Digital Commons Network^™

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Patient's Experience Of The External Application Of Ginger, Tessa C. Therkleson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This Research Study explores the quality of the experience for the patient of the external application of ginger using a Husserllan phenomenological methodology, In this Study the phenomenon Is the patient's experience of the external application of ginger. A group of Anthroposophical Nurses in the Hawkes Bay of New Zealand personally selected seven appropriate consenting adults to receive one external application of ginger. Following their experience, the patients were asked a series of open-ended questions by the researcher, These Interviews were audio taped. The interview data have been transcribed and reduced to themes that have been explored and reflected on …

Fall Risk Assessment : A Prospective Investigation Of Nurses' Clinical Judgement And Risk Assessment Tools In Predicting Patient Falls In An Acute Care Setting, Helen Myers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Falls are a significant problem in acute care, hospital settings, and can have serious consequences, especially for older patients. Fall prevention has therefore been recognised as an important area for research and intervention. In order to target interventions and use resources effectively, a major strategy of many fall prevention programmes has been the development and/or use of risk assessment tools to identify patients who are at high risk of falling. Although many tools have been developed, few have been rigorously tested, and there is currently no evidence to support the clinical utility of fall risk assessment tools. There is a …

Un Voyage Vers Une Photographie Feminine: The Gender Politics Of Body And Space, Panizza Ruth Allmark

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 1999 I embarked on a photographic journey to various cities around the world. The photographs produced are the results of my critical attention as a woman and a feminist to the issues concerning gender, travel and landscape aesthetics. This dissertation is an analysis of my documentary photographs. I am interested in ways in which my photographs correspond with the French feminist theories of Helene Cixous and Lucy Irigaray on ecriture feminine. Their work on the politics of the body has been influential in my journey towards a photographie feminine. 'Moreover, I also incorporate the feminist work of …

The Experiences Of International Students At An Australian University: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, Andrea Halse

Theses : Honours

The number of international students studying in Australia has steadily increased over the last ten years providing many benefits both to the country and Australian universities. However, little is known about the transition experiences of these students and there has been little acknowledgment of the issues facing students adjusting to a new environment and learning context. Typical issues that international students encounter include; language difficulties, homesickness, culture shock, lack of background knowledge and skills, housing difficulties, developing new social relationships and adapting to their new environment. Much of the research has been in the form of questionnaires and surveys focusing …

Seeing Beyond The Habitus - On Action, Art And Healing, Tarquam Mckenna

'INSCAPE' - ARTCAP November 13-16, 2003

This paper is written as a conversation had at the ARTCAP Symposium in Perth 2003. It was a conversation that alluded to the imaginal realm and action art therapy as a way into understanding. It is offered as a spoken comment to bring voice to the reader. The format of the paper is such that the reader is encouraged to see it as a series of statements that are a conversation between a group of people. The paper begs questions which are still unanswered.

Walking,Writing, Improvising - Conscious-Unconscious, Kellerberring-Busselton, Mark Minchinton

'INSCAPE' - ARTCAP November 13-16, 2003

No abstract provided.

The Experiences Of Mothers Studying At University Who Have Pre-School Aged Children, Alison Welsh

Theses : Honours

This study of three women's experiences ·with studying at university whilst bearing the responsibilities of family and work, investigated the unique situations and problems that these mothers encountered. A qualitative research approach was utilised, using a narrative inquiry method to give voice to the student mothers, which has proved to be lacking in academic research. In addition to an auto-ethnographic case study, two case studies were formulated by conducting conversational interviews with two other student mothers. Common themes were identified and discussed, with reference to the literature. The findings of this study suggested that the experiences of mothers studying at …

A University Wide Smart Card System, Philip Cummins

Theses : Honours

Presently, many tertiary educational institutions utilise card technologies for staff and student identification and the support of other related services within the institution. A new type of card technology has been developed known as a Smart Card, where an existing plastic card has an embedded integrated circuit and is capable of expanding the range of applications and services capable within an institution. This thesis will detail the advantages that these new Smart Cards have over existing institution cards, detail other institution's attempts to use Smart Cards and finally, this thesis proposes a suitable system for integrating Smart Cards into an …

Teacher Development Through Action Research : A Case Study In Focused Action Research., Gillian Perrett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

