Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe effectiveness of roleplay in changing disadvantaged students' attitude to schooling and to themselves( 1994)This study sets out to examine the relationship between the development of language and social competence. It draws on the theories of language development proposed by Chomsky, Piaget's cognition development and the sociolinguistic notions of Bruner, Vygotsky and Labov. The educational context of the study is that imposed by the policies developed by the Victorian Ministry of Education which requires schools to provide an inclusive curriculum to meet the needs of all students. For many secondary schools, groups of students, especially those who are disadvantaged by social and emotional difficulties place a great demand upon the existing structures and their needs are unfulfilled. A review of relevant literature on social competence and roleplay was undertaken which indicated that a program of communication and roleplay activities may address the needs of these students. Therefore this study has sought to examine the impact of such activities on the level of social competence of a group of disadvantaged students who were aggressive, cynical, disruptive and not participating in school life. This study was undertaken in a mainstream school in the Western Region of metropolitan Melbourne. Students who participated were pretested to establish their attitudes towards the use of aggression and power, established authority and cynicism level. After participating in a program of communication activities and reflective roleplays the students were tested again to determine the level of attitudinal change. The key findings of this study demonstrated that significant attitudinal change occurred in the participants and that they considered themselves to be better able to understand why existing constraints were in place. The study also indicated that a program which utilises roleplay and implemented within the also found that there communication activities can existing school organisation. It also found that there is a need for change in teacher perception and school structure to accommodate students with social/emotional difficulties.
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ItemChildren's perceptions of changes in families( 1991)The three studies reported in this thesis take as their subjects over one thousand "ordinary primary school children" from state primary schols in the western region of Melbourne. The sample has not been drawn using methods such as newspaper requests (Burns, 1980), from Parents without Partners groups (Kurdek and Siesky, 1978), from university towns (Franz and Mell, 1981) or through court records (Hess and Camara, 1979; Dunlop and Burns, 1988). The western region of Melbourne is socioeconomically and ethnically diverse and predicted to grow faster than most other areas of Melbourne in the next decades. In essence, these children are that future. Certainly, their perceptions of families and of changes in families will help to shape their own futures. Children have much to say about families as has been noted in studies by Ochiltree and Amato (1985) and Goodnow and Burns (1985). Children in Studies 1 and 2 in this thesis wrote eloquently and often with passion about families generally and about family changes specifically. Previous studies (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Silcock and Sadler, 1980; Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980; Riach, 1983; Ochiltree and Amato (1985) and Cooper (1986) have looked at children's perceptions of families. Some, like Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, (1981) and Cooper (1986) have drawn attention to gender differences; others, like Silcock and Sadler, (1980), to techniques employed in the collection of data. In addition, Selman and his colleagues (1979, 1980, 1986) have focussed on children's developing understanding of social relations. Selman's stages of development of social understanding, like those of Hoffman (1983) for empathy development are based on Piagetian stages of cognitive development. The present studies are an attempt to draw together around a single theme, children's perceptions of families, the impact of a range of techniques for data collection (as Silcock and Sadler, (1980) have suggested is appropriate) and consideration of age/stage differences as defined by Selman et al. Additionally, gender differences are investigated as suggested by Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg -Halton, (1981). In Study 1, a group of forty Grade 5/6 children completed a questionnaire, Children's Perceptions of Changes in Families. Subsequently, this group of forty was divided into a target and a control group. The target group of children took part in an eight week videotape/discussion program with family matters as content while the control group continued with general classroom activities. At the completion of this, children were presented with the responses they had prepared previously to the questionnaire and invited to change these in any way they considered appropriate. Analysis revealed that elaboration occurred in the responses of children in both target and control groups. Statistical analysis revealed very little in the way of differences between the responses made by those children who had taken part in the videotape/discussion program and those who had not. Coming out of this study, however, were gender differences and tendencies for children to describe parents in stereotypic roles which are reminescent of other larger studies (Goodnow and Burns, 1985; Cooper, 1986; Ochiltree and Amato, 1985). Girls, for example, expressed far more interest than boys in the experience of caring for a new baby; boys referred more than did girls to the fights likely to ensue should a new child come into the family. Father's movement from the children's home to live elsewhere was considered unhappy because of his loss as a playmate; in mother's case, it was her inability to continue caring for the children which was noted. Such patterns were revealed in the content analysis of the children's responses to the questionnaire. The children in this first study served as a window into the other studies reported in this thesis in that the researcher spent considerable time speaking with both groups through their two completions of the questionnaire and with the target group during the videotape/discussion program. In addition, statements made