Education Commons^™

Four Book Reviews, Carlisle Sheridan, Ann Crittenden, Bruce Haynes, M. Wild, A. M. Blackmore

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Fox, Mem. (1993) Radical reflections : passionate opinions on teaching, learning, and living. Sydney, Harcourt Brace.

Ingvarson, L, and Chadbourne, R (Editors) (1994) Valuing teachers' work : new directions in teacher appraisal. Camberwell, Vic : Australian Council for Educational Research.

Shears, L. (Editor) (1995) Computers and schools. Camberwell, Vic : ACER.

Maltby, F., Gage, N. L. & Berliner, D. (1995) Educational psychology : an Australian and New Zealand perspective. Brisbane : John Wiley.

Beginning Teacher Education : Students' Conceptions Of Teaching And Approaches To Learning., Carol A. Christensen, David R. Massey, Peter J. Isaacs, John Synott

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Twenty preservice teachers were interviewed prior to commencement of their teacher education course to establish the conceptions of teaching and approaches to learning with which they entered the course. Students were categorised as surface, deep or achieving in their learning orientations (Biggs, 1987). Five conceptions of teaching were identified: the nurturing helper, authority and disciplinarian, shaper of children's lives, presenter of information and facilitator of thinking and learning. There was a consistent relationship between conceptions of learning and conceptions of teaching. Surface learners tended to see teaching as transmission of information. There were very few deep learners, however they tended …

Development Of A Constructivist Model For Teacher Inservice., Brian Hand, David F. Treagust

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper, we consider a model for teacher inservice that is informed by constructlvlsm. Initially, we consider the criteria for identifying conceptual change, briefly examine research on the roles which teachers engage in when implementing innovations, and describing different knowledge bases needed m usmg teaching approaches informed by constructivist referents. Secondly, we describe an inservice programme for science teachers in one high school, and thirdly show how a five-stage model to introduce teaching/learning approaches informed by constructivism was developed.

Teacher And Student Attitudes Towards Recent Methods Of Teaching And Learning, Nguyen Thuy Hoang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The idea of implementing a variety of teaching and learning activities to the teaching and learning of the Language Teaching Methodology Unit at the Department of English, Ho Chi Minh City Teachers' College has been proposed as a contribution to motivate the students in learning this Unit. These various activities, for example, guided reading, diary keeping, action research or task- based learning are quite new to the teachers and students and considered to be the recent methods of teaching and learning. This study has been carried out to let the teachers and students know what the recent methods are and …

Differential Outcomes Of Various Models Of Work Experience, Peter Sinclair

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Western Australia an increasing number of secondary school students participate in work experience programs. Different models of work experience are becoming more common. The Ministry of. Education promotes the use of four such models. The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of work experience, as perceived by secondary school students in selected Government Schools, to see if there were any differences according to the model of work experience used. These perceptions were further examined to see if there was a significant difference in perceived outcomes according to other independent variables of student gender, year level, geographic …

The Effect Of A Structured Narrative Programme On Language Disordered Children, Rosemary J. Simpson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined the effectiveness of a structured narrative programme which had been developed to improve the narrative skills of children attending a Language Development Centre in Western Australia. The research was conducted over an eight week period with eight Year One (ie -6 years old) boys who had been diagnosed as having severe language disorders. A single subject research design was used to investigate the narrative development of the students. The design followed the ABAB format (baseline experimental design-baseline-experimental design) as outlined in Tawney and Gast (1984). The number of words used by each subject, the number of adverbials …

Characteristics Of Fathers' Speech To Young Children, Ann Galloway

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Children learn language through social interaction, and those with whom they interact will influence their language development in a variety of ways. Different features of adult speech are likely to be facilitative of children’s language development in different ways. Parents are one group of adults who play a particularly signification role in children’s language acquisitions and development, and the nature and role of their speech to children has been an important research emphasis for the past three decades. Initially mothers' speech was the focus of the studies of parent speech, but since the early 1970s attention has also been given …

The Mediation Of Teaching Through Central Curriculum Controls: Four Case Studies Of History Teaching In Year 12 In Western Australia, Edmund Z. Mazibuko

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The work of scholars on pedagogical content knowledge has drawn attention to the importance of mastery of subject matter. Good teachers are able to make clever transitions between their knowledge of content and their pedagogy. The examples of these transitions in the literature usually assume that teachers have a large measure of control over the content: lessons are exploratory and concerned with understanding the deeper meanings and fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline base. The reality of most classrooms is otherwise; teachers are guided by syllabus statements, textbooks and end of year examinations. Sequence and pace of instruction are often …

