Education Commons^™

Leaving Home: Investigating Transitioning Challenges Faced By Boarding Students And Their Families, Kate Margaret Hadwen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Transitioning to boarding school during the middle years of childhood impacts upon the social, emotional and academic wellbeing of young people (Bramston & Patrick, 2007; Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991; Earls & Carlson, 2001). Students who live at school as boarders, may experience greater transitional changes in all three components of wellbeing due to the extent of change experienced during this transition. While research addressing transitioning to school has indicated the importance of connectedness to school, bonding, friendships and a sense of autonomy (Eccles et al., 1993), there is limited research addressing the transitioning experiences …

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 …

Assessing Western Australian Year 11 Students’ Engagement With Responding In Visual Arts, Julia Elizabeth Morris

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Responding to visual arts is an important outcome of both the Western Australian and the Australian (F-10) Curriculum in Visual Arts (ACARA, 2014; Curriculum Council, 2008; School Standards and Curriculum Authority, 2014a). Responding is important because it facilitates students’ development of visual literacy, or the ability to decode and recode meaning through visual media (Flood, 2004; Flood & Bamford, 2007; Avgerinou & Petterson, 2011). This mixed methods research study investigated Western Australian students’ engagement in responding within Year 11 Stage 2 Visual Arts. A diagnostic instrument was created to quantitatively assess the engagement of 137 Year 11 Visual Arts students. …

Education For Sustainability: An Ethnographic Study Of 15 Year-2/3 Rural Western Australian Children’S Attitudes On Sustainability, Cara Payne

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study occurred in rural Western Australia in 2011, during UNESCO‟s Decade of Education for Sustainability Development, when sustainability became one of three cross-curriculum priorities of the Australian Curriculum. The study involved the development and implementation of a sustainability focused science program embedded in a class of 15 Year-2/3primary participants. The study emphasised a qualitative approach, but also included embedded quantitative data analysis. The aim of the science program focussed on the enhancement of the children‟s attitudes towards sustainability, to equip them with the skills needed to change their behaviours in relation to practicing the principles of sustainability. The …