by these forty children were used as the basis of Study 3. In Studies 2 and 3, children prepared written responses to the tasks set them. In Study 3, 1118 Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6 children drawn from twelve state primary schools in the western region of Melbourne were read statements by their teacher and invited, on one occasion, to indicate their thoughts about each statement and, on another, to indicate their feelings. The phrases from which children were invited to select in indicating their responses were based on the definition of problem and expression of feelings components of the Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies Model (Selman et al., 1986b) and were representative of levels of complexity of thought and feeling described in the model. Girls' marked superiority over boys in their choice of feeling responses representing higher levels of complexity was the most significant finding in this study. This finding coupled with findings from Study 2 that girls made significantly more references than boys in their descriptions of families to emotional aspects of families makes gender differences a powerful finding in the studies presented in the thesis. The emotional aspects of families to which girls referred significantly more often than boys in responses to the question, "What is a Family?" were love, care, sharing/belonging, understanding problems/talking. In contrast, boys and younger children (Grade 3/4) referred significantly more often than girls and older children (Grade 5/6) to family structure. The finding that older children made significantly more references than did the younger children to many aspects of families is not surprising and likely to be due to their general experience and superior verbal ability (Jacklin and Maccoby, 1983). The gender differences in the content analysis was reinforced in coding undertaken of children's responses according to levels based on Bruss-Saunders' levels (1978) of social understanding of parent-child relationships. Here, the descriptions written by Grade 5/6 girls were coded as representing highest levels of complexity and the descriptions written by Grade 3/4 boys as representing lowest levels of complexity. In the studies, levels of complexity of children's responses are considered according to theories of cognitive development. In addition, the influence of contextual factors on the thoughts and feelings children express about families are discussed. Questions about the relationship between these two are raised with regard to the capacity children acquire for coping in their present and future families.
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ItemCollaborative leadership in inner city schools of Melbourne( 1994)This thesis examines leadership and its links to success in inner city schools of Melbourne, reflecting the view that the role of leaders and the process of leadership are significant contributing factors in the achievement of successful school improvement. In Victoria at the present time there is relentless change at both the school and system level. Schools are in a constant state of reorganisation with the dismantling of centralised authorities, including support services and standard operational procedures and processes. Roles and responsibilities of school principals are being revised. Many schools are being closed down as part of the government's rationalisation policy. Others are being amalgamated. Many members of staff are being required to transfer to different schools, whilst others are taking financial "packages" and early retirement. Moreover, inner city schools are confronted with further responsibilities. Students in these schools often come from low socio-economic, non-English speaking backgrounds and have special social welfare and educational needs. Staffing arrangements must serve the specific needs of transient migrant groups and innovative curriculum provision is a necessity to target the requirements of an inner city clientele. Clearly, then, skilful and imaginative leadership is imperative to cope with such a context and to bring about success. The purpose of the investigation is to establish what it is that leaders do in these schools to achieve success and school improvement, despite the prevailing difficulties. The focus is on the notion of collaborative leadership, developed and defined in this thesis as one which is transformational and encompasses distinctive elements of collaboration. Collaborative leadership is interpreted and analysed through the four central frames of leadership - structural, human resource, political and symbolic - of the Bolman and Deal (1991) typology. A qualitative approach was seen as an appropriate means of investigation, firstly, in order to provide full descriptions and explanations of the primary data and, secondly, to capture the critical features of what it was that leaders did in their daily practice to bring success to their schools. The qualitative approach described by Miles and Huberman (1984) incorporating data reduction, data display and data collection and conclusions drawing/verifying, was adopted. The findings clearly indicate that specific collaborative leader behaviour, using a repertoire of structural, human resource, political and symbolic dimensions, can lead to success in schools. Leaders used structural arrangements to establish democratic procedures which were inclusive rather than exclusive, seeing the operation of the school as a collective responsibility of teachers, parents, and, where appropriate, students. Human resource elements brought mutual respect, as well as professional and community cooperation and support. Political leadership behaviour centred around empowerment, open and frank discussion, and a striving for consensus. Symbolic dimensions contained the beliefs, values, attitudes and norms of behaviour of leaders, denoting and directing fundamental purposes and processes. In addition, the researcher has extended these findings into hypothesised causal links, which when synthesised, offer four distinctive factors as fundamental to a fully functioning collaborative culture, namely, development of educational potential, professional development of teachers, good organisational health and institutionalisation of vision. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or graduate diploma in any tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by any other person, except where reference is made in the text.
