Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemPencil or Keyboard? Boys’ Preferences in Writing(Nova Southeastern University, 2020)Handwriting is an important subject in primary schools, especially in the Early Years. The importance of writing skill is now seen as a debate with the increasing demand on children to learn technology skills to help them with 21st Century learning—how to write on the keyboard effectively. The topic is important because handwriting is an essential life skill to have with or without technology. In this study, I looked at the importance of both in the context of the qualitative case studies in three schools in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the research is to explore how do students understand the learning of handwriting and keyboarding in schools? This qualitative case study employed a Thematic Analysis approach in which the central intention was to understand the lived experience of six Year 6 boys across three schools and their attitudes to writing and technology. In this article, I addressed the importance of teaching handwriting to primary school students, especially in the first four years of their school life from Foundation to Year 3. The findings suggest that teachers should continue explicitly teaching handwriting to their students despite the heavy reliance on technology in today’s lifestyle.
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ItemIn Jen’s Shoes – Looking Back to Look Forward: An Autoethnographic Account(Nova Southeastern University, 2019)This paper discusses the monumental events in my life that have shaped my two professional identities, teacher and researcher. I used autoethnography as a research methodology to traverse my personal life narratives across two different countries: Vietnam and Australia to seek and to examine my dual cultural identities, and how they shaped me. I am a passionate teacher who believes that teaching can change the world through the causes that I care about such as anti-racism and equity in education for students from all backgrounds. In this case study, data were collected by semi-structured interview and reflection on journals. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings are reported under four themes that reflected the stages of my life: designed in Vietnam, made in Australia was the first phase, growing up in Australia, my schooling years and professional years. By making sense of the narratives and involved, it helped me to understand myself better, who I am as a teacher and the causes that I believe in. As an Australian with hybrid cultural identities, I am the norm in contemporary culture.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA Critical Review of D’Andrea, F. M. (2012). Preferences and practices among students who read braille and use assistive technology. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 106(10), 585-596(South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (SPEVI), 2015)Utilising research about the educational use of assistive technology by students with vision impairment to access computers (Corn & Wall, 2002: Farnsworth & Luckner, 2008; Fellenius, 1999) and recognising the importance of technology in school and personal life, D’Andrea investigated the current academic use of paper braille and assistive technology among twelve blind, braille-using students aged 16-22 in the United States, and their practice and attitudes regarding such use. Her results suggest a varying nature to how students used a range of high and low tech tools, and how their approaches to completing class work were largely influenced by their personal opinions and experiences of the technologies. The study also demonstrates the importance of students’ choice-making ability regarding the selection of tools and strategies.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableStepping Inside an English Classroom: Investigating the Everyday Experiences of an English Teacher(Taylor and Francis Group, 2018)This essay presents an English teacher’s inquiry into her professional practice in an institutional setting that is heavily regulated by standards-based reforms. Rather than something external to her, she sees those reforms as part of an internal conflict that affects her capacity to be fully responsive to her students. In dialogue with a colleague, she writes stories that reaffirm the deeply relational character of her work, both as an ethically responsive stance and as a means to understand the socially mediated character of her everyday world. She attempts to find alternative ways of seeing and accounting for her work than the reified mentality of standards-based reforms, positing a world that is relational, rather than compartmentalised, where our chief responsibility as teachers is to cultivate a sensitivity towards others around us, rather than continually being compelled to classify and judge them.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableReflection, Evaluation and Metacognition: One Teacher’s Personal Journey(Teacher Learning Network, 2006)
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ItemExploring the Self through Songwriting: An Analysis of Songs Composed by People with Acquired Neurodisability in an Inpatient Rehabilitation Program(Oxford University Press, 2017-03-01)Background: Neurological trauma is associated with significant damage to people’s pre-injury self-concept. Therapeutic songwriting has been linked with changes in self-concept and improved psychological well-being. Objective: This study analyzed the lyrics of songs composed by inpatients with neurological injuries who participated in a targeted songwriting program. The aim of this study was to understand which of the subdomains of the self-concept were the most frequently expressed in songs. Methods: An independent, deductive content analysis of 36 songs composed by 12 adults with spinal cord injury or brain injury (11 males, mean age 41 years +/– 13) were undertaken by authors 1 and 2. Results: Deductive analysis indicated that when writing about the past self, people created songs that reflected a strong focus on family and descriptions of their personality. In contrast, there is a clear preoccupation with the physical self, on the personal self, and a tendency for spiritual and moral reflections to emerge during the active phase of rehabilitation (song about the present self). Statistical analyses confirmed a significant self-concept subdomain by song interaction, F(10, 110) = 5.98, p < .001, ηp2 = .35), which was primarily due to an increased focus on physical self-concept and a reduced focus on family self-concept in the present song, more than in either past or future songs. Conclusions: The analysis process confirmed that songwriting is a vehicle that allows for exploration of self-concept in individuals with neurological impairments. Songwriting may serve as a therapeutic tool to target the most prevalent areas of self-concept challenges for clients undergoing inpatient neurological rehabilitation programs.
