Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemStudent expectations of the future( 1992)Specific aims of the study To investigate how present-day students view the future and their place in the workforce of the future. To establish whether or not students regard their present educational experiences as an adequate preparation for their future work. To investigate acceptance of unconventional futures scenarios as possible futures.
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ItemThe attitudes and concerns of Catholic parish primary school principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools( 1997)This study was undertaken to identify' and compare the attitudes of Catholic Parish Primary School principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities. The study also investigated variations in attitude toward integration for sub-groups of the principals and teachers. In addition, this study ascertained the concerns these educators have about the implementation of integration in their schools. A three part questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consisted of items relating to the background characteristics of the respondents and their schools, a modified version of the Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale (Berryman & Neal, 1980) and an open ended question eliciting educators' concerns about integration. Fifty five principals and 145 full time classroom teachers in the Northern Area of the Archdiocese of Melbourne responded to the questionnaire. T-tests were employed to compare the attitudes of the principals and teachers toward integration., Thematic analysis was used to examine the concerns of educators. Several major findings emerged from the study. Principals were found to hold more positive attitudes toward integration than classroom teachers. Principals were also significantly more positive than teachers toward the integration of students with severe disabilities. Younger principals held significantly more positive attitudes toward integration than older principals. No significant differences were identified for sub groups of the teacher sample. Similarity existed between the two groups of educators in terms of their expressed major concerns about integration. Lack of school based support personnel, funding and training, in that order, were recorded most frequently by both groups of educators.
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ItemEnglish teachers as readers, readers as English teachers : how are English teachers' attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading reflected in their teaching?( 1998)This study is focussed on classroom reading events, the encounters with texts in secondary English classrooms involving teachers and students. More specifically, it explores the discourses about reading and the schema or framework for reading English teachers bring to their classroom and how these shape what reading means in that classroom. I focus on three secondary school English teachers as readers and as teachers of reading and seek to identify how their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading is, or isn't, reflected in their teaching. This research, constructed within a case study design, is informed by the writings of postructuralist and critical social theorists, shaped by the work of Dan Zancanella and influenced by Wendy Morgan's ideas of a 'default mode' - the position to which teachers 'return' when not constrained into other modes of operation. Data was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with the teacher participants; participant-as-observer classroom observation; small group semi-structured interviews with students; and the collection of classroom handouts and students' products. The teacher participants were interviewed about their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading and about teaching texts. They were asked to read and then to teach a particular short story with their Year 10 English class. This study reveals that each of these teachers read the text very differently and constructed very different classroom activities. The idea of a 'default mode' (Morgan, 1995) suggests that each teacher has a particular schema for reading which provides a way for these teachers to make sense of reading and working with particular texts in their classrooms. The research concludes that the classroom reading event - how the text was read and what the students did with the text - was shaped by these English teachers' schemata for reading and the discourses about reading in which they function as teachers and readers. In reading and working with texts in particular ways, these teachers create and position their student readers and frame what reading comes to mean in their secondary English classroom. These insights have implications for English teachers and their students, for curriculum organisation, for student management structures, for pre-service teacher education and training and for Professional Development.
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ItemA description and explanation of the differences in teacher culture in state secondary schools in Victoria( 1993)The Victorian state secondary education system has had, for many years, two divisions: the Technical School Division and the High School Division. Teachers operating in one system in most cases had very little to do with those in the other system and it has seemed that two distinct " teaching cultures" had developed. During the eighties and early nineties, substantial structural changes occurred within the state system which allowed teacher movement between the previous divisions and thus created the potential for conflict. Teachers from each division have been confronted with a teaching culture in many cases different from their own experiences. Each system historically existed for a different reason, offered different curricula and trained its teachers differently. Its raisond'etre changed as social conditions changed but the differences persisted. Its teaching staff seemed to develop ways of operating which marked them as distinctly "technical" or "high". A hypothesis was proposed which suggested that a teaching culture comprised two broad factors which then determined the sorts of school operations teachers were likely to be involved in. Thus it might be possible to group people with similar backgrounds and experiences into a technical school culture and others into a high school culture. To understand if a difference existed between technical and high school teachers, qualitative research was undertaken using interviews with six people who equally represented each division, who were varied in their teaching subjects and who had recently come to a new school where a new teaching culture had not yet been established. The data collected was verified by the interviewees and recorded on a data chart. It was found that the cultures were not clearly technical or high school, but rather based more around practical and non-practical teaching subject orientation. In this sense it would see that there might be as much difference in the culture of teaching groups within a school as in the culture between the two types of school. It could be proposed that the apparent differences between the two systems may well have depended more on the different nature of the teaching, in that one system valued practicality more than the other.
