Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    Just reporting : does the school have a justifiable reporting process?
    Morrison, Caroline Mary ( 2006)
    This thesis titled `Just Reporting' aimed to explore the question: Does the school have a justifiable reporting process that meets the needs of key stakeholders (parents, students and teachers)? Through a critical review of the research literature relevant to reporting, various ethical issues were noted that assisted in the construction of the questions guiding this study. These ethical issues provided the lens through which I explored the reporting practices at the research school. The title Just Reporting emphasises the justice issues surrounding reporting as a communicative action where the integrity of each individual is maintained and relationships strengthened. The research took the form of a case study involving the participation of thirty-three parents, eleven teachers and twenty-one students from the one school setting in a questionnaire that had both quantitative and qualitative questions that gathered their affective and cognitive responses to the school's written report. I also held one focus group interview with parents to clarify information from the questionnaire. An interactive inquiry with mixed methods approach was chosen as the best way to answer the research questions. The aim was to develop a theory about reporting rather than prove an existing theory. This study examines what reporting is, the audience and purpose of reporting, and the imperatives of justifiable reporting. It gathered the opinions and beliefs about reporting at the research school from key stakeholder groups and sought to discover whether the written report met their needs and fulfilled the requirements of justifiable reporting. Final analysis of the data provided understandings about the nature of reporting at the research school and revealed a number of issues that prevented the process from being fully justifiable.
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    The attitudes and concerns of Catholic parish primary school principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools
    Riley, Elizabeth A ( 1997)
    This study was undertaken to identify' and compare the attitudes of Catholic Parish Primary School principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities. The study also investigated variations in attitude toward integration for sub-groups of the principals and teachers. In addition, this study ascertained the concerns these educators have about the implementation of integration in their schools. A three part questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consisted of items relating to the background characteristics of the respondents and their schools, a modified version of the Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale (Berryman & Neal, 1980) and an open ended question eliciting educators' concerns about integration. Fifty five principals and 145 full time classroom teachers in the Northern Area of the Archdiocese of Melbourne responded to the questionnaire. T-tests were employed to compare the attitudes of the principals and teachers toward integration., Thematic analysis was used to examine the concerns of educators. Several major findings emerged from the study. Principals were found to hold more positive attitudes toward integration than classroom teachers. Principals were also significantly more positive than teachers toward the integration of students with severe disabilities. Younger principals held significantly more positive attitudes toward integration than older principals. No significant differences were identified for sub groups of the teacher sample. Similarity existed between the two groups of educators in terms of their expressed major concerns about integration. Lack of school based support personnel, funding and training, in that order, were recorded most frequently by both groups of educators.
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    English teachers as readers, readers as English teachers : how are English teachers' attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading reflected in their teaching?
    McGie, Jennifer ( 1998)
    This study is focussed on classroom reading events, the encounters with texts in secondary English classrooms involving teachers and students. More specifically, it explores the discourses about reading and the schema or framework for reading English teachers bring to their classroom and how these shape what reading means in that classroom. I focus on three secondary school English teachers as readers and as teachers of reading and seek to identify how their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading is, or isn't, reflected in their teaching. This research, constructed within a case study design, is informed by the writings of postructuralist and critical social theorists, shaped by the work of Dan Zancanella and influenced by Wendy Morgan's ideas of a 'default mode' - the position to which teachers 'return' when not constrained into other modes of operation. Data was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with the teacher participants; participant-as-observer classroom observation; small group semi-structured interviews with students; and the collection of classroom handouts and students' products. The teacher participants were interviewed about their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about reading and about teaching texts. They were asked to read and then to teach a particular short story with their Year 10 English class. This study reveals that each of these teachers read the text very differently and constructed very different classroom activities. The idea of a 'default mode' (Morgan, 1995) suggests that each teacher has a particular schema for reading which provides a way for these teachers to make sense of reading and working with particular texts in their classrooms. The research concludes that the classroom reading event - how the text was read and what the students did with the text - was shaped by these English teachers' schemata for reading and the discourses about reading in which they function as teachers and readers. In reading and working with texts in particular ways, these teachers create and position their student readers and frame what reading comes to mean in their secondary English classroom. These insights have implications for English teachers and their students, for curriculum organisation, for student management structures, for pre-service teacher education and training and for Professional Development.