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ItemThe attitudes and concerns of Catholic parish primary school principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools( 1997)This study was undertaken to identify' and compare the attitudes of Catholic Parish Primary School principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities. The study also investigated variations in attitude toward integration for sub-groups of the principals and teachers. In addition, this study ascertained the concerns these educators have about the implementation of integration in their schools. A three part questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consisted of items relating to the background characteristics of the respondents and their schools, a modified version of the Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale (Berryman & Neal, 1980) and an open ended question eliciting educators' concerns about integration. Fifty five principals and 145 full time classroom teachers in the Northern Area of the Archdiocese of Melbourne responded to the questionnaire. T-tests were employed to compare the attitudes of the principals and teachers toward integration., Thematic analysis was used to examine the concerns of educators. Several major findings emerged from the study. Principals were found to hold more positive attitudes toward integration than classroom teachers. Principals were also significantly more positive than teachers toward the integration of students with severe disabilities. Younger principals held significantly more positive attitudes toward integration than older principals. No significant differences were identified for sub groups of the teacher sample. Similarity existed between the two groups of educators in terms of their expressed major concerns about integration. Lack of school based support personnel, funding and training, in that order, were recorded most frequently by both groups of educators.
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ItemThe impact of writing for different kinds of audience on a group of year 11 students' writing proficiency at an inner city secondary college in Victoria( 1993)This study was carried out with the purpose of finding out the influence of audience on the students writing proficiency It was carried out with the help of forty students who were studying at Year 1 1 at an inner city secondary college. The students belonged to three different classes or three intact groups. Each student produced three pieces of writing one of which was for no audience the second one of which was for an imaginary audience and the third one of which was for a real audience. Since the sequence of tasks could be a compounding variable in this study it was decided to give the three groups of students the tasks in three different orders. The students writings were assessed by three raters using a multitrait method of scoring. The components of writing and scales used were derived from those proposed by Hamp Lyons (1986). For any large discrepancy a fourth rater was invited to rate the specific samples of writing again. The data was analysed by ANOVA and F comparison. The results of the study reveal that audience has a significant impact on the students writing proficiency. However when the students wrote for an imaginary audience their writing was rated as less proficient than when they wrote for no audience. The most interesting result was the one relating to students writing for a real audience In this case students proficiency was judged by the raters to be greater than for the other two types of audience. This research has provided some interesting insights for teachers and composition and direct writing assessment researchers.
