassel-Bash identify three distinct curriculum models, the Content, the Process/Product and the Epistemological. There is no evidence at this stage to suggest that the Victorian C.H.I.P. programmes are anything more than ad hoc. They do not fit into the three identified curriculum models. In-class provision is the main methodology, with programmes based on Bloom's Taxonomy or the Sato/Kaplan Differentiated Curriculum. Many schools are not yet operating strongly founded theoretical based programmes, and are clearly moving without direction. There is lack of understanding of the concept of C.H.I.P., even though identification procedures are quite sophisticated. Interest in teacher in-service appears to be growing rapidly. There is clearly a crucial need to provide pre-service courses at teacher training institutions. The major need for C.H.I.P. is for the Commonwealth government and the Ministry of Education in Victoria to develop and implement a policy on gifted and talented children.
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ItemIntroducing a gifted program in a rural secondary school( 1996)The study reported here outlines the steps taken to address a problem in the field of Education in a rural, secondary school. The problem, "What can be done to cater for the needs of gifted students in Years 7 and 8?" was posed by a member of staff of this school. He recognised that there was a need for an interventionist, in this case an external consultant, to undertake research on the existing educational setting, with members of the school community. The external consultant had expertise in the area of gifted programming, and also the necessary time to devote to lead the research which needed to be carried out. Action Research was chosen as a methodology which would be appropriate in this real-life situation. It involved the process of problem-solving through cycles of planning, acting and reflecting. It was a means of identifying and implementing a practical solution to a practical problem and, it was a method of carefully examining a practice and bringing about change in that practice. The process of change involved the participation of people who were part of the problem, viz. a number of administrators and teachers. These staff members were prepared to become part of a planning team instrumental in bringing about change in the learning environment of the school. The external consultant was also part of the planning team. The planning team gathered relevant data relating to current provisions for highly-able students, reflected on the data, planned appropriate action, acted and reflected on the action. This cyclical process utilised the reflection component to modify any procedural steps, thereby commencing the next cycle with substantive issues arising from the reflective practice. Through the 'Action Research process, significant attitudinal and structural changes occurred in the school setting involving administrators, teachers, students and parents. A definition of giftedness was accepted and a Talent Pool of highly able students was identified. In addition, community involvement was initiated, a resource pool of mentor volunteers was compiled and a Mentor program commenced. One of the outcomes of the process of change was the acceptance of future directions for the school in the area of gifted education. A number of proposals was accepted into the school structure for 1997, viz. the blocking of English periods in Years 7, 8 and 9 for subject acceleration, the continuation of the Mentor program and the deployment of interested staff in the gifted program. Action Research provided the means of improving a practice by the undertaking of new action in the form of a Mentor program for Year 7 students. This was a provision which was envisaged as being part of an extended gifted program in 1997. New direction for the following cycle of action focused on the problem, "What can be done to establish a comprehensive gifted program throughout the school?" The emphasis had shifted from the Year 7 level to a total-school approach, leading to a new perception of the problem and a new cycle of planning and action.
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ItemNight of the notables : a program for gifted and talented students intended to provide modelling for life from the lives of the eminent and famous for use as gifted education in schools( 1994)One of the continuing needs for the education of gifted and talented children is the provision of effective role models who are their intellectual peers. Being gifted brings special conditions and demands special provisions for a differentiated education. This thesis documents the development, implementation and evaluation of an educational Program intended to cater for the needs of gifted and talented children. It uses the lives of eminent personalities to provide gifted children with role models in life for coping with the phenomenon of giftedness. It argues that such studies provide real-world role modelling, mastery of life-long skills and a strong motivation to achieve. The theoretical base selected is George T. Betts' autonomous learner model, where longer and deeper personal research is supported by athome, in-class and in-school provisions to encourage students to develop higher level communication skills and better self concepts about themselves as gifted persons. The Program, entitled the Night of the Notables, is a flexible educational Program, being both user and teacher friendly, one that can be used as enrichment or extension in selected groups or in general ability classrooms, over shorter or longer time spans, for both gifted and talented, and across several age groups. The thesis documents the progress of the study with lower secondary students at a suburban independent school, analyses data supporting hypotheses about increased cognitive and affective skills, and provides original materials developed to run the Program. Implications for preferring similar methodologies for teaching gifted and talented are developed and explored. It is argued that Night of the Notables is a suitable new model for Australian gifted education. It is adaptable as a stand alone Program or as an infused one. It is multi layered so it can meet the needs of a wide variety of ability levels. It emphasises student choice and commitment and so is similar to the admirable Renzulli Type III Enrichment for gifted education.