'Focused action research' was employed in a teacher inservice program which sought to develop a fusion between trainer-centred input and teacher-centred action research. The areas of input to teachers were learning strategies, thinking skills, questioning skills and the teaching of study skills. During the four months of this action research project of the teacher educators, teachers experienced two cycles of action research, one investigating their students' learning strategies and the second implementing a plan to improve some aspect of their students' learning - such as summary writing, remedial reading, hotseating, introducing group work, vocabulary-learning techniques - and wrote reports on …

'Being A Teacher' : Developing Teacher Identity And Enhancing Practice Through Metacognitive And Reflective Learning Processes., Anne Graham, Renata Phelps

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The discourse of reflection is now firmly embedded in a range of teacher education programs in Australia and overseas. Reflective frameworks have been used by teacher educators to offset the perennial emphasis on technically prescriptive interpretations of ‘being a teacher’. Whilst these undoubtedly contribute to the personal ‘meaning making’ of neophyte teachers, particularly in relation to practical classroom experiences, there remains significant scope to integrate a more concerted reflective approach throughout other elements of the teacher education endeavour. When the language of reflection is applied only in a cursory or superficial way in the teacher education context the opportunity to …

Questions : Help Or Hindrance? Teachers' Use Of Questions With Indigenous Children With Conductive Hearing Loss., Ann Galloway

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The development of oral language skills is an important foundation for written literacy for all children. However, where children have conductive hearing loss and consequent language impairment, the development of good oral language skills, especially those that underlie written literacy, becomes even more important. This paper discusses the use of questions during literacy focus lessons by three teachers of Indigenous students, and the way in which their use of questions serves to support or inhibit children’s opportunities to participate in classroom interaction. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the implications of the findings for teacher education.

Why Indigenous Issues Are An Essential Component Of Teacher Education Programs, Gary Partington

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The extensive failure of Indigenous students in school, particularly during adolescence, is a shameful characteristic of Australian education. Students who have most to gain from a successful school experience are the most likely to leave school with minimal skills and qualifications. The situation has shown little improvement over 30 years, as evidenced by the repetitious nature of articles in, for example, The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. Government inquiries into Indigenous education, especially those addressing issues such as attendance (Bourke, Rigby & Burden, 2000), identity (Purdy, Tripcony, Boulton-Lewis, Fanshawe & Gunstone, 2000) and achievement (Department of Education, Training and Youth …

An Exploration Of The Influence Of The Acculturation Process On An Artist's Practice And The Implications For Education, Julie Brewin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This Creative Arts Project investigates the relationship between expression in the visual arts and the process of acculturation. The focus of the study is my personal negotiation of this process. The descriptive study is about engagement with the organic world and its past and present dialogues within the ongoing process of acculturation. I have explored the connection between nature, culture and art using a phenomenological research method. The propositions that we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are (Talmud), and that as visual artists we are the 'architects of our own experience', (Eisner, 2001) …

The Intergenerational Transmission Of Violence? : The Self-Report Of Physical Abuse In Childhood Among Violent And Non-Violent Offenders, John Dockerill

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined the parental disciplinary history of male offenders to explore the relationship between report of childhood physical abuse and subsequent violent offending, based on the concept of intergenerational transmission of violence. The study also examined the relationship between reports of childhood physical abuse and juvenile delinquency together with an examination of the links between physical abuse and anger. Finally, this study explored the relationship between witnessing aggression to other family members and the motivation for subsequent violent offending (hostile motivated versus instrumentally motivated). Social learning theory provided the theoretical basis for this research. The underlying premise is that …

Covert Violence In Nursing, Susette Bakker

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There is no official avenue in nursing for the reporting of incidences of covert violence to staff and so they remain unrecorded and often stressful. This study sought to collect data from currently employed nurses concerning covert violence in their workplace, and to collate the information to obtain a valid assessment of this hidden problem. A qualitative methodology was used to report on the experiences of nurses in relation to covert violence directed at them by their peers, other health professionals, patients and patients' families. The participants were all registered nurses employed by a suburban health service. Each was given …

Voluntary Disclosure Of Segment Information In A Regulated Environment : Australian Evidence, Mui Ching Chan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an empirical examination of the relationship between six firm characteristics, namely: firm size, industry membership, minority interest, financial leverage, firm diversification, ownership diffusion, and voluntary disclosure of segment information in a regulated environment. This study provides empirical evidence that there are incentives for Australian companies with specific firm characteristics to voluntarily disclose segment information in a regulated setting. The theoretical frameworks employed in this research study are agency theory and contracting theory. Compensation contracts are employed to resolve the potential conflicts of interest between the shareholders and managers giving rise to agency cost of equity. Debt contracts …