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    The implications of adolescent food practices and attitudes for the nutrition educator
    Riddell, S. R ( 1984)
    This study examines food practices and attitudes to food of adolescents. A stratified random sample of year nine students from Catholic, non-Catholic Independent and Government schools was constructed, with socio-economic status as one of the criteria of choice. The study makes a contribution to the understanding of the way in which year nine students relate to questions of food consumption and production. In addition, the study explores the extent to which nutrition educators should bear in mind the class, culture and gender of students. Constraints established by classroom practices and family organisation are shown to be significant, as are the small scale relations within adolescent. sub-culture. Because students are found to be unsure of the proportions of a balanced diet, recommendations are made to nutrition educators so that they might assist their students in the recognition of the long-term effects of poor nutrition. Formal education is not seen as the sole influence on food knowledge. The power of the media as a nutrition educator is recognised, images created by media being paralleled by some of the food behaviours apparent in the students.
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    The effectiveness of the Auditory Skills Program in developing auditory skills in severe to profoundly hearing impaired children
    Paatsch, Louise E ( 1997)
    This study assessed the effectiveness of the Auditory Skills Program (Romanik, 1990) in developing the auditory skills of a group of severe to profound hearing impaired school aged children. It also measured speech perception and speech production skills during and following participation in the program. The Auditory Skills Program is a comprehensive graded program which aims to develop the hearing impaired child's speech and linguistic skills through audition. In this study 18 severe to profound hearing impaired children ranging in age from 6 to 12 years received twice weekly sessions based on the Auditory Skills Program for a period of three months. Auditory skill development was measured at monthly intervals using the assessment tool within the program, the Placement test. The PLOTT test ( Plant and Westcott, 1983) was used to measure speech perception skills. Speech production skills were measured using the 108 single word articulation test (Paatsch, 1992) and conversational speech samples using phonological process analysis. The subjects were tested at the commencement of during, and following the cessation of, participation in the Auditory Skills Program. They were also tested 5 months post participation in the program. The Auditory Skills Program was effective in developing auditory skills in this group of severe to profoundly hearing impaired subjects. There was a significant improvement in auditory skills in the group of subjects during participation in the program. A deterioration in these skills occurred following cessation of participation in the Auditory Skills Program. Speech perception skills also improved significantly during participation in the Auditory Skills Program. Speech production skills significantly improved when measured using the 108 single word articulation test. No change occurred in speech production skills as measured by spontaneous conversational speech samples during participation in the Auditory Skills Program. This study found the Auditory Skills Program to be an effective tool for developing auditory skills and enhancing the development of speech perception and speech production skills in this group of severe to profound hearing impaired children.
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    Organization theory and academic libraries
    Schauder, Donald E ( 1986)
    The thesis explores the extent to which organization theory is applicable to the study of academic libraries. An organization is defined as a social group formed and sustained by people as a device or tool to help them do particular things, and organizational theory is defined as a discipline that provides ways of looking at organizations in order to gain an understanding of them. These definitions are seen to satisfy the two major viewpoints among organizational theorists in educational administration, associated in the thesis with the names, R.H. Hall and T.B. Greenfield. The Hall viewpoint, aligned with the intellectual tradition of positivism, is objective, and concentrates on the collective features of organizations. The Greenfield viewpoint is subjective, and concentrates on values and experiences of the individual as the essential reality of organizations. Models are derived from the work of the two theorists, and presented in parallel, using a systems approach, within a common research framework. The purpose of the research framework is to demonstrate that the two viewpoints are complementary rather than contradictory. The thesis then proceeds to examine each factor in the Hall model within the research framework by means of a survey of organizational characteristics of academic libraries in Victoria. Respondents to the survey were the chief librarians of those libraries or their representatives. The Greenfield model is used to justify reliance in the survey on the subjective perceptions of the respondents, rather than on objective statistical data about the libraries. Hypotheses and propositions concerning the relationship among the factors from the Hall model, environment, strategy, structure, technology, and organizational effectiveness were formulated and tested, and were largely supported by the survey results. The most noteworthy result was the strong support for the analyzer strategy which seeks to preserve the status quo while engaging in low risk innovation. In order to demonstrate the practical applicability of the theoretical framework developed in the thesis, the particular issue of the feasibility of entrepreneurship by academic libraries is briefly explored in terms of the theory.
