Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemTeachers' storytelling techniques and comprehension of narratives in Singaporean preschool children( 2004)There is growing body of evidence supporting the many connections between competent comprehension of narratives and the effective use of storytelling strategies. This study d?fines the cluster of concepts related to storytelling and narrative comprehension in young children and synthesizes the research on the role of storytelling in children's language development, in this case, the development of narrative comprehension. A critical review on storytelling beliefs and practices of preschool teachers in Singapore revealed that the espoused theories of the benefits of effective storytelling have not been distinguished from their own practices in the classrooms. This is due to a set of mitigating circumstances. The study notes the teachers' changing attitudes towards the use of more engaging storytelling techniques as emerging evidence suggest that a more engaging storytelling approach facilitates children's perspective taking and later abstract thought. This research also notes that there is a need for an inclusion of a more comprehensive storytelling course in the present Early Childhood training programme, thus identifying implications for understanding preschool teachers' development as storytellers. This study provides direction for further research in children's responses to storytelling.
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ItemThe management of wilderness experiences and anxiety in an environmental studies program( 2004)In contemporary outdoor education research, little attention is given to emotion and mood state. Little is known about the effect of anxiety upon the individual in a wilderness setting, and the effect of anxiety on the ability for an outdoor and environmental studies program to achieve set learning objectives. Considering that outdoor and environmental studies field trips provide the notion of learning as holistic and situational, anxiety has the capacity to play a crucial role. Focused on university undergraduate students' experiences of a five-day bush walk on the Overland Track in Tasmania, Australia, this study examines the affect that anxiety has on their ability to achieve the stated learning objectives of a field trip that forms a core learning experience in an outdoor and environmental studies subject. The study initially focused on a group of eight students undertaking the bush walk to identify anxiety levels and the origins of their anxiety. The students could then be classified into two groups, from each of which one participant was selected to conduct a comparative ethnographic case study. The study drew on both quantitative data collected through the use of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and qualitative data collected through participant observation, interviews and analysis of daily student journal entries. Results indicate that the degree of state-anxiety experienced by participants was directly related to their trait-anxiety and was consistent with Abraham Maslow's (1987) hierarchy of needs. Despite fluctuations in levels of state-anxiety, students were still able to achieve the set learning objectives providing these needs were fulfilled. Whilst social and psychological objectives can be attended to from the commencement of a field trip, students will not feel a drive to attain self-actualisation until their physiological, safety, belongingness and self-esteem needs have been fulfilled. Anxiety therefore must be monitored, and the nature of the anxiety must be attended to so that students can fulfill these needs and progress to cognitive development through self-actualisation.
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ItemOf secrets, sorrows, and shame: undergraduate nurses' experiences of death and dying( 2007)This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of undergraduate nursing students who cared for the dying and deceased whilst on clinical placement. To this point, studies on this phenomenon have focused on the experienced, qualified nurse. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the impacts of caring for the dying and deceased, on the student-nurse, and the implications for nursing education. The ten study participants were undergraduates enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing program at a metropolitan-based university in Melbourne. The study of their experiences, from the perspectives of the student-nurses, was conducted using a semi-structured interview for data collection. Analysis of the data, using a Miles and Huberman (1994) style matrix, revealed four emergent themes: intensity of emotion; perceptions, growth and awareness; and opportunities. These themes were explored to yield results which established there were often profound, and sometimes disturbing, impacts of grief for both the student-nurse, the patient, and others. This study contributes to the This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of undergraduate nursing students who cared for the dying and deceased whilst on clinical placement. To this point, studies on this phenomenon have focused on the experienced, qualified nurse. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the impacts of caring for the dying and deceased, on the student-nurse, and the implications for nursing education.
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ItemPractice MRI: analysis of an educational play therapy intervention in the practice MRI unit at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne( 2008)Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a common investigation performed on young children who are required to keep still for up to 60 minutes for the study to be performed successfully. Paediatric patients often find the confined space, noise, need to lie still and potential for intravenous contrast, anxiety provoking and which may be so distressing that they are unable to cope. General anaesthesia (GA) is then required to ensure diagnostic images are achieved. It was believed by staff in the Departments of Educational Play Therapy and Medical Imaging at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, that an intervention which supported children to develop understandings of the MRI process and appropriate coping strategies would allow more children to undergo MRI without the need for a GA. With this in mind, a practice MRI intervention, conducted by Educational Play Therapists was developed. The intervention was carried out in a practice MRI unit, a shell of an MRI, devoid of magnets. This study was to review if gender, age, time between practice and clinical MRI, time of day the clinical MRI occurs or the child's position in the MRI unit, would impact a child's ability to cope with the rigors of a practice MRI and go onto achieve diagnostic scans in a clinical MRI scan. Data was analysed by quantitative methodologies. Participants totalled 291(N), mean age 7.9 years. 240 (82.5%) were considered a pass at practice and 226 (90.8% of those who went on to a clinical intervention) were able to obtain diagnostic images at clinical MRI. None of the hypotheses was confirmed, but this is in itself interesting. The discussion suggests possible reasons for the non-confirmation of the hypotheses and proposes further areas for quantitative and qualitative research.