Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    Aims, men or money?. the establishment of secondary education for boys in South Australia and in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales - 1836 to 1860
    Noble, Gerald W ( 1980)
    Young children bring with them to school a certain amount of science knowledge gained from their everyday lives. What they "know", whether right or wrong, may be the result of interactions with family, television, computer programs, books, peers or visits to environmental locations, museums or science centres. In this study, children who have been at primary school for between two and three years are asked to describe their knowledge and their sources of information. The extent to which school factors are influencing their science knowledge is investigated. A survey was developed and protocols trialled before fifty-seven children aged eight and nine years at a provincial Victorian government primary school were surveyed to establish their home background and family interest in science, their own attitudes and feelings toward science and the efficacy of their science experiences at school. Interviews were carried out with nine students, selected to represent a broad range of attitudes to science, in order to gain more detailed information about their specific understandings of a number of topics within the primary school science curriculum and the sources of their information. The students' responses revealed that where they were knowledgeable about a subject they could indeed say from where they obtained their knowledge. Books were the most commonly cited source of information, followed by school, personal home experiences and family. Computers and the internet had little influence. Students who appeared to have "better" understandings quoted multiple sources of information. Positive correlations were found between enjoyment of school lessons and remembering science information, liking to watch science television or videos and remembering science information, and liking to read science books and remembering science information. Mothers were also linked to the use of science books at home, and the watching of nature TV shows at home. There are several implications for the teaching of science at early years level. Teachers need to be aware of powerful influences, from both within and outside of the classroom, which may impact on children, and which may be enlisted to help make learning more meaningful. The research indicates the importance of home background, parental interest and access to books, and notes the under utilisation of computers and lack of visits to museums and interactive science centres.
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    A cross-age comparative investigation of students' attitudes towards computers as a tool to support learning in years 7-12 science classes
    Waddington, Carolyn ( 2000)
    This thesis documents a cross-age comparative investigation of students' attitudes towards computers as a tool to support learning in Years 7 - 12 science classes. The study was set at the secondary school campus of an independent girls' school in Victoria. The secondary school is broken into three relatively autonomous groups, the Junior Secondary School (JSS), the Middle School (MS) and the Senior School (SS). Data was collected by a survey administered to 1215 students in Years 7 -12 science classes. Results of the survey were analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Bonferonni analyses. This study aimed to investigate the ways computers are used in science classes. Word processing and the internet were the most common computer uses across the school. A comparison of students in JSS, MS and SS's preferred frequency of use of computers in science classes was undertaken. JSS students preferred to use their computers more frequently in science classes when compared to MS and SS students. An investigation of the uses of computers in science classes that students found beneficial to their learning of science concepts was undertaken and compared across the three school groups. Students' attitudes towards computers as tools to support learning in the science classroom was investigated. The majority of students in all school groups felt the computer was a beneficial support for learning when completing assignment work and was a beneficial tool for presentation. However, it depended on the number of years of computer experience in science classes as to whether students felt the computer was of benefit to their learning of theory or practical work. Aspects of computer use at school in general, that students liked or disliked was determined. The stage of the curriculum that students were currently in, was the major determinant for the students' attitudes towards the use of computers as a support for learning.
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    Taking social capital into account when implementing educational policy : implications of the Kirby report for social capital in Ironbark
    Tinkler, Jacqueline A ( 2002)
    There is a growing body of research around the concept of social capital that suggests that there are connections evident in relation to successful educational achievement and employment, and high rates of social capital. Social connectedness - one of the outcomes of having social capital - is held to be very important for young people of post-compulsory school age, particularly in the current economic climate. This exploratory study will examine the problem: What can social capital mean in post-compulsory education policy, and in the manifestation of that policy?' This study examines The Ministerial Review of Post Compulsory Education and Training Pathways in Victoria, commonly referred to as The Kirby Report. Kirby takes the view that the links are strong between community and social values, the economic future of the state, and educational outcomes for young people. Within this report and its recommendations, the concept of social capital and its contribution to building community values is deemed to be one of the broad requirements of the community in relation to young people and their experiences in education and training. The concept of social capital and the effects of the growth or reduction of social capital within rural communities is also examined, and it is the links between social capital, the implementation of the recommendations of a report such as Kirby, and the ramifications of these links for a rural town in North-East Victoria of 2,500 residents, that provide the framework for this study.
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    Collaboration : the key to the resilient learner
    Rogers, Jonathan S (1949-) ( 2007)
    In what ways may Collaborative Teamwork and Social Development be linked as they inform Resilience in the Middle Years.' This thesis examines the key role that small group collaboration may play in the social development of student collaborative skills, particularly of a pro-social nature, developed by classroom practice. The study involves Victorian middle years students and a mixed method approach is applied. Quantitative analysis allows student questionnaire response data to be examined to facilitate understandings of the performance of collaborative groups and qualitative analysis of student interview data allows deeper understandings of student interactions to emerge. These collaborative skills include shared planning, monitoring and assessment, supportive behaviours and a commitment to ensuring successful group outcomes. Motivational factors including those based on interest, self-efficacy and attribution are referred to. A collaborative learning model is also described. Personal learning and development that may result from collaborative group work is described in the context of the individual's resilience and personal growth.
