Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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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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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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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.
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ItemInfluences on engineering education in Australia( 1976)This thesis is concerned with the identification and examination of the various types of influences on professional engineering education in Australia. It commences with a study of what a professional person in general, and a professional engineer in particular, should be, and describes the functions and characteristics of such a person. This is followed by an examination of curriculum design, and how the curricula of professional courses are controlled by professional societies. The various influences on engineering curricula are then considered in detail in four broad categories, namely historical influences, formal influences, informal influences, and societal influences within each of these categories, various tapes of influences are identified, and their method of application, and relative effectiveness, discussed. Apart from the chapters on terminology and historical influences, which have been researched from existing publications, the content of the thesis is original, and, as far as can be ascertained, is the first attempt to examine the subject of Australian engineering education in a sociological context.
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ItemA comparative study of primary school social studies in three Australian states : Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, 1952-1975( 1976)This study is concerned with the way in which Primary school Social Studies curricula have been revised, organized and developed from 1952 to 1975 in three Australian States - Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. As few commercially produced Social Studies courses, or indeed Social Studies units, have been forthcoming in these States, coverage in this thesis concentrates on those syllabus revisions which have been produced by Revision Committees organized by the respective Education Departments in these States. Underlying factors which have been instrumental in Social Studies revisions and their final outcome - a Social Studies Syllabus - have been analyzed by considering those constraints which form a part of the Curriculum Materials Analysis System (1967). The constituent six part cluster questions have been used in horizontal analysis to highlight features of Social Studies courses in the 1950's as compared to those of the 1960's, and the most significant changes which have occurred in the most current revisions. From courses which presented a high degree of uniformity in their emphasis on facts, social living and citizenship, have emerged State revisions which, though differing in format and degree of inclusiveness, reflect attributes commonly associated with 'new' Social Studies.
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ItemAn assessment of the educational value of a computer simulation policy game in the teaching of higher school certificate economics( 1975)The use of computer simulation games in the teaching of the subject Economics represents a comparatively recent development in Australian educational practice. The original purpose of this research exercise was to examine the accuracy of the contention that participation in a computer simulation game on economic policy would improve Higher School Certificate economics students' understanding of government monetary and fiscal policy. To prove the accuracy of this hypothesis students from the economics classes of two high schools were subjected to a series of evaluation procedures. The exercises failed to provide a clear indication of a measurable gain in student understanding of the relevant topic area. However they did provide further evidence to the effect that computer simulation games represent a very successful means of motivating students.
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ItemThe attribution of open-mindedness : the effects of education and age instructions on responses to the balanced dogmatism scale( 1976)The theoretical and research literature related to . authoritarianism and dogmatism, and their relationship with educational level and age level, was reviewed. A study dealing with the attributions by schoolteachers of open-mindedness to students at different educational levels, and the implications of this study concerning self-fulfilling prophecies in education, was critically reviewed, and some unresolved issues were discussed. Within this contextual framework a study was proposed to investigate one of the issues needing clarification. Differently prefaced Balanced Dogmatism Scales were administered to 57 male and 103 female teachers/ college students, approximately between the ages of 19 and 23 years. The testing took place during late 1974 and early 1975. The main aim of the study was to investigate the hypothesis that the age and education instructions prefacing the Balanced Dogmatism Scale would be confounded in subjects attributions, and would therefore be reducible to one another. This hypothesis was only partly supported by the results. For: the two lower levels of age and education instructions, that is, 12 year old and first-form 'students, and 17 year old and sixth form student, the instructions were confounded. For the two upper levels, that is, 21 year old and university undergraduate, and 19 year old and teachers P. college student, the instructions were found to be independent of one another. Since the confounding occurred only in part, there was an overall lack of interaction between the age and education instructions. Because of the insignificance of this interaction effect, a post-hoc analysis was carried out on the main effects of age and educational level instructions. It was found that increased open-mindedness was attributed both as a function of educational level, and as a function of age level, and that the direction and form of these attributions were similar. Discussion centred on an attempted explanation of the findings in the light of other evidence, and on their implications for further research.