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ItemA theoretical framework and therapeutic songwriting protocol to promote integration of self-concept in people with acquired neurological injuries(The Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre, 2016)A positive self-concept after neurological injury is associated with enhanced quality of life and good mental health. Therefore, effective reconstruction of identity is heralded as an important goal of rehabilitation. We have developed and tested a songwriting protocol for people with acquired brain injury and/or spinal cord injury (SCI) that focuses on six domains of self-concept (physical, personal, social, family, academic/work, and moral). Over 12 music therapy sessions, people create three songs that reflect their perception of their past, present, and future selves. The therapeutic process of creating these songs aims to integrate residual components of the past self with that of the present injured self. This article outlines the theoretical foundations for the use of songwriting as a medium for change and describes the protocol in detail. We then present a case study of a man with SCI to illustrate the application of the protocol and the ensuing changes in self-concept.
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ItemPersonal identity narratives of therapeutic songwriting participants following Spinal Cord Injury: A case series analysis(Taylor & Francis, 2018-07-04)Context/Objective: Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients face unique identity challenges associated with physical limitations, higher comorbid depression, increased suicidality and reduced subjective well-being. Post-injury identity is often unaddressed in subacute rehabilitation environments where critical physical and functional rehabilitation goals are prioritized. Therapeutic songwriting has demonstrated prior efficacy in promoting healthy adjustment and as a means of expression for post-injury narratives. The current study sought to examine the identity narratives of therapeutic songwriting participants. Design: Case-series analysis of the individual identity trajectories of eight individuals. Setting: Subacute rehabilitation facility, Victoria, Australia. Participants: Eight individuals with an SCI; 7 males and 1 female. Intervention: Six-week therapeutic songwriting intervention facilitated by a music therapist to promote identity rehabilitation. Outcome Measures: Identity, subjective well-being and distress, emotional state. Results: Three participants demonstrated positive trajectories and a further three showed negative trajectories; remaining participants were ambiguous in their response. Injury severity differentiated those with positive trajectories from those with negative trajectories, with greater injury severity apparent for those showing negative trends. Self-concept also improved more in those with positive trajectories. Core demographic variables did not however meaningfully predict the direction of change in core identity or wellbeing indices. Conclusion: Identity-focused songwriting holds promise as a means of promoting healthy identity reintegration. Further research on benefits for those with less severe spinal injuries is warranted.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA therapeutic songwriting intervention to promote reconstruction of self-concept and enhance well-being following brain or spinal cord injury: pilot randomized controlled trial(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2019-06)OBJECTIVE: To determine the size of the effects and feasibility (recruitment and retention rates) of a therapeutic songwriting protocol for in-patients and community-dwelling people with acquired brain injury or spinal cord injury. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial with songwriting intervention and care-as-usual control groups, in a mixed measures design assessed at three time points. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 47 participants (3 in-patients with acquired brain injury, 20 community participants with acquired brain injury, 12 in-patients with spinal cord injury, and 12 community participants with spinal cord injury: 23 1208 days post injury). INTERVENTIONS: The intervention group received a 12-session identity-targeted songwriting programme, where participants created three songs reflecting on perceptions of past, present, and future self. Control participants received care as usual. MEASURES: Baseline, postintervention, and follow-up measures comprised the Head Injury Semantic Differential Scale (primary outcome measure), Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Satisfaction with Life Scale. RESULTS: No significant between group pre-post intervention differences were found on the primary self-concept measure, the Head Injury Semantic Differential Scale ( p = 0.38, d = 0.44). Significant and large effect sizes from baseline to post between groups in favour of the songwriting group for Satisfaction with Life ( p = 0.04, n2 p = 0.14). There were no significant between group pre-post interaction effects for the Emotion Regulation Suppression subscale ( p = 0.12, n2 p = -0.08) although scores decreased in the songwriting group over time while increasing for the standard care group. There were no significant differences in baseline to follow-up between groups in any other outcome measures. Recruitment was challenging due to the small number of people eligible to participate combined with poor uptake by eligible participants, particularly the in-patient group. Retention rates were higher for the community-dwelling cohorts. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the challenges in recruitment and retention of participants invited to participate in a music therapy study. Findings suggest this identity-focused therapeutic songwriting protocols may be more beneficial for people who have transitioned from in-patient to community-contexts given the greater proportion of participants who consent and complete the intervention. Preliminary effects in favour of the intervention group were detected in a range of well-being measures suggesting that a larger study is warranted.
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ItemExploring self-concept, wellbeing and distress in therapeutic songwriting participants following acquired brain injury: A case series analysis(Taylor & Francis, 2020-02-07)Acquired brain injury (ABI) presents a significant threat to sense of self and necessitates a complex process of psychosocial adjustment. Self-concept changes remain understudied in the early stages of inpatient rehabilitation. The aim of the current study was to examine changes in self-concept, distress, wellbeing and functional skills for five inpatients undertaking a music therapy intervention within a subacute rehabilitation centre in Victoria, Australia. Participants completed a six-week, 12-session therapeutic songwriting programme to produce past-, current- and future-self-focused songs. A range of self-concept, subjective wellbeing and distress measures were completed pre-, mid- and post-intervention. A descriptive case series approach was applied to determine trends in pre-post scores for five individual cases. Participants showing the greatest gains across self-concept and subjective wellbeing indices also showed the greatest functional gains on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) from admission to discharge. The current study highlights the importance of examining early changes in self-concept, wellbeing and distress in subacute rehabilitation, and suggests that individualised songwriting programmes warrant further research attention in neurological populations.