Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemRetheorising equity in everyday routines in early childhood : a poststructuralist action research story(University of Melbourne, 2010)
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ItemParent-professional relationships in early intervention for children with hearing impairment : the Malaysian experience(University of Melbourne, 2010)Establishing collaborative parent-professional relationships is one of the central values of the family-centred approach to early intervention (Blue-Banning, Summers, Frankland, Nelson, & Beegle, 2004; Dunst, 2002; Park & Turnbull, 2002). The shift from a professionally-centred to a family-centred approach in early intervention has been documented in western countries over the last three decades (Brader, 2000; Espe-Sherwindt, 2008). However, there is a dearth of similar reports based on studies conducted in Asian countries, such as Malaysia. This study describes parent-professional relationships in the context of early intervention for children with hearing impairment in Malaysia. Twenty-two parents of children with hearing impairment and ten professionals who provided early intervention services to the parents were recruited from four programs in Kuala Lumpur and surrounds. The majority of parents were mothers, and all the professionals were speech-language pathologists who had been consistently working with the family for at least one year prior to this study. There were two stages of data collection. During Stage 1, all the parent and professional participants individually completed questionnaires. The questionnaires investigated the beliefs, interaction behaviours, and quality of relationships of the parents and professionals involved in this study. The parent participants also responded to two additional domains of investigation: family functioning and service satisfaction. Five parent-professional pairs who reported highly positive relationships in their questionnaires participated in Stage 2. They were firstly videotaped during an intervention session, and then interviewed separately about their parent-professional interactions. The videotapes were used to study the pairs� interaction behaviours. The interviews provided insights from these participants on their roles and interactions in their parent-professional relationships. The questionnaire, video, and interview data were firstly analysed separately, and then were triangulated to generate case studies. Results yielded from all sources of data have been reframed according to the relational and participatory helpgiving practices (Dunst, Johanson, Trivette, & Hamby, 1991; Dunst & Trivette, 1996). Relational helpgiving practices were strongly evident in this study, such as professionals displaying positive interpersonal skills, and establishing positive relationships with parents. Furthermore, positive attitudes towards parent capabilities were also found, where the parents� knowledge about their child, and the parents� roles as their child�s teachers at home, were highly valued by the professionals. The participants in this study not only believed in equal relationships, they also ranked their parent-professional relationships as equal. However, the participatory helpgiving practices were markedly absent from this study�s findings. The professionals� specialized knowledge and skills, decisions, and behaviours, were the driving factors in the intervention. The professionals also assumed many leading roles in intervention, such as the decision maker, planner, controller, and instructor to parent. Parent involvement, although deemed as important, was defined by the professionals as parent compliance to professionals� instructions. Other less empowering roles assumed by the parents, such as the non-participating observer in intervention session, indicate inequality in the parent-professional relationships. Being trained in a professionally-centred model, the professionals focussed their intervention on the child, rather than on the family. A generic program for all families was also implemented by the professionals. This may help to explain the family�s report that their own strengths and resources being under-utilized, and their specific family needs not addressed by the professionals. The presence of relational helpgiving and the absence of participatory help giving identify the parent-professional relationships in this study as characteristic of a family-allied model of intervention rather than family-centred.
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ItemMusical composition and ICT: children, computers and new musical ideas( 2010)An investigation into children composing music with computers demonstrated complex and unconventional uses of rhythm, harmony and melodic structure, as well as approaches to the compositional process that indicated that the children’s musical perceptions and understandings were very different to those of adults and to those represented in the literature. Using qualitative methodological approaches with roots firmly attached to the ideas of post positivist paradigms the study presents a narrative account of events and actions. It makes strong connections to the Ecological Approach to Visual Perception as present by James Gibson by investigating the all-important relationship that exists between the child and the computer. The human/computer relationship is also significantly important in the actual analysis of the children’s works; the compositions were analysed using the same software with which they were composed. This allowed for a deep investigation of compositional processes that went beyond analysis of music as an expression of sound. The seven participants, aged between ten and twelve years, produced 261 compositions over the period of a school year. Analysis of these compositions produced a typology of compositional approaches based on play; which is examined in detail. In addition to this typology, significant compositional features that include extreme rhythmic, harmonic and tonal dissonances were identified, these features are also presented. The process of data collection and analysis revealed an inexorable link between the children’s actions and the act of play. The centrality of play is identified as significantly important to the compositions and the compositional approaches. Through the consideration of the role of play, the notion of metaphor (in language, music and play itself) and the importance of the electronic environment, the thesis asks educators and researchers to consider alternatives to the application of adult western cultural perspectives to what is an expression of childhood.
