Digital Commons Network^™

Transformational Learning In A First Year Western Australian Bachelor Of Education Primary Course, Clare Christine Freeman

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this study the experiences of commencing first year Bachelor of Education (Primary) students were investigated. A mixed methods approach was used consisting of an online survey and 12 questions that were asked in interviews with students who agreed to be interviewed. The online survey data was developed using QualtrixTM software and the results of the survey responses were analysed using the available features in QualtrixTM. The survey responses indicated that students were motivated to become teachers however they found the academic study work load difficult. To accommodate the study load required students to find several hours in an already …

Fowl Feathered Fox: Monsters, Pipers, Families And Flocks, Michelle Aslett

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Fowl Feathered Fox: Monsters, Pipers, Families and Flocks is a doctoral work consisting of a full-length stage play and an exegesis. An introduction outlines the scope of the doctoral work, while a concluding chapter reflects on research findings and considers staging issues and implications. Appendices include images incorporated into the play’s action as well as photographed excerpts from a series of visual diaries used to document the play’s evolution. The play, Fowl Feathered Fox, explores the nature of delusion, deception and the tragedy of The Beast Within. Borrowing as it does from the traditions of revenge tragedy, comedy and horror, …

An Analysis Of Insider Dysfunctional Behavours In An Accounting Information System Environment, Mohd Saiyidi Mat Roni

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Insider deviant behaviour in Accounting Information Systems (AIS) has long been recognised as a threat to organisational AIS assets. The literature abounds with a plethora of perspectives in attempts to better understand the phenomenon, however, practitioners and researchers have traditionally focussed on technical approaches, which, although they form part of the solution, are insufficient to address the problem holistically. Managing insider threats requires an understanding of the interconnectedness between the human and contextual factors in which individuals operate, since technical methodologies in isolation have the potential to increase rather than reduce insider threats. This dilemma led many scholars to examine …

Alexithymia In A Psychiatric Population: Stability And Relationship With Therapeutic Outcome, Lauren Mcgillivray

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Alexithymia has been defined as a personality construct that involves difficulties identifying and describing feelings, as well as an externally oriented thinking style and impoverished fantasy life, which places individuals at risk for various psychopathologies. For psychiatric populations, it represents an obstacle to therapeutic success. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on the prevalence rate of alexithymia in the general psychiatric population and no data on alexithymia prevalence in the Australian general psychiatric population. In addition, there is inconsistency in the literature regarding the role of alexithymia in therapeutic intervention and a lack of robust studies involving control or …

Customer Relationship Management (Crm) Of Hotels In The Context Of Variety-Seeking Behaviour (Vsb), Maduka Udunuwara

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study combined two significant areas in marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and variety-seeking behaviour (VSB), which are paradoxical constructs due to their contradictory intentions. While organisations implement various customer relationship management practices with an intention of retaining customers and generating loyalty, a preference for variety-seeking behaviour can make customers switch. This study investigated the impact of variety-seeking behaviour on generating outcomes of customer relationship management practices in the hotel context, by focusing exclusively on leisure travellers.

Even though customer relationship management is widely adopted in the hotel domain, much of its discussions are on implementation related aspects, rather than …

Social Work Is What Social Workers Do: A Study Of Hospital Social Workers’ Understanding Of Their Work And Their Professional Identity, Christine Perriam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Hospital social work in Australia appears to be undergoing a crisis of identity. The current socioeconomic context of economic rationalism and managerialism is not always compatible with social work values and social workers working in hospitals talk about feeling threatened, despite evidence of numerical growth comparable to other professions. In this study I interviewed five social workers who were practising in hospitals. The method used was the Long Interview which allows the responders freedom to express their thoughts while providing a common framework for all the interviews. Using grounded theory methodology I distilled their common understandings about what it meant …

Self-Accompaniment And Improvisation In Solo Jazz Piano: Practice-Led Investigations Of Assimilation, Ostinatos And ‘Hand Splitting’, David Dower

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This practice-led project investigates the crafting of approaches to solo jazz piano performance. Through a study and application of assimilation techniques derived from a range of different music styles, a series of self-accompaniments were devised. In addition, the process of developing improvisational facility over these accompaniment patterns was documented.

