Calculators, mathematics and young children : a study of six children using calculators as part of the mathematics curriculum during their first two years of school

The thesis investigates the role a calculator can play in the developing number knowledge of three girls and three boys as part of their mathematics program, during their first two years at primary school. Random sampling was used initially to select six girls and six boys from the twenty-four children entering a 1993 prep class. These twelve children were interviewed on entrance to school and based on the performance of the twelve children on the initial interview, a girl and a boy were chosen from the higher, middle and lower achievers to take part in the full study. The class teachers involved were previously participants in the ‘Calculators in Primary Mathematics’ research program and were committed to the use of calculators in their mathematics program. A case study approach using qualitative methods within the activity theory framework is used to collect relevant data and information, an analysis of five interviews with each child and observations of the children in forty-one classroom lessons provides comprehensive data on the children's developing number knowledge during the two years. The analysis questionnaires establishes each teacher's perceptions of the children's number learning at the beginning and end of each year, compares teacher expectations with children's actual performance for the year and compares curriculum expectations with children's actual performance. A teacher interview established reasons for changes in teaching style; teacher expectations; children's number learning; and was used to confirm my research findings. An activity theory framework provides an appropriate means of co-coordinating perspectives within this research to enable a description of the child's number learning within a social environment. This framework allows for highlighting the mediation offered by the calculator supporting the children's number learning in the classroom. Levels of children's developing number knowledge reached when working with a calculator and as a result of calculator use are mapped against the levels recommended in ‘Mathematics in the National Curriculum’ (National Curriculum Council, December 1988), and the Curriculum and Standards Framework: Mathematics (Board of Studies 2000). Findings from this comparison illustrate that the six children's performance in number was enhanced when using a calculator and indicate that on-going development and understanding of number concepts occurred at levels of performance at least two years in advance of curriculum recommendations for the first two years of school.

Turning the pages : adolescents, schools and reading

This study focuses on adolescents and reading. My premise is that adolescents develop a reading identity which is influenced by an existent reading culture to which they are exposed. This existent reading culture can be influenced in particular by schooling, family and the opinions of peers. One major influence is the classroom. Within the English curriculum, what criteria do English teachers use for selection of set texts and are there differences in criteria in all-boy/all girl and co-educational schools? I reflected on the prevailing perceptions that relate to gender, masculinity and popular culture which can affect what it means to be a boy, literate, and a reader of fictional texts. My first folio piece examines adolescents’ reading within five secondary schools, including an all-boy school, to ascertain whether boys in single-sex schools read more fictional texts and whether they enjoy reading more than their counterparts in co-educational schools. Authors are frequently invited to visit schools and work with students. My second folio piece investigates author visits in five secondary schools, from the perspectives of English teachers, teacher librarians and cohorts of middle school students. I wanted to find out why schools ask authors to visit and what are the expected outcomes of these visits, particularly in regard to adolescent reading identities. The third folio piece examines authors’ narratives concerning school visits. Authors have certain expectations when working with students and talking about their writing. I wanted to discover how authors think they can provide maximum impact on students through their visits, by asking a cohort of authors to recount their ‘dream school’ visits and ‘nightmare school’ visits. Interpretations of the research about boys and reading, and author visits from the schools’ perspectives are analysed using a form of content analysis. The third research project concerning authors’ narratives is interpreted using lexical networks. Prominent elements of my study explore adolescent reader identities through the influences of schooling and through author visits. In the conclusion of this study, these elements are drawn together and broad recommendations are outlined that pertain to the encouragement of positive adolescent reading identities.