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    Values and the teaching of history to junior secondary school students
    Treidel, Vicki ( 2006)
    Entitled 'Values and the teaching of history to junior secondary school students' this thesis aims to explore the value of history as a subject for study by junior secondary school students and the role of values in the teaching of history. A focus on the types of knowledge that teachers bring to their professional practice forms part of the groundwork for the study. Professional knowledge is considered as pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 1999; Shulman, 1986, 1987). These branches of a teacher's knowledge are discussed in relation to the teaching of history. History is broadly identified as a field of knowledge (Carr, 1961; Hexter, 1971; Leinhardt, 1994; Marwick, 1983), a discipline for study (Ang, 2001; Collingwood, 1946; Leinhardt, 1994; Levstik, 2000; Marwick, 1983; Rogers, 1984; Skilbeck, 1979) and a subject within the school curriculum (Board of Studies, 2000; Foshay, 2000; Macintrye, 1997; Mays, 1974; Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), 2004, 2005). The value of teaching history to junior secondary school students is broadly considered in terms of the knowledge and understanding that can be developed through the study of history as a school subject. The embedded nature of values within teaching is acknowledged and distinctions drawn between social/community values, general educational values taught through history and more specific values associated with the study of history. The research is situated within the qualitative paradigm (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, 2005; Flick, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and involved a case study (Bassey, 1999; Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Merriam, 1988; Stake, 1995, 2000, 2005; Stenhouse, 1985; Yin, 2003a, 2003b) conducted at the junior secondary level that included the participation of the researcher, three other history teachers and students from Year 7 and Year 8 history classes. The methods used to collect data included an initial session with the teacher-participants and, at the conclusion of the study, a debriefing focus group with the teacher-participants, lesson observation and post lesson small-scale student discussions. The data gathered from this investigation is presented as a number of narratives (Bage, 1999; Bruner, 1986; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Freebody, 2003; Mishler, 1986; Stake, 2000). The researcher contributes to these narratives as a teacher of history. The study affirms the value of teaching history to junior secondary students, recognizing an association with broad educational values (Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), 2005; Gilbert & Hoepper, 1996, 2004) and subject specific values, such as, sharing knowledge about the past (Fitzgerald, 1977). Values that are imparted through the study of history are categorized as general and specific and are closely linked to skills. The study is premised on the beliefs that thinking about practice (the past and the present) may enlighten future history teaching and learning (Schtin, 1996) and that 'mindfulness' (Leinhardt, 1994) is an essential characteristic of history teaching that engages both the teacher and student in the learning process.
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    Secondary education in the Australian social order, 1788-1898: a study in the evolution of the theory and the curriculum of secondary education, and the methods of teaching, in the changing Australian social order
    French, E. L ( 1958)
    In spite of all the hard words said about educational histories there should be no need to justify the historical study of education. The school, like the Church or the Theatre, is a social institution: if we may write the history of one, we may write the history of the others. As to the peculiar value of the enterprise, there will be differences of opinion; the distinctive values of the study of history are again in question. Suffice to say that it is the writer's suspicion that the debate on the content and method of secondary education, which has been conducted with considerable vigour in Australia in the past twenty years or so, would have been more fruitful if, to the various capacities brought to it, there had been added the capacity to see the problems of secondary education in the perspective of their development. It is surely not unimportant that the architects of educational policy should he enabled to see their problem in depth.
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    The theory of educational inequality in Australia, 1900-1950
    McCallum, David ( 1985)
    This thesis investigates the terms in which the problem of educational differences was posed by Australian intellectuals during the first half of the twentieth century. The investigation seeks to understand the social and historical limits of research into social differences in education, and makes problematic the degree of relative autonomy of this inquiry from the prevailing social and political arrangements which it sought to address. It attempts to demonstrate how the historically evolved. social norms of a particular class, in respect of participation in school and the acquisition of a positive disposition to school, became enshrined in official and scientific discourses on education as the natural and normal attributes of childhood and youth. The thesis examines the texts of leading figures in education and others who became interested in educational problems in their role as social commentators and critics. As a rule, these intellectuals advocated more schooling for greater national productivity and a more informed citizenry, adjustments to the curriculum in accordance with the 'needs' and expected life trajectories of different social groups of children, and finally, a more efficient alignment of school selection and ability. Along these lines, education was to play a major role in achieving the 'democratic ideal'. While there were arguments about the methods and criteria for achieving these goals, there existed in parallel an almost complete unanimity and consensus among these writers as to the questions to be raised. Whether as academics, educational researchers, bureaucrats,. politicians or scientists, they believed Australia had been inadequately served by its education system and that substantial reassessment and adjustment was required, in anticipation of a 'new order' to come. At the same time as the resources of the State were being mobilized to create a system of schools based on this vision, a science of education was emerging which permitted the school population to be ranked and allocated, along apparently scientific lines. Psychology became concerned with the problem of individual differences in the State school population, and developed in such a way that State schooling, and the posing of the problem of school differences, played a mutually ratifying role. The system of private grammar schools largely remained immune to psychological inquiry. Psychological reasoning pre-figured a solution to social differences in virtue of its overall affirmation of the particular form of State schooling offered (specific practices of school organization in line with 'normal' performance, divisions of knowledge into yearly packages), but also by the material and cultural demand to regulate the length and type of schooling in the post-primary stages. The science of natural differences among individual pupils served the administrative problem of selection into a differentiated school system, and ultimately permitted the social distribution of participation and achievement to be represented as the product of individual differences.
