Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe academic achievements of language centre students at a secondary college( 2001)What are the academic achievements of adolescent new-arrival English as a Second Language (ESL) students at secondary schools in Victoria, Australia? Research on Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students in Australia has tended to neglect new arrival ESL students. To examine the academic achievements of this important subgroup of NESB students, the current study will highlight the academic achievements of a cohort of Victorian Language Centre students at a Secondary College over six years with interruption to schooling in their first language (L1) as the key variable linked to academic achievement in their second language (L2). Victorian Language Centres provide new-arrival ESL students with the English skills they need to start their secondary educations in L2. The current study examined the academic achievement of two groups of Language Centre students, those who completed their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and those who left the Secondary College prior to completing VCE. Their academic results were summarised into spreadsheets for quantitative analysis. Subsequent to the quantitative analysis interviews were conducted with four ESL students from the Language Centre currently completing their VCE studies to provide further insight into the factors that enabled them to do their VCE. Results indicate that the academic achievements of this cohort of ESL Language Centre students are poor and that interruption to education in Ll had a major impact on the students' ability to achieve academically at the Secondary College. The study suggests that L1 education is the key variable influencing the student's ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of secondary education, particularly the VCE. Other factors such as support for learning and strong motivation were found to help students overcome difficulties encountered in their secondary education. However, students who were unable to overcome these difficulties left the College prior to completing VCE. It was concluded that the majority of Language Centre students faced uncertain economic futures once they left the Secondary College. The results of the study suggest that Language Centre students need more support and assistance to enable them to complete VCE or to access educational alternatives to the VCE. This study also suggests that more research into the effect of L1 education on L2 education be conducted as this was found to be the key variable in the students' ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of VCE.
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ItemHuman capital : a case study of the AMEP( 1995)This study is an investigation of the Human Capital Approach to education in Australia. It examines whether or not the Commonwealth Government is steering education towards the incorporation of policies that invest greater emphasis and resources into human beings as contributors to economic productivity than it invests in their cultural and aesthetic value. The study incorporates the philosophies of the Human Capitalists and how successive Commonwealth and State Governments apply these philosophies in education policy formulation - particularly the provision of English language to adult migrants through the Adult Migrant Education Program in Victoria. The methodology used is a questionnaire of closed and open-ended questions distributed to AMEP teachers. The researcher duly followed up the questionnaire with interviews of four AMEP teachers in an endeavour to shed more light on the reasons behind the responses given by teachers in the questionnaire. The researcher undertook an analysis of the responses in order to investigate whether or not the Commonwealth Government gives primacy to economic objectives of the migration program over its social, cultural and linguistic objectives. The findings are that the AMEP teachers surveyed believe that the Commonwealth Government does emphasize economic objectives over all other objectives of the migration program. A Human Capital approach to education, reflected in the application of Economic Rationalism, is apparent in Australia's education system according to AMEP teachers surveyed and that such has been the case since the late 1970s. The literary works of Schultz, Smith, Dawkins, Piore, Crittenden, Benovat, Green, Pusey, Kennedy, Marginson and Grubb are included in this study. These works form the literature review of the Human Capital approach. As well, the Reports chaired by Karmel, Williams, Kirby, Fitzgerald and Campbell, and a variety of Commonwealth Reports and Working Party Papers into various aspects of education in Australia are represented in an investigation of the application of the Human Capital approach to education in Australia's main education policies. The findings of this research are that the Human Capital approach to education is influencing the AMEP and that this has wider implications for the national education system in Australia. Almost all AMEP teachers surveyed believe the AMEP no longer follows its own National Plan, in which it spells out its aims and objectives, but pursues the Commonwealth Government's primary objective of pursuing the economic aims and benefits of the migration program.
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ItemA new wave of migrants in our classrooms: teenage refugees from south Sudan and their perceptions of learning English in Australia( 2005)Worsening civil conflict in Sudan since the turn of the century has directly led to a dramatic increase in the number of Sudanese refugees arriving in Australia. Teachers are now faced with the challenge of creating an effective learning environment for a new group of migrants with whose needs, experiences, attitudes and approaches to learning they are largely unfamiliar. New and ongoing research is imperative so that teachers may appreciate the learning needs of a people whose individual and cultural experiences are so different from those of migrants from Eastern Europe and Asia who have preceded them in their move to Australia. This study aims to investigate and gain insight into the ways in which teenage refugees from south Sudan, now living in Melbourne, experience the learning of English as a second language (ESL) in Australian classrooms. The research also aims to understand their major cultural and individual characteristics, and to ascertain how these qualities shape their perceptions of learning ESL. The research takes the form of qualitative study, which involves observation of the student participants in their natural classroom setting, followed by individual interviews with seven Sudanese learners and two of their classroom teachers. Through a collection of individual case studies, this research explores the perceptions of the English language learning experiences of the seven participants. Adopting a grounded theory approach to the study allows the researcher to follow leads presented by the data, without being bound by rigid hypotheses. Based on relevant literature and previous studies, a number of initial assumptions about the Sudanese as learners were identified at the outset of the study. The findings of this research, however, contest and therefore problematise these earlier conclusions. Results indicate the observed learning behaviour of participants, as well as the insights gained through their interviews, may not be not consistent with the current stereotype of the Sudanese learner in Australia. In other words, findings indicate that the classic stereotype of the Sudanese learner is not accurate for this age group. Because of this, a disparity exists between students' expectations of pedagogy, and their teachers' actual styles and practices. It is intended the findings may offer teachers a better understanding of the Sudanese experience. Further, it is hoped that these new insights will and identify areas of classroom pedagogy that can be improved in order to create a more effective learning environment which addresses the needs of their newest group of students.