Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe discipline of comparative education : some reflections on the nature of the discipline with particular respect to its status as a science(University of Melbourne, 1973)The discipline of Comparative Education is not well defined either in the area of its study, or in its methodology. In recent years those who have found a clearer approach to methodology in the methods of social science have brought these into Comparative Education. However, these are not new to Comparative Education. The foundations of social science lie in the positivist philosophy of post-Revolutionary France, and this philosophy had its effect on educational theory of the time, notably in the work of Jullien of Paris. Two broad traditions in educational, and related social, thought can be traced; that which begins with Jullien and is characterized by belief in science; and that which begins with Matthew Arnold, and which stresses cultural analysis. For all their differences, both have originated and been used in an effort to understand or achieve social order. The means of attaining social order have varied. The 'scientific' and 'cultural' approaches to Comparative Education need to be studied in their contexts to be understood, although both approaches have intellectual appeal and use outside this context. The historical development helps us understand the present state of the discipline. An analysis of the comparative method, as a part of the process of cognition, shows some of its possibilities and allows some criticism of the method as used in Comparative Education. Comparison is necessary in cognition, and its study increases our understanding of the manner in which comparison is used to divide perceived experience into categories. Since the categories made are dependent upon the culture of those who make them, comparative study of other cultures may make more conscious the manner in which this is done; comparative study may also show that apparently similar categories are, in different cultures or sub-cultures, not as they appear. Science is often regarded as a reliable means of obtaining objective knowledge. Closer examination shows that science cannot be seen as a method, for any of its methodologies are linked to concepts, meaning and assumptions. Further, science does not produce objective knowledge, but does produce agreed knowledge. It is necessary therefore to study the manner in which this agreement is reached, which means the study of science as a particular cultural formation. Often this is not understood by those who call upon the name of science to give legitimacy to their particular approach; one of the major uses of science is as ideology. Following the historical study of Comparative Education, the examination of some possible and actual uses of the method of comparison, and a study of the meaning of science, some attempt at, a methodology of Comparative Education is made. The work of a number of writers is examined, as are also a number of categorizations of methodology. A widely held position is that a search for functional relationships between tightly specified variables is the important characteristic of a scientific comparative method. The argument which arises from the study of comparison and of science however is that the important problems are those of the formation of categories, the means by which these categories are filled out or varied, and the nature of the relationship between the category maker, those whose education he studies, and those who read and act upon his work. Finally an analysis is made of the chief writings of the comparativists Edmund King and Harold Noah. These are taken as main representatives of the traditional cultural and scientific approaches to Comparative Education. Both writers are criticized, but King's work comes closer to the methodological position developed in this thesis.
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ItemAn analysis of how an innovation is disseminated by using the origins of the vertical curriculum concept in Victorian State Secondary Schools( 1985)The purpose of this investigation was twofold. One aim was to discover the origins of the vertical curriculum structure that has made a considerable impact on state secondary schools in the last decade. The other aim was to establish how the idea spread throughout the system and why schools made this major change away from the horizontal curriculum. Three research methods were used in this study. Firstly, Education Department Secondary School Handbooks were studied to identify the vertically structured schools in 1975 and 1982. Secondly, a telephone survey was undertaken in order to find more information about each of the forty-four vertical models discovered in the 1983 Handbook. This survey also enabled the original innovative schools to be identified, key individuals to be established and communication links between schools to be drawn up. Finally, the key carriers of the concept were interviewed to gain in depth information on the innovation. The outcome from the data collected should assist in the understanding of how a major curriculum change can disseminate throughout the schools in an education system. These implications should apply to educational systems outside of both Victoria and Australia.
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ItemThe effect of success and failure on self concept and anxiety( 1977)While there is considerable evidence of the relationship between self-concept and achievement, there is little experimental evidence of the effect of achievement on self-concept. Morrison (1973) provided such evidence, and the purpose of this study was to attempt to replicate Morrison's findings with regard to the effect of success and failure on self-concept with subjects of a younger age. In so doing a number of methodological improvements were made in order to more clearly establish the relationship between anxiety and self-concept, and to clarify the role of sex differences. The subjects of this study were 176 Form Three (Nineth Grade) students selected from four Melbourne metropolitan secondary schools. The experiment investigated the effects of success and failure as determined by performance on an anagram task on self-concept, as measured by the semantic differential, and on anxiety, as measured by a brief form of the STAI A-State Scale. Post-test scores were covaried for pre-test scores. The experiment provided strong support for the hypothesis that general self-concept changes as a result of a single experience of success or failure. Subjects who experienced success saw themselves more positively, while subjects who experienced failure saw themselves more negatively. R further experience of success and failure also had a highly significant effect on self-concept, with success following failure and failure following success being particularly effective in producing changes in self-concept. A similar pattern of results occurred in the case of anxiety. There is a strong indication that changes in anxiety and self- concept occurred independently. No significant sex differences were found. Support was also provided for the hypothesis that the response made to the anagram task would generalize to other similar stimuli. The highly significant results were discussed in the light of the probable self-concept development of subjects of this age. The effectiveness of success following failure, and failure following success in producing changes in self-concept and anxiety may have resulted from the difference between the level of expectation and subsequent achievement. Stimulus generalization was discussed as a potentially profitable area of future research regarding the relationship between self-concept and achievement.