The Development Of An Interactive Multimedia Based Professional Development, James New

Theses : Honours

The role of the teacher has changed over time such that teachers are asked to augment their own specialist knowledge with skills from other domains, for example information technology. This study has examined the perceptions and experiences of teachers and speech pathologists involved in the production of an instructive Interactive Multimedia (IMM) product to deliver Professional Development (PD). The individuals involved in this project were teachers from the High Valley Language School (HVLS) -a specialised primary school. The study used a social action research methodology, which allowed the researcher to build theories from emergent data. The data collection process consisted …

Storying The Body : Women's Narratives Through The Lens Of Breast Cancer, Janet A. Griffin

Theses : Honours

What can women's narratives contribute to our understanding of breast cancer and to feminist theories of the body? This thesis explores the meanings women construct to make sense of embodied experiences of breast cancer, and the profound experience of breast loss. Rich contextual data was elicited from in depth, guided conversations with five premenopausal women who have undergone mastectomy. Adopting feminist methodology, biographic-narrative was used to place the body at the heart of inquiry. This thesis explores the personal and theoretical meanings of mastectomy, embedded in the larger story of how these five women experience their breasts, throughout their lives. …

Wireless Local Area Network Security : An Investigation Into Security Tool Usage In Wireless Networks, Susan Webb

Theses : Honours

Many organisations and individuals installing wireless local area networks (WLANs), which are based on the IEEE 802.11 b standard, have little understanding of the security issues that surround this technology.

This study was initiated to determine how WLAN security issues affect organisations in Perth, Western Australia. The scope of the study was restricted to 802.llb WLANs operating in infrastructure mode, where all traffic is transmitted by wireless access points (APs). This study was conducted in two phases. The general aims of the first phase were to determine the number of detectable WLANs in the Perth Central Business District (CBD) and …

Street Photography: An Approach To Strangers: Casual, Close And Personal Encounters, Flavia M. Schuster

Theses : Honours

Street photographers can either camouflage or reveal their identities to the strangers they photograph. By choosing to remain anonymous, photographers often create images in which only their subjects are exposed. By unveiling their identities however, they often create images in which their interaction becomes evident in the resulting images. Casual Encounters looks at the mechanisms employed by photographers that choose to remain anonymous in contrast to the myth of the flâneur. Close Encounters looks at the mechanisms employed between strangers to deal with their daily interactions in urban environments. Personal Encounters serves to explain my own approach to the strangers …

School University Partnerships : What Do The Schools Want?, Laurie Brady

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The growing perception of a need for robust school university partnerships to improve the quality of teacher education, and to promote learning outcomes for school students, has been given further impetus by the Ramsey recommendations in Quality Matters (2000). This article briefly reviews the literature on both professional development schools, and recent school university partnership initiatives in Australia, and reports a survey of all state primary school principals in NSW, on their support for a broad range of school university partnership activities. The findings indicate strong and uniform support for the full range of activities including supervision and mentoring, collaborative …

Globalisation: Building A Partnership Ethic For An Ecopedagogy In Western Australia, Geoffrey Lummis

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper accommodates teachers with an interest in environmental education and links associated with Society and Environment, Science, and Technology and Enterprise learning areas. The role of globalisation and its impact upon environmental education reform are discussed. The Western Australian Curriculum Framework (Curriculum Council 1998) and the potential problems of metalanguage that a teacher faces when considering environmental reform are introduced. Several paradigms are introduced to underscore the complexity faced by initiating what I term ecopedagogy. Finally, four key principles that position a case for an ecopedagogy built upon a partnership ethic are offered. The principles are elaborated as: • …

Year 12 Students' Perceptions Of Deputy Principals' Effect On The Religious Culture In Catholic Secondary Schools, Robert Novacsek, John R. Godfrey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Research on how Deputy Principals affect the religious culture of Secondary Catholic Schools is extremely limited. Deputy Principals may play a crucial role in shaping the culture of schools in many ways, religious and otherwise. This study examined Year 12 students perception of the effect Deputy Principals have on the religious culture in their schools. Year 12 students have an insight into the role of Deputy Principals as they have more extensive school experience than the other high school grades; the nature of their interaction with Deputy Principals is more varied; and as they approach the conclusion of their secondary …

