Faculty of Education - Theses

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    Selfoverestimation and scholastic success
    Claughton, Warren G ( 1977)
    Three weeks before the end of year final assessments at school, 133 boys from forms one, three and five at a Victorian secondary school produced a self rating (SR) in six areas, general academic ability, industriousness in maths and in English, friendliness, and predicted final mark in maths and in English. Each student also rated all other members of his class in these six areas. The composite of these scores produced a group rating (GR) of each student in each of the six areas. The SR was then compared with the GR. If the SR>GR the student was defined as overestimating himself. The other two possible outcomes of this comparison were SR=GR (realistic) or SR
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    Immigration, the media and student understandings
    Terry, Les (1955-) ( 1986)
    This study investigates the issue of Asian immigration as it was treated by two newspapers in a three month period in 1984 and also examines the attitudes of three groups of adolescents to the messages conveyed by the media representations. This study is divided into three main parts. In the first chapter there is a selective review of the material in the area of racism and the media, in particular those studies carried out from an ideological consensus point of view. In addition, there is a review of relevant studies carried out in the youth culture/politics area. The second part of the study provides a detailed examination of the strategies employed by two newspapers The Herald and The Sun News- Pictorial for the construction of the 'Immigration Debate' in the period March to June 1984. The third and final part of the study examines the extent to which the students accepted or rejected the ideological framework established by the two newspapers in their treatment of the immigration issue. As a result of this three-stage analysis, it is argued that the strategies employed by the two newspapers in helping to construct the debate on immigration ensured that the ideological framework for this debate was essentially racist. It is also argued that at the level of discourse many of the students involved in the study were shown to be not directly aware of the 'Blainey Debate'. However, it is also apparent that when they examined the media representations they displayed little ability to reject the ideological boundaries established for debate. The media representations legitimised and transmitted what could be called the 'new racism'. This study found that the students were not able to critically question this new racism.
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    Students' attitudes concerning mathematics: a study of the opinions and views concerning mathematics and mathematics teaching held by students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria
    Keeves, J. P. ( 1966)
    From an examination of the relevant courses of study in mathematics and the associated published writings hypotheses were proposed to examine the influence of an emphasis on an inquiry and discovery approach to the teaching of mathematics on the attitudes concerning mathematics of students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria (each N = 1000). Emphasis on the use of inquiry methods at the lower secondary school level was found to be associated with students' views that mathematics teaching involved more inquiry and discovery, with students' opinions that mathematics was an open and creative process and with the students' greater interest in mathematics. At the upper primary school level a strong influence of curricular factors was not detected, however, the evidence suggested that the classroom teacher played an important part in the development of attitudes concerning mathematics. The data collected was examined for the influence of several non-curricular factors including the sex of the pupil, and the occupation and the place of residence of the students' father. The sex of the student and differences in the scientific nature and the socio-economic status of the father's occupation were found to be linked with some differences in the opinions expressed by the students concerning mathematics.