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ItemThe getting of professional nursing wisdom : the relevance of knowledge for undergraduate students : a phenomenological comparative study( 1993)The intention of this thesis is to identify any factors which may affect the implementation and practice of therapeutic humanistic care by undergraduate nurse students. Professional nursing practice must be acknowledged as function beyond licensure of safety. Wisdom, with reference to professional practice can only be acquired through relevant education and supported opportunities to practice. The classroom promotion and clinical transfer of empirical, holistic care is an educational mandate and as such must be addressed. The research study of this thesis as a qualitative investigation with a phenomenological approach, was designed as a small comparative study. The literature review of this thesis released certain significant questions for investigation. From these questions eventual research prompts were developed. The participants for this study were nurse student volunteers approaching course completion. The participants as distinct cohorts from a Hospital School of Nursing and a Faculty of Nursing were interviewed using the research prompts. Following data analysis, the study identified apparent differences between the valuing and practice of humanistic caring by the undergraduate nurse students from the two sites.
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ItemSchool organization as an internal teaching context : case studies of two Hong Kong aided secondary schools( 1996)In this study, school organization is investigated as a teaching context from the teachers' perspective. The study investigates the theoretical position that characteristics of the school organization affect teachers' job-related attitudes which, in turn, affect educational outcomes. A review of the literature shows that various characteristics of school organization are related to teachers' attitudes and performance and educational outcomes of schools. In this study, the case study approach is adopted and both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. The teachers' job-related attitudes of two aided secondary schools in Hong Kong are analyzed. The internal teaching contexts of the schools are then described in terms of structural, cultural and social relations perspectives. Factors of school organization which may affect teachers' attitudes are identified. The findings from this study provide support for previous research into the influence of teachers' working environments or the internal context of teaching on school effectiveness. Implications for efforts directed at improving workplace conditions in Hong Kong secondary schools and an agenda for further research are discussed.
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ItemA survey of the role perceptions and practice of Victorian primary teacher librarians : a research report with implications for education for school librarianship( 1991)A review of the literature on the Role of the School Librarian revealed a perceived discrepancy between the role which was being advocated in the literature and the role actually being undertaken by primary school teacher librarians in Victoria. This research study was undertaken to discover what role Victorian primary school librarians perceived for themselves in the school and whether in fact they were actually performing this role. The problem was identified as:- 1. Do primary teacher librarians perceive their ideal role in the terms of the model presented in the literature? 2. What role are primary teacher librarians following in their school libraries? 3. Is there a discrepancy between their IDEAL and ACTUAL roles and the model role presented in the literature. The research study also hoped to identify areas of need for future planning initiatives in education for school librarianship courses. A questionnaire was constructed in four sections using a five point scale. The first section was to give general background information on the school and the school library of the participating teacher librarian. The second section listed twenty role definitions. All twenty definitions could be perceived as facets of a teacher-librarian's role within the school. The third section contained the same twenty role definitions but participants were asked to identify the importance of the role in their actual school situation. The fourth section contained twenty factors which may affect a teacher librarian from performing their ideal role. The survey instrument was mailed to forty randomly selected Victorian primary school teacher librarians. Responses were received from twenty-three teacher librarians (53%). The danger of making conclusive findings from such a small sample is noted in the report. The responses came mainly from experienced, qualified teacher librarians and the interpretation of the data takes this fact into account. Following a review of related readings on the role of the primary school librarian, a model was devised as a basis for the analysis of the data. Based on the analysis of the survey results in which correlation co-efficients for IDEAL and ACTUAL roles were obtained and on the relationship of these analyses to the model, the following major conclusions were obtained. 1. That primary teacher librarians in Victoria are not following the co-operative curriculum planing and teaching role as outlined in the model. 2. That primary teacher librarians are still performing traditional roles in children's literature and as resource managers. 3. That priamry teacher librarians are not taking a lead in implementing technological change within the school and do not perceive this as their role. 4. That most primary teacher librarians are working in school libraries without any clerical support except for volunteers. 5. That primary teacher librarians are teaching isolated classes to allow class teachers to take their allotted administrative planning time. As an ideal role, primary teacher librarians, participating in this survey,overwhelmingly perceived their role as "developing a love of literature in children" which conflicts with the ideal role perceived by the literature "as having an educational role in curriculum planning and development and in initiating change in the educational processes in the school". Finally, this research study points out the implications of these findings for future initiatives which should be undertaken in planning education for school librarianship courses. Seven areas are identified and conclusions are made, in particular, the urgent need to have information skills and the use of curriculum resources included in all undergraduate teacher training courses. Also the need for greater co-operation between education, librarianship and technology practitioners in the formulation of integrated courses. Areas for further research are indicated. The appendix includes the survey instrument, tables of data results, examples of teacher librarians' timetables and a full bibliography.