The Effects Of The Add Label On Teachers' Attitudes And Expectations, Catherine Moreton

Theses : Honours

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is rapidly becoming an important educational issue. Although much research has been conducted into the effects of labelling and teachers' attitudes and expectations on children's academic and social behaviour, little research has been conducted into the relationship between the label 'ADD' and teachers' attitudes and expectations. The main purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the ADD label on teachers' attitudes and expectations for children with ADD. In addition, the effects of teachers personal characteristics on their attitudes and expectations for children with ADD, and teachers perceptions of issues surrounding ADD were investigated. …

The Participant's Summative Perceptions Of The Quality Function Deployment (Qfd) Process As Used To Review A School Policy, Les Tiede

Theses : Honours

This study investigated a recent development in the quality management area, namely, quality function deployment (QFD) and its relevance to education. QFD has shown itself to be very useful as a tool for understanding, prioritising and planning the way in which organisations perform their functions; however, its application has, to date, been very limited in education. This study concerned itself with the use of the QFD process in a high school to review a behaviour management policy. The literature is extensively examined to review the development of quality management leading up to the advent of QFD. The study explored QFD’s …

A Comparison Of The Effectiveness Of Inquiry-Oriented Teaching With Traditional Teaching In The Maldives, K. Ibrahim-Didi

Theses : Honours

This thesis compares the effectiveness of an activity-based, inquiry oriented approach using simple, inexpensive, locally available equipment with a traditional approach, in enhancing student achievement and positive attitudes towards science in the Maldives. The sample consisted of 79 boys range from 13 to 16 years of age from two year eight classes in a private lower secondary high school. A quasi experimental non equivalent control group research design was adopted for the study. The control group was taught the currently existent curriculum for two weeks in the traditional manner while the treatment group was taught using a curriculum package developed …

Parental Assistance In Children's Reading In The Home, Karen Lyons

Theses : Honours

The literature reviewed in this thesis shows that many successful reading programmes have been carried out by parents and teachers working together, sharing the responsibility for developing children's reading skills. Research studies have also shown that parents want more feedback and assistance on how to help their children with reading. The purpose of this study was to investigate two areas of home reading, that Is parents reading to their children and children reading to their parents. The study examined what parents said they did with their children when their children read to them. It also examined the frequency with which …

Student Attitudes To Their Roles And Responsibilities Within A Sport Education Curriculum Model In Physical Education, A. Sadler

Theses : Honours

Sport education is one of the six curriculum models in physical education described by Siedentop, Mand and Taggart (1986). Sport education is a student centered curriculum model whereby students take on the specific roles of management board of control, captain/coach, first aid officer, advertising/publicity officer as well as player. It is the social interaction of students within these roles that is the key to the potential success of the model. Research suggests that many students have unfavourable attitudes towards the dominant curriculum model currently being used in physical education in most Western Australian schools, while on the other hand, many …

The Effects Of Strategy Instruction On The Vocabulary Acquisition And Reading Comprehension Of Grade Five Students, Michelle Gurry

Theses : Honours

Two studies were conducted to examine the effects of specified teaching strategies on vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Two methods were used to teach Grade 5 students to infer word meanings from context. The first was based on regular methods that occur within primary classrooms. The second involved a detailed strategy that gave students a step-by-step guide to deriving word meanings from context. Both groups were pretested and posttested with a developed vocabulary acquisition test and the Progressive Achievement Test of reading comprehension. A four-factor ANOVA with repeated measures was used to test the hypotheses. The first study showed no …

Problem Solving Of Children With Intellectual Disabilities: Interrogative Strategies And Solution Time Rates, Sonya Barrett

Theses : Honours

Possible differences in problem solving abilities between children with intellectual disabilities and regular class children were studied. A comparison was made between the children with intellectual disabilities and regular class children of comparable developmental level (mental age). The children with intellectual disabilities were also compared with regular class children of comparable chronological age. Subjects completed a preliminary task to determine mastery of the required skills before attempting an experimental problem solving game. The game required subjects to ask questions in order to achieve a problem solution. Each subject's level of motivation to solve the problem was also measured using a …

The Effect Of A Direct Instruction Motor Development Program On The Catching Performance Of Pre-Primary Children, Matt Osborne

