Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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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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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 nature and organization of secondary "method" programmes in teacher education : a comparison between selected institutions in Australia and England( 1977)Although Method of Teaching courses are conducted in all institutions preparing secondary teachers in Victoria, South Australia and England (the regions examined in this thesis), little research has been conducted in this field. Programmes tend to be derived from a combination of factors: personal teaching experience, intuitive judgements about student needs, the practice of colleagues and their comments on the lecturer's own course, and folklore. Whilst the survey on which this thesis is based revealed that instruction in teaching techniques and curriculum design and the provision of information about resources are given high priority in Method courses, this seems to be the result of a pragmatic rather than a coherently developed theoretical approach to the problem of what should be included in such courses. There is a lack of agreement among the lecturers responsible for this aspect of teacher education on the most effective way of building Method of Teaching into the administrative structures. The existing patterns - either including Method in academic subject departments or incorporating Method in a School or Department of Education - have their advantages and disadvantages. It would seem that historical and political rather than strictly educational reasons account for the particular format chosen in each institution. The survey showed that the staff who plan and teach courses in Method are either part-time practising teachers or have taught in schools in recent years, and the majority have less experience in tertiary education than other colleagues in the institution. This may explain why their status is relatively low and why they have rarely managed to develop structures which could enhance their group identity. In this thesis, some possible ways of developing both such a sense of identity and a more informed awareness of the major aims of courses in Method have been examined, and some new approaches to course review and development have been suggested.
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ItemAn investigation of some educational implications of Holland's theory of vocational choice( 1976)The project set out to investigate the value of Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (V.P.I.) as a measure of tertiary course/student compatibility and whether this compatibility had a bearing on subsequent course achievement. The sample consisted of 230 first year students at the Gordon Institute of Technology - a vocationally oriented College of Advanced Education. In addition to the course guidance investigation, a number of aspects of Holland's theory of vocational choice were examined. These included a test of Holland's proposed hexagonal pattern of relationships between the six personality types used in the interpretation of V.P.I. scores. Also, Holland's theory predicts, in relation to educational behaviour, that the choice of, stability in, satisfaction with and achievement into a field of study depend upon the degree of congruence between students and their educational environment. With a questionnaire measure of satisfaction and G.P.A. as an academic achievement measure, these predictions were tested. The results of a multiple discriminant analysis of scale scores on the V.P.I. indicated that meaningful distinctions between the course groups in the sample could be made on the- basis of scores on three significant discriminant functions. A series of planned contrasts carried out using a multivariance analysis also yielded significant results - again indicating that distinctions could be made between the course groups -using scores on the V.P.I. The values for the mean intercorrelations between scale scores for the sample showed that Holland's hexagonal ordering of the personality types was consistent with the results for this sample. As regards the congruence and satisfaction prediction, no significant differences were found on the satisfaction measures between those students who were congruent with their course and those who were not. Similar non-significant differences were found for the congruence/incongruence and academic achievement results. In both cases, however, satisfaction and achievement scores were higher for those who were congruent i.e. the differences were in the predicted direction. In -summary, the project found the V.P.I. to be able to discriminate between students in different courses and thus to offer possibilities for course guidance, and weak but not significant support for Holland's predictions relating to the effect of congruence of students and courses on educational behaviour.
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ItemDistinguishing the science content taken by grade 12 students( 1977)The population of grade 12 students in Australian secondary schools has been steadily increasing over the past two decades. For most of this period the percentage of students at this level choosing science-type courses has been decreasing, and recently the actual number taking physics and chemistry has declined in some states. This study aimed to find a set of variables that would maximize the prediction of grade 12 student science content. Emphasis was directed toward identification of science talented students not opting for high science content in grade 12, and, equally as important, those of low science ability who select predominantly science courses at this level. It was proposed that the variables could be measures of any area likely to be related to the criterion. For example, factors associated with the home, the school, and personal measures were all included. The variable set was then searched for that combination returning optimal criterion prediction. Attention was focussed on six main units of analysis viz males, males of higher science ability, males of lower science ability, females, females of higher science ability, females of lower science ability. The data in each unit was subjected to both discriminant (stepwise and direct) analysis and a process similar to a stepwise regression procedure called the Automatic Interaction Detector (AID). AID employs a branching process using variance analysis to subdivide the sample into subgroups which maximize dependent variable value prediction. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducted a series of tests on a stratified random sample of grade 12 students throughout Australia in 1970. The results, held at ACER, included measures of some 418 variables thirty four of which were selected for this investigation. Included in this group were the results of the four Commonwealth Secondary Scholarship Examination (CSSE) ability tests taken two years earlier. Analysis units were formed on the basis of sex and CSSE - Science score. The results indicate successful science content prediction is possible with the personal or internal variables of science interest, attitudes and abilities, consistently being of greatest importance. The participating external variables vary depending on the unit of analysis. The non-monotonic "State" and "Type of School" factors are predominant in AID analyses.
