Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableLiterary Conversations: An Australian Classroom(Sense Publisher, 2011)This essay arises from an ongoing discussion about the teaching of Literature which followed after a 'critical friend', Bella Illesca spent a series of consecutive lessons observing the action in Prue Gill's Year 12 Literature class. By examining, interpreting and exploring the events of the classroom as students discussed the short stories of contemporary Australian writer, Beverley Farmer, we were lead to articulate our aims with teachers, our puzzles and our concerns in ways that helped each of us think afresh about teaching.
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ItemSame admissions tools, different outcomes: a critical perspective on predictive validity in three undergraduate medical schools(BMC, 2013-12-27)BACKGROUND: Admission to medical school is one of the most highly competitive entry points in higher education. Considerable investment is made by universities to develop selection processes that aim to identify the most appropriate candidates for their medical programs. This paper explores data from three undergraduate medical schools to offer a critical perspective of predictive validity in medical admissions. METHODS: This study examined 650 undergraduate medical students from three Australian universities as they progressed through the initial years of medical school (accounting for approximately 25 per cent of all commencing undergraduate medical students in Australia in 2006 and 2007). Admissions criteria (aptitude test score based on UMAT, school result and interview score) were correlated with GPA over four years of study. Standard regression of each of the three admissions variables on GPA, for each institution at each year level was also conducted. RESULTS: Overall, the data found positive correlations between performance in medical school, school achievement and UMAT, but not interview. However, there were substantial differences between schools, across year levels, and within sections of UMAT exposed. Despite this, each admission variable was shown to add towards explaining course performance, net of other variables. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest the strength of multiple admissions tools in predicting outcomes of medical students. However, they also highlight the large differences in outcomes achieved by different schools, thus emphasising the pitfalls of generalising results from predictive validity studies without recognising the diverse ways in which they are designed and the variation in the institutional contexts in which they are administered. The assumption that high-positive correlations are desirable (or even expected) in these studies is also problematised.
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ItemAbstracting by Constructing and Revising a 'Partially Correct Construct': A Case Study(Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 2010)This study draws on data from a broader video-stimulated interview study of the role of optimism in collaborative problem solving. It examines the activity of a Grade 5 student, Tom, whose initial constructing activity resulted in a ‘Partially Correct Construct’. Insistent questioning from another group member pressuring for clarification led to Tom developing a ‘more correct construct’ with further potential for revision. This paper raises questions about influences that can stimulate or inhibit construct refinement.
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ItemSymbiosis between creative mathematical thinking accompanied by high positive affect, and optimism(The International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME), 2010-01-01)Video-stimulated post-lesson interviews captured changes in a Grade 5 elementary school student, Tom's, orientation to problem solving. Whilst participating in small group problem solving including reports to the class ('Engaged to Learn' pedagogy), Tom changed from self-focused (Task 1), to group focused (Task 2), and taskfocused (Task 3). He experienced surprise as complexities became apparent in what had appeared to be simple (Task 2), and displayed positive affect during his creative thinking leading to insight (Task 3). Consistent with Seligman's (1995) findings, 'flow' (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992), a state of high positive affect accompanying creative activity was associated with optimism building. Instead of needing to be valued by others to feel successfol, Tom began to internalise his successes as attributes of self.
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ItemParticipant perspectives of 'Engaged to Learn Pedagogy': does theory match practice?(The International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME), 2012-01-01)
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ItemAssociations between the ontogenesis of confidence and inclination to explore unfamiliar mathematical problems(IPN, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, 2013)This video-stimulated post-lesson interview study of students displaying confidence in mathematics examines the nature of confidence theoretically by linking it to Seligman’s (1995) indicators of optimism. It also explores the activity of confident students empirically; examining their inclination to explore unfamiliar challenging mathematics problems. Findings include associations between student inclination to explore challenging mathematics problems, and the ontogenesis of their confidence. These findings have implications for the teaching of mathematics: ‘a transmissive teaching approach’ was associated with an absence of the inclination to explore.
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ItemHigh Performance, Confidence, and Disinclination to Explore: A case study(MERGA, 2013)This video-stimulated interview study of problem-solving activity of a high performing Grade 6 girl who displayed confidence in her mathematical ability, provides a microanalysis of tensions she encountered when her findings using concrete aides did not match her rule application. It highlights her disinclination to explore these inconsistencies. This study points to the problematic nature of pedagogical approaches that develop only instrumental understandings and emphasises the need to explicitly value what policies promote; creative and innovative thinking.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableBuilding Optimism in Prospective Mathematics Teachers(Springer US, 2011)This three-task sequence, which interconnects congruency, similarity, geometric constructions, and deductive proof, can be accessed by prospective mathematics teachers possessing limited understanding of these topics. Creative thinking is stimulated during work within this sequence: experimenting, recognizing relevant mathematics from earlier in the sequence to progress this experimenting, and connecting mathematical understandings. This chapter focuses on how the implementation of this complex task sequence provided opportunities for successes that theory suggests should contribute to developing psychological factors to increase future teachers’ ability to think flexibly when encountering mathematical and pedagogical challenges.
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ItemHigh Mathematical Performance on Class Tests Is Not A Predictor of Problem-Solving Ability: Why?(The Mathematical Association of Victoria, 2012)
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ItemProblem-Solving: 'Same Pace Of Thinking' Groups(The Mathematical Association of Victoria, 2012)