Although performing solo requires a different approach to ensemble work, jazz pianists are commonly only trained in ensemble practices, rendering the solo setting a potentially overwhelming challenge. In order to move away from ensemble-based methods, the project sought to develop pianistic techniques and exercises that provide an independent approach in solo …

Just A “Click” Away From Evidence-Based Online Breast Cancer Information, Advice And Support Provided By A Specialist Nurse: An Ethnonetnographic Study, Cynthia Ann Witney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Breast cancer has had, and will continue to have, a devastating impact on the lives of many Australian women, their families, friends and the wider community. The concomitant treatment of this disease places a considerable burden on the health care system and the supporters of the person diagnosed with this disease. While there are many government and non-government organisations that provide treatment and support services for the person with breast cancer, these services are usually provided in person either in the home or at the organisation’s offices. This study extended the information advice and support aspects of these services to …

The Impact Of Participative Communication On Organisational Cultural Change: Two Local Government Cases Of Change, Katie Turton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Managing change is of critical importance in organisations. Communication during the change process has been the subject of considerable and highly contested academic and managerial debate. In this study, The Impact of Participative Communication on Organisational Cultural Change: Two Local Government Cases of Change, communication during the change process was closely examined to see how, if at all, participative processes impact upon the adoption of change. As a result of this research a ‘Ladder of Employee Participation in Change Management’ was developed, to better understand the nature of participative communication and provide clarity for change practitioners who develop change communication …

The Story Speaks For Itself: A Thematic Information Analysis Of An Intended Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Spouses And Parents Bereaved By The Death Of Special Forces Members Killed In Combat, Marion A. Smyth

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Australian Special Forces (SF) members have faced considerable adversity with combat deployments to Afghanistan as an elite operational unit of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). There have been 40 combat deaths since 2001 and despite the significant research available on bereavement and violent death, to date there is a gap in the literature to guide the provision of bereavement support for spouses and parents of those SF members killed in action. Contemporary qualitative research into combat related bereavement has found a number of themes which gave meaning to bereavement outcomes found in the non-SF context and recommended that future …

Rising To The Challenge: Exploring The Transition From Primary To Secondary Education In A Western Australian School, Elizabeth Joan Wenden

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The ‘Rising to the Challenge: Exploring the transition from Primary to Secondary education in a Western Australian School’ study explored the positive predictors of primary to secondary school transition of a cohort of Year 7 students (n=182) at a school in Western Australia. The transition from primary to secondary school is an important process in the lives of adolescents aged around 11-13 years old. It is a challenging and exciting time that coincides with social, emotional, physical and cognitive changes of the adolescent stage of development. Enabling a positive transition to secondary school can give adolescents the support they need …

The Impact Of Nursing A Significant Other In The Course Of Employment, Tania Arnold

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis describes the experiences of nurses and midwives working in metropolitan hospitals who cared for a significant other in their role of employment.

The absence of research directly related to this topic guided the exploration of individuals’ experiences to establish base line knowledge relating to this phenomenon.

This study used descriptive research to provide information relating to the personal and professional effects on nurses who were required to, chose to or had no choice but to care for a significant other in their role of employment. An on-line survey gathered demographic, Likert scale responses to evaluate impact on care, …

Women’S Experiences Of Pregnancy Loss: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Esther Lea Kint

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Over the past three decades, research has proliferated on the incidence of grief severity following pregnancy loss, with many research studies citing the existence of ‘complicated’ and ‘unresolved’ grief. It is argued that this emphasis on grief severity has overshadowed other aspects of the bereavement experience that might differ from grief as it has been defined. Understanding the experience of loss in pregnancy instead of categorising it, would allow for new and varied understandings of the meaning women attribute to their experience of losing a baby. Furthermore, paying attention to women’s interpretations and understandings of pregnancy loss provides valuable insight …

The Shifting Voice: Investigating Accent And Dialect Training For West Australian Actors, Luzita Fereday

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This masters research examines accent and dialect training for actors in the Western Australian context and seeks an understanding about what aural, embodied and cognitive attributes an actor needs in order to move from one accent to another. In particular, this research explores the characteristics of Australian dialects as grounds for the acquisition of the Standard British accent or Received Pronunciation.

The purpose of this research was to identify the expertise required when teaching an accent to acting students in pre-professional levels of tertiary training. This practice-led approach to the research included interviewing, observation, the circulation of questionnaires, and my …

Living After Confronting Death; Story Telling During The Recovery Trajectory Of Intensive Care Unit Survivors: An Interpretive Biographical Approach, Beverley Anne Ewens

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Aim: To create new meaning of the experiences of intensive care survivors during early recovery and the meaning of “self” during this time. To add to the understanding of how support should be focussed for survivors during recovery.

