Faculty of Education - Theses
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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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ItemPeer tutoring in a tertiary institution( 1987)This thesis aims to explore and assess the potential of Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy for student-teachers who need to improve their written language skills. Specifically it addresses students' attitudes to Peer Tutoring from an organisational perspective, and their attitude towards the effectiveness of the strategy to further develop written language skills. The study was conducted during 1986 with first-year English students enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) Course at Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In this study three research tools were used = formal interviews, two questionnaires, and an analysis of students' written work. Interviews were conducted with six students on completion of their Peer Tutoring program. Questions focussed on their attitude to Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy, the success of the approach for them, problems they encountered with the approach and suggestions for more effective management of the program. Following the interviews, students completed a questionnaire designed to confirm and give data additional to that already collected. All first-year English students completed a four-item questionnaire, related to Peer Tutoring at the completion of the subject. These questions were designed to assess all students' attitudes to the effectiveness of Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy, whether they were involved in the program or not, and to provide feedback for more effective program management. Assignments were collected at the completion of the program, and were analysed in terms of the student's attitude towards Peer Tutoring as a teaching strategy and the gains made in written language skills. The data clearly indicates the value of Peer Tutoring as a strategy for students in their first year of teacher-training, and major recommendations have emerged from student comment as to more effective program management in the future.
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ItemThe year co-ordinator in selected Victorian metropolitan independent schools : profile, practice and prospects( 1987)This study was designed to examine the position and role of the Year Co-ordinator in selected Victorian Metropolitan Independent schools. The principal objectives of the study were: (i) to discover what sorts of persons undertake this role and establish whether they have personal, academic and career characteristics in common; (ii) to look at the year co-ordinator's perception of the role; and (iii) to examine the career interests of year co-ordinators and, in particular, to gauge their opinions on how well their present role is preparing them for future responsibilities, such as Deputy Principal or Principal. A questionnaire was distributed to forty AHISA affiliated Independent schools in Victoria. Twenty eight valid responses were received. Six Principals returned their questionnaires stating that the position of year co-ordinator did not exist in their schools. The schools who did not reply were telephoned and it was established that year co-ordinators did exist in those schools.
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ItemStudent stress : a preliminary investigation into the school-related stress experience of year 8 students, using a hassles and uplifts approach( 1991)This study sought to develop a hassles and uplifts scale as a measure of the school-related stress experienced by year 8 students in post-primary schools. A draft set of 167 items was developed after reviewing other scales that purport to measure stress, reviewing the broader popular literature on stress in young people and the authors informal discussions with year eight students over a number of years. The 167 items were then subjected to a simple consensual validation procedure using a small group of year 8 male and female students. A draft scale of 87 items emerged from this process. The draft scale was administered to 875 year 8 students in ten varying types of schools, including coeducational, single sex girls, single sex boys, urban, nonurban, government and nongovernment. The instrument was administered by suitably briefed classroom teachers. The responses of students were subjected to factor analysis. Preliminary whole-scale analysis indicated a high level of reliability. As a further indicator of the reliability of factors 14 factors were found to replicate across analyses (orthogonal rotation c.f. oblique rotation) of the whole group. The group was randomly split into two subgroups and the the analysis conducted on each subgroup. Eight factors appeared to replicate or substantially replicate across groups when an varimax solution was computed for each subgroup. Similarly, eight factors were found to replicate across subgroups. Key factors emerged from the analysis. It was concluded that, while further work was necessary in followup to this minor trial, a reliable and valid hassles and uplifts scale can be satisfactorily developed for the specific age group of students. Suggestions for the followup work and further research are outlined in the conclusion of this study.
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ItemAn analysis of education provision to older non-English speaking background youth with minimal or interrupted schooling in the Richmond/Collingwood area( 1987)This study is an analysis of educational provision in the Richmond/Coilingwood area for young people aged 16 to 24 years of age, of migrant or refugee background, who have a history of minimal or interrupted schooling. These students are mostly of Indo-Chinese or Timorese background , and face severe problems relating to their lack of literacy and poor English proficiency. Many of these students are unaccompanied refugees and face economic hardship in Australia. Educational programs running in five postprimary schools, two TAFE colleges and two language centres are examined in light of their relevance to the needs of these students. It emerges from this study that a small number of institutions provide responsive quality programs for this group. There are, however, general problems relating to the low status and marginalization of ESL programs in most of the institutions. These problems are compounded by a lack of funding, unsympathetic administration, ignorance of the issues and difficulties relating to accreditation. In some institutions, no provision at all is made for these students. Needs emerging from these issues may be summarized as follows. A greater awareness of the educational requirements. of this group must be developed. An informed collaborative approach must be adopted to respond to these needs in the form of appropriate ESL programs. Policy and administrative support must be forthcoming to assist in achieving these goals.