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ItemStudent stress : a preliminary investigation into the school-related stress experience of year 8 students, using a hassles and uplifts approach( 1991)This study sought to develop a hassles and uplifts scale as a measure of the school-related stress experienced by year 8 students in post-primary schools. A draft set of 167 items was developed after reviewing other scales that purport to measure stress, reviewing the broader popular literature on stress in young people and the authors informal discussions with year eight students over a number of years. The 167 items were then subjected to a simple consensual validation procedure using a small group of year 8 male and female students. A draft scale of 87 items emerged from this process. The draft scale was administered to 875 year 8 students in ten varying types of schools, including coeducational, single sex girls, single sex boys, urban, nonurban, government and nongovernment. The instrument was administered by suitably briefed classroom teachers. The responses of students were subjected to factor analysis. Preliminary whole-scale analysis indicated a high level of reliability. As a further indicator of the reliability of factors 14 factors were found to replicate across analyses (orthogonal rotation c.f. oblique rotation) of the whole group. The group was randomly split into two subgroups and the the analysis conducted on each subgroup. Eight factors appeared to replicate or substantially replicate across groups when an varimax solution was computed for each subgroup. Similarly, eight factors were found to replicate across subgroups. Key factors emerged from the analysis. It was concluded that, while further work was necessary in followup to this minor trial, a reliable and valid hassles and uplifts scale can be satisfactorily developed for the specific age group of students. Suggestions for the followup work and further research are outlined in the conclusion of this study.
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ItemAn evaluation of the family-centred early intervention programme at Melbourne City Mission : parents' perspectives( 1994)This study sets out to examine parents' perceptions of the family-centred approach to early intervention at Handihelp, Melbourne City Mission. After reviewing the relevant literature, it became clear that best practice in early intervention occurs when parental involvement is maximised. This has evolved historically from a child-centred approach to early intervention to a family-centred approach in the 1990's. A questionnaire was distributed to parents involved in the early intervention programme to establish whether they truly feel supported and empowered by the family-centred approach, and whether this philosophy leads parents towards being able to make changes in relationships within their own families. The findings of this study indicate that families feel supported and empowered by the Agency and that in tandem with professionals, parents feel able to take charge of the direction that intervention takes their family units, and children with special needs. There is clear evidence that families perceive their lives as being strengthened and focussed through exposure to early intervention. However this study indicates a need for more stringent programme planning and co-ordination of services to families. Professional development programmes for early intervention workers, particularly in the area of family systems theory, is necessary to provide a base for better programme delivery and service provision.
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ItemA study of religious education in Catholic secondary schools : attitudes of students, content, methodology and gender issues( 1999)The subject of Religious Education (RE) is the one feature distinguishing Catholic Schools from Government Schools. It is a unique subject because its impact on students' lives is long-lasting and important. The factors influencing students' attitudes and perceptions of RE are examined in this study. Two of the main factors researched here include the content of Religious Education lessons and the methodology employed by teachers, as perceived by students. Marked differences in the gender responses of students were observed to be very significant and these are discussed and explored. Recommendations for possible ways of addressing these disparities are also included.
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ItemVertical grouping of year 9 and 10 classes and the resultant classroom dynamics : a case study( 1996)The research questions on which this study are based are to do with issues about whether students at different ages can successfully study and learn together in the same class. The particular ages under examination in this study are those corresponding to Year 9 and 10 students. These students were studied to determine if they belonged to separate groups. The adolescent and social psychology literature explored suggested that the two year levels contained individuals of widely differing developmental levels and thus the research was designed to see how the vertical grouping (composite) of Year 9 and I0 classes effected the learning of the students. Via a Case Study design it was found that the internal interactions between individuals within single year level classes were different to those found in the composite class. (n the Year 9 class studied the students tended to only work with a select group of their friends whereas in the Year 10 class the students seemed to form an united and congenial group. The composite class was found to be composed of two distinct sub groups, a Year 9 group and a Year 10 group, each reflecting the characteristic interactions of their particular year level. Group work was used as a method of facilitating the communication between the two year levels in the composite class. This methodology did produce some positive results with increased communication between the two sub-groups at the completion of the research. During the research it was noted that group work has to be carefully structured and monitored if it is to have positive results. Webb (1982a) found that if students in groups ask questions and do not receive answers then this structure in fact can be detrimental, to their achievement. The effect of non-responsive communication within small group work could be further studied to ensure that this method of promoting cooperation in composite classes is effective.