Theses : Honours

The number of pre-school programs and children attending pre-schools has been rapidly increasing in recent years. The emphasis placed on instruction in physical education and the benefits to be derived from such instruction at the pre-school level have not been directly addressed in the literature. This study examined the effects of a six week direct instruction motor development program on the quantitative and qualitative development of the fundamental motor skill of catching. The participants were four and five year old children who attended a government pre-school attached to a metropolitan primary school. Two children of high gross motor ability and …

Perceptions Of Lower Secondary Design And Technology Teachers About The Utilisation Of The Design Process, Desire Mallet

Theses : Honours

This study investigated the perceptions of lower secondary school teachers about the utilisation of a design process. Seven Design and Technology teachers from government and private secondary schools, situated in Perth metropolitan area, were selected. The participants have been using a design process in lower secondary school for at least eighteen months prior to the study. Each participant was interviewed individually and the interviews were audio-recorded. The Education Department of Western Australia considers a design process as a central element in the Technology and Enterprise learning area of the Student Outcome Statements. However, not much is known about how this …

A Preliminary Study Of The Potential For Recycling And Waste Minimisation At Edith Cowan University: Report To The Edith Cowan University Student Guild, Eddie Van Etten, Mark Lund, Robert Troeth

Research outputs pre 2011

In recent years there has been a growing realisation worldwide that disposing of large quantities of waste to landfill was not only causing problems of pollution(e.g. leachate and gas production) but suitable sites were rapidly filling up. In Perth it is has been estimated that present landfill sites will only last until 2007 (Sinclair and Knight, 1991). To help extend the life of current landfill sites and in response to environmental concerns the Western . Australia Government produced a State Recycling Blueprint (Department of Commerce and Trade, 1993). This describes strategies for the minimisation of waste production and maximisation of …

Introduction By Max Angus, Guest Editor, And, Contents Page, Max Angus

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This issue will focus on the National Schools Project, an ambitious action research project involving 200 schools across the country. At one level, the Project is only incidentally pertinent to teacher educators - it has been a large, costly attempt to change the way schools operate; should it succeed in the longer term in achieving its purposes, prospective teachers will require a new range of skills and understandings. There is a second more immediate reason. In some states, teacher educators have played an influential role as 'critical friends' of school staff engaged in the taxing task of changing the way …

Creating Waves : Towards An Educological Paradigm Of Teacher Education., David Tripp

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper it is argued that teacher education has already gone through two major stages (or waves) in its development, and is perhaps about to embark on a third. The first part presents a broad history of various models in terms of three major variables: where pre-service learning is located, how the study of education is constituted, and who controls accreditation. It is suggested that Australia is likely to return to an earlier model of teacher education unless teacher educators themselves produce a better way in which to meet current criticisms. A new' educological' model is proposed which involves …

What Motivates People To Become Teachers., Don Alexander, David Chant, Bernard Cox

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There is no shortage of attempts to explain why people want to be teachers, and many of these attempts are used to frame this paper. Most of the research cited comes from the United States, some comes from Australia, and a few references are made to research from other countries. What attracts people to teaching has been a popular research theme for several decades, and it has been simultaneously quite popular in many countries. In Israet for example, 9.9% of all educational research done between 1974 and 1985 related to "teachers' education, attitudes and behaviours" (Peritz, 1989:62). Prominent among the …

"New Production Concepts" And The Reconstruction Of Teacher Education : A Post-Fordist Critique., Susan L. Robertson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the reconstruction of teacher education in order to initiate a more systematic debate.To undertake this task, I will first locate the current proposals for the reform of teacher education in a brief historical context, before moving on to outline the proposed changes to teacher education. I will argue that these policy shifts must be understood within the wider post-Fordist debate and that the new production concepts of skilling, reprofessionalism and task integration provide a useful basis on which the current restructuring proposals. I will conclude my analysis by arguing that while …

Issues In Primary Mathematics Education: Calculators: Research And Curriculum Implications, Len Sparrow, Lorraine Kershaw, Kevin Jones

Research outputs pre 2011

Calculators: Research and curriculum implications is one of a series of monographs on issues in primary mathematics education. It has been written to support initiatives in the development of student-centred learning programs at Edith Cowan University - programs designed to accommodate current views on effective adult learning strategies, as wells as the development of professional and generic (key) competencies. Irrespective of the nature of individual learning programs, students and teachers working at undergraduate and postgraduate levels will find the series useful- either as a synthesis of currently available research findings and reference material, to identify potentially significant initiatives and developments …

Sharing Teachers' Stories Of Sport Education : A Summary Of Findings From The 1994 National Sepep Trials, Andrew Medland, Stephen Thorpe, Ken Alexander, Andrew Taggart

Research outputs pre 2011

Sport Education is an innovative curriculum model, increasingly used as a component of upper primary and secondary school physical education programs and exhibiting many parallels with community junior sport. Within normally scheduled physical education lessons, mixed ability teams are formed at the start of a 20 session (approximately) competitive "season".

