Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    Acting with care: how actor practice is shaped by creating theatre with and for children
    Andersen, Jennifer ( 2017)
    Research has investigated the backgrounds, dispositions and skills of artists working with children in both school and in out-of-school contexts (Ascenso, 2016; Brown, 2014; Galton, 2008; Jeanneret & Brown, 2013; Pringle, 2002; Pringle, 2009; Rabkin, Reynolds, Hedberg, & Shelby, 2008; Waldorf, 2002). Actors make a significant contribution to this work but few studies focus in depth on how they create theatre with and for children. Incorporating constructivist, phenomenological (Van Manen, 1990) and case study methodologies, this research investigates the practice of nine actors who create theatre with and for children in diverse contexts. Drawing on document analysis, surveys, semi-structured interviews and performance observations, the research explores two key questions: What characterises the practice of actors who create theatre with and for children? and How is actor practice shaped by working with children? This thesis explores actor practice in relation to being, doing, knowing and becoming (Ewing & Smith, 2001). Shaped to be outward facing and ‘pedagogically tactful’ (Van Manen, 2015), actor practice gives emphasis to four key qualities: listening, reciprocating, imagining and empathising. When creating theatre with and for children, pedagogically tactful actors are guided by a sense of care and respect. This thesis adds to the discourse about artists working with children, making actor practice visible and drawing attention to their beliefs, goals, motivations and acting techniques.
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    Engaging young writers in self-regulated learning: an examination of teaching practices and learning processes
    Clifton, Elisabeth ( 2017)
    One approach currently promoted to support substantial increases in student learning is the development of self-regulated learning SRL (Hadwin & Oshige, 2011; Winnie, 2014a; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011). However there is limited research into SRL as an event that happens in real time, particularly examining how co-regulated learning leads to SRL or how young writers acquire SRL skills (Perry & Rahim, 2011). This study investigates how Year 1 writers can be supported to SRL. This study employed a case study methodology and focused on three teachers and nine students during writing lessons over thirty-five weeks. Microanalytic observations involved a brief questioning prior to, during and after writing, and occurred on four occasions throughout the study period to examine how students set goals, planned strategies, used strategies, and self-evaluated what they had achieved (Cleary, Callan, & Zimmerman, 2012; DiBenedetto & Zimmerman, 2013; Hadwin & Oshige, 2011; Zimmerman, 2008). Following the observations, an interview was conducted with each teacher. These interviews operated as directed conversations that enabled an in-depth exploration of particular issues arising from the observations and the analysis of data. Directly following observations, writing samples from the students were collected (nine samples per term, thirty-six in total). A Year 1 writing analysis tool developed by Mackenzie, Scull, and Bowles (2015) was used to analyse these samples. Constructivist grounded theory method was used to structure the collection and analysis of interview, observation and work sample data (Bryant & Charmaz, 2007; Charmaz, 2000, 2014). The analysis of findings revealed that the teacher participants used specific processes and practices to support their students to engage in SRL. It is proposed that the supporting practices observed could be suitably defined as three core learning processes that supported Year 1 writers to engage in SRL. The core processes identified were: • An intentional learning process • Socially structured regulation of learning • Metacognitive regulation of learning These three processes were theoretically positioned to explore how they impacted on students’ engagement in SRL. The overall conclusion was that each process operated differently with specific functions. The findings illustrated that teachers implemented an intentional learning process to focus and clarify student understanding and to guide students to engage in self-assessment and use of their own feedback loop. This process functioned to support intentional learning by providing opportunities for purposeful learning, conceptually focused learning, self-assessment and connection making. There was also evidence of socially structured regulation of learning implemented by teachers to systemise the students’ learning, to engage them in peer-supported learning and to scaffold learning. This process functioned to provide opportunities for challenging but manageable learning, co-regulated learning and scaffolded learning. Metacognitive regulation of learning identified as the third process, was used to prompt students to use metalanguage strategies such as goal setting, strategy planning/use and reflecting upon learning. To begin the construction of a substantive theory, a synthesis and conceptualisation of the above findings was conducted. It was proposed that the three core learning processes identified during the study could be interrelated to support Year 1 writers to engage in SRL, and when suitably aligned, could function to provide a transparent learning process resulting in a synergy of learning. To conclude findings, a guiding principle for designing instruction was presented. This serves to illustrate how key learning processes can be aligned to support Year 1 writers to SRL.
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    Videogames, distinction and subject-English: new paradigms for pedagogy
    Bacalja, Alexander Victor ( 2017)
    At a time when the proliferation of videogame ownership and practice has led to greater attention on the consequences of increased engagement with these texts, schools and educators are engaged in active debate regarding their potential value and use. The distinctive nature of these texts, especially in contrast to those texts which have traditionally dominated school environments, has raised questions about their possible affordances, as well as the pedagogies most appropriate for supporting teaching with and through these texts in the classroom. While much has been written about the learning benefits of videogames, especially in terms of opportunities for the negotiation of self (Gee, 2003), there has been less research addressing the impact of applying existing English subject-specific pedagogies to their study. In particular, there are few case-study investigations into the suitability of subject-English classrooms for the play and study of videogames. The project utilised a naturalistic case-study intervention involving eight 15-year-old students at a co-educational school in the outer-Northern suburbs of Melbourne. Data was collected during a five-week intervention in an English classroom context at the participants’ home-school. This involved the teacher-researcher leading a series of learning and teaching activities informed by dominant models of subject-English (Cox, 1989), Cultural Heritage, Skills, Personal Growth, and Critical Literacy, that focussed on several popular videogames. Data was analysed using Bourdieu’s theory of practice (1977) to reveal a social reality at the centre of this intervention co-created by a dialectical relationship between the habitus of students (especially in terms of their videogame, school and gendered identities) and the field of the classroom, with its own historically constituted and legitimised/authorised ways of being and doing textual study, as realised by the teacher. Mediating this relationship were the intrinsic features of videogames. The findings are presented through a Framework for Videogame Literacies in Subject-English which synthesises the relationship concerning past and present approaches to textual study in the subject, and the need to embrace what Locke terms, an “informed and critical eclecticism” (2015, p. 25). Firstly, the study found that the inclusion of videogames in subject-English provided the material for rich, rigorous and authentic learning experiences. Much of this can be achieved through the appropriation of existing paradigms of subject-English and their associated pedagogical practices, resisting the privileging of any single component of the framework and instead encouraging an awareness of the different purposes which each part serves. Secondly, analysis demonstrated the ways in which dominant approaches to the subject must evolve in response to the unique design features and intrinsic textual practices associated with these texts. Lastly, the study revealed that attempts to bring these texts into English classrooms will need to negotiate the disciplinary forces which organise these spaces, in terms of both the habitus of students, and the historically constituted structures which establish what is possible in such places. This work contributes to the field of research examining videogame literacies in classrooms, especially in terms of the impact of bringing technologies typically engaged for entertainment into subject-English learning contexts. The study suggests that future research is needed to test the efficacy of the Framework, and to identify ways for teachers to respond to inevitable developments in the design features of videogames so that current and future iterations of videogames can be incorporated into schools for rigorous learning and teaching.