Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemWhat do 'at risk' boys say about their schooling experiences ? : creating agency for boys' views and feelings about school( 2008)The following discussion outlines the theory and operational methods that inform a general ethnographical study, designed to understand the views and perceptions of three 'at risk' boys relegated to a specialised Victorian state school. The methodology hopes to empower the male students taking part in the study by giving emphasis to the didactic importance of their views, opinions and experiences expressed during a series of interviews in which they participate. It is hoped that the boys will be able to identify areas of education that need improvement, and define real life problems within their own learning experiences, so genuine male learning dilemmas and insights are generated and debated in the research. However, Connell (1989, 1995) characterises boys as `inheritors of an all conquering hegemonic masculinity' and this classic feminist perspective seems to be preventing the evolution of a boys' paradigm in education by diverting attention away from boys' educational issues by asking `which girls' and 'which boys' are specifically disadvantaged. This generic ethnographical study attempts a pro-male research project which holds boy's views, opinions and experiences paramount in the research logic processes, and makes use of key foci descriptors conceptualised in recent government research and programmes to discover how young males experience and dialogue about their schooling lives.
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ItemSecondary art teachers' perceptions of a regional art gallery( 2004)This study examines the view of five teachers in relation to their use of a regional gallery within their art program. Using qualitative inquiry, the study focuses on interviews with the gallery educator and five secondary teachers within the region. The key purpose of the study is to identify the value and reasons why teachers incorporate gallery visits into their teaching program.
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ItemInterpreting thinking routines : identifying and encouraging thoughtful action( 2008)This research explains how thinking routines encourage thoughtful actions in middle school students. Thinking routines involve doing significant things with knowledge. The regular use of thinking routines assists students individually and collectively, to experience patterns of inquiry. Using these routines in the classroom invites students to explore and manage their thoughtful actions. The method of this study used action research to extend knowledge of dispositions found in the literature. Dispositions are acquired patterns of behavior. Therefore, being strategic in your thinking is under one's control, as opposed to being automatically activated. Dispositions were renamed learning attitudes. Attitude is closely associated with behavior and control over what one does. A learning attitude is more easily identifiable within a student's. personal lexicon. An iterative sequence was then used to analyze and report on key words which represented learning attitudes found in student work. Distinctive features were interpreted by the researcher to emerge from this sequence grounded in work samples. Understanding these distinctive features empowers teachers to make constructive judgements. Without good judgement it is difficult to encourage thoughtful and reflective actions. Reflective thinking enables us to act in a deliberate and intentional manner. Deliberate actions provide power of control over knowledge.
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ItemA case study approach to the student at risk of leaving school early( 2005)There are two components in this research. The first comprises identification of what characterises an at risk student using risk factors identified from the literature. The second comprises identification of the prevalence of these risk factors in one school and how this school identified and assisted these students in the context of the early school leaver literature. Fifty-two students from a Melbourne government high school and seven of their teachers participated in the research. Students were divided into three groups; at risk students who participated in an intervention program, at risk students who did not participate in an intervention program, and a low risk group. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and analysed to investigate prevalence of risk factors and usefulness and relevance of the intervention programs. All students completed a 30-page survey consisting of a demographics page, the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the Classroom Environment Scale (Real and Ideal Forms) and the Family Environment Scale (Real and Ideal Forms). The teachers completed the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behaviour Checklist. The at risk students participated in interviews and completed six monthly questionnaires. From these data, a profile of the at risk student was developed. At risk students are characterised as performing academically lower than low risk students, exhibiting more problem behaviours, are more likely to be male, to value friendships made at school, to find the work at school and the teacher relationships difficult, to hold aspirations to achieve year 12 and believe they are in control of their school experience. The students participating in an intervention felt it was valuable. The quantitative data revealed non-significant changes in these students' academic self-efficacy and trivial differences in their academic grades. It is clear that school aptitude results from as early as year 7, and student behaviours can help to identify students at risk. It is also clear that friendships formed at school serve as a buffer for these students. Significant events occurring in the nominated at risk students lives do not appear to influence their decision to leave school early. The results imply that schools have the necessary information to identify students at risk, but that intervention programs need to be designed specifically to target problem issues. Recommendations for the school are made in the hope that they can be communicated to educators and the broader community.
