Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPedagogical and cognitive usability in online learning( 2013)The last decade has seen a sharp – and necessary – increase in attention to the quality of eLearning which has expanded a relatively new area of usability specifically for online learning: pedagogical usability. This research focuses on the usability attributes that contribute to effective eLearning and delineates those pertinent to teaching (pedagogical usability) and those specific to learning (cognitive usability). A multifarious methodology provided the elicitation of data from almost all conceivable and feasible angles of the execution of eLearning in a real-world setting – the main positions being: the pedagogical considerations from the teacher-developers’ planning sessions through to the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by students, as well as an in-depth usability inspection and evaluation of the Learning Management System (LMS) used as the tool for delivery. The project, in essence, put a microscope on the entire process of eLearning. The complementary use of twelve methods of data collection for rigorous triangulation provided a synergic framework that enabled the examination of each stage of eLearning. The analytical framework applied to the data comprised a complex integration of existing models and a specifically devised analytical model that assisted in the deconstruction of all the factors that contribute to pedagogical and cognitive usability. The study introduces the concept of cognitive usability as distinct from pedagogical usability on the grounds that certain features and contributing factors to VLEs are more teacher-driven (pedagogical) while others are more learner-consummated (cognitive). The study found that a VLE’s constitutional design is governed by teachers’ philosophies about teaching and learning and their teaching styles and repertoires which in turn are also governed by curriculum design; the teachers’ lack of techno-pedagogical skills coupled with the limitations of the eLearning platform hold an equally pivotal role in determining the VLE’s pedagogical usability. The study showed a strong relationship between the technical, pedagogical and cognitive usability of a VLE and found that using an LMS to create eLearning is fraught with problems that are rooted in the technical design of the LMS. Since LMSs are a mandatory feature in almost all educational institutions nowadays, the findings of this study are particularly important since so much research focuses on the use of eLearning without specifically addressing the software used to create it. While even a VLE with low techno-pedagogical usability can still facilitate learning outcomes, this study showed that approximately one third of VLE activity is ineffective due to poor LMS design which impacts on the VLE design, leading to low cognitive usability.
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ItemEducating the reflexive citizen: making a difference or entrenching difference?( 2012)Young people’s democratic participation is the focus of a growing body of education policies and practices. These purport to enable all young people to be reflexive citizens with the agency to direct their own lives as well as to ‘make a difference’ in ways that improve the democratic fabric of society. These purposes remain both remarkably resilient and under-examined. At an historical juncture when forms of democracy are changing but inequality remains rigidly entrenched, this lack of critique renders some young people particularly vulnerable to governance by educational agendas which have little to do with either democracy or agency. This thesis explores the ways in which young people are constructed as reflexive citizens through their schooling and what this means for young people who are subject to structural or socioeconomic inequalities. It investigates how Australian education policy constructs young people’s democratic participation and what discourses of ‘youth’ and ‘citizenship’ inform this construction as well as how this construction mediates the experience of participation for young people in two Victorian schools located in low socioeconomic communities. Methodologically, this thesis draws on a critical discourse analysis of recent Australian education policy as well as case research in two government secondary schools located in outer Melbourne and rural Victoria. Theoretically, it is grounded in education and youth sociology, drawing on concepts of governmentality, reflexive modernity and critical pedagogy. This thesis reveals the deep ambiguities that accompany some young people’s experience of participation as well as the contradictory forces that shape the practices of educators. It also offers some fresh ways of understanding the role of schools in enabling young people’s democratic participation as well as young people’s capacity to see themselves in enabling ways.
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ItemThe millennial school: a theoretical basis for curriculum design in a time of educational transgression(University of Melbourne, 2012)This study is an insider, practitioner, case study presented under a narrative framework, occurring within one well regarded and successful school in the western suburbs of Melbourne. It is a study about the relationship between theory, practice and values in a rapidly changing world, based on evidence from my own experience and belief. The thesis examines the changing nature and characteristics of curriculum design and development in a school at the beginning of the 21st century (2000 – 2009). It critically traces my journey as I develop a living curriculum theory of practice to describe the processes used to produce and implement a more holistic curriculum relevant to education today. It describes and analyses the conceptual models and tools used to design, develop and implement that curriculum. The research reflects significant global changes within a local setting. In particular the move to personalization of curriculum, the inclusion of the ‘thinking curriculum’ and a more holistic approach is explored. This has resulted in the development of a learning ‘lattice’ as a model of curriculum along with a number of curriculum design tools. A detailed narrative approach is taken to the transition from one paradigm to the next in what I describe as an educational ‘transgression’ (in the geological sense). The narrative is essentially a single case study organised chronologically into 6 years exploring different elements of this dramatic transition. Extensive use is made of diagrams to both present data and show developing ideas. Future scenarios are also used to explore the directions of the transgression. In this study a ‘living educational theory’ (Whitehead 1989, 1993, McNiff and Whitehead 2005) leads to a ‘living curriculum theory’ for contemporary Australian schools which allows teachers and students to maximise planning and learning in an increasingly complex educational environment in which they face ever growing demands. 21st century curriculum planning characteristics are identified and incorporated into an appropriate curriculum model. A rigorous and systematic approach to sustaining this model is also described. Teachers are seen as designers of curriculum rather than mere implementers. The value of this type of insider practitioner, narrative research is also endorsed.
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ItemCreating Indigenous futures: using applied theatre to construct a participatory creative space for Indigenous Australian young people( 2012)This thesis investigates the use of applied theatre with disadvantaged Indigenous Australian young people. It examines the characteristics, challenges and opportunities of using applied theatre practices with Indigenous young people in an Indigenous community setting. The research considers the relationship between the fields of applied theatre, participatory forms of qualitative research and Indigenous research. The research responds to the low attendance and engagement of Indigenous young people in education in Australia. Poor rates of school completion combined with high rates of imprisonment means that at least half the Indigenous young people in Australia are underachieving, and are at risk of a future characterized by extreme disadvantage and disconnection from the mainstream. This research began as broad concern with how to reconnect disaffected Indigenous young people with education. Subsequently the research question was reframed as: how can applied theatre be used in the construction of a participatory creative space for Indigenous Australian young people? The study began as an invitation from Nungalinya College in Darwin to the researcher, a non-Indigenous teaching artist experienced in intercultural drama and theatre. Adopting a reflective practitioner stance the researcher explored the central role of applied theatre in building Indigenous young people’s engagement with culturally appropriate creative practices. The study consisted of three applied theatre projects conducted over three years. The first was a one-week Pilot Project in 2006. The second was a five-week intensive program conducted in 2007; the third was two weeks in 2008. The research was a partnership between Trinity College, the researcher-practitioner, who was employed at Trinity College, and Nungalinya College Youth Program. Contact was maintained between the three projects. The researcher became immersed in a new and unfamiliar cultural, social, political and environmental space in order to try to understand the lived realities of the young people. The development of deeper understanding by the researcher of Indigenous perspectives on partnerships, relationships, and cultural safety facilitated the young people’s participation. The researcher found it necessary to adapt applied theatre to incorporate the making of short films as a medium of storytelling and as an initiative of the young people. The building of conditions for participation required complex and sensitive relationships, which evolved through negotiation and collaboration. In a newly constructed creative space the young people had the opportunity to build new narratives to move beyond their habitual patterns and to imagine a different future. As a result of this research, a model for partnerships and for participation is proposed. The researcher identified a range of modes of participation in the creative space and these were subsequently characterized as a continuum from Peripheral to Marginal to Embodied to Active Participation.
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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.