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ItemPaper dolls : an analysis of the culture of femininity as represented in the teenage magazine, Dolly( 1984)With the growth of the women's movement, there has been an increasing interest in the place of women in history. This has produced evidence that women have had a far greater part to play in history than has been previously recognized. This absence is now being rectified by works such as Dale Spender's Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them, which gives short accounts of the philosophies and work of individual women. While they had considerable impact in their own time, most of these women have been unaccountably "lost" in male histories. The retrieval of their stories, and of the general history of day-to-day female existence, is an important area. It is not merely a matter of inserting female figures into existing histories, but of rewriting history to incorporate them. However, in the context of my study, I am more interested in the history of images of women, rather than a factual account of their lives. It is unfortunate but true that these images of "Woman" have an impact on our culture that supersedes the actions of the many women throughout history who have diverged from these images; therefore when studying women in relationship to society it is of more use it understanding the position assigned them rather than accounts of the achievements of individuals. I will touch on various writers who have studied attitudes to women at different times during the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon culture that Australia has inherited. DOLLY is a particularly blatant example of that control and interpretation. Inevitably, the contradictions inherent in the female culture, the conflict between ideology and the lived experience, are there as well. Capitalism is all-important, in the guise of consumerism, as advertising is the economic rationale of DOLLY. Similarly, DOLLY's relationship to that other massive ideological framework, the patriarchy, needs to be explored, as well as the impact the combination of the two has upon women. DOLLY is also about incorporation: it works to reconcile images and ideologies of the feminine that appear to be contradictory or disturbing. The increasing sexual freedom has to be dealt with; the role of the family and the cult of the individual, female solidarity and female competition have to be reconciled. All these and other factors have to be adjusted and smoothed over under a glossy surface. In its own way, DOLLY is a hegemonic masterpiece. Studying DOLLY does not merely involve locking at the magazine in isolation, but also reviewing the circumstances that give rise to this form of cultural artifact. The position of Woman in our culture, as embodying all the qualities not included in the "norm", is based on a male perspective of what the "norm" might be. This is taken to the point where even. women accept this image of themselves.
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ItemValidation of the state-trait distinction in curiosity( 1976)To further validate the state-trait distinction in the study of curiosity, the present experiment aimed to investigate the effects of situational variables on a measure of state-curiosity. Introductory chapters contain a discussion of the historical background to contemporary research and theory on curiosity, and a rationale for the specific hypotheses put forward in the study. A group of 177 student subjects were given three tasks assumed to produce high, medium, and low levels of state-curiosity. Four measures of C-State were taken during the task: after instructions, after five minutes, after ten minutes, and after debriefing. Measures of C-Trait were administered two weeks before and two weeks after the testing session. Results were analysed using both a product moment correlation and a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. It was concluded that situational variables influence both overall levels of state-curiosity between tasks and over the duration of each task. Specific predictions were only partly confirmed.
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ItemRemediating the elementary mathematics of prospective primary school teachers( 1980)Three areas are reviewed: the knowledge of prospective primary teachers of basic mathematics, remediation programs in mathematics and the use of calculators as a learning aid in mathematics. A remediation program is described involving a diagnostic pre-test and consequent assignment to one of three treatments: self-study, group tutorials or individual tutorials. The purpose of the 10 week program is to help prospective primary teachers meet a competency requirement in mathematics which is mandatory for progress beyond the third semester of a six-semester course of primary teacher training at a Victorian university. The program covers understanding and knowledge of place value, whole number decimals and fraction operations, percentages, averages and measurement including metrics. The group tutorials were given one of two treatments: the use of calculators during the remedial program, or the same program without calculators. Seven hypotheses related to the effects of the program are described. Post-testing after the 10 weeks of the program showed very large gains by each of the three groups. However the calculator group showed no difference from the non-calculator group, a finding consistent with the literature. Discussion of the results and pointers for future study conclude the study, with one recommendation being that mathematics specialists be appointed to primary schools.
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ItemMaking the transition : cultural reproduction in the market-place( 1985)This work relates to the cultural, economic and behavioural characteristics of two groups of young people who have recently left school and, either embarked upon a career pathway via tertiary education or on to long-term unemployment. Theories of cultural reproduction and anomie were examined in an attempt to account for the pathways that the two groups had taken. Two anomalies were discovered; students from migrant or working-class backgrounds who were succeeding in higher education and some working class unemployed young people who were beginning the slide into the under class. Cultural reproduction theory was found not to exactly or accurately account for outcomes and life chances whereas anomie theory was found to be a reasonable explication for the state of malaise of a number of those young people interviewed.
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ItemComputer-based learning in an Australian setting : a study of the development and use of a foreign language vocabulary program at the University of Melbourne( 1976)This thesis is the first Australian study of the use of computer-based learning by non-Science students. It begins with a review of research and developments in computer applications in education overseas, and looks in particular at the use of computers in the teaching of foreign languages. It then examines the development, use and evaluation of a foreign language vocabulary practice program for students in first year undergraduate Swedish courses at the University of Melbourne. Since non-Science students might be expected to be more wary of technological innovations, student attitudes to the program and to the computer as a learning medium were of particular interest in this study. As had been reported in overseas studies, a majority of students showed very favourable attitudes to computer-based learning, largely because of their opinion that the program ensured thorough learning of the material presented. A smaller group were found to have strongly negative attitudes to the technique. The proportion of students who made a great deal of use of the program was quite small. This was attributable mainly to the limited aim of the program, acquisition of vocabulary, although inconvenience due to unsuitability of the available computing facilities for educational applications was also a contributing factor.