Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Curriculum Studies not elsewhere classified'

This dissertation is based on a project which sought to use a community consultation process as a school development medium.lt was adapted from a similar process used in the Ministerial Consultative Council on Curriculum's 1991 project, New World New Mind: A curriculum for the future.The process was to focus on active consultation, collaboration and cooperation, and future visioning in identifying issues and implications for future curriculum and in framing action plans for implementation. Although the community consultation process proper did not eventuate, the planning phase of its vehicle, the New Mind New School project, emerged as an important consultation in itself, with personal and interpersonal dynamics highlighting a range of issues pertinent to the planning of future curriculum consultations.

This is a thesis about curriculum change, focusing on Studies of Indonesia in Australian schools generally, Languages Other Than English (LOTE) - Indonesian - specifically'. It explores the possibilities for a socially critical approach to curriculum negotiation informed by research on critical pedagogies, immersion and postcolonialism and it applies a critical discourse analysis methodology to inform its proposed version of school programs in this field. Readings from Indonesian language sources are presented as sample contributors to an ongoing mediation and negotiation of Australian studies of Indonesia.

Mediation, as defined in this study, is a dispute resolution process for dealing with disagreements between community members and differs from other forms of conflict resolution such as arbitration, conciliation and adjudication. Mediation is a relatively new field of professional endeavour, consequently, community mediators are few and no current accredited course exists in the vocational education and training sector.

This study aimed to develop a curriculum for training community mediators which individuals of various professions could undertake through the vocational education and training sector in order to become accredited mediators.

An initial review of the literature identified existing mediator competencies. Following this review, the first phase of the study was to survey practising community mediators to obtain their views on which additional competencies mediators should possess.

In the second phase of the study, various curriculum models were reviewed and one model selected which fitted the contextual constraints of the vocational education and training sector. The Competency Based Training model for curriculum development was selected to develop a curriculum which incorporated the list of competencies elucidated in the first phase of the study.

A curriculum suitable for teaching community mediation skills to trainee mediators through a course offered through the vocational education and training sector is presented in the fifth chapter.

This study is significant in that it attempts to objectify what it is that mediators do by way of establishing a collection of mediator competencies pertinent to community mediation. The challenge was to undertake this task in an environment in which mediation as a skill, was considered malleable; a skill which requires fine adjustment to fit the various contexts in which mediation is practised.

Finally, this study also highlighted the need for further research into mediation. Issues such as 'hard' versus 'sot mediation and the development of specific competencies related to the practice of mediation within specific contexts, for example, divorce mediation and land right mediation, are discussed.

In 1998, early childhood teachers throughout Queensland were required to attend a professional development program to familiarise them with the new Preschool Curriculum Guidelines. While this 'top down' or mandated professional development activity was characteristic of the type of professional development usually accessed by early childhood teachers, it provided no guarantees that any changes to teaching or learning would be subsequently incorporated into early childhood classrooms. The professional development activity also demonstrated the continued use of the 'expert' model as a means of bringing about changes to teaching practices.

This report explores the shortcomings of this 'expert' model. Using the outcomes from a teacher initiated professional development activity that used action research strategies as its' framework, the report demonstrates the explicit links between professional development and change, and highlights the advantages of using action research as a framework for effective professional development activities. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for future professional development activities in the field of early childhood.

External representations (ERs) used in science education are multimodal ensembles consisting of design elements to convey educational meanings to the audience. As an example of a dynamic ER, an animation presenting its content features (i.e., scientific concepts) via varying the feature’s depiction over time. A production team invited the dissertation author to inspect their creation of a biochemistry animation about the role of the actin cytoskeleton in cell motility and the animation’s implication on learning. To address this, the author developed a four-step methodology entitled the Multimodal Variation Analysis of Dynamic External Representations (MVADER) that deconstructs the animation’s content and design to inspect how each content feature is conveyed via the animation’s design elements.

This dissertation research investigated the actin animation’s educational value and the MVADER’s utility in animation evaluation. The research design was guided by descriptive case study methodology and an integrated framework consisting of the variation theory, multimodal analysis, and visual analytics. As stated above, the animation was analyzed using MVADER. The development of the actin animation and the content features the production team members intended to convey via the animation were studied by analyzing the communication records between the members, observing the team meetings, and interviewing the members individually. Furthermore, students’ learning experiences from watching the animation were examined via semi-structured interviews coupled with post- storyboarding. Moreover, the instructions of MVADER and its applications in studying the actin animation were reviewed to determine the MVADER’s usefulness as an animation evaluation tool.