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ItemThe march of the calculator into Malaysian classrooms?( 1995)Calculators are used extensively in the workplace and are part of the technological change that is taking place in Malaysian society. However they are not used widely in the classrooms. About 200 primary, secondary and college teachers in Malaysia were surveyed about their attitudes toward the student use of calculators in the classroom and their current teaching practices. As many as 98% of the primary teachers and 83% of the lower secondary teachers have never used calculators in their mathematics lessons. The upper secondary teachers were using calculators in their classrooms because the present Malaysian national mathematics curriculum encourages and allows the use of calculators only at these levels. Most Malaysian teachers held more conservative views on calculator use than the teachers surveyed in Victoria, Australia in 1980. They felt that calculators should only be used after students have mastered basic number facts, acquired paper and pencil skills and understood the meaning of the four operations. About 29% of the teachers surveyed supported the introduction of calculators into primary classes. Although teachers believed that calculator use would enhance mathematics learning, many would not allow calculators to be used in class if they were not allowed on tests or examinations. Teachers also believed that parents would be against calculator use in the classrooms if they were not allowed on tests and examinations. It is recommended that the Malaysian Ministry of Education must allow calculator use on tests and examinations in order to encourage their use in primary and lower secondary classrooms.
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ItemReading and reconstructing the world: investigating children's frames of Asia-Australia relations through transformative discourse( 1994)The challenge for members of contemporary societies is to become increasingly global in their outlook at the same time as the world becomes increasingly difficult to 'read'. Texts construct views of 'reality' and the complexity of contemporary life is reflected in the range and number of texts which influence 'ways of seeing how things are'. For people to make sense of their lives on both a personal and global scale, the ability to critically read a wide range of texts is essential. This critical literacy enables them to construct and reconstruct meaning .It assists in developing a more inclusive world view and living with the multiple realities which mirror the interdependent nature of modern day life. As a means of discovering more about self and others, the development of a critical literacy must begin with the acknowledgement of texts that are carried around inside the person or internalised as 'truths'; thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions and so on which are manifested in the ways in which a person participates in both a personal and global domain. In other words, these internalised texts have a powerful influence on the ways in which world views are constructed and played out. An examination of these internalised texts is fundamental to the development of a critical literacy and ultimately the development of a Discourse (Gee 1990, 1992, 1993) which allows for the transformation of new ways of talking about new ways of thinking, feeling into new ways of acting. It is thus central to the development of an active global citizen. A transformative Discourse (borrowing from Freire 1972, 1973, 1985, 1987(a), 1987(b) and Gee 1990, 1992, 1993) validates the voice of the individual and it is essential that a teacher scaffolds learners as they construct and reconstruct meaning. Essentially, the teacher needs to model a Discourse of critique and an attitude towards critique so that over time critical Discourse becomes a fundamental part of learning and indeed life. One means of looking inward to interrogate internalised 'truths' and develop new ways of talking, thinking, feeling and acting is for the teacher to engage learners with significant content and a methodology which values multiple realities. A focus on the study of Asia, and in this case a study of Asia-Australia relations, counter balances a prevailing Eurocentric view of 'how things are' and enables learners to reconstruct images of self and other. Bringing the world into the classroom through systematic inquiry allows it to be tilted on its axis and examined from a range of vantage points.
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ItemSelf-confidence sources of elite, junior athletes( 1992)This study examined the sources of self-confidence in sport. A questionnaire was developed to assess the sources of self-confidence considered important to the success of junior athletes in competition. The dimensions of self-esteem and anxiety were also assessed, through the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory respectively, in order to determine if either of these factors influenced self-confidence. The subjects were a group of forty elite, junior, freestyle skiers, ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-four years. The results yielded both positive and negative sources of self confidence, although these differed slightly between-boys Arid girls. The main positive sources were: 1. the coach's positive comments, 2. thinking you are performing well, 3. training well before the competition, and 4. Self talk and psyching up. The main negative influences on self-confidence were: 1. nervousness and anxiety, 2. an opponent performing well, 3. fear of injury, and 4. watching others competing well. Self-esteem was also shown to influence self-confidence. Those athletes with higher self-esteem had correspondingly higher levels of self-confidence. Awareness by teachers and coaches of the positive and negative factors that influence self-confidence prior to competition should lead to better sporting performances.