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ItemThe effects of schools on achievement in science( 1975)The study sought to identify factors which were based in schools which affected the performance of sixth form students in science in Victorian schools, In order to identify school effects, allowance was made using multiple regression analysis for factors which were shown to contribute to academic performance but were those over which the school had no control. Use was made of information collected during a. study of science achievement by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). A sample of 37 schools was used the probability of selection of the school was proportional to its enrolment. Within each school, a random sample of students in the sixth form was made to select the students to take part in the testing program. Information collected enabled a predicted score for each school to be made and this was compared with the actual score obtained by averaging the scores of each student in the sample. Two groups of five schools were then selected for comparative study; one group which had performed better than expected and the other which had performed below expectations. The comparison of the two groups of schools to identify school factors was achieved by the study of the responses of teachers, students and school principals on survey instruments. In addition a visit was made to each school to gather further information. These procedures enabled the identification of school characteristics which were seen as contributing factors to the performance of students on tests of science achievement.
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ItemThe measurement of curiosity : development of the state trait model of curiosity for children( 1976)The State Trait model of Curiosity developed by Drs. Naylor and Gaudry was modified for use with seventh grade subjects. Extra items were written, making a thirty--six item four choice Likert scale for trait and for state curiosity. 150 boys and 159 girls completed the trait scale, a word knowledge test, a curiosity stimulating task, and the state scale. The scales were analysed using the computer program Testat. Items were selected on the basis of their point biserial correlations. Splitting the subjects on their sex and vocabulary scores showed that many items had considerable bias. Reducing the reversed and the non-reversed subscales by removing small groups of items produced scales almost identical to those containing the items with the highest correlations. A factor analysis justified the distinction between state and trait curiosity and between reversed and non-reversed items. The loadings on the three factor Varimax rotation were highly correlated with the items' point biserial correlations. Sample-free item analysis attempts to analyse data so that the resulting statistics are independent of the sample used. Similarly it enables comparisons between individuals independently of the tests used. The program Calfit, based on this model, was used to analyse the data rescored at the three possible levels of curiosity. The trait scale fitted the model quite well but the state scale fitted poorly. This was due to the different behaviour of the three curiosity levels and the interaction of a subject's curiosity and the response on many items. Testat proved more effective for item selection but Calfit enabled the linking to previous research. Scales for future use are recommended.
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ItemReligious development of senior students in Catholic schools( 1977)The purpose of this study was to review the educational policy which has been traditionally held by the Congregation of Christian Brothers of involvement in schools which are predominantly single-sex boys' schools. This policy has recently been questioned by some Australian Catholic educational authorities who sought the involvement of members of the Congregation in some co-educational schools. Two major studies had been previously carried out in New South Wales, the first in girls' schools and the second in boys' schools, with both groups containing coincidentally some co-educational schools. Those two studies focussed, among other aspects of schools, on the religious outcomes of senior students. It became then the function of this study to replicate part of those New South Wales studies among senior students in a variety of Catholic schools in Victoria and Tasmania. Whereas the schools in the former studies were selected at random, the schools in this study were selected on the basis of their belonging to a group of either single-sex or co-educational schools. The two single-sex schools, one for boys and one for girls, were matched with a co-educational school in a location sufficiently restricted to form a geographical cluster. This step was taken to minimise the influence on religious development, which was the major dependent variable, of some other intermediate variables. The major dependent variable of religious development was treated under several headings or dimensions. These included Religious Beliefs and Understanding; Moral and Religious Attitudes and Values; Religious Practice; and Influences on Religious Development. Other dependent variables which were studied Were complementary to the main headings and included pre-Vatican and post-Vatican theological concepts; Religious Values; and various statements expressing Moral and Religious Attitudes. The basic independent variable used was the type of school which the students attended, that is, single-sex or co-educational. Some other intermediate variables considered as having some effect on the dependent variables were the sex of the students, the locality of the schools, the socio-economic status of the parents, the country of origin of the parents, the religiosity of the parents. The inclusion of these variables took this study beyond the limits which had been set for the variables in the New South Wales projects. The study employed such statistical procedures as frequencies; mean and standardised scores; t-tests and analysis of variance; levels of significance; coefficients of correlation; and regression and factor analysis. The evidence from the enquiry suggests that for all practical purposes there is no difference among the senior students of various types of Catholic schools in those elements of religious development which constituted the material of the research instrument. The weight of the evidence favours neither single-sex schools nor co-educational schools to the disadvantage of the other type. The alternative hypothesis was worded in favour of single-sex schools but the evidence does not support the claim of its advantages. Proponents of both types of school, should re-assess the views held on the effectiveness of such arrangements. On the other hard, this is only one of several reasons why the Christian Brothers maintain single-sex schools in normal circumstances, and these reasons need to be considered in their own right.