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ItemConcept of spoken English( 2007)The study presented here examines the concept of spoken English held by tertiary teachers of English as a Foreign Language in China. The objective was to discover this knowledge so as to inform the design of professional development programs aiming to raise the standards of spoken English teaching in order to meet new government policy objectives. A college in South China was chosen as the research site and 17 EFL teachers participated in the study. Data were collected through the teachers' written responses to samples of spoken English, answers to a questionnaire, and focus group discussions. The findings of the study provide a 'map', showing both the range and the focus of how the teachers conceive of the features of spoken English across its different domains, and the gaps between these concepts of spoken English and those in contemporary theories. Although a wide range of features covering all domains of spoken English are included by the teachers as a group, most of them focus more on the features of formal accuracy and fluency than on those in the domain of sociolinguistic and strategic language use. The findings also suggest a number of reasons for this imbalance. These include practical constraints, such as the national examination guides and big class size, and the teachers' lack of confidence and knowledge in certain domains of spoken language use. Considered in light of current theories of language teaching, these findings show the knowledge, beliefs and assumptions of a representative group of teachers which can be used to guide the design of on-going professional development programs for such teachers in the area of spoken English pedagogy.
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ItemLearning for independence : the learning experience of some East Timorese scholarship students in Australia 2001 - 2005( 2007)The people of East Timor voted for independence in a UN sponsored referendum in 1999. The departing Indonesian Army left widespread devastation in its wake. In 2000 the first students left independent East Timor to take up scholarships around the world to help build its human resource. This thesis reports on research into the learning experiences of some members of the early groups of East Timorese scholarship students at different universities in Melbourne. Their experience during the scholarship period is analysed through the framework of adult learning including formal, non-formal, informal and unintentional learning. The students have learned English, taken their studies seriously, created their own community, and, through the support movement for East Timor, have had a range of opportunities to participate in the host community. Despite their formal educational experiences, they are enthusiastic learners committed to contributing to the development of East Timor. This thesis indicates that educators and those in the community support movement can learn from, and contribute to, the learning experience of future students from East Timor. It discusses some attitudes in the student community, shows the students' learning from observation of, and. participation in aspects of the Australian community, and their imagination and citizenship commitment in adapting their learning to the East Timorese.. context.
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ItemCompletion and non-completion amongst TAFE marketing students at a university of technology( 2001)The numbers of TAFE Marketing students who do not go on to complete the Advanced Diploma of Marketing at Swinbume University of Technology is substantial. This problem has been researched as part of this thesis with a view to identifying those factors, which distinguish persisters from withdrawers. Previous research covering the higher education, vocational and further education sectors, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, has identified a number of personal factors, institutional variables and environmental factors which increase the tendency of students to withdraw from courses of study. This study involved conducting a survey of a sample of 165 part-time and full-time students enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Marketing at the Hawthorn, Wantima, Croydon and Lilydale campuses of the Swinbume University of Technology for the first semester of 2000. The study found that withdrawers are less likely to be satisfied with the standard of teaching, are less likely to have undertaken the course to gain entry to another course, are less likely to consider that their employment prospects will be enhanced by completing the course and are less likely to be satisfied with the extent of their intellectual development and are more likely to be enrolled as a part time student. The tendency of students to withdraw from the course was not affected by satisfaction with services provided by the university, the degree of their social integration, their ability to balance the academic workload of the course with competing demands, personal problems, demographic variables or educational background.
