Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
-
ItemPreparing for university : a case study of students in a tertiary preparation course( 2003)Courses that prepare students for tertiary study have been developed in Australian TAFE institutes and universities in response to high dropout rates and government policy aimed at increasing opportunities for tertiary study. One such course, the Adult Tertiary Preparation (ATP) course, at Certificate IV level of the Australian Qualifications Framework, and in particular, its core subject, Language and Learning, was the focus of this study. The aim of the study was to identify and explain changes in characteristics of readiness for self-directed learning, and subsequent changes in identity, in the students enrolled in this course. A group of ten students, broadly representative of the total intake, was interviewed and observed at the beginning, middle and end of the year-long course. When asked to reflect on how they had learned, most placed emphasis on the course content, structure and processes, and on the various forms of participation afforded them within the class group. For some people, relationships with other students, teachers and the wider TAFE community made an important contribution to their learning, with personal preferences for learning in particular ways influencing the direction of skill and identity development. All those who completed the course developed higher aspirations about their future educational and vocational directions. Implications for the future development of the ATP course and its core subject, Language and Learning, and other similar courses and subjects, are discussed.
-
ItemThe cognitive styles, learning strategies and vocational interests of South-East Asian and Australian students( 2003)Many factors are involved in the way an individual gains an understanding of Mathematics. Their cognitive style, i.e. way they code information for further processing in the brain, is one of these. The learning strategies that they use when a mismatch exists between their preferred style and the material presented to them is another. Riding and Rayner (1998) have developed a model for the whole learning process which contains two dimensions of cognitive style, the Wholist/Analytic and the Verbaliser/Imager dimensions. In the same way as individuals have different preferred cognitive styles, they also express different vocational interests. Holland (1985) developed a model for describing and assessing these vocational interests, the RIASEC model. Cultural factors may influence both an individual's preferred cognitive style and their vocational interests. This study investigates the effect of cultural factors in both these areas, looking particularly at the cultures of South-East Asia and Australia and the cognitive styles and vocational interests of students undertaking a first year university Mathematics course. Cultural differences were found in both areas. Students from South-East Asia (27 males and 17 females) tended to have a more visual cognitive style than Australian students (27 makes and 16 females), particularly when they learnt to read first in a character-based language. In accordance with the values of their Confucian-heritage background, the students from South-East Asia scored more highly on Holland's Conventional scale than did Australian students. In this study, support was also found for several aspects of Riding's Cognitive Control Model. One of these was the use of a Complementary cognitive style as a learning strategy when a mismatch occurred between an individual's preferred learning style and the material presented to them.
-
ItemRecruits to the professions: the backgrounds, dispositions and performance of students entering engineering, law, medicine and teaching( 1971)This study is about what happens to students in university professional faculties. The investigation from which most of the observations come is a longitudinal study in which students are followed from the time of first enrolment until they leave university (by graduating or without a qualification) and beyond into the early years of work. The theoretical perspective is professional socialization. (From introduction)