Education Commons^™

Recovering Knowledge For Science Education Research: Exploring The "Icarus Effect" In Student Work, Helen Georgiou, Karl A. Maton, Manjula Sharma

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Science education research has built a strong body of work on students' understandings but largely overlooked the nature of science knowledge itself. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a rapidly growing approach to education, offers a way of analyzing the organizing principles of knowledge practices and their effects on science education. This article focuses on one specific concept from LCT-semantic gravity-that conceptualizes differences in context dependence. The article uses this concept to qualitatively analyze tertiary student responses to a thermal physics question. One result, that legitimate answers must reside within a specific range of context dependence, illustrates how a focus on the …

Conceptualising Technology Use As Social Practice To Research Student Experiences Of Technology In Higher Education, Sue Bennett

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the importance of sociological approaches to educational technology research which can make new advances in the field that complement the existing research base. Such research can address questions of how individuals use technology across different spheres of their lives, including education, and asks what role technology plays in educational institutions and how it interacts academic practices. Research of this kind can tells us much about how we might adopt and adapt technologies from outside education to support teaching and learning. By conceptualising technology use as social practice, rather than as attributes …

Self-Determination Theory And Teacher Instruction: A Positive Partnership For Student Performance And Involvement, Dana Perlman

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of distinct motivationally-based instructional approaches on student's game performance and involvement. 78 secondary physical education students were taught a unit of volleyball using one in either an autonomy-supportive, controlling or balanced instructional style. Using a pretest and posttest design, students were measured on their game performance and involvement during 20-minute game of volleyball. Data analysis indicated that students engaged in the autonomy-supportive context illustrated significantly higher levels of performance and involvement when compared with the other groups.

Listening To Student Voice: An Evaluation Of Wooglemai Environmental Education Centre’S Youth Environmental Network Eco-Leadership Camp, Peter Andersen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The staff members from the Department of Education and Communities Wooglemai Environmental Educational Centre (WEEC) have hosted an annual residential eco-leadership camp for secondary students since 2011. The name of the camp is ‘Youth Environmental Network Eco-Leadership Camp’ (YEN). The participants have primarily been Year 7 to 10 students from New South Wales government schools. There would normally be thirty students (male and female) attending the YEN, with the duration of the camp being four days and three nights.

The purpose of the YEN camp is to provide an opportunity for students to air their concerns about the state of …

Transitions And Turning Points: How First In Female Students Story Their Transition To University And Student Identity Formation, Sarah Elizabeth O'Shea

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this article is to explore how one group of students reflect upon their transition into the higher education environment. This qualitative research project followed one group of female undergraduate students as they moved through the first year of study. All of the participants were the first in their family to consider further education and each participated in four semi-structured interviews over one year. Drawing on the conceptual lens of 'turning points', the intent is to provide a 'close-up' analysis of the complex process of identity formation within the university landscape. By revisiting the students at various points …