Ontological possibilities the rethinking teaching on the "nature of science"

An extensive literature documents teachers’ failure to include ideas about the 'nature of science' (NOS) in their classroom programmes, despite widespread advocacy for this as an essential component of more inclusive science teaching. This thesis frames much of the existing NOS literature as a deficit literature that focuses on epistemology, while largely ignoring the ontological realities of the classroom and overestimating individual teacher’s agency to change their enacted curriculum. Epistemologically-focused NOS reforms are positioned as curriculum 'add-ons', which teachers are likely to ignore. A NOS focus on ontology would entail curriculum restructuring, attending first to the contexts in which scientific knowledge is produced, and the ways it acts in the world. In any case, science itself has changed in recent years. Drawing from the sociology of science, in particular the work of Bruno Latour, the thesis compares traditional philosophical thinking about the ontology of science with more recent 'networked' views. Brent Davis explains the educational implications of key ideas from complexity science. Political philosopher Stephen White adds an ethical dimension. His ideas are used to argue for replacing 'strong' ontologies of realist science with more nuanced and actively tended 'weak' ontologies, as appropriate to the rapid sociological changes of the twenty-first century. The thesis argues that epistemological uncertainties that could lead to the suspicion of relativism are potentially threatening in the classroom because of hegemonic pressures towards consensus and a certain, safe status for the knowledge taught. Seeking an alternative pathway to change, Daniel Liston’s conceptualisation of teaching as a passionate act informs the analysis of the empirical component of the thesis. Eight recipients of New Zealand Royal Society Science Teacher Fellowships were interviewed on four occasions over two years. They discussed their personal learning during a year-long sabbatical to carry out an extended science investigation and their thoughts and actions on returning to the classroom. Narrative methodology is used to explore the teachers’ stories, revealing both passion for their personal learning and an ethical concern for their students’ learning to care for both the natural world and science as a means of its investigation. The thesis argues for the use of ontological approaches to the initial introduction of NOS ideas in school science, with epistemological concepts added only once a topic has been grounded in what Latour calls 'matters of concern'.Two potential teaching strategies—the production of network diagrams and the use of Davis's 'bifurcations'as a critical inquiry tool—are the focus of hypothetical experimentation. First in the context of global warming, and then addressing the challenges posed to teaching evolution by the proponents of 'intelligent design', these strategies are shown to have the potential to address some of science education’ s thornier issues, not just the NOS question. However, when conflicting expectations create tensions for teachers in the classroom moment, it is difficult for them to introduce reflective, deeply philosophical changes to their representation of science. Their working realities need to be acknowledged, and the tensions ameliorated, if we expect substantive change in their current practice.

Variables influencing the mathematics performance of first-year tertiary students : a case study

The need to understand which factors most strongly affect performance in first-year mathematics programs at Khon Kaen University (KKU), in North Eastern Thailand, provided the main focus of the study which is described. First-year mathematics students in the 1990-1991 academic year, from four KKU faculty groups (Medicine and Nursing, Agriculture, Science and Education, and Engineering) were involved in this study. Research literatures addressing variables which were likely to influence performance in early tertiary mathematical study, and variables associated with difficulties in learning mathematics at the transition from upper secondary school to tertiary studies, were reviewed. The first major aim of the study was to identify the variables which were good predictors of first-year mathematics performance at KKU. Results from stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that the following predictor variables were statistically significant and entered the regression equations for most Faculty groups: School Mathematics Achievement, Self-Esteem, Study Habits in Mathematics, and Faculty of Study. Other predictor variables that sometimes entered regression equations (depending on the Faculty group) were Socio-Economic-Status, Mathematics Language Competence, Mathematics Confidence, Attitude Towards Mathematics, and Gender. Depending on Faculty group, the statistically significant variables accounted for between 11% and 74% of scores on fist-year KKU mathematics examinations. The predictor variables contributed much more to the variance of scores on first-semester mathematics examinations than to the variance of scores on second-semester mathematics examinations. It was also found that scores on the Direct Entry Examination Mathematics test (administered by KKU) and the School Mathematics Achievement test (developed and administered by the author) had stronger correlations with first-year KKU mathematics performance than did scores on the National Entry Examination Mathematics tests (administered by the Thai Ministry of University Affairs). Scores on the three pre-university mathematics achievement test instruments were better predictors of first-semester mathematics performance than of second-semester mathematics performance. It was found that the mean Mathematics Confidence of male students was statistically significantly higher than that of female students, but there were no statistically significant gender differences in Mathematics Misplaced Confidence. Only about 30% of the main sample ( 30% of the male and 30% of the female sample groups) had appropriate confidence in mathematics, that is, they thought their answers were correct when they were, in fact, correct, and they thought they were wrong when they were, in fact, incorrect. So far as Faculty performance differences were concerned, Engineering students had the highest Mathematics Confidence scores, followed by the Medicine and Nursing group of students and the Science and Education group students. Agriculture students had the lowest mean Mathematics Confidence score. No statistically significant differences occurred in Mathematics Misplaced Confidence between different Faculty groups. The second main aim of the study was to investigate why many first-year students experienced difficulties in coping with their mathematics units. A small group of senior secondary mathematics teachers, university mathematics lecturers, and first-year mathematics students were interviewed during the first semester of the 1990-1991 academic year. Interviews were conducted by the author according to a questionnaire format, and were aimed at identifying factors causing difficulty in the transition from senior secondary to university mathematical study. The analysis of the quantitative data together with the interview data indicated that the major sources of difficulty were associated with: (a) students' mathematical abilities; (b) curriculum content; (c) course organisation; (d) students' study habits; (e) instructional styles; and (f) assessment procedures. The results of the investigation are discussed in the light of the relevant literature and related research. The study concludes with recommendations which are addressed to mathematics teachers and education administrators in senior secondary schools in Thailand, to the Thai Ministry of Education, and to the KKU Department of Mathematics.

