Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemDevelopmental assessment and metacognition in teachers' professional learning and differentiated teaching(University of Melbourne, 2014)
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ItemElite Sports Coaching and Feedback: The use of communication and metacognitive strategies in sport( 2020)The similarities in skills of coaches and teachers have been of particular interest to researchers for half a century. Within coaching research, the emphasis has been on coach observation studies, whereas in education research the evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions on student outcomes has been the focus. Furthermore, most coaching literature explores coaches at the sub-elite level. Crucially, to develop coaching practice, more information is needed regarding the impacts feedback, pedagogical techniques and instructional interventions employed by coaches have on athlete outcomes in the elite sporting environment. A mixed-methods approach was used in this thesis to explore the impact of coaches’ actions and behaviours on elite teams. In Part A, communication between the senior coach, three assistant coaches and 45 players from the VFLW competition were explored across a six-week period; during meetings, training sessions and competition. Feedback was predominantly descriptive in nature, with the exception of in-competition settings, where prescriptive feedback was predominant. Coaches and players asked minimal questions of one another regardless of the format of the interactions. In Part B, nine VFLW players were interviewed about their feedback preferences. Players preferred individual, specific and prescriptive feedback. Players acknowledged the benefits of video review feedback yet suggested playing an active role in the review process would improve learning. In Part C, a metacognitive strategy (Think Aloud) was introduced into the player review process for 14 AFLW players. This occurred across an entire pre-season and season of the AFLW competition to assess the impact it had on the understanding and performance of a tactical concept. The results showed an effect size of 0.68 for the introduction of a metacognitive strategy on athlete understanding and performance outcomes, compared to 0.37 for no metacognitive strategy. Major conclusions relate to coach feedback not always reflecting player preferences for how feedback is communicated, with feedback tending to be descriptive in nature. Players and coaches evaluate understanding and performance differently, however the implementation of metacognitive strategies into coaching practice led to a higher impact on athlete learning and was similar to the effects reported in prior educational research with students. Further exploration of the overlap of effective teaching pedagogies and their applicability to sports coaching practice would be useful.
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ItemReflective and metacognitive thinking : student and teacher development( 1992)The purpose of this naturalistic case study was to investigate conditions under which first year Bachelor of Education students develop and extend their reflective and metacognitive thinking. More specifically, it sought to explore the extent to which: involvement in reflective activities affects metacognitive thinking; the development of metacognitive thinking influences motivation; and participation in group work affects students' reflective thinking practices. The researcher, as participant observer, included individual reflective and group work as integral processes in the subject taught to the first year research group. The research produced a large mass of data including transcripts of audio and video recordings, work samples such as concept maps and journals, and the researcher's observational notes. Findings of the study indicate that reflection and metacognition can be valuable for personal and professional growth of both teachers and students.
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ItemA study of reflection and metacognition in the teaching of experienced teachers( 2001)Teaching is a unique human process that requires a teacher's conscious effort, concern, and responsibility to provide quality education for the students. Promoting 'reflective teaching' encourages teachers to be more intentional and deliberate in thinking and teaching. In classroom teaching, metacognition plays an important role in decision-making and self-monitoring, leading teachers to achieve awareness and control over their own thinking and teaching. This research studied the practical aspects of reflective teaching. It aimed to provide a discussion and understanding of reflective teaching in the classroom context and the role of metacognition in monitoring teaching and learning processes. Qualitative research methodology was adopted to explore and describe the teaching practices of four experienced teachers in Singapore. Data were gathered through interviews, lesson observations and video-recordings of classroom teaching. Stimulated recall technique was employed to tap into the thinking processes that the teachers engaged in their teaching. Data were analysed with the aim to describe the extent to which the four teachers engaged in reflection and acted metacognitively in their classroom teaching. Findings of the study showed that although reflection is a developmental process, higher level of reflectivity was not assured by longer years of teaching experience. In practical classroom teaching, teachers who actively engaged in reflection and acted metacognitively adopted a pro-active general approach in monitoring classroom teaching and learning process. They tended to use strategies that involved student engagement in the monitoring of learning progress and fostered reflective thinking and metacognitive development in students. Besides, they demonstrated teaching practices that emphasised the process of learning as well as the product of learning.
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ItemThe learning of fundamental accounting concepts( 2001)In this thesis, as a teacher-researcher, I explored the difficulties many students, who were non accounting majors, experienced in learning accountancy. I chose as main research questions: � What are the specific difficulties encountered by students in learning accounting? � How do I teach accounting differently so that students may learn and understand more effectively? The outcome I was seeking was the development of a method of teaching and learning that would improve student understanding of the subject. I could not identify any problems peculiar to accounting as a subject, although I established by experience that some accounting concepts were `complex' as seen by students. I came to the realisation that if the subject - accountancy - was not the cause of the problem (difficulties in learning) then the problem must reside in me as teacher and / or students as learners. My research was both quantitative and qualitative and involved The University of Melbourne, RMIT University and, to a lesser extent, Goulburn Ovens Institute of Technical and Further Education. My method of data collection involved questionnaires, interviews, an assignment, informal tests and formal examinations. My review of the literature suggested several areas where I could strengthen my teaching for more effective learning and three of these: � Spend additional time on known complex issues � Set appropriate tasks to test understanding (using formative tests) � Seek to increase students' metacognitive skills I incorporated in my subsequent qualitative research when I set about attempting to improve student learning through a metalearning approach involving exploration of poor learning tendencies. Using summative examinations as a test of more effective learning, I concluded that setting frequent informal tests - not forming part of assessment - improved students' learning. However, the attempt to improve student learning through minimising poor learning tendencies was not successful or was at best inconclusive. It appeared that success here would take a much greater lead time than was available to me.