Digital Commons Network^™

The Arts As Strategy Or The Arts As Process? : A Comparison Of Two Learning Approaches In Religious Education In The Catholic Primary School, S. L. Desker

Theses : Honours

This study examined differences in understanding of Christian values between two groups of children experiencing two different learning approaches in religious education in the Catholic primary school. One learning approach used the arts as strategy. In it children expressed themselves discursively through worksheet activities: colouring in pre-designed pictures and completing written sentences, paragraphs or crossword puzzles. The other approach was learning through the arts as process. In this approach children expressed themselves non-discursively through their creative products: paintings, play dough modelling and construction scenarios. Each group comprised 30 subjects who were in Year 5, and whose ages ranged from 9 …

Reading "Academic Writing", Mary Scott

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Helping studetns learn how to learn is now a concern for most U.K. institutions of higher education. The study skill given most emphasis is "academic writing", no doubt because it is on the quality of their written assignments that students' success or failure larely turns.

Teacher Education For Values Education : Is There A Way Forward Under Current Constraints?, Graham Haydon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

How can teacher education best prepare teachers to contribute to values education in schools? If this was ever a question that could be asked and answered in the abstract, or with reference to some postulated ideal situation, it is not so now. I am raising and suggesting an answer to the question in the context of recent developments in education in Britain; but since those recent developments are by no means unique to Britain, the discussion may well be of broader relevance too. The context, then, in which I am raising the question is one of increasing political control, at …

Evans, G. (Ed.) Learning And Teaching Cognitive Skills; And, Biggs. J. (Ed.) Teaching For Learning: The View From Cognitive Psychology., Denise Kirkpatrick

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Evans, G. (Ed.) Learning and teaching cognitive skills. ACER, Melbourne, 1991. Biggs, J. (Ed.) Teaching for leaming: the view from cognitive psychology. ACER, Melbourne, 1991.

Selected Professions Observed : Competency-Based Standards And Their Implications For The Teachmg Profession, Leo Bartlett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The emphasis on competency-based standards approaches to reform in teaching is the single most significant trend current in Australian education and in the professions generally today. Pressure for reform has come from industry, and government, and to a significantly lesser extent from the professions and parents. While there have been some reservations expressed about CBS among some sections of the Commonwealth bureaucracy in recent months, the idea of competency-based standards remains the overarching schema for micro-economic reform. The dominant press for reform can be attributed to federal (and state) interests and the policy-makers who for largely economic or rationalist reasons. …

Critical Thinking In Teacher Education: A Process-Oriented Research Agenda, Paul Hager, Michael Kaye

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In recent years, critical thinking has become a central focus of education, especially in North America. Within this focus, there has been a major debate regarding the generalisability of specificity of critical thinking. The main issue in this connection appears to have been whether critical thinking needs to be closely linked with traditional disciplines. If critical thinking is really as vital as its proponents maintain, then it will also be important in applied fields such as teacher education. It is our intention in this paper to explore the implications, for teacher education, of taking critical thinking seriously.

Never Mind The Edu, What About The Cate? The Background To Current Developments In English Teacher Education, Tony Becher

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

If anyone were misguided enough to offer a prize for the sector of English education most subject to government intervention, the institutions concerned with initial teacher training would win it hands down. The intervention (a less polite word would be interference) has, over time, taken three main forms: alterations to the structure and organisation of provision; attempts to match student numbers to subsequent demand; and control over curricular content. This paper is an attempt to take a relatively longterm view of relevant developments, setting the present situation in its historical context. It will thus necessarily adopt a broad-brush rather than …

Contextualizing The Competency-Based Schooling, Victor V. Soucek

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

To a classroom teacher the current debate about work-related competencies might appear far removed from his/her classroom and have no significance for teacher education. Yet the proposed policy changes are likely to affect the work and the professional status of teachers in a very direct way. As Whitty and Willmott (1991: 312) point out, one of the fundamental problems of competency-based teaching/training (CBT) approach consists in the difficulty to define just how narrow or broad the competencies might be. A too narrow definition based on observable work-related skills might indicate a radical departure from the traditional role teachers played in …

Bridges To Opportunity : An Investigation Into The Access Of Disadvantaged People In Rural Areas To Post Secondary Education In Western Australia, Margaret Mcgrath, Toby Metcalfe

Research outputs pre 2011

This report was commissioned by the Institute of Applied Language Studies of the Edith Cowan University in April 1991. Funds had been made available to Edith Cowan by the Department of Employment Education and Training for the 1991 academic year to survey the access to higher education of disadvantaged people in rural areas of Western Australia. Funds were also available to provide for a pilot Bridging Program for disadvantaged persons to enable their entry to courses at post secondary education level.