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    A study in archetypal theory : alcohol and adolescent rites of passage
    Peake, Martin ( 1997)
    The study is an archetypal approach to adolescent male alcohol use in contemporary Australia. The study deals with four families (case-studies) and their stories about the period of adolescent development, especially the often problematic process of negotiating alcohol use. The study will examine the developmental process in pre-modern rites of passage and compare it with contemporary adolescent development in the four case-studies to identify whether there are similar archetypal patterns between them. It will also examine intra-family dynamics from an archetypal perspective, especially in relation to communication and projection. Finally, the study will examine whether there are similarities between pre-modern rites of passage, in terms of transferring power and responsibility from father to son, and how this affects the son's alcohol use and maturation.
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    Evaluating a peer mediation program : the perspectives of key stakeholders
    Ryan, Susan ( 2006)
    Peer mediation has developed as a popular means of responding to and managing conflict in schools. Advocates of peer mediation assert that it is an effective method of encouraging students to resolve conflict constructively and can encourage responsible citizenship. This study emerged as a result of the researcher's involvement in a peer mediation program in a large regional girls' secondary college. The study explored the perspectives of key stakeholders (students, teachers and parents) on the impact of the peer mediation program and sought to establish what benefits, if any, were derived from the existence of the program. Specifically, the research focused on whether the program was supported, accepted and used by the school community and whether the perceptions of the program were congruent amongst different stakeholder groups. The study also investigated what outcomes were experienced by the trained mediators themselves. Factors which might encourage or limit students' use of the program were also explored. Data was collected prior to the training of a specific cohort of mediators and in the following year from key groups: the trained students, other students within the school setting, staff and parents. The findings indicate that the presence of a peer mediation program was seen to have a considerable positive effect on school climate by teachers and parents and that, in many cases, it produced positive outcomes for students. The most meaningful outcomes of the specific study, however, appeared to be the benefits for the trained mediators themselves, in terms of the development and enhancement of self confidence and life skills. The implications of the findings for the peer mediation program in the case study school and for other schools implementing peer mediation programs are discussed in this report.
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    Principal expertise and problem-solving processes
    McKeand, Robin ( 1997)
    This case study is an exploration of Principal expertise and problem-solving in a large, co-educational, independent school in the eastern metropolitan area of Melbourne. Cognitive science perspectives are adopted to develop the nature of expert administrative practice, in order to highlight Principals' internal mental processes and their direct relationship to Principals' practices. Four characteristics or dimensions of expertise are examined, including a strong commitment to shared goals, cognitive flexibility, the Principal's contribution to the long-term development of staff and his or her use of the capacity of the staff to obtain solutions. The literature review involves an analysis of both expert, as opposed to typical Principals, since they vary in the processes they adopt to solve problems in group settings. Fourteen themes related to Principal expertise and problem-solving emerged from the findings of this particular case study. These include vision, communication of the vision and goals to the staff and decision making. This Principal demonstrated creative, future thinking; knowledge and information gathering; delegation; cognitive flexibility; strong values, especially when problems were non-routine and challenging together with a concentration on the change process. Also, the affect or feelings, mood and self-confidence that the Principal experiences when involved in problem-solving was studied. Finally, the possible relationship between expert problem-solving and transformational leadership, followed by the desirable features of school leadership expertise training programs, were examined. The findings from this study recommend a combination of strong theoretical knowledge, practical experience together with training in the human resource area and personnel management to include sound decision making processes and effective delegation. Further research is recommended concerning both the nature of educational expertise and problems encountered by school Principals as well as the identification of features for school leadership training programs.