Faculty of Education - Theses
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Item'Ways of seeing': the positioning of the visual in subject English curricula, 2000 - 2017( 2018)The proliferation of visual texts in the lives of young people since the turn of the twenty-first century has created new opportunities and demands for curriculum developers. Since 2000, subject English curricula in Australia have acknowledged the importance of students’ engagement with visual texts, yet systematic approaches to the positioning of viewing and the visual in curriculum documents are not always evident. With the inclusion of less traditional texts such as graphic novels in the senior English text lists in recent years (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014), the explicit addressing of the visual from the early to the final years of compulsory schooling has become crucial. This thesis presents analyses of four mandated curriculum iterations in the Australian state of Victoria from 2000 to 2017 focusing on the positioning of the visual in subject English. In revealing these positionings, some of the understandings about what subject English in the twenty-first century is, and should do, are interrogated. Aspects of Gee’s Building Tasks of Language (2010, 2011, 2014) have been drawn on to frame this analysis. Theoretical frameworks linked to subject English and literacy pedagogy have also been used to identify and analyse the positioning of the visual in subject English, and in turn, to posit aspects of what constitutes ‘English’ in the selected curricula.
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ItemThe acquisition of goal-directed movement: developing and reporting a measure of learning readiness for use in classroom settings with students with motor performance needs( 2018)This thesis investigated how student movement difficulties might be related to motor learning opportunities in the classroom, and how classroom-related movement might be described as a learning progression and stage of learning assessed. At the time of this investigation, the movement aspects of classroom learning were not constituted as a curriculum domain, nor were classroom teachers equipped by their training to support motor learning advance for students experiencing difficulties. Consequently, a common practice was to recruit occupational therapy support via teacher-administered assessments developed by occupational therapists for this use. However, these were not underpinned by learning progressions enabling results to indicate stage of learning readiness – an important educational requirement. This study employed educational measurement methodology to design an assessment framework describing the progressive learning of goal-directed movement, including its dimensionality and learning levels, to support teachers’ instructional planning in this area. Drawing upon Vygotskian social constructivism, item response theory, and insights spanning over 60 years of motor behaviour research, movement was firstly defined accessibly as a goal-directed problem-solving strategy using the resources of the body one has. It was then operationalised as a judgement-based questionnaire, with items expressing five classroom-relevant aspects of postural control, transportation of self and objects, manipulation, communicative/ interactive skills, and performance sustainment. Empirical calibration of the item pool via assessment of 650 students with motor performance needs confirmed an acquisitional sequence with excellent measurement properties, following which standard setting by a Delphi panel of occupational therapy experts established 22 progressive learning levels for the dimensionalised scale and three possible report formats for different end-users. The result was an educational measure in-built with occupational therapy expertise that represented a new approach to occupational therapy assessment construction and provided a new way for allied health professionals and teachers to collaborate in support of classroom motor learning. Future research should undertake further collaboration with occupational therapists, to determine instructional strategies appropriate to each level of the scale.
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ItemA world-class curriculum? historical thinking and twenty-first century skills in the Australian curriculum: history( 2018)The Australian Curriculum represents significant work by educational authorities in Australia to create a curriculum that will serve the needs of young Australians for years to come. This thesis explores the extent to which the Australian Curriculum: History achieves its goal in constituting a world-class curriculum that prepares students for life and work in the twenty-first century. The thesis adopts a document content analysis method in order to evaluate the extent to which the explicit curriculum reflects the prevailing research on historical thinking and twenty-first century skills. Judgements are made on the basis of the frequency and context of how skills and concepts are expressed within the document and how they reflect the research. The thesis finds that the Australian Curriculum: History does not reflect the research as its articulation of historical thinking is unclear and lacks coherence. Furthermore, its articulation of twenty-first century skills fails to embed these into the document in ways appropriate to the discipline. This thesis lays bare the failings of the curriculum design process and recommends that future revisions of the curriculum more clearly reflect the research on historical thinking; and that further work be undertaken to determine how twenty-first century relate to the concepts of historical thinking and how these can be expressed in the explicit curriculum.