Studentship and oppositional behaviour within physical education teacher education : a case study ; and, Between the rings and under the gym mat : a narrative

This thesis represents a part of a program of study that is reaching a closure. The broadest brush that could be applied to my work is that it concerns Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), that it focuses on aspects of professional socialisation, and that it involves various case studies utilising naturalistic inquiry. Whilst it would be impossible and naive to believe that the reading of these texts will produce the meanings that I encourage, or have internalised, nevertheless the order of reading is at least something that I can argue for. Read in the order I suggest throughout the thesis I am hopeful that my subjectivities, and the learning and understandings I have reached may become clear. The purpose of this two part thesis is an exploration of the interplay or dialectic that exists between PETE students, academic staff and the subject matter within PETE. I have had to come to understand the limitations and advantages of insider research as the work has been completed at my University in the School of Human Movement and Sports Science where I have worked for twenty years. This thesis examines the extent to which studentship and oppositional behaviour underlies the dialectic that exists between the students and the various discourses within the program. I have written the study in two very different formats, one, a collection of stories about PETE and the other, an interpretative case study conducted during 1993 and 1994. Within the case study, studentship and oppositional behaviour were viewed as a measure of the extent to which students react and push against the forces of socialisation within their PETE program that is seen to represent dominant discourses, The following broad research questions were considered to enable the above analysis. 1. What is the nature of studentship and oppositional behaviour in a high status subject within PETE compared to a subject that is seen by students to be of little relevance and of low status? 2. How are studentship and oppositional behaviour related to students subjective warrants? 3. How are the studentship and oppositional behaviours exhibited by students related to the pedagogy and discourses reflected in the knowledge, beliefs and practices within the two sites. The starting point for this research was a study conducted as a totally separate research task (Swan, 1992) that investigated the hierarchies of subject knowledge within a PETE site and investigated the influence of such hierarchies upon student intention. A great deal of meta analysis exists about the manner in which a technocratic rationality pervades PETE but very little case study material of what this means to students and academic staff within such institutions is available. The stories in Between The Rings And Under The Gym Mat, which is the second part of this thesis, represent ‘the data’ differently from the case study, but they speak their own truth. At times the nature of the story is indistinguishable from the reality of the case study. Wexler (1992) undertook an ethnographic study about identity formation in three very different high schools, and published the findings in a book entitled Becoming Somebody. His introductory words about the nature of the social story he tells, are significant to this study and story. Social history is recounted by creative intervention that can only be made from culturally accessible materials. Ethnography is neither an objective realist, nor subjective imaginist account. Rather, it is an historical artefact that is mediated by elaborated distancing of culturally embedded and internally contradictory (but seemingly independent and coherent) concepts that take on a life of their own as theory. So, this is not ‘news from nowhere,’ but a theoretically structured story where both the story and its structure are part of my times. (p.6) The case study before you is organised with an analysis of studentship and oppositional behaviour detailed in chapter one. The following chapter conceptualises studentship and oppositional behaviour in relation to particular themes of professional socialisation, resistance to oppression and youth culture. Chapter three locates the case study to the major paradigmatic debates about the value and nature of the subject matter content within PETE, Chapter four outlines the case site, the research process and the research dilemma’s confronted in this study. The remaining three chapters are the case record as I can best understand it. In Between the Rings and under the Gym Mat (part B) the story most directly concerned with studentship and oppositional behaviour, is called Tale of Two Classes’. It takes on a very different reality to the case study (part A) and much can be said about the reality of lived experience which can be portrayed in narrative form as opposed to a clinical case study. Many of the other stories pose similar images that are contradictory and never quite complete. I have written a separate methodological section for the narrative stories. It is my intention that the case study and the series of stories should be viewed as essentially complementary, but also a discrete representation of a part of PETE. As part of the Ed D program I have undertaken four discrete research tasks as the starting point for this research I have referred to the first one (Hierarchies of Subject knowledge within PETE). I also undertook an action research project about ‘Teaching Poorly by Choice.’ A further piece of research was a somewhat reflective effort to draw together what this has all meant to me from a subjective and reflexive perspective. Such efforts are often seen as being self indulgent, as subjectivity in the form of lived experience sits uneasily in academia. A final paper involved an evaluation of Between the Rings and Under the Gym Mat from a pedagogical perspective by PETE professionals around the world. And that's the way things turned out.