Beginning Teachers As Teacher-Researchers, Jan Gray, Glenda Campbell-Evans

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There has been a growing recognition in the international education community over the last decade of the need to begin the development of teacher-researchers in preservice courses. This paper explores the perceptions of professional empowerment of beginning teachers and their development as active teacher-researchers, drawing on data from surveys conducted in Western Australia of the 1999 and 2000 preservice teacher cohort. Consistent with issues emerging from current literature, the survey data confirmed the over-riding survival mindset of beginning teachers. However, responses also provided evidence of a research mindset open to opportunities later in their teaching career and the professional confidence …

Direct Sequential Simulation Algorithms In Geostatistics, Robyn Robertson

Theses : Honours

Conditional sequential simulation algorithms have been used in geostatistics for many years but we currently find new developments are being made in this field. This thesis presents two new direct sequential simulation with histogram reproduction algorithms and compares them with the efficient and widely used sequential Gaussian simulation algorithm and the original direct sequential simulation algorithm. We explore the possibility of reproducing both the semivariogram and the histogram without the need for a transformation to normal space, through optimising an objective function and placing linear constraints on the local conditional distributions. Programs from the GSLIB Fortran library are expanded to …

Did The World Really Change On 9/11?, Lelia Rosalind Green

Research outputs pre 2011

In setting myself the question 'Did the world really change an 9/11 ?', I tie myself into two discussions. The first is an exercise in comparing and contrasting perceptions around the pivotal date of September 11, 2001: what was the world 'really' like prior to the attacks on America (as they came to be called) and what is it 'really' like now? The use of the word 'really' here flags the operation of value judgements; any estimation of change around this event is laden with personal perspectives. The second discussion is the one I deal with first: is there a …

Use Of The D15n Signatures Of Different Functional Forms Of Macroalgae And Filter-Feeders To Reveal Temporal And Spatial Patterns In Sewage Distribution, Mahvesh Khan, Paul Lavery, A J Smit

Research outputs pre 2011

We examined whether δ15N levels of marine biota with different nutrient uptake characteristics can be used to trace the dispersal of sewage effluent in highly mixed, nitrogen-limited waters, and whether they can reveal the dispersal of sewage over different timescales. We hypothesised that macroalgal species with fast uptake rates would display a spatial pattern in δ15N levels reflecting recent sewage dispersal while those with slower rates would provide a signal integrated over a longer time period. Filterfeeding sponges and ascidians were also sampled to see if they reflected patterns in the dispersal of sewage particulate organic matter (POM). A laboratory …

Beyond W3c: Truvision - Enhanced Online Learning For People Blind Or Vision Impaired, Ron Oliver, Frank Bate

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes the design and development of TruVision, an online learning environment designed to enable blind and vision impaired students to develop skills and expertise in elementary and advanced information processing strategies to enable them tom seek full-time employment within industry in such positions as administrative assistants, Help Desk personnel and data entry operators. Truvision is a product within The Flexible Learning Toolboxes Project , a component of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework for the National Vocational Education and Training System 2000-2004 (AFL Framework). The AFL Framework is designed to support the accelerated take-up of flexible learning modes and …

Promoting Student Learning Through Peer Tutoring - A Case Study, Barnard Clarkson, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

The literature abounds with information about peer tutoring and the benefits that it can bring to student learning. This case study sought to explore ways of using peer tutoring to enhance the learning experience of a group of higher education students in a multimedia course, who had access to learning resources in an online environment. It illustrates how easily and effectively the basic principles of peer tutoring can be adapted and implemented following explicit guidelines from the literature.

A Question Of Balance: Using Self And Peer Assessment Effectively In Teamwork, Joseph Luca, Catherine E Mcloughlin

Research outputs pre 2011

There is a growing emphasis that students should develop professional skills in the course of their education. These include team skills, problem solving skills, decisionmaking skills, communication skills, information literacy skills, time management skills and many others. To develop such skills, tertiary learners have to engage in tasks that are likely to help students reflect on their own success in completing tasks, and that of their peers. In the literature on learning and self-regulation, self and peer assessment are important strategies used to help develop these skills as well as helping to promote skill transfer to the workplace. On-line learning …