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ItemCooperative learning : a viable teaching strategy for gifted students in heterogeneous classrooms?( 1998)In recent years, there has been a strong movement towards educational restructuring and reform. Cooperative learning is one instructional strategy which many supporters see as central to the goals of the reform movement. While these cooperative learning methods hold promise for many students, the research is concentrated on the average and low-ability students. Its impact on the gifted students remains inadequately assessed. The problem escalates when many educators view cooperative learning as a panacea to address the difficulties brought about by educational reform, such as teaching a class with mixed academic abilities. In addition, cooperative learning has also been used to justify the move to reduce differentiated programmes for the gifted population. This study addresses the controversy regarding the use of cooperative learning with the gifted students in a heterogeneous classroom. This is done by comparing gifted students learning cooperatively with those learning individually in a typical regular classroom. Viability of the teaching method is determined by investigating which learning environment better caters to the learning as well as affective needs of the gifted and talented students with the use of achievement tests and attitude measures. 19 gifted students were randomly assigned to a cooperative and individualistic learning condition. The students participated in a six X 55-minute instructional course based on social studies. The cooperative learning model used in this study was the Jigsaw method. The results indicate that cooperative learning experiences promoted higher achievement and the use of higher-order thinking skills among the gifted students. The results also suggest that the gifted students in a heterogeneous class felt more supported and accepted by their peers and teachers in the cooperative condition. It is concluded that cooperative learning can be beneficial to gifted students in a heterogeneous classroom if steps are taken to ensure that the students are suitably challenged. Well-trained teachers, appropriate structuring of the groups and differentiating the curriculum to suit the needs of the gifted students are identified as some of the factors crucial to the success of the cooperative learning strategy.
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ItemCurriculum differentiation for gifted pre-schoolers : a study of a professional development program( 1999)Curriculum differentiation has been shown to positively influence the way gifted children develop in educational settings, yet very few pre-school teachers have any training in gifted education and curriculum differentiation. This study examines the needs of young gifted children and whether a differentiated curriculum to meet these needs can be developed in a manner that is accessible to pre-school teachers who have had no formal training in the area of giftedness. The sample included a group of twelve pre-school teachers who participated in a series of workshops examining giftedness in early childhood, the learning needs of young gifted children and ways to respond to these needs. The study utilised a comparison of curriculum units developed by the teachers, both before and after the intervention of the workshops. The units were analysed according to criteria identifying specific characteristics of curriculum differentiation and their presence in the units of work developed by the teachers. This analysis showed that there was a substantial increase in the presence of the identified characteristics in the curriculum units developed at the conclusion of the workshops and that many of these characteristics were also evident in units of work developed eighteen months after the conclusion of the workshops. For example, variety of process, product and interaction were infrequent characteristics prior to the workshops, yet were evident in almost every unit both immediately after the conclusion of the workshops and eighteen months later. While the sample of this study is small, the findings suggest that specifically designed workshops can significantly influence the curriculum that teachers develop to respond to the needs of the gifted children in their care.
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ItemAcceleration of gifted students: a study of the opinions of teachers and parents( 1998)The purpose of the study was to investigate the opinions of teachers and parents on the educational acceleration of gifted students. Gifted education has a relatively short history in Australia, although the education of gifted and talented students in the USA has been an issue of strong interest since the early 1920s. Many topics continue to be vigorously debated including definitions, identification and assessment and appropriate educational and instructional approaches. One of the most contentious issues surrounds the use of acceleration procedures. A review of the literature revealed that despite positive evidence concerning the appropriateness and associated benefits of educational acceleration, it is not a popular or widely practised procedure for gifted students. A barrier to the wider acceptance of acceleration procedures would appear to be the general apprehensiveness or negative attitudes of some teachers and parents. A literature review indicated that most of the studies have focussed on the intellectual, educational and socio-emotional benefits of acceleration. Typically, gifted students have been assessed to determine the influence of educational acceleration on the growth and development of these skills and attributes. The opinions of teachers and parents who have had direct experience with acceleration have not been frequently investigated. The studies that have been undertaken have resulted in generally consistent findings. Teachers and parents were mainly concerned about possible deleterious socio-emotional consequences of acceleration. In this study, the opinions of teachers and parents were explored using a specially prepared questionnaire. Twenty-six teachers and 23 parents returned completed questionnaires. An item analysis of the questions indicated their general suitability for the purposes of the study. Analysis of the teachers' and parents' responses revealed no overall statistically significant difference in their opinions. Investigation of the responses of both groups of respondents on each of the 26 questions in the questionnaire resulted in only one statistically significant outcome. Further analyses of the data showed interesting similarities and differences in response trends and patterns of the teachers and parents. In general, teachers and parents held very similar opinions on acceleration. While both groups expressed positive views about certain aspects of acceleration, they also shared several negative opinions. Teachers were found to be more uncertain about the social and emotional/behavioural benefits of acceleration and were generally less supportive of acceleration than parents. These findings are in general agreement with the results of previous research. It was concluded that teachers would benefit from professional development programs on gifted education, especially the efficacy and positive benefits of educational acceleration.