The Role And The Experiences Of The Sports Team Captain, Michelle Nelson

Theses : Honours

The role of the sports team captain is often underestimated in terms of the responsibility involved, the essential attributes and knowledge required. The qualities and expertise of the captain can potentially have a great effect on the performance of the team. To date there has been very little research conducted on the role and experiences of the sports team captain. The purpose of this study is to outline the role and the experiences of the sports team captain, with particular emphasis on the responsibilities, the influencing factors and the power of the captain. Ten former or current captains of state …

Youth Worker Perceptions Of Abused Young Women, Suzie Omelczuk

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Youth workers across Australia are coming into contact with young women who have been abused. However, the nature of that contact, and the ways in which youth workers are responding to these young women is not known. The aim of this study is to determine how youth workers in the metropolitan area of Perth perceive and act upon issues of abuse faced by the young women using their services. The study draws upon literature dealing with issues of abuse facing children and young people. Within the study issues such as problems arising from trying to define abuse are examined, as …

The Effects Of Combining Direct Instruction, Metacognitive Instruction And Co-Operative Learning Strategies To Teaching Summarizing To Year 6 Students, D. A. Bergin

Theses : Honours

Summarizing is one of several study skills students are asked to do as evidence of their ability to learn from texts and it is one which students find difficult. Research suggests that part of the difficulty students experience with summarizing is due to the lack of instruction students received in summary writing and the quality of that instruction. Therefore the purpose of this study was to design an instructional procedure for teaching summary writing to primary school students and to investigate the; effects this form of instruction had on students' summaries. This study involved pre-testing, instruction in summarizing, followed by …

Secondary Non-Art Teachers' Perceptions Of Characteristics Of An Effective Art Teacher, Christine M. Morton-Lo

Theses : Honours

Since 1986, the offering of art in secondary schools as a Tertiary Entrance Examination subject has secured its position as a school subject. However, there is increasing pressure on art and on other subjects offered in secondary schools in Western Australia, to demonstrate a contribution to Australia's social, economic and cultural priorities. In an increasingly competitive educational environment, all subjects need to negotiate viable positions as courses of study. As a result of the implementation of the Better Schools Report 1987, school-based decision-making groups have been established to assume responsibility for matters which had previously been the concern of a …

The Measurement Of Knowledge, Attitudes And Knowledge-Seeking Behaviours Of Women In Relation To The Menopause And Health Related Issues, Amanda Devine

Theses : Honours

Research suggests that women are not well informed about the health related issues which are associated with the menopause. The purpose of this study was to determine women's: current knowledge of the menopause and of the disease osteoporosis; attitudes to estrogen replacement therapy (ERT); frequency of menopausal symptoms; knowledge-seeking behaviours In relation to the menopause; and, open-ended responses to menopausal issues. This study surveyed 70 women who responded to an advertisement in Community Newspapers. Data were collected using a "Knowledge and attitudes to the menopause and health related issues" (KAMHRI) questionnaire. The KAMHRI questionnaire was developed by the researcher and …

Tied To Tradition: The Silenced Rage Of The African Woman In Selected Novels Of Buchi Emechata, Marie Giselle Martine Raphael

Theses : Honours

In addressing the myths of past and present social and familial structures and hierarchies. Post-Colonial Literatures are forced to confront complex assertions of identity, evolved through an inheritance shaped by both traditional and foreign influence. In a study of Buchi Emecheta' s novels, The Slave Girl, The Joys of Motherhood and Second Class Citizen, a tension is thus seen to emerge within the African heroine, between “her communally bred sense of herself as an African, and her feminist aspirations for autonomy and self-realization as a woman" (Frank, 1987, 45). Though the female protagonists of these narratives are placed within different …

