Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 6 of 6
-
ItemModernization and youth culture in contemporary China : a translation, with introduction, of articles from the Chinese press, 1986-1987( 1988)The thesis provides, with an introduction and notes, translations of five articles from the Chinese educational press and one from a Chinese Ph.D student newly arrived in U.S.A. which throw light on the uncertainty being expressed in China about the values and behaviour of students and young intellectuals at a time of rapid policy change towards modernization and a more open attitude to the West. The texts here translated have been previously unavailable in English.
-
ItemEducational change: a teachers' perspective( 1982)This study is concerned with presenting a teachers' perspective on educational change. The contention held here is that ultimately the effectiveness of change in schools is dependent on teachers. An underlying assumption is that schools need to change, and yet successful change in schools is a rare occurrence. To understand what happens to change in schools, and to ensure that change is not blunted on the school and classroom door - a sound understanding of teacher attitudes and opinions would seem essential. Surprisingly, little research has been conducted into this area. The aim of this, paper is to provide an initial approach in remedying this situation. To this end the teacher perspective presented here was based on responses to a questionnaire administered to current teaching staff at an inner suburban High School. The value of this research should not only be measured in its concrete results, but also in its capacity to raise important issues and direct a course towards a more statistically significant study.
-
ItemAn ethnographic analysis and survey of specific attitudes of physical education teachers( 1984)Stage One utilizes an ethnographic approach by researching four teachers of physical education who graduated from Melbourne University in 1960, 1965, 1970 and 1975. Case studies were written on the four subjects. The teachers differed in their attitudes towards students with the more experienced teachers who were married and had children displaying a more caring and concerned disposition towards their pupils. It was evident that throughout his career a physical education teacher will display varying degrees of enthusiasm for his work, with the experienced teachers in this study being more enthusiastic. In addition they did not rely on strong disciplinary methods and had gradually moved away from a basic survival and control tendency which was a characteristic of the less experienced teacher. Generally, the more experienced teacher had greater job satisfaction than his less experienced counterpart. Ideas, principles, and hypotheses were generated from the ethnographic work in stage one and were used to formulate the traditional research attempted in stage two of this study. Thirty-six teachers of physical education from Education Department Secondary Schools within Victoria responded to the survey (85 percent response vote) which sought information concerning teacher attitudes, teacher enthusiasm and teacher reactions to particular issues central to their function as teachers of physical education. Data from the questionnaires was computed by the use of the Statistical Package for Social Science (Nie et al 1975). Analysis of the questionnaires involved the following statistics; mean, standard deviation, percentage, t-test and Pearson r correlation coefficients. The results revealed that the experienced physical education teacher who is married and has children will display a different set of attitudes towards the children whom he teaches than the less experienced, unmarried teacher of physical education. The enthusiasm level of teachers of physical education for their work varied greatly throughout their career. However, all teachers of physical education appear to follow the same pattern of changes in levels of enthusiasm, with subjects showing increased enthusiasm in early and late years of teaching and a drop in the level off enthusiasm in mid-career. This drop in the level of enthusiasm in mid-career seems due mainly to an increased emphasis by the teacher to his personal and family commitments.
-
Item"Are you satisfied?": review of parental attitudes towards the curriculum of an independent girls' secondary school( 1985)This thesis examines the attitudes of parents to a range of issues concerning the content and application of the educational programme of a small independent girls' school in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. The material that forms the basis of the thesis was gathered from information supplied in response to questionnaires sent to all parents of daughters in the senior school, supplemented by a limited number of interviews. The intention of this review of the school was to establish the extent to which the school's educational programme reflected the wishes and needs of the present parent-body, to establish whether there were any areas of substantial dissatisfaction that need immediate attention, and to determine whether there were particular reasons why parents chose this school as such information could assist in the development of a particular style for the school. The thesis analyses the one hundred and ninety-eight responses to the questionnaire (with some illumination given by the interviews of twenty-eight parents) and suggests areas for change. However, the overall impression gained from the analysis is that the present parent-body is extremely satisfied with the school.
-
ItemTrainee-teachers: can attitudes and achievement in mathematics be improved?( 1988)The aim of the investigation was to compare the effects of different class-groupings upon the Attitude to, and Achievement in, Mathematics of Primary Teacher Trainees. The experiment was of the pre-test, post-test design, with students randomly assigned to Experimental or Control classes. Lecturers taking part were assigned one Experimental and one Control group each. The treatment comprised the First Year Mathematics Education Course at Phillip Institute of Technology, with students assigned to classes which were either homogeneous (Experimental) or heterogeneous (Control) with respect to school Mathematics background. The sample was drawn from an entire entry cohort (with depletions), to give a sub-population of about one-third. The experimental conditions extended over ten months (the time between dependent variable measurings) and subjects were not treated as special in other than those (grouping) ways mentioned above. Simple graphical analyses showed results of the treatment to be quite varied. Predicted outcomes were supported in few instances (measured by Effect Sizes) but in the main, hypotheses remain unsupported by this investigation - which matches the results of the majority of studies in this field.
-
ItemAn assessment of the Herzberg two-factor theory and of the reactions of a particular group of educational administrators to a questionnaire pertaining to that theory( 1980)This dissertation is concerned with two(2) investigations. These were undertaken as a direct and indirect consequence of an initial desire to assess the potential relevance of a controversial theory of job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction for an area of educational administration. In each investigation, data was sought from the sixty five(65) most senior Professional Officers in the Secondary Schools Division and the Technical Schools Division of the Victorian Education Department: These Officers held the administrative position of Director or Assistant Director or Inspector. In Part One, consideration has been given to the major hypotheses of Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: This Theory constituted the basis for the initial investigation. Herzberg's contention that the sources of job satisfaction are typically different, both specifically and characteristically, from the sources of job dissatisfaction constitutes a radical departure from traditional thinking on this subject. Whereas job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction have generally been thought to stem from common sources, Herzberg identified job satisfaction with factors pertaining to the content of work (Motivators) and job dissatisfaction with factors pertaining to the context of work (Hygiene Factors). He nominated five(5) factors as Motivators - 'Achievement', 'Advancement', 'Recognition', 'Responsibility', and 'The Work Itself'. Similarly, he nominated eleven(11) factors as Hygiene Factors - 'Company Policy and Administration', 'Factors in Personal Life', 'Interpersonal Relations - Peers', 'Interpersonal Relations - Subordinates', 'Interpersonal Relations - Superiors', 'Job Security', 'Possibility of Growth', 'Salary', 'Status', 'Supervision - Technical', and 'Working Conditions'. In Part Two, consideration has been given to a second investigation which attempted to ascertain a possible explanation of the low rate of response associated with the initial investigation. Therefore, despite the possible implications of this dissertation for the Herzberg Two-Factor Theory and for an understanding of the satisfaction/ dissatisfaction of Professional Officers, the major revelation has been the failure to obtain the co-operation of a majority of the Senior Professional Officers who were surveyed.