Education Commons^™

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 …

Telematics In Rural Education : An Investigation Of The Use Of Telematics For The Delivery Of Specialist Programmes For Students In Rural Schools, Ron Oliver, Tom Reeves

Research outputs pre 2011

Rural students face many problems that do not necessarily confront their city counterparts. Education is a process that carries strong economies of scale. It is economical in instances where resources and facilities can be shared. It is very much resource based and much of the quality of educational programmes is derived from the resources and facilities that support the teaching/learning programme. This type of scenario makes it possible for a strong distinctions to emerge in the quality of the educational programmes received by rural and metropolitan students...

Computer Education: New Perspectives, Martyn Wild (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

Computer technologies were introduced into educational contexts over two decades ago and while there is some argument about the extent to which computers have realised their potential, they have undoubtedly had a significant impact on education. A look into any school will reveal computers being used widely by clerical staff, teachers and children.

It is clear that computers are here to stay, but it is less clear as to how effectively they are being used in the learning process. Teachers not only need to use computers but they need to use them well, and in order to do this they …

Quality In Teaching And Learning: Making It Happen: The Proceedings Of The Teaching & Learning Forum, Laurie Summers (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

These papers represent the proceedings of the third Teaching and Learning Forum to be conducted in Perth, the first two by Curtin University and this one by Edith Cowan University....

The Forum was organised around three major themes - or at least it was in the beginning! Papers that were presented, and the discussion that was generated, led us to concede that there was really a great deal of interaction between the themes, which were:

• ways of defining quality

• working towards quality

• evaluating quality

Accordingly, we have not attempted to designate papers as being solely or even …

Number Sense And Computation In The Classroom, Kevin Jones, Lorraine Kershaw, Len Sparrow

Research outputs pre 2011

Number sense and computation in the classroom 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 …

School Non-Attendance: A Literature Review, Irene Ioannakis

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

Determining The Validity And Reliability Of An Instrument Designed To Measure Metacognitive Behaviours, Anne L. Martin

Theses : Honours

This project was designed to study the role of metacognition in mathematical problem solving. More specifically, it was designed to determine the validity and reliability of an instrument proposed to identify metacognitive behaviours in Year 7 children solving problems. The instrument was used to analyse audio tapes of pairs of students working on a non-routine problem (i.e., a problem that cannot be solved solely by the direct application of the basic operations). Analysis of the audio tapes involved categorizing metacognitive decisions as: orientation, organization, execution, and verification behaviours. A "cognitive-metacognitive" framework (Garofalo & Lester, 1985) was used as a basis …

The Effect Of Instruction On Short And Long Term Memory Of Songs And Their Musical Elements, Alanna Campbell

Theses : Honours

This research project investigated the extent to which two methods of instruction enhance memory (short and long term) and transfer of the knowledge into various contexts of songs and their musical elements. The two methods of instruction investigated were the rote memorisation and the whole method. Students of one year three class from a metropolitan, co-educational government school were the participants in the research. The students served as both the control and experimental groups. They were taught four songs over a course of eight weeks by the school's music specialist. The eight weeks were divided into two four week sessions. …

Research And Development As An Essential Work Practice For Teachers., Sharan Burrow

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Educators who have promoted the societal value of life-long learning must take heart from the growing acceptance by business and industry leaders that career-long education and development is essential for their survivaL This dawning realisation has been prompted by the harsh realities of competitive, global economics. Increasingly business leaders recognise that managers and employees must learn and adapt or contract and shut down. Ironically, much of the tough language of business and industry in regard to essential learnings and understandings (competencies) can be found in documented debate, system reports and teacher discourse of the seventies, a discourse labelled 'soft' by …

Partnership : Beyond Consultation, Susan Groundwater-Smith, Judy Parker, Michael Arthur

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In recent years, in Australia, there has been an increasing acknowledgment that work practices need to be developed around the concept of partnership with less intrusive and coercive management regimes. All participants are recognised as agents of the productive process, albeit on different scales and at different rates. Partnership does not preclude an understanding that some will be more advanced in their skills and understandings than others, that some will be in need of greater assistance than others. What is distinctive is that involvement in development will be collaborative, rather than coercive; cooperative, rather than competitive; enabling rather than disabling, …

Creating A Collaborative Culture In A National Schools Project School., John Rooney, Alastair Drew

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The school's desire to be a part of the National Schools Project arose from its local circumstances. Situated in the northern suburbs of AdelaIde, Salisbury North Primary School caters to a highly disadvantaged community. Over 80 per cent of students are from households whose income is low enough to qualify for government assistance. This figure has been steadily rising over the last few years. The student population is also remarkably diverse. Of an enrolment of 280 children in year levels 3-7, thirty percent are of non-English speaking background, twenty five percent are part of a new arrivals program, and over …