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ItemState teachers college libraries in four Australian states in 1972: a comparative survey( 1975)In 1972 a comparative survey of State teachers college libraries was made to ascertain their general adequacy as service facilities supporting tertiary education courses, aimed at the pre-service education of teachers. The survey involved a visit to most of the institutions under consideration, followed by the sending of two questionnaires, the purpose of which was to gain information of both an objective and subjective nature, relating to components of service, commonly thought to contribute to a concept of general adequacy of library service. The components which were investigated included such items as book collection size; ratio of library staff to the number of students in the institution; the number of current serials titles; as well as other facets of library service. The aim of the survey was to obtain a broad comparison of adequacy in a number of such components between colleges as individual institutions; between States as collective groups of colleges; and between tertiary institutions on an Australia-wide basis, on the question of library services. The thesis behind the project was that teachers college libraries would be found to be generally inadequate in most areas of library service and provision, when compared either with standards of provision such as the "Draft standards for libraries in colleges of advanced education" or with other libraries in alternative tertiary institutions, such as the universities and colleges of advanced education, in the same four States, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. In the event, the thesis appeared to have been proved in most respects, when comparing individual components of library service and provision and when considering a composite concept of adequacy, gained by combining scores from a consideration of individual components of such a concept. What was unexpected was the indication that teachers colleges were often better off than colleges of advanced education in facets of library adequacy. The conclusion was that colleges of advanced education, as a group, were in need of improvement, when compared with universities, in all quantitative facets of library adequacy chosen for consideration in 1972, and that the teachers college libraries were also seriously deficient in the qualitative factors chosen for consideration.
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ItemThe institutional provision for the education of intending teachers: a comparative study of changes in Canada and Australia( 1972)The thesis which has been explored has been that one major determinant of change in the institutional provision for the education of intending teachers has been the school system itself. This has acted partly through the numerical demands for teachers and also through qualitative changes in schools. Such things as the type of primary and secondary education, the curriculum, and the numbers of children at school in each age level all seem related to changes in the way that teacher education is provided. A theoretical basis for such a hypothesis has been developed and the hypothesis then tested through a consideration of the pattern of changes in Australia and Canada. In both countries teacher education systems can be considered to have evolved from a fundamentally dichotomous model. The education of secondary teachers had taken place in the universities while that of intending primary teachers took place in specialist institutions controlled by the employing authority. As the distinction between elementary and secondary education became less marked so there occurred changes in the pattern of teacher education. In Australia the changes in the provision of teacher education in the late sixties and early seventies have followed a period when there was an expansion of secondary school enrolments and a series of curriculum changes at both the primary and secondary level. In Canada a more detailed comparison of changes in each province was made and a similar relation emerged. Those provinces which first made changes in the provision of teacher education were those which experienced first an expansion of secondary school enrolments and an intensive period of curriculum revision. As a result of these comparisons it is suggested that these changes in schools are best described as initiating factors in this change. A comparison of the different form of the changes which occurred in Australia and Canada suggests that to some extent the nature of the general provision of tertiary education in a given country can be regarded as a formative factor in the changes discussed. The solutions to the problem of a need to change the control of teacher education which have been adopted in each of these countries have been coloured by the form of tertiary education which prevailed. It is suggested that while these factors are contributing rather than controlling factors, and that while they do not provide a closed set of determinants, at least this is a useful framework for discussing these changes. They may also provide a useful starting point for a further analysis of the provision of teacher education in other countries.