Findings of this research indicate that the three educators in the production team intended the actin animation to convey forty-three content features to the undergraduate biology students. At least 50% of the student who participated in this thesis learned thirty-five of these forty-three (> 80%) features. Evidence suggests that the animation’s effectiveness to convey its features was associated with the features’ depiction time, the number of identified design elements applied to depict the features, and the features’ variation of depiction over time.

Additionally, one-third of the student participants made similar mistakes regarding two content features after watching the actin animation: the F-actin elongation and the F-actin crosslink structure in lamellipodia. The analysis reveals the animation’s potential design flaws that might have contributed to these common misconceptions. Furthermore, two disruptors to the creation process and the educational value of the actin animation were identified: the vagueness of the learning goals and the designer’s placement of the animation’s beauty over its reach to the learning goals. The vagueness of the learning goals hampered the narration scripting process. On the other hand, the designer’s prioritization of the animation’s aesthetic led to the inclusion of a “beauty shot” in the animation that caused students’ confusion.

MVADER was used to examine the content, design, and their relationships in the actin animation at multiple aspects and granularities. The result of MVADER was compared with the students’ learning outcomes from watching the animation to identify the characteristics of content’s depiction that were constructive and disruptive to learning. These findings led to several practical recommendations to teach using the actin animation and create educational ERs.

To conclude, this dissertation discloses the connections between the creation process, the content and design, and the educational implication of a biochemistry animation. It also introduces MVADER as a novel ER analysis tool to the education research and visualization communities. MVADER can be applied in various formats of static and dynamic ERs and beyond the disciplines of biology and chemistry.

Preschool education in Queensland is undergoing a series of redevelopments. The process of redefining preschool education is a long and involved one. In the final publication stage, these developments have been given a curriculum focus, with a framework proposed to link all aspects of preschool curriculum. As the vehicle through which the preschool curriculum is delivered, the Guidelines highlight and promote developmentally, socially and culturally appropriate learning opportunities and outcomes for children in a preschool program. Determining whether such outcomes are appropriate has in the past, been a task relegated to the professional judgment and decision making of the teacher. The focus of the renewed Preschool Curriculum Guidelines explores a new perspective, by highlighting the need to develop worthwhile and 'workable' partnerships with parents, children, professional colleagues and community members to influence the quality of the learning outcomes for children. Resolving whether such outcomes meet quality measures introduces a focus on the value of preschool education, and particularly, its contribution to establishing foundations for lifelong learning. At the same time as introducing a focus on what is appropriate, understanding 'quality' involves the interpretation and understanding of 'quality' asa more inclusive term, incorporating all elements of practice.

It has been argued that the Queensland Preschool Curriculum Guidelines are reaffirming the like-minded and that, since it is the responsibility of principals and school administrators to disseminate the Guidelines, the focus should be narrowed to identifying and exploring their views regarding the Preschool Guidelines and understanding of quality preschool practice. This research represents a new and innovative approach to the study of professional knowledge and the way it is used to make judgments about the provision of a quality curriculum in the preschool context.

Bullying in schools has been a problem for as long as schools have existed. The issues are complex and research indicates that incidents of children being victimised are increasing.

Two related studies are discussed in this report. Respondents for Study 1 are guidance officers from the Central Queensland region and issues of interest are: their perceptions regarding the frequency of bullying in schools; whom victims of bullying would be most likely to confide in; whether students would seek assistance from guidance officers if they are being bullied at school; and what strategies are successful for victims. For Study 2, respondents are students at a local Central Queensland high school. The focus is upon whom victims of bullying would be most likely to confide in.

Results for both Studies 1 and 2 indicate that victims of bullying are more likely to tell their friends, and very unlikely to seek assistance from guidance officers, if they are being bullied at school. In Study 1 all respondents, further, report that bullying occurs in their respective schools and many feel that the most successful strategy for dealing with victims of bullying is to adopt a 'whole school' approach.

Both previous studies and this present research indicate some hope for future action against bullying in schools. It is this researcher's opinion, however, that future prospects may be far more sombre and that intervention by guidance officers and school administrators will do little to alleviate the problem while dominance over others is encouraged by society.