The Regulation Of Teaching : Lessons From The National Schools Project, Max Angus

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is conceivable that the present generation of Australian teachers has been engaged in more workplace reform over a longer period of time than any other occupational group. Teachers can recite a near-interminable list of changes to work practices initiated during the 70s and 80s which required revisions of content to be taught, changes in methods of instruction and the introduction of modified patterns of school organisation. Yet the more things change the more they appear the same. The salient features of schools of 20 years ago are salient today - classes of thirty of so students, dominated by teacher …

Qualifications Of Entrants Into Graduate Diploma Courses Of Education, Bruce Haynes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The qualifications of those offered places in Graduate Diplomas in Education at Edith Cowan University in 1994 were of high quality and similar to the qualifications of students in these courses In recent years. An account of the quality of those qualifications is presented here to assist those wishing to judge the quality of teachers. Impressions of the quality of teachers in schools are formed by people using various types of evidence. Teachers' salary scales, levels of industrial dispute, academic qualifications, socio-economic origins, children's examination results, level of juvenile criminal and anti-social behaviour, public utterances by teachers and their representatives, …

Employment Of Interns Completing The University Of South Australia's Diploma In Education Course In 1992-1993., Tom Gad, David Homer

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Andy and Speedo (1993) describe the University of South Australia's intern-based Diploma in Education in which the university, four participating secondary schools and the Education Department formed a partnership allowing students to spend the majority of their time in the four schools and a home base in one of the schools.

Its Time For A Total Curriculum Approach To Preservice Teacher Education Programs : A Personal Viewpoint., Ian Macpherson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article contests the ways in which preservice teacher education programs have been conceptualised, planned and implemented in universities. The article, therefore, is NOT about responding in technocratic ways alone to institutional, practising school, and employer constraints. Rather, it is about conceptualising preservice teacher education programs so that intending graduates work towards becoming reflective practitioners with a commitment to social justice. Such a conceptualisation is considered appropriate given the increasing diversity of learners and learning settings; the increasing complexity of communities and society; the growing possibilities for engaging in truly collaborative approaches to teacher education; and the expanding challenge of …

The Collaborating Teacher As Co-Educator In Teacher Education., Hans Hulshof, Nico Verloop

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article a report will be given on a research project of the Teacher Education Department of Leiden University, The Netherlands. The research focuses on the role of the collaborating / cooperating teacher in the one year postgraduate teacher training course which is followed by candidates having their masters in a variety of subjects.

Leaders And Their Learning, E. J. Mcgilp, Maureen Michael

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Leaders and their learning : professional development priorities for principals / compiled by Beryl Evans. (1993) for Department of Employment, Education and Training. 47 p.

The Process Of Learning, Peter Cole

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Biggs, J. B. and Moore, P.J. (1993) The Process of Learning (3rd ed.) Sydney : Prentice Hall. 582 p.

Learning To Teach Physical Education., Andrew Taggart

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Tinning, Richard. (1993) Learning to teach physical education, by Richard Tinning, David Kirk, John Evans. Sydney : Prentice Hall, 256 p.

Field Of Dreams : Australia's National Schools Project, William Louden, John Wallace

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

"If you build it, they will come," says one of the characters in the film Field of Dreams. In the key scene of the film, the magical power of belief draws dreamers and long-dead baseball heros together in a baseball diamond cut from a mId-western farmer's corn field. Belief overcomes reality, and the film's characters and their baseball heroes play the perfect baseball games of imagination in the light of a long golden dusk. The National Schools Project is like that, we think in three ways. First, its creators have believed that it is possible for Australian schools to be …

A Meeting Of Minds : Journals, Gloria Latham

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is a circuitous and often lonely journey being educated and educating others. I have found journal writing to be a buffer against the isolation by recording moments along the path and lingering from time to time on a fresh idea or a memory. Reflective journals fill my bookshelves and feed my professional practice as I continue to map my journey. This is why when I first heard I would be teaching a new subject entitled, 'Reflective Learning and Teaching' with a three year journal component I felt confident, I knew I could share my own use of the professional …

Openness Of Inquiry Of Laboratory Formats Currently Used In Lower Secondary Science, H. A. D. Bryce

Theses : Honours

Laboratory formats can range from 'recipe' type activities, in which students just verify concepts, to 'open' inquiry activities, in which students design and carry out their own experiments. There is much support in the literature for the use of 'open' inquiry formats. By way of a questionnaire secondary science teachers, sent to a sample of lower this study investigated the proportions of the different that are currently being used in laboratory formats lower secondary science in Perth schools. The study found that most of the formats used required students to follow set procedures to verify or determine a concept. Few …

Adult Migrant Learner Perceptions Of Dyadic Interaction In The Learning Of English As A Second Language In Australia, Philip G. Nichols

