Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Self-Efficacy: Early Childhood Teachers’ Understanding Of Self-Efficacy, Dimity Franks

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Students are experiencing an increased pressure to perform academically at a younger age with reports of the narrowing of curriculum and student disengagement. Current research literature suggests curricula should reflect the increased pressures students are facing. A focus on the social and emotional skills to support student learning is recommended to increase student engagement and enrichment and prepare students for their future. Self-efficacy is one element of social and emotional learning that demands attention. Self-efficacy is considered important for teachers to understand as it can predict how students approach their tasks as well as influence their levels of motivation and …

The Online Student Experience: An Exploration Of First-Year University Students’ Expectations, Experiences And Outcomes Of Online Education, Melanie Henry

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Online higher education presents a critical opportunity to extend and diversify the student body. The Online Student Experience (OSE), and online student outcomes, however, remain shrouded in ambiguity. The literature presents conflicting reports of online education (OE) quality, confounded by a lack of appreciation for potential differences between online and on-campus education, and a diversity of interpretations for what constitutes OE. The present research conceptualises OE as representing university courses that require students to interact with instructors and course materials via the internet, with no expectation of attending a university campus. A broad student-centred perspective is notably lacking from the …

Managing Organizational Learning Ambidexterity: An Exploratory Study Of Australian Large Service Organizations, Agung N. L. I. Fahrudi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Organizational ambidexterity is about developing necessary organizational capabilities to compete in new and changing markets that enable organizations to survive in the face of dynamic external environments. It is about finding a balance between exploring new knowledge and exploiting existing knowledge or capabilities. The research on ambidexterity has offered different mechanisms for pursuing ambidexterity, and has highlighted the pivotal role of organizations’ senior teams and leadership behaviors in balancing the conflicting demands of exploration and exploitation. Research has also shown that no universal best practices should be sought to resolve the dilemma but instead leaders need to understand the situational …

Managing Learning In The Workplace: A Study Of The Perceptions And Practice Of Local Government Managers, Jenna Rogers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 1995 the Australian Government commissioned the report Enterprising Nation ‘: renewing Australia’s managers to meet the challenges of the Asia-Pacific century (Karpin, 1995), which emphasised the change that was necessary in Australian business to remain competitive in the global and growing economy. The development of flexible organisational cultures, where managers increasingly displayed leadership and developed their staff to generate innovative cultures, was a central premise of the Karpin Report Task Force’s vision. Twenty years later, this study explored the extent to which managers have moved from being ‘cops to coaches’ and integrated the facilitation of employee learning within …

Manager Learning In The Micro Business Context : The Role Of External Business Advice, Training Providers And Close Others, Jennifer Devine

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Small business has often been referred to as the “engine driving the economy”. This description highlights the significance of small business to the economy of most countries. But what about the smallest of these organisations; those businesses with fewer than five employees? These businesses, termed micro businesses, form a large part of our economy and are sometimes the starting point for larger business and sometimes provide a long term, alternate business structure. This type of business has special needs and characteristics and is often neglected in the management literature. The nature and diversity of these businesses prompted an interest in …

Promoting Metacognitive Regulation Through An On-Line Environment, Mark Mcmahon

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The constantly evolving world of work is causing a great deal of emphasis on the need for graduating students to demonstrate a range of generic skills to enable them to be both employable and able to adapt easily to new requirements. However, research indicates that secondary schooling is not preparing students adequately for learning independently.

This study sought to explore strategies for developing and supporting the metacognitive skills of higher education students. In particular, it sought to explore how university students' cognitive self-regulation could be supported in an on-line environment designed to engage them in the self-monitoring integral to metacognitive …

Familiarity With Task And Its Effect On The Way Children Negotiate For Meaning, And Provide And Use Implicit Negative Feedback, Alec P. Kanganas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research involves an examination of the effects that familiarity with a task may have on the way young ESL children negotiate for meaning, and provide and use implicit negative feedback to each other. The focus of this research is the interactions that occur between pairs of young primary school children between the ages of 7.0 to 8.6 years. Two studies were carried out. The first study investigated the effect of familiarity with a type of task, whilst the second examined the effects of familiarity with the content (or subject domain). A stratified random sampling procedure was used to select …

Thoughts And Feelings Of A Beginning Tertiary Group Of Adult Learners In A Human Resource Development Course, Bryan W. Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is a study of a case of adults entering tertiary study for the first time, and their mental life concerning their own self-performance, constructed across four instances. The purposes of the study were to identify some characteristics of the four participants’ covert behaviour during their learning in a course on Human Resource Development (1-IRD), to gain some insight into the conception of self-performance held by the participants and the attributions of this self-performance, to examine the approaches to learning held by each participant, and to contribute to closing the gap between adult education and educational psychology. Three consecutive three-hour …

Teaching And Learning In Higher Education : Nurturing Critical Reflection For Bridging Theory/Practice Links : A Case Study In Social Work Education, Gary Keith Ovington

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The 1990s has witnessed two 'institutions' in 'crisis': higher education and social work. In higher education. government has brandished its quality sword and the long-neglected area of teaching is prominent in the war cry. In social work, major stakeholders have constructed the crisis as the 'theory/practice problematic' and the systemic intervention has been the prima facie increasing power of non-academic bodies to shape social work curriculum. This study is set within this context of quality teaching and theory/practice issues. It is an action research study of the teaching and learning dynamic of a first year social work subject which seeks …

The Experience Of Flow And Learning By Designing Interactive Multimedia Software, Leonie Ramondt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As computer technology is increasingly adopted in education, some students continue to have little context for its use. This is particularly true of tertiary drama education students, of whom many still remain computer illiterate. Constructivist pedagogy proposes that a learner constructs knowledge through active participation in their learning. An approach that is gaining currency which applies this principle is learning by designing. This approach was adopted for this study, with the premise that the process of designing multimedia software for their peers would not only motivate these students to use computers but could also lead to a deepening of their …