Using everyday experiences in teaching secondary mathematics in Malawi : possibilities and constraints for change

Proponents of socially and culturally oriented mathematics education have argued that teaching approaches which value and connect with the learner's prior knowledge and everyday experience are more likely to promote active, meaningful, relevant and liberatory learning than approaches which rely on transmission and abstract presentation of mathematical content. In Malawi, proposals to reform the outdated secondary mathematics curriculum have been made with the aim of aligning mathematics instruction with the social and political changes in the current Malawian society. Using a case study approach, this study investigated the extent to which everyday experiences could be used as a vehicle for changing the learning and teaching of secondary mathematics in Malawi. The study was collaborative, taking place over a period of five months in severely overcrowded and poorly resourced classes in two schools. It involved three mathematics teachers in a cycle of planning and teaching mathematics lessons based on the use of everyday experiences, and observation of and reflection on these lessons, in order to document the effects of using everyday experiences on student learning and teachers' teaching practices. The data was collected through student questionnaires; classroom observations and fieldnotes; interviews and reflective meetings with teachers; and informal meetings with key education officials in Malawi. Mathematics examination results from students involved in this study and a corresponding group from the previous year were collected. A reflective and critical approach was adopted in the interpretation and discussion of the data. Teachers' participation in this study resulted in heightened awareness of their teaching roles and the value of linking school mathematics with everyday experience. The study also shows that students found mathematics interesting and important to learn despite their lack of success in it. In addition, the study documented a number of constraints to change in mathematics instruction such as teachers' focus on mathematics content and examination requirements, and students' resistance to inquiry learning. It also recorded possibilities and barriers to collaboration both between teachers and researchers, and teachers themselves. The findings of this study are timely since they could serve to inform the reform of the Malawian secondary mathematics curriculum currently being undertaken, which began without a critical examination of the classroom conditions necessary to accommodate a socio-politically relevant mathematics education.

Doctoral research and scholarly communication : candidates, supervisors and information literacy