Someone's Daughter, Someone's Worker, Someone's Girlfriend, Someone's Wife: Young Women And Multiple Transitions, Jennie Buchanan

Theses : Honours

Although obviously involved in the life of their communities, young women have been largely overlooked in youth studies specifically and sociological research in general. Where young women are mentioned in the literature they are discussed using theories and frameworks designed to explain young men's position. It is assumed within these studies that somehow one's gender has little impact on their social situation. Clearly traditional theoretical approaches to the study of youth do not take into account the multiple transitions experienced by young women. This thesis sets out to question existing literature in youth studies. The notion that youth is a …

Prose Fiction Preferences Of Lower Secondary Urban Aboriginal Boys, Stephen James White

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prose fiction preferences of lower secondary urban Aboriginal boys. The Likert scale scores from the 2 x 4 factorial design were analysed using an ANOVA test of significance. It was found that the research group significantly preferred action genres to non-action genres, Aboriginal characterisations to white Australian characterisations, and contemporary story extracts to traditional story extracts.

The A.D.E. Taxonomy Of Spreadsheet Application Development, Maria Jean Hall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Spreadsheets are a major application in end-user computing, one of the fastest growing areas of computing. Studies have shown that 30% of spreadsheet applications contain errors. As major decisions are often made with the assistance of spreadsheets, the control of spreadsheet applications is a matter of concern to enduser developers, managers, EDP auditors and computer professionals.

The application of appropriate controls to the spreadsheet development process requires prior categorisation of the spreadsheet application. The special-purpose A.D.E. (Application, Development, Environment) taxonomy of spreadsheet application development was evolved by mathematical taxonomic methods to categorise spreadsheet development projects to facilitate their management and …

A Study Of The Methodologies Currently Available For The Maintenance Of The Knowledge-Base In An Expert System, Kai Teh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research studies currently available maintenance methodologies for expert system knowledge bases and taxonomically classifies them according to the functions they perform. The classification falls into two broad categories. These are: (1) Methodologies for building a more maintainable expert system knowledge base. This section covers techniques applicable to the development phases. Software engineering approaches as well as other approaches are discussed. (2) Methodologies for maintaining an existing knowledge base. This section is concerned with the continued maintenance of an existing knowledge base. It is divided into three subsections. The first subsection discusses tools and techniques which aid the understanding of …

The Effects Of Participation In A Socio-Psychoeducational Resource Centre Programme On The School Behaviour Of Primary School Boys With Behavioural And Emotional Problems, Lynn E. Priddis

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined the relationship between child and family factors, treatment approaches, and behavioural outcomes in a socio-psychoeducational resource centre for children with behavioural and emotional problems. Twenty four boys aged between five and twelve years on entrance to the centre were rated on “A Children's Behaviour Questionnaire for Completion by Teachers - Child Scale B” (Rutter, 1967). Data was also collected on the following variables: reading achievement, intelligence, problem severity, problem type, family disturbance, family involvement, and child living situation. On the basis of the type of problem the boys presented with they were selected for an additional therapy …

An Exploration Of Work Dimensions In The Western Australian Public Service: A Factor Analysis Of Job Skills And Their Contexts, Don Pugh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The dimensions underlying the structure of work in the Western Australian Public sector were analysed and compared with the structure of work as ascertained by Functional Job Analysis and the Position Analysis Questionnaire. A questionnaire was developed by the Skills Resource Management Unit to determine the importance attached to work skills in a variety of public sector occupations. One hundred and ninety four subjects of mixed gender were randomly selected from public sector agencies and were surveyed through workshops. Results were subjected to exploratory factor analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis then investigated the fit of the data to the following contradictory …

Performance Attributes Of Talented Schoolboy Australian Rules Football Players, Philip R. Badock

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between selected psychological characteristics and performance of a group of talented young Australian Rules football players. The study group consisted of 50 of the best identified schoolboy 15 year old Australian Rules football players in Western Australia. From this group 25 boys were selected to represent Western Australia at the Australian School Sports Council National Football Championships. The selected psychological characteristics were competitive anxiety (trait and state), competitive sport orientation (competitiveness, win and goal orientation) and sport confidence (trait and state). Performance was measured, first, by the selection or non …