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ItemRemaking the university curriculum: what counts as knowledge in new forms of online learning( 2017)The purposes of a university education and the knowledge it should seek to impart are today very much in question. Teaching within universities is becoming increasingly focused on generic instrumental and vocational agendas, and there are strong drives to improve teaching and make greater use of online technologies in response to a widening student body. The significance and implications of these trends for different aspects of university work have been widely debated, but there has been little attention to the changing dynamics of curriculum making and the assumptions at work in how subjects are being put together. Within this context, this thesis investigates the question ‘what counts as knowledge in new forms of online learning’. It focuses on the differences and similarities evident in the purposes, assumptions and constraints recognised by those working in different kinds of knowledge fields; and on the coherence of the conceptions of knowledge at work within the framing and development of new online initiatives and subjects. The thesis approaches these questions through a qualitative study of online initiatives developed at two Australian universities. The research draws on traditions of curriculum inquiry and policy sociology to focus on how those responsible for the development of the new online initiatives and subjects grapple with questions of knowledge and its teaching in their aims and practices. It considers the institutional policy framings informing the new online initiatives and undertakes case studies of the curriculum development of particular subjects, drawing on interviews with policy leaders and lecturers, and analyses of policy documentation and curriculum materials. For the policy leaders, the thesis shows that while their rhetoric is concerned with students’ own knowledge constructions, their approach positions curriculum content as settled and predefined. For the lecturers, it highlights significant differences in how those located in disciplinary and professional fields conceptualised knowledge and approached their curriculum development, but also that these orientations were undermined to an extent in the process of working with the new platforms. It shows the lecturers’ practices here led to more ‘instructivist’ rather than ‘constructivist’ teaching, and a greater emphasis on knowledge as a defined body of content to be taught. The thesis uncovers three problems arising in current university developments. One is the neglect of the differences between disciplines and professional knowledge fields, and the ways in which the different purposes and orientations of these fields shape curriculum development. A second is the neglect of the conditions required to encourage constructivist teaching practices online, including in relation to questions of substance. And a third is the neglect of the complex relations between curriculum and pedagogical form in building what counts as knowledge. The thesis explores the effects of these policy blindspots on lecturers’ practices of curriculum making and on the forms of education made possible as a result. In doing so, it opens up some new ways for researchers and institutional leaders to engage with questions of knowledge and curriculum within higher education.
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ItemTeaching the live: the pedagogies of performance analysis( 2016)Theatre as an artform is ephemeral in nature and offers a lived, aesthetic experience. Attending theatre and analysing theatre performance is a key component of the study of drama in senior secondary education systems in Australia, and in many international education systems. The senior secondary drama curriculum in Victoria offers a unique context for analysing live theatre performances. Lists of performances are prescribed for teachers and students to select from and attend. The year prior to the lists being created, theatre companies are invited to submit productions for consideration. The written curriculum determines that students write a written analysis of one production. This task assesses students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of what they experience at school level, and they are assessed again in an end-of-year‘ high-stakes’ examination, the results of which contributes to students’ overall graduating academic score. Methodologically, this study used case study methods to investigate the pedagogies of performance analysis, selecting four cases as a collective case study approach. Over a period of fourteen months the study investigated how the lists of performances were generated, how teachers and students selected a performance to attend, how teachers taught the analysis of live theatre performance to senior drama students in a high-stakes assessment environment, and critically examined the role of theatre companies within these processes. The data comprised document analysis, participant observation, field notes, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, and researcher reflective journal. Specifically the study examined pedagogy and how teachers’ pedagogical choices moved the written curriculum towards enacted and experienced curriculum. It explored what influenced and impacted these pedagogies in order to consider what constitutes effective pedagogies for teaching the analysis of live theatre performance within the research context and, more broadly, wherever the analysis of theatre performance is included in senior drama curricula. The findings indicate that while the teachers who participated in the study sought to create rich educational experiences for their senior drama students, they needed to take a reductive approach and employ teaching strategies that reinforced capacities relevant to the exam rather than those that engaged with the live arts experience or recognised and incorporated the embodied practices of drama education. Consequently, the study questions the purpose of examining performance analysis. The study also revealed how theatre company practices impact the teaching of performance analysis. As a way to structure an effective pedagogy for teaching performance analysis the study recommends that a purposeful, structured and sustained community of practice be established between curriculum authorities, theatre companies and schools. It is one that acknowledges the four stages of pedagogy identified and is a model that has potential application in curriculum where performance analysis is part of studying drama and theatre.
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ItemA needs assessment regarding programs for Russian adolescents in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools: a comparative case study( 2014)Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Day Schools devote considerable time to advanced Jewish studies. When students join at the secondary level with limited or no previous Jewish education, the schools face an enormous challenge of providing appropriate programming to facilitate integration into the mainstream classroom and the broader school community. This qualitative study, focussing on parent and student voices, examines how two orthodox Jewish schools educated first and second generation Russian students who entered the schools at various levels and the impact this educational experience had on the students’ Jewish identities and observances. The aim is to inform best practice in educational programming.
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ItemEntry level skills of new graduate small animal veterinarians: perceptions of students and expectations of veterinarians( 2014)Aim: This study examined the differences between veterinary students and qualified veterinarians with regards to their perceptions of the skills required for new graduates in practice. Methods: Surveys were distributed to students in each of the four year levels of the Veterinary Science degree at the University of Melbourne as well as to recent graduates and experienced veterinarians registered in Victoria, Australia. Six categories of skills were included in the survey: Knowledge base, medical and technical skills, surgical skills, verbal communication and interpersonal skills, written communication and business skills, and critical thinking and problem solving. Respondents were asked to rank the categories as to which were the most important for new graduate veterinarians and to then assign a level of importance to skills that were of basic, moderate or difficult level within each category. Results: Both groups considered communication, interpersonal and critical thinking skills as the most important competencies. Students perceived a difference in importance between basic and difficult skills but assigned a higher level of importance to most skills than did veterinarians. Relevance: The outcomes from this study can be used by university educators to evaluate curricular material and examine its relevancy with respect to the current needs of industry, particularly with regards to the development of generic skills. They will also provide guidance on how to better manage student expectations while at university so they are ready for practice.