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ItemThe drama of boys: an ethnographic study and performance( 2010)This thesis, entitled The Drama of Boys – an ethnographic study and performance examines boys’ participation in drama at a coeducational government school in inner Melbourne, Australia. An educational ethnography, it focuses on the ways in which the boys participated in the drama classes at years seven, eight, eleven and twelve and how this related to the work of the drama teachers and the female students. It is also an account of the processes undertaken by the researcher to create an ethnographic performance (a play based on research data) derived from the findings related to boys’ participation in the Drama programme at the school. The researcher investigated what characterised boys’ participation in drama at the school and the factors that influenced this. The sources of ethnographic data were observations of the drama classes, interviews with staff and students and an analysis of school documentation and other relevant artefacts. There appeared to be a direct relationship between ‘boy-friendly’ curriculum approaches operating in the Drama programme and the positive and productive participation of boys in the drama classes. The Drama classrooms were found to be sites where the male students negotiated a complex range of private and public personas and roles associated with their masculinity. The expression of masculine identity by the male drama students affirmed and contested some of the hegemonic masculinities operating elsewhere in their school. The students and their drama teachers asserted that the range of masculinities the male students ‘performed’ in Drama appeared to be broader than those they expressed and experienced in other aspects of their school life including those that had a positive impact on their schooling. The data revealed that the pedagogical approach of the drama teachers correlated with contemporary understandings of ‘boy-friendly’ teaching strategies and this enhanced the boys’ participation in the subject. Some of the student participants identified what they deemed to be the positive attributes of the Drama programme in relation to the enhanced participation of boys in the classes. The thesis also maps, analyses and evaluates the processes undertaken by the researcher to transform ethnographic data into an ethnodramatic script. He found that he had to address ethical and procedural difficulties when writing and presenting the ethnodramatic script. However working as an ethnodramatist enhanced his role as an ethnographic researcher and was a useful adjunct to the Drama programme in the school. An unexpected outcome was that the ethnodramatic project fostered the boys’ participation in the drama classes. It was discovered that ethnographic performance can be a useful method and form with which to report on ethnographic research findings and an effective way to share research data with drama teachers and their students. The researcher found that the collaborative and consultative processes he established with the participants enhanced his work as an ethnodramatist including the development of the play script and presenting it as a readers’ theatre performance.
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ItemMeaning and potential of test response time and certainty data: teaching perspective( 2010)Computerised testing is becoming a major component of and an increasingly preferable method of assessment. The potential of the vast information generated during a test to increase the precision of evaluation and to extend the utility of a test for test design, teaching and learning are in the focus of current scientific discourse. This study contributes to the discussion by investigating the meaning of response time and certainty data from a teaching perspective. The study also explores the utility of response time measurements to deliver information about certainty, thus capitalising on the benefit of unobtrusiveness of the measurements. The study utilised a quasi-experimental design, with the data collected from computerised tests in basic mathematics skills administered to tertiary students as part of their curriculum in a University setting. With the focus on the potential of response time to inform teaching, the study examined: (a) how response time could reveal the difference in cognitive load between test items; (b) how response time could reflect solution strategies; (c) how response time could be used to detect cognitive progress and to monitor the impact of teaching on a student cohort across a semester; (d) what meaning is conveyed by different combinations of response time and certainty; and (e) whether there is a relationship between response time and certainty and then whether response time can be used as a proxy for certainty. The research adopted a data-driven approach based on the use of quantitative data analysis to identify a phenomenon and prompt its exploration through qualitative methods of interviews and discussions with test takers and teaching experts who then provided further interpretation of the phenomenon. The study found that response time and certainty data deliver the information about underlying cognitive phenomena that are not captured by traditional accuracy statistics. The study established that response time measurements can assist in the following education processes: (a) designing parallel test items; (b) evaluating difference in cognitive load; c) estimating prevalence of mental solution strategy over written strategy; and (d) monitoring the impact of teaching on specific cohort subgroups across a semester. The study established the relationship between response time and certainty which indicates that response time data can be used instead of certainty for assessing group readiness for new learning. Additionally, the study determined the format for presenting the data that was perceived as the most meaningful by a teacher. The findings of the study are especially valuable for enhancing the pedagogical practice of Assessment For Learning which stands in the centre of current education assessment reform. Practical implementation of the findings in education testing software can facilitate a change in teaching practice by providing the means for ongoing monitoring of cognitive dynamics of a student cohort to further enhance the teaching and learning process.
