Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemSpeech-language pathology intervention for young offenders( 2017)Young offenders are a vulnerable and marginalised group with critical speech, language, and communication needs. Fifty to sixty percent of male young offenders have a clinically significant developmental language disorder. Despite this, little research has focussed on the efficacy and feasibility of speech-language pathology (SLP) intervention in youth justice settings. A year-long study in a youth justice facility in Victoria, Australia was undertaken. Following an assessment study (n = 27), a language intervention trial was conducted using a series of four empirical single case studies. The study evaluated the extent to which one-to-one speech-language pathology intervention improved the language skills of male young offenders. The feasibility of delivering SLP services was also investigated using quantitative service efficiency data, and qualitative data gathered from a staff focus group, and researcher field notes. Half of the sample in the assessment study qualified for a diagnosis of language disorder (> 1 standard deviation below mean on standardised measures), one third had social cognition deficits, and deficits in subskills of executive functioning ranged from one to three quarters of participants. Social cognition and executive functioning measures contributed significantly to variability in oral language skills. Individualised intervention programs were delivered for each of the four single case studies. There were medium-large improvements in the targeted communication skills, many of which were statistically significant. The data indicated evidence of the feasibility of SLP services, in spite of considerable barriers, including a high frequency of disruptions and cancellations. This research makes a substantial contribution to the evidence supporting the efficacy of one-to-one SLP intervention for young offenders. This research indicates that, despite substantial barriers, there are opportunities for effective and responsive SLP services with young offenders, as part of wider efforts to change the risk trajectories of these young people.
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ItemFrom log file analysis to item response theory: an assessment template for measuring collaborative problem solving( 2017)Recent economic, educational and psychological research has highlighted shifting workplace requirements and the change that is required in education and training to equip the emerging workforce with the skills for the 21st century. The emergence of these demands highlights the importance of new methods of assessment. An earlier study, ATC21S, pioneered assessment of individuals’ collaborative problem solving (CPS). The study represented a major advance in educational measurement, although the issue of efficiency, reliability and validity remained to be resolved. This study addresses some of these issues by proposing and developing an assessment template for measuring CPS in online environments. The template presented, from conceptualisation to implementation, centres on its generalizable application. The first part of the template outlines task design principles for the development of CPS tasks. The second part of the template presents a systematic process of identifying, coding and scoring behaviour patterns in log file data generated from the assessment tasks. Item response theory is used to investigate the psychometric properties of these behaviour patterns. Behavioural indicators are presented that are generalizable across students, CPS tasks and assessment sets. The goal of this study is to present an approach that can inform new measurement practices in relation to previously unattended latent traits and their processes. The assessment template provides an efficient approach to development of assessments that measure the social and cognitive subskills of collaborative problem solving.
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ItemBridging the data literacy gap for evidence-informed education policy and practice: the impact of visualization( 2017)Data literacy comprises an important set of competencies in today’s society. Its rise in prominence can be traced to several developments: the exponential increase in data leading to unprecedented possibilities for transforming society; the global Open Data movement as a driving force in making data more accessible; and the evidence-informed policy movement. In the education sector, the latter is linked to the data-driven decision making movement, which refers to the use of data to inform education policy and practice at all levels. Because of these developments, data literacy is becoming embedded as an integral part of professional competencies for educators and education leaders. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to investigate whether data literacy can be measured on a single scale of increasing proficiency, and second, to investigate the effect of different data presentation formats on data literacy within the context of evidence-informed education policy and practice. A data literacy test was developed which required participants to answer multiple-choice questions based on a set of research briefs. Participants consisted mainly of graduate students enrolled in an education-related degree and education researchers. An experimental design was used in which the treatment condition was the presentation format of the research briefs. Test participants (N = 127) were randomly assigned to one of three presentation formats – text-only, text plus tabulated data, and text plus visualization – where tabulated data and visualizations were constructed from information in the text. The findings from the test calibration supported the hypothesis of a hierarchical unidimensional data literacy scale. The interpretation of data literacy competencies along a log-linear scale replicated the hypothesized hierarchical development of data literacy levels. It was also hypothesized that text plus visualization would lead to higher levels of data literacy compared to the other presentation formats. While previous research analysed differences in presentation formats through raw scores, this study used many-facet Rasch model analysis. Ordinal-level raw scores were transformed into linear, interval-level measures as an outcome of the interaction between three facets: person, item, and presentation format. In contrast to raw scores, Rasch model parameter estimates are sample independent, so the findings can be more objectively generalized beyond the sample and items used in the study. Rasch parameter estimates for the three presentation formats supported the hypothesis that the use of visualizations is associated with higher levels of data literacy. Item-level analysis of the effect of presentation format, based on the theories of cognitive fit, cognitive load, and the proximity compatibility principle, suggested that data presentations which emphasize relationships between variables matching the problem context increase data literacy levels. Those that do not may lower data literacy levels by acting as extraneous cognitive load that diverts limited cognitive resources, especially if they misdirect attention and subsequent analysis. Implications of these findings were discussed in terms of the conceptualization of a hierarchy of data literacy competencies vis-à-vis the requirements of educators and education leaders, the potential and caveats of using data presentations for communicating policy-relevant evidence, and future research on data presentation and visualization.