Background: Survival from a critical event/illness and intensive care unit experience is increasing, as is associated physical and psychological complications. Complications are due to the severity of illness, the intensive care experience itself and the nature of the treatments which promote survival. If complications remain untreated increased health care service uptake and reduced quality of life can ensue. Despite the …

Writing Into The Apocalypse - An Examination Of The Method Of Writing Into The Dark Within The Context Of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction: An Exegesis, Brendan Ritchie

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This Creative Writing thesis consists of an original novel, titled Carousel, and an exegesis examining the practice-led method of writing without a narrative plan.

Carousel explores the lives of four young adult characters who find themselves trapped inside a giant shopping complex in post-apocalyptic Perth. A central creative decision that informed the process of writing Carousel was to write without knowledge of the narrative destination. Within this research, I have termed this practice ‘writing into the dark’.

The initial focus of the exegesis is to define and explore what it means to write into the dark. Here the exegesis …

Antenatal Clinic: Using Ethnographic Methods To Listen To The Voices Of Pregnant Adolescents, Deborah Ireson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Aim: This research aims to explore the motivating reasons and external influences that affect pregnant adolescents’ reasons for attending an antenatal clinic. Background: Pregnancy during adolescence has been researched from perceived ‘poor’ decision making during pregnancy and postnatal perspectives involving high-risk outcomes for mother and baby. Antenatal clinic attendance by pregnant adolescents is often characterised by late and infrequent attendance, limiting midwifery contact with this inexperienced group. Gaps in the literature exist where the real-time voices of pregnant adolescents offer their current experiences of antenatal clinic as a relevant means to inform midwifery practice.

Research design: Using ethnographic methods, this …

Wellbeing Of Singapore’S Youths, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Given Singapore’s focus on human capital investment in its residents, the nation’s youths have experienced increases in their financial, educational, and physical wellbeing. However, how have our youths fared in their emotional and mental wellbeing? Figures from the World Values Survey show reported a gradual decline in life satisfaction for both general population and youths. Data from four waves of the National Youth Survey confirms this trend. This chapter explores and examines the non-economic channels that may have countered the positive influence of economic success on the wellbeing of youths, namely, changing family structure, heightened stressors, shifting life goals, time …

Aggregate Consumption And Debt Accumulation: An Empirical Examination Of Us Household Behavior, Yun K. Kim, Mark Setterfield, Yuan Mei

Research Collection School Of Economics

The outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 witnessed a significant contraction in US consumption spending, as households began deleveraging following a period marked by historically high levels of household borrowing. These events call into question the canonical life-cycle theory of consumption, with its benign view of debt as a neutral instrument of optimal intertemporal expenditure smoothing. This paper draws attention to an alternative, post-Keynesian account of consumption spending in which current income, household borrowing and household indebtedness all affect current consumption. Central to the analysis is an empirical investigation of US consumption spending since the 1950s. The results of …

Job Stress Among Female Residents During Postgraduate Training At A University Hospital In Karachi, Pakistan, Madiha Hashmi, Fauzia A. Khan, Khan S, Ali S. K

Department of Anaesthesia

Background: Postgraduate medical training is a stressful experience for both male and female doctors but previous studies have shown that stress might be more prevalent amongst female residents. Since women make up 70-80% of medical graduates in Pakistan we conducted this study to determine the prevalence of stress among female residents during postgraduate training and identify the most common stressors.

Methodology: All female residents enrolled in postgraduate training programmes at the Aga Khan University meeting the inclusion criteria were recruited and informed written consent was obtained. Job Stress Inventory (JSI) was used to identify symptoms and sources of job stress. …

Psychological Wellness And Health-Related Stigma: A Pilot Study Of An Acceptance-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Intervention For People With Lung Cancer, Suzanne K. Chambers, B A. Morris, S Clutton, E Foley, L Giles, P Schofield, D O'Connell, J Dunn

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

People with lung cancer experience health-related stigma that is related to poorer psychosocial and quality of life outcomes. The present Phase 1 study applied mixed methods to test the acceptability of an acceptance-focused cognitive behavioural intervention targeting stigma for this patient group. Fourteen lung cancer patients completed a 6-week Psychological Wellness intervention with pre- and post-test outcome measures of psychological and cancer-specific distress, depression, health-related stigma and quality of life. In-depth interviews applying interpretative phenomenological analysis assessed participants' experiences of the intervention. Moderate to large improvements were observed in psychological (ηp 2=0.182) and cancer-specific distress (ηp 2=0.056); depression (ηp 2=0.621); …

Overview Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Health Status 2015, Australian Indigenous Healthinfonet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The main purpose of the Overview is to provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health and current health status of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people. It has been prepared by Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet staff as part of our contribution to supporting those who work in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. The Overview is a key element of the HealthInfoNet commitment to authentic and engaged knowledge development and exchange. The initial sections of this Overview provide information about the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, population, and various measures …