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ItemThe gifted child who has literacy learning disabilities( 1995)The present research examines the learning characteristics of a group of children who displayed the characteristics of being both gifted and literacy learning disabled (that is, GLitD students). Such a group had not, in the review of the literature, been specifically targeted previously. The approach taken was from the combined perspectives of giftedness and literacy learning disabilities. Because the investigation is exploratory, the focus is on a detailed analysis of patterns in reading for individual readers, rather than on the analysis of group trends. This design ensured that differences between the readers were not masked by combining the performance patterns of individual subjects. The performance of eleven students, ranging in age from 8 to 15 years, in several reading-related areas was measured; reading words both in connected prose and in isolation, phonemic awareness and orthographic knowledge. Information about each reader's cognitive performance was used to examine trends in these areas of reading. The reading disabilities were shown to be attributed to an immature orthographic knowledge of words. This lack of knowledge at the word level of reading meant that these students needed to invest a comparatively large amount of their attentional resources in deciding the words in the text read. As a consequence, they had comparatively little attention for tapping into their well-developed general knowledge and using this to facilitate either word recognition or reading comprehension. This lack of knowledge was shown to be related to immature phonemic awareness knowledge. As a consequence, some of the GLitD students activated either attention-demanding non-orthographic reading strategies or distinctive visual feature processing strategies. They also had difficulty using their orthographic knowledge of some words to recognize others through analogy processes. The second part of the investigation examines the success of an intervention program with one of the GLitD students. The program was developed from a synthesis of gifted students learning and effective teaching strategies for literacy-disabled learners and focussed on teaching three types of knowledge (1) a knowledge of word structure, (2) a range of mental actions or strategies for constructing a text representation and (3) a range of attitudes about reading. The program was implemented by the investigator over 22 one hour sessions and was associated with an improvement in reading performance. Future directions of research with GLitD students are discussed.
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ItemStudent perceptions of giftedness, gifted students, teachers and education of the gifted( 1990)The purpose of the study was to identify perceptions, preferences and attitudes of a sample of secondary school students in relation to giftedness, gifted students, teachers, and educational provision for the gifted, and to investigate differences and similarities between gifted and nongifted students. The sample consisted of 40 identified gifted and 40 nongifted students from Forms 8 to 10. A review of the literature described the history of the development of gifted education, particularly in Australia, and research concerning students' perceptions of the study topics. The study utilised a theoretical background of implicit, social cognition and labelling theories, and a version of the critical incident technique. The findings showed many similarities between the views of the gifted and the nongifted, including a generally positive view of giftedness, of educational provision for the gifted and of gifted students, although they were viewed somewhat less positively than were the provisions for them. The students generally perceived a need for gifted programs, especially at secondary level. They clearly wanted a combination of mixed ability classes and top sets in one or more subjects, not mixed ability classes as the only provision. Withdrawal for the gifted was generally endorsed by both groups. Provision for the gifted within the regular classroom was generally acceptable to the gifted, specifically in the form of advanced rather than wider content, but the nongifted generally rated both forms negatively. The students considered that the most important quality of a teacher was that the teacher should know the subject well. In general, personal-social characteristics of teachers were regarded as less important than intellectual qualities and teaching competencies. Certain characteristics were regarded as more important by the gifted and others by the nongifted. Recommendations were made for the particular school and in general.
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ItemThe investigation into the application of chaos theory and fractal geometry as a cross-curricular enrichment theme for highly able students( 1994)Chaos theory and fractal geometry is investigated as an interdisciplinary enrichment theme for gifted students. A literature search revealed the recommendation that this topic be introduced into secondary schools, but no references could be found to a suitable course. Hence an action research group of highly able secondary school students aged from twelve to seventeen was established to help develop just such a course. It was found to be necessary to divide the emergent curriculum into seven streams to satisfy the individual needs of the students. The streams were mathematics, science, programming, software, history and philosophy, communications and art. The mathematics stream formed the basis introducing concepts such as iteration, deterministic systems, iterated function systems, complex numbers, the Cantor, Mandelbrot and Julia Sets, The Koch curve, fractal dimensions, period doubling and phase space. Some students programmed the mathematical procedures in both Quick Basic and Turbo Pascal. The applications in science, including weather forecasting, dissecting lungs, chemical reactions, astronomy, population dynamics and magnetic pendulums were investigated using practical methods wherever possible. Software packages were explored as were the historical, philosophical, sociological and artistic questions which arose during the action research phase. Modern communications were used to gain programs and information over Internet. Links with people of similar interests around the world were established. Through these activities, a final course of eighty work sheets and supporting reference sheets was developed. This course is presented in Volume Two. Students and the candidate maintained journals and these, along with a questionnaire and other documentary data, were analysed using a grounded theory methodology. As a result, chaos theory and fractal geometry was shown to be a suitable and stimulating theme for cross-curricular enrichment of highly able students.
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ItemEducational provisions for gifted and talented children in Victorian schools viewed from an Australian perspective( 1982)This thesis is concerned with the Educational Provisions for Gifted and Talented Children in Victorian Schools. A knowledge of historical developments both Australian and world wide is seen as a necessary prerequisite for an understanding of present practices in both government and non-government schools. An analysis of the major contemporary issues which face the designers of programmes for gifted and talented children is then presented. Once these issues have been identified a description of current educational provisions operating within Victorian schools is undertaken. Government and non-government schools are examined at both the primary and secondary levels, as well as teacher training courses for the teachers of the gifted and talented. In the conclusion, achievements both in Victoria and Australia in meeting the needs of gifted and talented children are discussed and the prospects for the future are considered.