Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemParent professional partnerships in IEP development : a case study of a MAPS process( 2007)The practices, language and behaviours which professionals adopt when they meet with parents prior to Individual Education Program (IEP) planning may have a significant effect on the attitudes and capabilities families bring to the educational setting. During this case study the adult family members of a child with additional needs were observed as they addressed the developmental and programming needs of their child by participating in the McGill Action Planning System (MAPS) and a subsequent Program Support Group (PSG) meeting. Themes indicating attitudes or perceptions that empowered the family towards continued participation in collaborative teams for IEP development emerged in the observational data and were defined through the methods of informant diaries and semi-structured interviews. Less dominant quantitative methods were used to verify that the participant's ongoing attitudes towards parent professional collaboration corroborated with the final themes of flexibility, unification, satisfaction and function.
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ItemThe vertical curriculum meeting the needs of students of high intellectual potential( 2000)This pilot project investigated one Victorian Independent School's implementation of the vertical curriculum in Grades Five and Six in over a one-year period in 1998. The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the vertical curriculum model for students identified as intellectually Gifted, High (Gifted and Bright) and Mainstream (Average, Low Average and Low) students by reviewing the students' progress in mathematics. Using Progressive Achievement Tests in Mathematics at the beginning and end of the year the identified Gifted, Bright and Mainstream students' progress was monitored to track their mathematical development, consisting of - achievement or progress made. The cohort reviewed consisted of eighty eight students incorporating eleven identified intellectually Gifted students, thirty three Bright students and forty four Mainstream students, as identified by the Raven's Progressive Matrices. The findings indicated firstly that an advanced level of mathematical achievement was found for the identified Gifted students. Secondly, it was found that the vertical curriculum assisted the Mainstream students as they showed significant mathematical progress. The findings indicated that the vertical curriculum provided an equitable educational option for the identified intellectually Gifted, Bright and Mainstream students.
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ItemStudent expectations of the future( 1992)Specific aims of the study To investigate how present-day students view the future and their place in the workforce of the future. To establish whether or not students regard their present educational experiences as an adequate preparation for their future work. To investigate acceptance of unconventional futures scenarios as possible futures.
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ItemThe impact of the zone based professional development program, "Skill review and professional development", on knowledge, understanding and practice within selected school communities( 1995)While engaged in documenting a retrospective account of a zone based professional development program, Skill Review and Professional Development, which aimed to support school communities in the implementation of skill review and professional development according to the Tripartite Agreement on School Development Planning, I reflected on a statement by Harwayne (1992): 'We take courses. We attend workshops. We read books, We get lots of information. But the really important information comes later on. It comes when we take that seed information back to our classrooms, when we experiment and innovate and invent, when we make it our own. The story really is 'to be continued' (p.337 ). This reflection led to the following questions which drove my investigation: # has the 'seed information' collected during the program been taken back to the school level?; # have school communities been able to 'experiment', 'innovate' and 'invent' in order to make skill review and professional development their own?; and, # in what areas has the zone based professional development program, Skill Review and Professional Development, impacted at the school level? The information gathered to discover the answers to these questions was qualitative in nature and comes from those involved directly with the delivery and implementation of the program. The information draws on what happened at the zone level and what is now happening at the school level. The gathered data took the form of words: written and anecdotal; record and document observations; and transcripts of discussions and interviews, as words captured the spirit of the happenings. The writings of Joyce and Showers (1987), Joyce and Weil (1992), Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991), Hargreaves (1992), Fullan (1993), Johnson (1993), Guskey (1994) and others have helped make sense of the impact of this program at the school level.
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ItemUnderstanding the perceptions of primary school and early childhood teachers about the inclusion of children with special needs in regular classrooms( 2003)Today, many regular schools in the State of Victoria provide inclusive education programs. Educating children with and without disabilities is linked with upholding the rights of all children regardless of their class, culture, gender or developmental abilities. This study was aimed at exploring perceptions of early childhood and primary school teachers about the inclusion of children with special needs from six independent schools located in metropolitan Victoria. Data were analysed and compared to identify if there were differences in teachers' attitudes in relation to beliefs and values, feasibility of implementing inclusive programs in regular classrooms and their confidence to carry out inclusive practices. Findings indicated that all participants in the study were very positive about the philosophy of including children with disabilities in regular classrooms. Several factors were identified as major contributors to the positive perceptions of teachers. Data also revealed that teachers had many concerns regarding the implementation of inclusion in their regular classrooms. The findings of this study had implications for best practice to improve the implementation of inclusive programs in regular classrooms.
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ItemSocial competence and the core curriculum : a critical/empirical approach to the role of social education in the core curriculum( 1981)Through the reanalysis, reassessment, and reinterpretation of the data from the Essential Learning About Society study (Piper, 1977) from the point of view of current concerns about the core curriculum, this study develops an empirically-derived framework for a core curriculum in social education which takes into account the views of a substantial section of the Australian community. The study argues that social education is a necessary component of a core curriculum designed to meet the needs of both the individual student and the society as a whole; that the concept of social competence provides a valid basis for defining a core curriculum in social education; and that, in the absence of a definitive analysis of Australian society, community perceptions provide a practical alternative to the problems of defining an education for social competence. The developed framework provides a practical resource for incorporating community perceptions into core curriculum decision-making, and as such has potentially useful applications to educational policy and practice and to further research, as well as providing a body of empirical evidence in an area where such evidence is largely lacking.
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ItemThe politics of curriculum( 1999)This thesis seeks to document the development, establishment and subsequent demise of Victoria's first independent regulatory body of senior secondary curriculum and assessment, the Victorian Institute of Secondary Education. Analysis of the origins of VISE helps reveal the implicit social conflicts at work within the senior secondary curriculum. The thesis investigates the response of policy makers to the shift in senior secondary education from an 'elite' system to a 'mass' system in light of this conflict. The thesis argues that these responses in general, and VISE's in particular, while significantly expanding school control over the curriculum and pedagogical autonomy, failed to moderate social patterns of success and failure by not challenging the implicit rationale behind the curriculum hierarchy - the needs of the university for selection - and by failing to base curriculum policy on a wider understanding of the origins of such patterns.