Rethinking The Reporting Of The Mass Random Shooting – Or Is It An Autogenic Massacre?, Glynn Greensmith, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The crime of the mass random shooting seems frighteningly common, yet around the world there are probably no more than about 26 per year: one per fortnight. The apparent randomness of the crime is one of the aspects which assures it of its publicity. Another is the traditional practice on the part of the gunman (and they are all men) of making a statement about his motives, or leaving a room or a box or a website of his grievances, to be uncovered and wondered at. The media’s focus on the genesis and impact of each mass random shooting is …

Teacher Emotion Research: Introducing A Conceptual Model To Guide Future Research, Leanne Fried, Caroline Mansfield, Eva Dobozy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article reports on the development of a conceptual model of teacher emotion through a review of teacher emotion research published between 2003 and 2013. By examining 82 publications regarding teacher emotion, the main aim of the review was to identify how teacher emotion was conceptualised in the literature and develop a conceptual model to illustrate the findings. Interestingly, few papers explicitly defined ‘emotion’ or ‘teacher emotion’ but described the functions of emotion (such as providing information) and influences on emotion (such as personal characteristics), so these were also used to build the conceptual model. The literature also highlighted the …

Indonesian Teachers’ Implementation Of New Curriculum Initiatives In Relation To Teaching Writing In Lower Primary School, Sulfasyah, Yvonne Haig, Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper reports an investigation of teachers’ implementation of a new Indonesian curriculum, the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), meaning school-based curriculum. The specific context chosen was the teaching of writing in Year 2 in the primary schools of Makassar City, Indonesia. The teachers’ implementation was examined through the lens of the KTSP’s key constructivist-based concepts. Using qualitative methods, the study found that the teachers’ implementation of the new writing curriculum reflected a traditional view of teaching, despite the intent of the KTSP to move away from this approach to one that better reflected a constructivist approach. The study also …

Scaffolding To Improve Writing Skills In A Computer Science Literacy Course, Wu He, Harris Wu, Li Xu, Kurt Maly

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Writing has been recognized as an important skill in the technology field. This paper reports a study that uses a scaffolding approach to improve student writing skills in a computer science literacy course. While the quantitative results do not show a significant impact of scaffolding in individual paper assignment on the subsequent group wiki assignment, the student feedback in end-of-semester evaluations strongly indicated that scaffolding indeed helped improve their writing.

Front Matter - Table Of Contents - Preface

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Communicating To Change Communication: Alcoholics' Romantic Partners' Mutual-Aid Group Attendance In Relation To Communication With Their Alcoholic Partners, Venla Kuuluvainen, Pekka Isotalus

Iowa Journal of Communication

Although the strain that a romantic partner's alcoholism puts on a relationship is well documented, less is known about the ways in which individuals deal with a malfunctioning relationship of this kind. This qualitative study explores one way of coping with a partner's alcoholism: attending Al-Anon, a world-wide network of mutual-aid groups for alcoholics' friends and families. This paper will look at Al-Anon members' perceptions of their communication experiences at Al-Anon in relation to their communication with their alcoholic partners. The research material is composed of interviews with Finnish Al-Anon members (n=19), as well as their writings (n=128), which have …

Communication And Female Date Initiation: Differences In Perceptions Based On Asesertiveness Of Initiator, Lindsey K. Odom, Erin Sahlstein Parcell, Benjamin M. A. Baker, Valerie Cronin-Fisher

Iowa Journal of Communication

First dates represent an important event in the early development of dating relationships. Commonly, date initiation is a behavior in which men take control in heterosexual relationships; however, more women are conducting this task. Women initiating dates, as opposed to men, has traditionally been viewed as a deviation from American cultural norms for expected behavior. The deviation in behavior could have negative repercussions for women, which was investigated for the current study. College-aged participants (n = 232) completed an online survey regarding their perceptions of two hypothetical women who initiated dates (i.e., one where her assertiveness was high and one …

Southeast Polk High School's Suicide Culture: Analysis Of Communication And Community Resilience Strategies, Molly D. Wells

Iowa Journal of Communication

This paper analyzes the response to the outbreak of student suicides at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, during the 2008-09 school year, by applying the theoretical framework of the communication and community resilience approach to crisis management. The key strategies of the communication and resilience framework were applied to assess the efforts of the school district to adapt and build resilience. It was identified that the school district succeeded in implementing two out of the five recommended strategies. The framework highlighted the need to consider suicide as a crisis and to employ all the strategies in order …