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ItemPerceptions of improvisational performance from a group of intellectually disabled artists( 2000)It is my hope that this study will help others to appreciate the value of the improvisational performance experience of a group of artists with intellectual disabilities. The inquiry took place in the context of Stretch Physical Theatre, Footscray, Australia. Due to the artists' limitations in verbal articulation, a major source of data for the study is the nonverbal behaviour of participants as accessed through participant observation. A qualitative, interpretive approach was taken to elucidate artists' processes of meaning making. Phenomenology, ethnography and Laban Movement Analysis inspired the mixed-method design. Data included video recordings of artists' improvisational performance experiences, drawings by artists about their performances, audio recordings of artists talking about their performance experience, and a field journal. These sources enabled detailed description, multiple perspectives and contextual and relational understandings of the artists' experience. Findings of the study are presented as three personal narratives that are then synthesised and extended into a thematic analysis of the group. Group meanings identified include empathy; friendship; commitment to attendance and participation; confidence in leaders and peers; cooperation and competition; aesthetic embodiment; social contagion; celebration; pleasure in performance; and transformation. The central finding of the study, which I describe as 'aesthetic embodiment of performative community,' highlights the primacy of the aesthetic channel for disabled artists' meaning making in a social context. Discussion of this 'grand theme' in relation to background and emergent literature qualifies issues and contributes relevant perspectives to our understanding of Stretch artists' experience.
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ItemCaught in the middle : teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the Record of oral language when used with ESL students( 2004)In the present educational context, large-scale literacy reform has been hotly debated in the media by various stakeholders while on the other hand the " voice that has been largely absent from these debates has been that of teachers". This study attempts to correct this imbalance by reporting on a study of teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the ROL as a testing tool for students learning English as a second language. It was designed to offer the researcher, the participants and other stakeholders great insight into the current complexities that teachers face when assessing the oral competence of students learning English as a second language. Teachers were given the opportunity to critically examine their own assumptions, beliefs and practices about oral language learning and assessment and challenge the current use of the ROL in the Children's Literacy Success Strategy (CLaSS) program. A qualitative case study approach was selected to allow the voices of the participants and the researcher to be heard in a familiar setting. Thirty minute semi-structured interviews were conducted separately so that teachers could speak freely thus enabling the researcher to follow individual trains of thought and obtain in-depth responses. The study concluded that the usefulness of the Record of Oral Language as a testing tool for students from language backgrounds other than English was not the central issue. Research findings instead highlighted the difficulties faced by mainstream teachers expected to effectively assess the oral language skills of students for whom English is a second language without effective Professional Development support. The central issue that has emerged in this study is the place of teacher professional knowledge for these teachers of ESL students. Not only are ESL students disadvantaged in the current educational climate but so are the mainstream teachers. Teachers' responses to this study reaffirm the need for Professional Development in ESL pedagogy as a way to effectively support the Oral Language and Literacy Learning of ESL which was valued pre Literacy Advance.
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ItemMusic performance skill development : student perspectives( 2003)For musicians of all capability levels the continued development of skills in music performance is crucial. Performance skill development is a key area of study within music performance subjects at Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) level. In Units 3 and 4 Music Performance subjects, 75% of assessment relates to performance skill development outcomes. Given that such significant value is placed on the development of performance skills, it is relevant to examine student perspectives of the processes in which they are involved as they develop as performers. Exploring perspectives of students engaged in the development of music performance skills as part of VCE Music Performance studies was the key focus of this investigation. Student perspectives were investigated within a single VCE Music Performance class of eight students that I taught, using qualitative research techniques that allowed the personal narrative perspectives of students to be illuminated. Data collection methods included interviews, videotaped performances and student reflective activities. A theoretical perspective for the study was gained from music cognition and performance research and musical skill development literature. In exploring the perspectives of students whom I taught, I hoped to give a broader audience to the voices of students, as student perspectives are under represented within performance skill development literature. Through investigating the personal narrative perspective of individual participants, the complex nature of the development of performance skills for the individual became apparent. Participating students' perspectives of performance skill development incorporated elements that are valued within the structure of the VCE, together with past, present and future motivations. Student perspectives also valued intangible elements such as humour and friendships. The findings indicate that because of the personal nature of the process of performance skill development, it is crucial that teachers are aware of the perspectives of students. For music educators, gaining an understanding of the process of performance skill development from a student perspective should allow educators to better facilitate the process of performance skill development among student musicians as individuals.