In addition to the aim of helping students learn to become good players, Sport Education encourages students to fulfil other roles such as umpiring, acting as a team coach, manager or captain, serving on a sports management board or duty team and working as a publicity officer/journalist. As students assume …

Issues In Primary Mathematics Education Computers: Classroom Practice And Curriculum Reform, Lorraine Kershaw, Kevin Jones, Len Sparrow

Research outputs pre 2011

The advent of an interactive multimedia approach in teaching and learning has opened up yet another horizon to be explored in search of the perceived potential of the computer in primary mathematics education. Benefits promoted have included its use as a motivational aid, the developing of content knowledge and problem solving skills of children of varying abilities, its capacity to support an integrated curriculum, and to assist children in controlling their own learning. Many have doubts about the veracity of these assertions and disagree about the types of appropriate uses of the computer. For classroom teachers, software and hardware availability, …

The Induction Of Beginning Teachers In Western Australian Catholic Primary Schools, Matthew Faulkner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The survey study was primarily exploratory and descriptive in nature and attempted to report on the perceptions of beginning teachers entering the Catholic primary schools in Western Australia in 1991. Their perceptions on the form of induction they received, and how their pre-service teacher education equipped them for this transition were attained. In addition, data from Catholic primary school principals, Catholic Education Office of Western Australia administrators and teacher institutions administrators were collected in relation to perceptions of the transitions from teacher training to teacher employment. The main sources of data collection were questionnaires and interviews. The data collated indicated …

An Attitudinal Study Of Computer-Based Learning For English Language Competence With Learning Disabled Secondary School Students, Dorothy Sinclair

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The issue of sub-standard English language competence in school leavers is one of prime concern to educators. Some Western Australian secondary school teachers endeavouring to improve English language competence in students with learning disabilities have implemented computer-based learning programmes. The purpose of this project was to establish, through the students' attitudes and the teachers' perceptions, whether or not computer-based learning for English language competence is perceived to be successful for those Western Australian secondary school students who have learning disabilities. The study will benefit Western Australian secondary English teachers who may be searching for alternative strategies for inclusion in future …

Bringing Children To Their Senses: A Study Of The Influence Of Sensory Experience On Year 4 Children's Writing, Zenda Johnson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Based on the theory of experiential learning for reading and writing, the purpose of this study was to observe and describe changes in the writing outcomes of Year Four children after the activation of the senses of smell, touch and taste. Children's attitudes towards writing, and gender differences in their writing were minor foci of the study. Middle primary children were selected because there is an absence of previous research which relates directly to sensory learning and middle primary children's writing. A descriptive case-study methodology was undertaken with a group of twenty nine Year Four children of which six target …

Teachers' Reading Theories And Preferred Practices With Varied Pupil Abilities, Rowena Errington

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to teachers' theoretical orientations to reading and teachers' preferred strategies for good, poor and very poor readers. A questionnaire was completed by 140 primary teachers in 10 schools. Teachers were asked to rate 6 bottom-up strategies and top-down strategies according to how helpful they were for good, poor and very poor readers. They were also asked to order 6 components of the reading process so that their theoretical orientations to reading could be determined. In addition, teacher provided information about the demographic variables, grade taught, experience, and additional training. Eight …

The Nature And Extent Of Pastoral Care In Five Western Australian Government Secondary Schools, W. L. Macdonald

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research is centred upon the nature and extent of pastoral care provision in five Western Australian Government secondary schools. The project took the form of five case-studies, set in schools which each had well established pastoral strategies in place. The schools plans and policies were influenced by contexts of State and Federal education programmes, by the community setting of each school, by community concerns, and by other priorities within the school itself. In the study, information was collected through interviews and written responses from school staff, through documentary evidence of plans and policies for pastoral care, and through the …