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ItemReflexions: a co-operative, arts based study into the settlement of young humanitarian entrants from the Horn of Africa( 2010)This study begins by collecting the stories of settlement that emerge from participants within the Horn of Africa Arts Project and then moves on to investigate the use of drawing in mandalas, film, and theatre as cooperative data collection tools. It looks at the richness of the data collected and the impact of these tools on young participants who are humanitarian settlers from the Horn of Africa. In this study a mandala is a circle drawn on an otherwise blank sheet of paper in which participants are asked to draw. Of particular interest is the role of the interaction between participant and their artistic creation and between participant and researcher during the creative, data collection process; where the participant can become engaged with deep and implicit non-verbal material and the researcher is offered the opportunity to hear information not readily accessible through words alone. The findings that emerge are compared and contrasted with, and add to information gleaned from other research into settler experiences of humanitarian settlement policy for people who have recently arrived in Australia from the Horn of Africa. This research is a qualitative; arts based ethnographic study using a Kaupapa Mãori approach to the analysis of data, based on a relational view of “knowledge as something that is socially constructed by embedded embodied people who are in relation with each other” (Barbara Thayer-Bacon (1997) as cited by Bishop in Denzin and Lincoln 2005:118). An argument is built for drawing together understandings from the fields of psychology, traumatology and the Arts. Winnicott’s “good enough” psychological holding (1968), as demonstrated by strong activity in the right hemisphere of the brain (Schore, 2008), is generated and builds trust through arts based activities (Betensky, 1995). I suggest that artistic creativity can generate reflexivity between the participant and his/her creation or between the participant and the researcher. Here this activity may stimulate playfulness (OʼConnor, 2003) and a flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) that allows the participant to access and process unintegrated traumatic material trapped in the body as unexpended energy (Ogden, 2002). Once this has happened the participant is free to choose those aspects of his/her story they wish to share. • It is argued that the data generated using arts based activity is distinctly different from other research data in the field, reflecting the emotional effects of settlement policy on participants. This distinct difference is due to two factors: The qualities in data collection within this study focusing on emotional content extracted by inviting participants to first create their experiences and then talk about what they have seen; • The focus being fully on the settler rather than on a combination of service provider and settler as service user. Finally it is argued that profound, emotional and, sometimes, subconscious and traumatic material can be accessed and safely presented using the mandala, film and theatre to create reflexivity.
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ItemExperiential learning programs in Australian secondary schools( 2010)Experiential programs in special environments are common in Australian education, notably in independent secondary schools. Without overt reference to research, they claim the special features of their program lead to personal development. The study sought to discover the underlying theoretical elements common to experiential learning programs, and by extension, sought to identify the elements of the experiential learning that might be incorporated into mainstream learning. Adopting a constructivist interpretive framework drawn from the work of Dewey, Vygotsky, and Bruner, the study examined six Australian independent school experiential learning programs offered to Year 9 students at dedicated, discrete settings ranging from wilderness to the inner city. The methodology employed in the research design was qualitative, drawing on Argyris and Schon’s notion of theory of action as an overarching framework in the documentation of six case-study programs. A preliminary probe into a single experiential program and an Australia-wide survey of school-based experiential learning provided a base of reference for the main study, which focused on 41 teaching practitioners as the primary informants on the programs. Data sources consisted of public documentation on programs, ethnographic interviews, questionnaire responses and researcher observations. Charmazian grounded theory method and Argyris and Schon’s ladder of interference were used as the primary tools for data analysis. The study found challenging setting, constructed social interaction, tolerance of risk, and reflection to be the essential design components that enable personal learning, and these thus form the model of experiential learning that emerges from analysis of the data. Together with the learner and cognitive dissonance, the spatiotemporal setting of the experience is identified as the defining characteristic and third component of experiential learning transactions. Specific properties of each learning setting interact with learners in ways that afford specific learning opportunities. Individual student status and collective social structures in remote experiential settings that rupture contact with the home community are profoundly altered through the experience. Risk emerges as an indispensible property of novel learning experiences. Reflection, both facilitated and unfacilitated, is the mechanism by which experiential learning is stored in episodic memory and informs the process of knowledge creation. The theoretical model of experiential learning derived from the programs studied describes the essential differences between experiential and mainstream learning. This model offers a basic design template for the development of experiential learning programs in other settings to meet the particular learning needs of Year 9 students in mainstream schools. Finally, these programs provided evidence of close parallels with traditional initiation rites, suggesting that they serve an important socialisation function for adolescents.