Reasons For The Underrepresentation Of Females At Head Of Department Level In Physical Education In Government Secondary Schools In Western Australia: Perceptions Of Female Physical Education Teachers, Regina D. Bloot

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study focuses on reasons why so few females hold Head of Department positions in physical education in government secondary schools in Western Australia. Despite the almost equitable proportion of females and males teaching the subject, and the absence of Ministry of Education policy constraints on female promotion since 1972, females remain grossly underrepresented in leadership roles. In 1991, women held only five (7%) of the 70 substantive Head of Department appointments. Individual indepth interviews were used as the means of data collection to document female teachers' own accounts of their lives, career aspirations, and what they perceived to be …

A Case Study Of Two Year Six Classes Involved In A Health-Related Fitness Intervention, Andrew T. Medland

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Children are not as active as they may appear and they do not voluntarily engage in moderate to high intensity activity as commonly perceived by the general public. With coronary heart disease risk factors now found to have origins in childhood there is a real need for children to adopt lifestyles that will produce healthier adults. In Perth the Western Australian Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition project (WASPAN) has been implemented, as a Year 6 intervention, addressing the problems of poor nutritional habits and low activity levels. The focus of this case-study was to describe the physical activity component of …

Are You Being Served? : Research In The Human Service, Roderic Underwood

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

Phonological Profile For The Hearing Impaired : Manual, Iris Vardi

Research outputs pre 2011

Anyone who deals with the speech of the hearing impaired is only too well aware of the wide range of speech problems that can present. Many of these problems have been thoroughly researched and documented. Toni Gold (1980), detailed the following characteristics of hearing impaired speech as revealed by the literature to that date:

(l) intelligibility problems;

(2) consonant errors relating to voicing, consonant omissions, position of consonant error in word, difficulties with consonant blends, effects of place of articulation;

(3) vowel and diphthong errors;

(4) suprasegmental errors including problems with rate, increased duration of phonemes, timing, pausing; and

(5) …

The Four Doors Of Islam, Annalisa Orselli-Dickson

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper - written after a visit in 1987 to the Turkish headquarters of the Jerrahiya, one of the Sufic brotherhoods of Islam - wishes to illustrate in a symbolic form one of the main aspects of this spiritual way representing a classical Sufic formulation of the path to God which is doctrinally and methodologically based on the integration of four levels of truth within the single unifying truth of the key formula "La ilaha illa Ilah".

In view of the subtlelty of the esoteric subject it deals with, the gnostic apprehension, which traditionally is recognised to be an activity …

Doubling, Splitting And Fragmentation In Bleak House, Mary Cleopatra Lloyd Da Silva

Theses : Honours

This thesis draws mainly on psychoanalytic theories, and explicates the doubling leitmotiv in Bleak House (1971), which portrays Victorian personality as split and its society as fragmented. This is seen as a suggestion of Dickens' conception of human identity as fragile and vulnerable. Each autonomous character represents a single aspect of personality, so that conflict, when it occurs, is in fact intra-psychic, rather than inter-psychic. The study investigates the problem of the dual or split personality via the quest for identity, and addresses Dickens' perceived need to reward self-effacing characters and punish the assertive. It explores the psychological ramifications of …

The Flexible Organization Design: Advantages And Pitfalls, Chris Du Boulay

Research outputs pre 2011

Organization design, mission statements and management strategy are not often given the emphasis they deserve within the human service sector. These issues are given a great deal of emphasis within the mainstream commercial sector.

In the minds of many human service boards of management these issues are seen as secondary, behind the primary aim of assisting clients. While this priority is commendable, the secondary issues are rarely addressed sufficiently. The result is that the organization loses direction and fails to remain abreast of the changing demands of the client population.

Parent Indicators Of Quality Care In Out Of School Hours Care In Western Australia, Vicki Banham, Allison Picton-King

Research outputs pre 2011

An Investigation into the identification of indicators of quality care for outside school hours was undertaken.

Data was derived from a survey of 252 parents with children currently attending after school care in W.A., and compared with the indicators of quality developed by the Joint Review of the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Commonwealth Public Service Board on Outside School Hours Care, Vacation Care and Adventure Playgrounds. Although parents identified specific indicators of quality care, the findings were consistent with those of the Review.

Comparing these findings with the extensive current research on pre-school care indicators of quality, suggested …