Theses : Honours

Student to student dyadic interaction (pairwork) is a recommended activity in the second language learning classroom but if learners do not find it useful or enjoyable, then its effectiveness is reduced and the learners' motivation diminished. In this study a survey questionnaire with both open and closed questions was used to ask 207 intermediate and advanced adult migrant learners of English of diverse ethnicity about their perceptions of pairwork. Twenty-four learners from the sample were interviewed. The results revealed that most students found pairwork useful and enjoyable, but that perceptions differed according to region of origin and to previous language …

Part-Time Work: The Attitudes, Perceptions And Opinions Of Year 11 Students, Marilyn Ralph

Theses : Honours

A large number of full-time secondary students of all types have part-lime jobs although research shows that these jobs are not sought or shared proportionately amongst the student sub-groups. Previous research suggested that social class or socio-economic status (each defined in different ways by different researchers) had an effect on whether or not students engaged in part-lime work. However none suggested why this might be so. The purpose of this study was lo investigate the factors which influenced the decisions which students from different socio-economic backgrounds made about paid part-time work and to determine whether there were differences amongst these …

Factors Contributing To The Underrepresentation Of Girls In Year 11 Outdoor Education At A Selected Government School, Ruth H. Rynehart

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing to the underrepresentation of girls in the Year 11 Outdoor Education course in a selected government school. Enrolment statistics provided by the Secondary Education Authority indicate a possible gender orientation of the course which is problematic under the Social justice in education: Policy and guidelines for gender equity (Ministry of Education, 1991 ).

In Western Australian schools, enrolments in Outdoor Education have increased steadily since lower school units were introduced in 1987. However, the participation rate has consistently been about two times greater for boys than for girls. Of concern …

A Review Of The Primary Extension And Challenge (P.E.A.C.) Programme In A Metropolitan District From A Parent, Teacher And Student Perspective, Wendy Perry

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this research is to review the Primary Extension and Challenge Programme (P.E.A.C.) in a Metropolitan District, from a parent, classroom teacher and student perspective. P.E.A.C. has been operating in Western Australian primary schools for approximately 8 years, yet to date, only one evaluation of the P.E.A.C. programme has been conducted. This was carried out in the Swanbourne District in 1990. It appears vital that the programme is evaluated and that feedback is gained from all those involved - parents, classroom teachers and students. The sample of 106 subjects consisted of students from Years 5, 6 and 7 …

T.E.E. English Scores And Performance On Reading And Writing Tasks By First Year Education Students, Tracy Jacobs

Theses : Honours

This study examined the literacy achievement of first year Bachelor of Arts (Primary Education) students at the Mount Lawley Campus of the Edith Cowan University. It had been suggested that these students possessed inadequate levels of literacy to function as competent teachers. Students are assumed to have adequate literacy ability for the Bachelor of Arts course, and thus the teaching profession, when they receive a pass mark in their T.E.E. English or English Literature examination. This study examined the correlation between the T.E.E. English score and the scores the students received on three other instruments measuring aspects of literacy. The …

Victorian Modern Cursive Handwriting In West Australian Schools, Deborah Ann Taylor

Theses : Honours

The Victorian Modern Cursive script was introduced to Western Australia as the newly recommended handwriting style in 1990. The choice of this handwriting style, which is a foundation style similar to the Simple Modern Hand (Gourdie, 1981), was based upon the prediction that its use would facilitate the transition from beginners' script to full cursive writing. This assumption has not been tested in West Australian schools and hitherto no evaluation of the new handwriting model has been conducted. This study set out to evaluate and compare the legibility and fluency of cursive writing of a group of Year 3 children …

Influences On Outdoor Education Teachers' Content Selection, S. D. Thorpe

Theses : Honours

This study sought to identify what teachers perceive to be the major factors influencing their selection of content in outdoor education formal curricula in two Western Australian government senior high schools. The study uses comparative and descriptive measures, including a documentary analysis comparing Ministry of Education and school formal curricula. This analysis initially identified discrepancies with content selection, prompting the investigation, through interviewing, of teachers' perceptions of their causes. From the perceptions investigated, five categories of factors were identified: Time, cost; expertise; needs; and resources. These categories were integrated to form a substantive theory for influences on content selection by …

A Study Of Children's Drawing Types And Factors Influencing Choice Of Subject Matter, Stella Clark

Theses : Honours

The main purpose of this study was to determine what children draw when given a free choice of subject in the context of the classroom. The social Influences believed to affect children's drawings were also investigated. Another research interest related to Whether or not gender was a significant factor in the production of different drawing types. The significance of this study is connected with the desirability for teachers to have an understanding of children's perceptions of the world and the factors which influence them, as it is accepted that awareness of children's interests and influences may lead to more relevant …