This study investigates information literacy and scholarly communication within the processes of doctoral research and supervision at a distance. Both doctoral candidates and supervisors acknowledge information literacy deficiencies and it is suggested that disintermediation and the proliferation of information may contribute to those deficiencies. Further to this, the influence of pedagogic continuity—particularly in relation to the information seeking behaviour of candidates—is investigated, as is the concomitant aspect of how doctoral researchers practise scholarly communication. The well-documented and enduring problem for candidates of isolation from the research cultures of their universities is also scrutinised. The contentious issue of more formally involving librarians in the doctoral process is also considered, from the perspective of candidates and supervisors. Superimposed upon these topical and timely issues is the theoretical framework of adult learning theory, in particular the tenets of andragogy. The pedagogical-andragogical orientation of candidates and supervisors is established, demonstrating both the differences and similarities between candidates and supervisors, as are a number of independent variables, including a comparison of on-campus and off-campus candidates. Other independent variables include age, gender, DETYA (Department of Education, Training & Youth Affairs) category, enrolment type, stage of candidature, employment and status, type of doctorate, and English/non-English speaking background. The research methodology uses qualitative and quantitative techniques encompassing both data and methodological triangulation. The study uses two sets of questionnaires and a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of on-campus and off-campus doctoral candidates and supervisors from four Australian universities. Major findings include NESB candidates being more pedagogical than their ESB counterparts, and candidates and supervisors from the Sciences are more pedagogical than those from Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, or Education. Candidates make a transition from a more dependent and pedagogically oriented approach to learning towards more of an independent and andragogical orientation over the duration of their candidature. However, over tune both on-campus and off-campus candidates become more isolated from the research cultures of their universities, and less happy with support received from their supervisors in relation to their literature reviews. Ill The study found large discrepancies in perception between the support supervisors believed they gave to candidates in relation to the literature review, and the support candidates believed they received. Information seeking becomes easier over time, but candidates face a dilemma with the proliferation of information, suggesting that disintermediation has exacerbated the challenges of evaluation and organisation of information. The concept of pedagogic continuity was recognised by supervisors and especially candidates, both negative and positive influences. The findings are critically analysed and synthesised using the metaphor of a scholarly 'Club' of which obtaining a doctorate is a rite of passage. Recommendations are made for changes in professional practice, and topics that may warrant further research are suggested.

Encounters with 'strangers' : towards dialogical ethics in English language education

This article takes the inquiry into 'nativeness' and 'non-nativeness' to the level of developing an ethical framework for professional practice in English language education. In so doing, our aim is firstly to use the 'sociology of the stranger' as a framework to problematize discourses on the Other and Othering. We shall argue that these discourses are sedimented in the modernist project of perpetual purification in which "order making ... becomes indistinguishable from announcing ever new abnormalities, drawing ever new dividing lines, identifying and setting apart ever new strangers" (Bauman, 1997, p. 11). Our next step is to open up the possibility of transcending these discourses in education through a dialogical ethics of respecting the otherness in the Other. Pedagogy based on the ethics of dialogical recognition emphasizes the value of difference in learning through the 'surplus of vision' that the Other provides for constructing new meanings and new ways to mean (Bakhtin, 1981; Levinas, 1969). The recognition of 'the foreigner in the self' has significant pedagogical implications for language educators and marks the movement from ethics to politics.

Development and evaluation of a glass-box interpreter for teaching novice programmers

This study evaluates the efficacy of a low-level program visualisation tool as a learning aid for novice programmers and develops and evaluates features which might further enhance the benefit of a low-level program visualisation tool (called Bradman). Bradman is an interpreter which makes visible aspects of the programming process which are normally hidden from the user.

Transition of understandings in science and SOSE : a case study

The newly developed Curriculum Standards Framework lacked supporting school documentation to implement an effective program in Science and SOSE. The task was to create it, together with the knowledge and understandings that were required to apply it. The thesis demonstrates the difficulties faced in actively pursuing curriculum change in a primary school.

Learning approaches and student perceptions of teaching quality

This research investigated the links between students' personal characteristics, their approaches to learning and their perceptions of teaching quality in a first-year accounting unit. Significant learning differences were found between Australian and Chinese students, and strong inter-relationships between contextual factors, such as teaching quality, and learning approaches were identified.

Secondary students

Results indicated: Literacy programs provided optimal learning environments for access, participation and outcomes, reconnecting marginalised students to education; students were able to determine their preferred reading methods and educational pathways; students could negotiate work requirements, learned to be optimistic through creative pedagogies and built solid relationships through improved social skills.

A phenomenological study of the lived experiences of registered nurses seconded to perform clinical teaching

This phenomenological study explores the clinical teaching experiences of registered nurses seconded from a large metropolitan hospital. The study is based on a conceptual framework encompassing the notion of role, learning and teaching.