Education Commons^™

Teacher Educators’ And Pre-Service Teachers’ Preparedness To Use Ict: A Western Australian Perspective, Huifen Jin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the ongoing development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a wide variety of devices, software and apps are available that could be used in education. As a result, universities and schools are adopting different policies and strategies for integrating these new technologies. As teachers are a key element in the implementation of educational innovation, teacher educators and pre-service teachers need to be confident in using ICT effectively in teaching and learning.

This study proposed to investigate how teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ integration of ICT in their teaching and learning. A mixed methods design, that included both quantitative …

Knowing And Teaching: The Impact Of Teachers’ Knowledge On Students’ Early Literacy Achievement, Janet Hunter

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Children in rural and remote schools typically underperform in measures of literacy achievement (e.g., NAPLAN) from as early as year three. Data collected over time indicate that as children get older, the gap increases between those students who meet the national benchmarks and those who do not. Additionally, Indigenous children are overrepresented in this group of students who are underperforming in measures of literacy achievement. This study seeks to explore the conditions surrounding this phenomenon and to tease out the complexities present in rural and remote contexts that might contribute to this underachievement.

One remote and six remote‐rural schools in …

School Staff Positions On P1 Composite Classes, Elizabeth Stamopoulos

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As a result of a government strategic decision in 1995, a new formation (the PI class) has emerged in Western Australian primary schools and its implementation is now set to accelerate across the state. Unlike multi-age groupings, PI is constructed when there are insufficient numbers of children to run straight pre-primary classes. School staff responsible for developing PI classes have raised a number of concerns. For example, the basis on which PI curriculum is to be built has yet to be promulgated. Also, a formal process for dealing with the ideological differences with respect to pre-primary and primary education has …

Assessing Moral Reasoning Development Through Values Education Within A Western Australian Independent School, Kelvin Fairclough

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The relationship between Values Education and corresponding moral reasoning development has been explored within a group of forty-six year eight students (twelve and thirteen years old). Participants were tested with a Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure instrument to index their moral reasoning stage development (reported as a Moral Maturity Score). Randomly dividing the group into two equal proportions they were assigned to an Experimental or Control group. The Experimental group was presented with Values Education through exposure to age relevant moral dilemmas which envelope a societal value drawn from the Core Shared Values (Curriculum Council of Western Australia, 1998). Within each …

The Continuity Of Literacy Development: Kindergarten To Year 1, Lennie Barblett

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to investigate the continuity of strategies and provisions that teachers use to develop children's literacy in kindergarten and Year 1. In two metropolitan Ministry of Education districts, 27 kindergarten and 25 Year 1 teachers completed a questionnaire concerning issues relating to literacy development in these two educational settings. From this population four teachers were interviewed to investigate areas of interest that arose from the questionnaire. The results showed that kindergarten and Year 1 teachers differed in the selection of strategies and provisions to promote literacy in young children. There was a clear delineation between …

Teaching For Conceptual Change And Conceptual Discrimination With Year 8 Science Students: An Exploratory Study Of The Topic 'Respiration', S. Morgillo

Theses : Honours

Research has shown that despite formal education, secondary and tertiary students hold a host of misconceptions about respiration. This exploratory study investigated whether a four phase conceptual change teaching strategy could overcome conceptual problems typically associated with respiration, in a Year 8 science class from a school in Perth, Western Australia. The strategy consisted of a Conceptual Awareness Phase, an Exposition Phase, a Misconception Awareness Phase and an Application Phase. Two-tier multiple choice test items used in previous studies to identify misconceptions about respiration were also used in this study, together with interviews. The encouraging results suggest that the implemented …

Attitudes Of Year 10 Boys And Girls Towards Coeducational Physical Education In A Metropolitan Senior High School, Teryl Heys

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare student attitudes towards coeducational physical education at a selected metropolitan government secondary school. The study examined differences in attitudes between 66 Year 10 girls and 51 Year 10 boys and ascertained whether this difference was significant. A sub-purpose of the study was to determine physical education teachers' perceptions of student attitudes toward coeducational physical education. This enabled a comparison to be made between the attitudes students expressed and the attitudes teachers perceived students to have. The investigation utilised a 16 item attitudinal questionnaire to establish whether students' attitudes were positive …

The Evaluation Of Writing In Unit Curriculum English, David Sharp

Theses : Honours

The assessment and grading of writing in Unit Curriculum English plays a major role in the determination of a student's summative, and hence, public, letter grade. Through teachers' adherence to the assessment and grading procedures for writing in Unit curriculum English, the Ministry of Education lay claims on comparability and statewide standards. The claim warranted the investigation of the guidelines and procedures used. A review of literature on the evaluation of writing was conducted. In order that local application and relevance be possible, the holistic mode of evaluating writing was focused on. Problems were identified in the research concerning score …

A Survey Of Computer Usage In Year 11 And 12 Accounting In Western Australian Secondary Government Schools, Grazyna Critch

Theses : Honours

Computer technology has changed the process of accounting and as a result computer usage has become an essential skill for the accountant. Consequently, computer applications are advocated in the accounting curriculum, the vocational rationale verified by virtue of the fact that the accounting profession itself is calling for computer training as part of accounting education. Although there is widespread agreement about the need for computer usage within accounting education, there is often a dichotomy between the educational goal and its application in practice. This is because computer usage in accounting is not without problems; while there are many factors which …