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ItemThe alignment of valued performance types in assessment practices and curriculum in year 5 mathematics and science classrooms( 2014)Curricular alignment can be defined as the degree to which the performance types valued in curriculum statements (intended curriculum), instruction (enacted curriculum) and assessment (assessed curriculum) at all levels form a coherent system. This thesis reports on six key performance type categories that were used to examine the alignment of assessment practices with the intended and enacted curriculum. The six categories are knowing, performing, communicating, reasoning, non-routine problem solving and making connections. The research was undertaken as a comparative case study of two science and two mathematics primary classrooms. The methods employed were video-recorded lessons and interviews, questionnaires, document analysis and classroom observations. This study sought to determine the scope of practice (variety of performance types) evident in mathematics and science classrooms by examining the vertical and horizontal alignment of performance types. The vertical alignment analysis determined the correspondence among valued performance types in assessments at different levels of the schooling system (national, state and school levels). The horizontal alignment analysis consisted of making comparisons of performance types between classrooms at the same level and across two domains; mathematics and science. Ultimately, the classroom implementation of assessment of the curriculum is the responsibility of the teacher, so it can be argued that those performance types valued in the classroom are determined by the teacher. However, the teacher will inevitably be influenced by factors beyond the classroom, such as the state mandated curriculum, school curriculum requirements and high stakes testing. The major assertion of this study is that if performance types are not evident in classroom practice, then they are not available for formative assessment purposes and should not be summatively assessed. The findings show that in mathematics, ‘knowing’ and ‘performing procedures’ are consistently privileged in the national assessment program and through school-‐based assessment practices. These performance types were dominant in the enacted and assessed curriculum at the classroom level. The science data analysis showed that the scope of practice in the science classrooms consisted of all six performance type categories; knowing, performing, communicating, reasoning, non-routine problem solving and making connections. The relative diversity of science performance types could reflect the nature of the science curriculum at the school level and the fact that it is not subjected to the same testing, monitoring and auditing process as the mathematics curriculum. This provides teachers with the autonomy to select activities more frequently on the basis of their investigative appeal. Mathematics and English are the two domains that are assessed through the national standardised testing program and tend to dominate the primary school curriculum. Another key finding is that different school structures influence who has authoring responsibilities for the intended curriculum. The responsibility given to authorship of internal and external curriculum documents and assessment has significant implications for classroom practice and assessment. It is a recommendation of this study that monitoring programs, such as the national assessment program, are carefully aligned with the performance types valued in curriculum standards. The authority afforded to the intended curriculum and assessment documents, such as standardised testing, can be a restricting factor in the performance types that are evident in classroom practice.
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ItemAn investigation into early childhood science within an emergent curriculum framework( 1997)A considerable interest in the concept of emergent curriculum has been generated by the early childhood centres of Reggio Emilia in Italy. This study traces the progress of a science project on spiders in an Australian early childhood centre which purports to have an emergent curriculum. In particular, this study sought to answer the question: What form does a science learning project take in an early childhood class that purports to have an emergent curriculum philosophy? What are the processes involved? What are the roles of the main players? Was this curriculum truly an emergent one? How did it fit with the different perspectives being taken to emergent curriculum in the literature? Did science learning take place? How did this learning fit with current views on science learning in the literature? Using a participant observation approach, this study looks at factors that characterise the processes and the players in this project and considers these in the context of current views on emergent curriculum and early childhood science. Results indicate that while the curriculum in this centre was clearly ‘emergent’, it differed in some minor aspects from both the Reggio Emilia model and the American model of emergent curriculum. The approach used was consistent with the social constructivist approach to science teaching and was clearly conductive to the children's science learning. The study shows that emergent curriculum is a very appropriate approach for science learning.
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ItemThe development of music concepts in the primary school aged child: a Victorian profile( 1999)Music educators are continually striving to find a comprehensive curriculum to adequately cover developments made in music. It could be argued that, at present, Victorian music curriculum places more emphasis on the aesthetics of music education rather than the learning of music concepts. This researcher firmly believes that the concepts of music are the building blocks through which children become better musicians. Researchers, music educators and curriculum designers must understand the way in which concept knowledge develops in children, so that they can use this knowledge in order to create meaningful learning experiences. The aim of this study, therefore, is to find out whether the acquisition of concepts, particularly rhythm, pitch, harmony and melody can be directly related to development in children, specifically primary aged children in State Government schools in Victoria.