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ItemA contract with education : Alice Hoy, 1893-1976( 1988)This is a biographical approach to the personal and intellectual development of Alice Hoy, a development which in turn shaped her contribution to teacher education in Victoria. The period I have covered does not go beyond Hoy's retirement from the Education Department and is concerned with her professional life during that time. Her work as a committee woman on various educational boards and councils is not included. Hoy was a pupil at the private University High School in the first decade of this century; in her first degree, a BA at Melbourne University, her major study was History which she continued with her MA, and later study of Law confirmed a natural tendency towards logical argument and gave her an LLB. After taking her Dip.Ed., Hoy became a teacher with the Education Department at the old University Practising School, and from there was invited to do Method lecturing at the School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Her early contribution to teacher education was made through her lectures at the School of Education and at the Melbourne Teachers' College as well as through the practical work at UHS, while her textbook on civics was used widely in schools. Her appointment is the first Principal of the Secondary Teachers' Training Centre was the high 'point of her career. She began the Centre, which became the Secondary Teachers' College, in 1950, and remained Principal until her retirement at the beginning of 1958.
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ItemThe migrant student "Australianization" and academic performance( 1986)This investigation aims to examine the claim that migrant children are frequently low level school performers. It is also an attempt to explain the observable discrepancy in overall school achievement between diverse groups defined as "ethnic" that is, having a family background in which English is not the mother-tongue. Behavioural and home based variables influencing the school performance of these groups are discussed and analysed. Ethnic and non ethnic groups used in the study were drawn from inner suburban students who were in their grade 6 year in 1982.' Each child completed numeracy and word knowledge tests and examination of results displayed that as a whole, the migrant sample scored at an inferior level to the "Australian" Sample albeit that the top students came from both categories. Throughout, Australian,is taken to signify children with two parents whose mother-tongue is English and whose general family environment, encompassing cultural and attitudinal elements, reflects that common to the majority of members of the same social class. Correlations between the extent of Australianization of the family and performance scores of children revealed that Australianization appears to be a positive factor only when it involves developed language adoption in addition to general behavioural adaptations. The tests reveal that lower test scores are in each case associated with limited English language ability.
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ItemLiterature and English teaching : a study of literature in the teaching of English at Scotch College, Melbourne( 1991)The first chapter of this thesis provides a personal memoir of my teaching career, and places it in the wider historical context of developments within English teaching in England and Australia. It establishes my own position at the key points of these developments in 1966, 1975, 1980 and 1985 and introduces the main area of interest - the place of literature in the teaching of English. The second chapter concerns the vast amount of writing on the nature and teaching of literature in English. It provides an historical review of the main body of this writing and derives some of its focus from the seminal work of John Dixon in 1966, as well as the Bullock Report of 1975. The vigorous yet sometimes slightly artificial debate on the issue of literature teaching is also examined in the review of the important journal, The Use of English. Chapter Three develops the ideas propounded in some of the writings examined in the previous chapter and provides an analysis of my own experience at Melbourne Grammar School. Chapter Four shows the similarities and differences existing between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School and details a more critical view of the state of English teaching from 1980 - 1990 at Scotch College. It reviews some of the specific examples of literature teaching and shows the slow progress which has been experienced over a decade within the College. The final chapter brings together the case of Scotch College and reviews possible future progress in the light of perceived difficulties inherent in the structure of the College. The general outlook for English at the College is seen in positive terms and suggestions are provided for further research into both the reading habits of students and the processes involved in the teaching of literature within the current restraints.
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ItemThe integration of a Down's Syndrome child into an independent school( 1989)Integrating students with impairments, disabilities or problems in schooling does not only mean that these students participate in the educational programmes and the social life of regular schools. It also necessitates the development of procedures and programmes to ensure that their participation is maintained and continued. Integration of these students represents a change in Ministry of Education policy in Victoria, but due to the complexity of social implications involved when adapting to the alterations of any value system, the change becomes multi-dimensional. This thesis examines the impact the enrolment of a five year-old girl with Down's Syndrome had on one Independent Girls' School in Melbourne, Victoria. The thesis is presented as a case study over a three year period, and focuses on the changes made by the staff members involved with the child; changes within the infant area of the school, and school policy changes made as a result of the child's enrolment. In analysing these changes, the issues that were examined and the findings that were made have been discussed, and the responses made by the staff and the school have been recorded.
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ItemYoung single factory women in 1927 : a study of issues of women and work( 1990)In 1927, a Department of Labour inquiry focussed upon a group of young female metalworkers employed in a Melbourne factory. A range of contemporaries, including the female workers, gave evidence to the inquiry, resulting in recommendations regarding female work conditions. This thesis aims to investigate the process of deliberation which took place at the inquiry. Issues of women and work contained within the resulting report raise questions concerning working women's experiences which have relevance not only to contemporary labour legislation but also to subsequent feminist historical analysis