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ItemSuccessful school leadership in Singapore( 2010)This study explored the characteristics and practices of the principals in four successful primary schools in Singapore. As this study forms part of an international study, the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), the research methodology adhered to its protocol, albeit adapted to suit the Singapore context. As such, it adopted a multi-perspective case study methodology in which semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from principals, teaching and non-teaching staff, students, parents and School Management Committee/ School Advisory Committee members. These data were analyzed in several stages, including coding, categorization, cross-case analysis and interpretation. The principals were found to have contributed significantly to the success of their schools. Their leadership was underpinned by their personal qualities, beliefs and values, which guided their practices. The four principals were highly successful in improving school capacity through redesigning school structures, particularly those that facilitate improvement in the work of teachers. They enhanced the professional capacity of the teaching and non-teaching staff through professional development programmes and grooming future leaders. The principals also established meaningful partnerships with stakeholders inside and outside the school community. They also empowered the stakeholders through distribution of power and shared decision making processes. Each of the principals described how their leadership was built upon the legacy of previous principals at their schools. Overall, each of the principals successfully led their schools to achieve educational excellence, and a model describes this in terms of 6Es - Educate, Envision, Energize, Engage, Enable and Embrace. This study provided an Asian perspective which is missing from much of the research on successful school leadership.
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ItemLexicogrammatical analysis of science classroom language: possibilities and limitations( 2010)This study examined the productivity of analysing science classroom language at a lexicogrammatical level, that is, in terms of the use of lexicogrammatical (LG) resources. The aims of the study are two-fold: 1) to conduct lexicogrammatical analysis of science classroom language; and 2) to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of the analysis. Adopting an integrated socio-constructivist and socio-semiotic perspective, this study assumed learning the language of school science is constitutive of the learning of science. By analysing the science classroom language, this study set out to explore what is entailed for students to appropriate and employ the language of school science. Data for this study came from a larger study entitled ‘Causal Connections in Science Classrooms’. A single case study consisting of data generated from a sequence of nine lessons on the topic of “States of Matter” from a Grade 7 classroom in an outer suburban school in Melbourne was constructed. The focus of the analysis was on the students’ written assignments and lesson transcripts generated from the lessons related to the concepts of expansion and density. Data from other lessons as well as the interview videos constituted supplementary data useful for understanding the context. Analytical categories from the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework were utilised in the analysis. Among the main findings are: students’ written responses to tasks showed diversity in the type of explanation, the use of LG resources and the meanings realised; the different explanatory foci identified among the students’ explanations were found to be associated with distinct sets of LG resources; some students employed LG resources in ways that appeared to be ambiguous; some of the LG resources employed by the students were similar to those employed in the instructional language but others were different; similarly, not all of the meanings realised by the students’ language were similar to those realised by the instructional language; the significance of the differences in the use of LG resources between the instructional language and the students’ language could be illuminated by the condition-of-use for the LG resources. Further, the analysis also illustrates how the students’ use of LG resources could have been shaped by the nature of the instructional activities and tasks as well as the language used in the classroom. The above findings constituted the “possibilities” of analysing science classroom language at a lexicogrammatical level, and can be broadly grouped into A) the different ways in which students employ language to realise scientific meanings in relation to the instructional language; B) patterns of language use that are significant for realising scientific meanings; and C) aspects of the instructional process that appear to shape the way students employ language. Two limitations of lexicogrammatical analysis were identified. One limitation relates to the difficulties in the interpretation of students’ intended meaning from their written responses and the other relates to the inadequacy of the analysis for illuminating the significance of the diversity in the use of LG resources in terms of the scientific accuracy of the meaning realised. Three kinds of implications were drawn from the findings: theoretical, pedagogical and methodological. Theoretical implications relate to the dual role of LG resources as cognitive and semiotic tools, and what is entailed in the use of LG resources as “building blocks” to realise scientific meanings. Pedagogical implications relate to the interventions that teachers may undertake to facilitate the learning of the language of school science, which is constitutive of learning science. Some suggestions include strategies on how to attend to the use of LG resources in science classrooms; the need to discuss the requirements of classroom tasks; and using alternative modes of representation (e.g., diagrams) not only to access students’ understanding but also to assess students’ effectiveness in their use of the language of school science. Methodologically, this study shows the importance of students’ diagrams in unpacking the meaning of their writings that would otherwise remains ambiguous and of investigating the effects of context on students’ representation of scientific meanings. To conclude, this study has demonstrated the productivity in investigating the use of LG resources in a science classroom, particularly the insights it offers into the challenges that students face when employing the language of school science. These challenges relate not only to conceptualising scientific knowledge through language but also the effective control of the use of language as a semiotic tool. The demonstrated importance of the role of LG resources in the learning of science is a reminder that in the current push towards inquiry-based learning of science, there is a need to focus not only on getting students to be involved in conducting scientific inquiry but also on their ability to gain control of the use of the various semiotic tools - of which language of the school science is a central one.