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    Effect of congruence in measured interests on self-perceived academic competence in Australian Year 12 students
    Ho, Josephina Anna ( 1999)
    The link between interest and quality of learning experience in school has attracted voluminous research in recent years. Varied conceptions of interest, however, lead to gaps in our knowledge about the nature of the empirical linkage between interest and the quality of learning. In the light of Holland's theory of interest and model of person-environment interaction, the present study, unlike the previous studies, conceptualises interest as an interaction between generic interest as an individual characteristic and the nature of the learning environment. Subject-level interest is thus seen as resulting from the congruence of generic interest and the content of the individual school subjects chosen for study. Several recent Australian investigations have shown strong links between Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional) generic interest themes and students' subject and course choices. These links make it possible to investigate the effect of congruence between generic interests and school subject choices on the learning experience of students. The data of this study derives from a 1993 National Survey on school subject choice in approximately 10,000 Australian Year 12 students. The perception of academic self-concept in students, as a facet of quality of learning experience, is focused upon as a criterion for testing the effect of congruence between generic interest and school subject choices of the students. Investigation of the empirical relationship between congruence and students' perception of academic self-competence is facilitated by the mathematical expression of congruence which is formulated by Hesketh and Myors (1997) as a multiplicative term in a multiple regression analysis which also includes terms for student background characteristics, interests and curriculum fields studied. Further, to control for the possibility of clustering effects at the school level, multi-level regression modelling was used. The study found a positive relationship between congruence in interest and improvement in students' perception of academic self-competence, net of background (gender and socio-economic background), interest, and curriculum field participation, for four of the six congruence terms investigated. It was interesting to note that the effect of congruence was mediated through self-perceived interestingness in the curriculum studied. That is to say, students who chose school subjects congruent with their generic interest found their studies more interesting and their belief in their academic self-competence stronger than their non-congruent peers. It is recommended that curriculum planners and counsellors take account of the positive psychological impact of congruence between generic interest and school subject choice in designing 'interest congruent' learning experiences and in assisting students make congruent choices in Year 11 and 12.
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    Enterprise skills and teaching
    Hamer, David ( 1999)
    The issue of enterprise in secondary education has become a major focus in recent years. Given its relative infancy, little research has examined this concept. This study examines the various definitions of enterprise, listings of skills that exist, and proposes a redefinition of the notion of enterprise. Enterprise is an area of knowledge valued in business transactions that is characterised by certain behaviours and needs to be taught. The teaching of enterprise is treated in a similar manner to the teaching of thinking skills and the conditions under which it can be taught. This exploratory study examines teacher knowledge of the generic cognitive skills associated with enterprise which have been identified, and the extent to which teachers believe they foster these behaviours in their students. Fifty-three teachers from a range of independent and government schools were surveyed. The results suggest that when a broad definition of enterprise is used teachers have a strong belief in what skills are important in indicating enterprise behaviours in their students and are able to identify these skills. The results also indicate that teachers believe many of the enterprise skills are not being encouraged in their students. Type of school and gender does not appear to play a significant role in determining these teacher beliefs, but contrasts did emerge between subject areas when teachers were examined on the extent to which they believed they fostered these behaviours. To this point there has been no empirical data on which skills should be considered enterprising. Future studies would need to examine what skills are considered core and peripheral, how different contexts can encourage the teaching of enterprise skills, and the development of teachers' personal and professional values where there is little domain specific knowledge. In the light of this study four recommendations are made.
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    Exploring the relationships between student experiences in robotics and their cognitive style
    Fryer, Susan ( 2007)
    With the increasing availability of technology in schools, more students are gaining experience in the use of robotics in the classroom. This study examines student experiences in an educational robotics program and also assesses their cognitive style using the Cognitive Styles Analysis developed by Richard Riding (1998). The data is then analysed to determine what types of relationships may exist between a student's cognitive style and their experiences in the robotics unit. The participants in the study were a class of Year 9 students at an Independent Girls' school in Melbourne, with the class being taught by the researcher. It was found that there may be some relationship between some student experiences in robotics and cognitive style, although further research with larger numbers of research participants would be necessary to explore these relationships further. The determination of the type of relationships that exists would be of interest to educators who are involved in the delivery of educational robotics units.