The under-theorisation of the concept of generation within feminism has led to negative and unproductive disputes. In the heated generational exchanges of the 1990s, feminists were cast according to age into opposing sides: old or young, mothers or daughters, second wave or third wave. These categories are limiting and the conflict harmful for feminist politics. In order to avoid these pitfalls, a theoretical framework is developed that draws on the work of Karl Mannheim and post feminist cultural analyses to elucidate the significance of popular culture in marking a generation. This framework then enables an examination of the way feminist discourses are played out in popular culture and helps explain young women’s complex engagement with feminism. This thesis brings together interviews with young Australian women and an analysis of two television programmes that exhibit post feminist characteristics: Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives. It examines the ways in which young women critically engage with these texts and explores popular culture as an arena where feminist discourses are contested. The era is characterised as post feminist because of the entanglement of feminism with popular culture, but it is also marked by the intersection of equality feminism with a neoliberal emphasis on individualism. Within this context, second wave feminist discourses of equality have slipped into the rhetoric of choice, which has important implications for feminist theory. The pervasive sense of choice and opportunity circulated by these discourses obscures the structural limitations that continue to affect women’s lives and demand that women make the “right” choices, build a successful career, find a suitable long-term partner, and become a good mother. This thesis mobilises post feminism as a valuable analytical concept that can be used to characterise the current generation of young women, not simply because they have grown up after the height of second wave feminism, but because the prevailing discourses of this historical moment reflect both continuity with, and a challenge to, earlier feminist debates. The mainstreaming of many feminist ideas and their reflection in popular culture provides the conditions for new forms of feminism to emerge. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Content analyses of research in the literature of gifted education (Coleman, 2006; Rogers, 1999, 2006) has shown a consistent absence of research investigating methodology for instructing gifted students and for the development of expertise using new technologies. In this study, utilising electronic instructional delivery, an investigation was undertaken of the differential effects and appropriateness of matching the prior knowledge of the learner to the instructional method. Underpinned with a theoretical understanding of gifted education and cognitive load theory, a series of three experiments was designed and implemented to determine whether gifted students learn more effectively under guided discovery design than with example based instruction, while not identified as gifted ability students perform significantly better under direct example based instruction than with guided discovery. Data were collected and analysed in three stages. Experiment 1 was conducted in the novel domain of Boolean switching equations. Experiments 2 and 3 used identical test instruments with novel tasks in the semi-familiar domain of geometry. A total of 155 Years 7, 8 and 9 students at three metropolitan secondary schools participated. The study explored whether the presence of schemas, that facilitated greater problem-solving ability in gifted students, would generate clear evidence of instructional efficiency and preference for either mode of instruction. As students advanced from novice state to expert in particular domains of learning, it was anticipated that gifted students would progress from benefiting from worked example instruction to more efficient learning in guided discovery mode. This hypothesis was rejected as the results from each of the experiments did not confirm the hypothesised outcomes. There was no manifested expertise-reversal effect. The absence of any clear delineation of enhanced learning proficiency mode of instruction for gifted students does, however, contribute to the advancement and understanding of cognitive load theory and the complexity of learning strategies necessary for gifted learners.

It is argued that physical (and not inherently psychical) properties are insufficient to constitute all else. Specifically they cannot constitute an instance (K1) of our knowledge that the number of existing things is at least one. This employs a new version of entry by entailment: Every fact as to the presence of a constituted trope is entailed by facts about the presence of the ontologically basic, where a property is ontologically basic if and only if the fact of its presence is not entailed (even allowing exhaustive definitions of all tropes in terms of their ultimate constituents) by facts about the presence of things non-identical to it. Existence is a mind-independent presence. Things can be present (to mind) as opposed to existing but must be accompanied by the presence of all of their parts and of anything else that their presence might entail. This includes some existing thing in the case that knowledge that something exists is present, since it is analytic that knowledge cannot be of what is not the case. Purely dynamical properties cannot exist apart from instances of some other property kind (on pain of regress as to what moves). Material properties can make a difference to cognitive states only in virtue of differences they can make to dynamical properties. Thus, any cognitive state present in some dynamical and material scenario must be present in an equivalent purely dynamical scenario, which cannot exist. Hence: 1) There can be no knowledge of existence, or thus trope K1, in a purely dynamical scenario. 2) There can thus neither be a trope K1 if only dynamical and material properties (and what they constitute) are present. So because there is a trope K1, there are one or more ontologically basic properties which are not dynamical or material. It is further argued that nothing ontologically basic is per se (directly and non-obscurely) conceivable except as psychicality or a categorical basis of a disposition to change or constancy (respectively, dynamism and materiality). Thus at least one ontologically basic property is either psychical or not per se conceivable. The latter proposition has less merit.

Cognitive load theory uses the immense size of human long-term memory and the significantly limited capacity of working memory to design instructional methods. Five basic principles: information store principle, borrowing and reorganizing principle, randomness as genesis principle, narrow limits of change principle, and environmental linking and organizing principle explain the cognitive basics of this theory. The theory differentiates between three major types of cognitive load: extraneous load that is caused by instructional strategies, intrinsic cognitive load that results from a high element interactivity material and germane load that is concerned with activities leading to learning. Instructional methods designed in accordance with cognitive load theory rely heavily on the borrowing and reorganizing principle, rather than on the randomness as genesis principle to reduce the imposed cognitive load. As learning fractions incorporates high element interactivity, a high intrinsic cognitive load is imposed. Therefore, learning fractions was studied in the experiments of this thesis. Knowledge held in long-term memory can be used to reduce working memory load via the environmental linking and organizing principle. It can be suggested that if fractions are presented using familiar objects, many of the interacting elements that constitute a fraction might be embedded in stored knowledge and so can be treated as a single element by working memory. Thus, familiar context can be used to reduce cognitive load and so facilitate learning. In a series of randomized, controlled experiments, evidence was found to argue for a contextual effect. The first three experiments of this thesis were designed to test the main hypothesis that presenting students with worked examples concerning fractions would enhance learning if a real-life context was used rather than a geometric context. This hypothesis was tested using both a visual and a word-based format and was supported by the results. The last two experiments were intended to test the context effect using either worked examples or problem solving. The results supported the validity of the previous hypothesis using both instructional methods. Overall, the thesis sheds some light on the advantages of using familiar objects when mastering complex concepts in mathematics.

In a series of five experiments, the effectiveness of using worked examples to teach grade 8 and 9 students the process of translating a written sentence into an algebraic equation, was examined from a cognitive load perspective. The first experiment compared the use of worked examples with a problemsolving strategy. Both for higher and lower levels of prior knowledge in mathematics, the worked examples format group performed significantly better than the problemsolving group. In experiment 2 the worked examples format was compared with an ??algorithm?? method for teaching students to write equations. No significant differences were found in performance on similar questions at either the higher or the lower levels of prior knowledge. However, for transfer questions and questions testing understanding, the performance of the worked examples format was significantly better than that of the algorithm format for the higher level of prior knowledge, though differences were not significant for the lower level. In experiment 3 worked examples using two different methods of checking the translation, the ??comparison?? method and the ??substitution?? method, were compared. No significant differences were found between the two methods for either knowledge group. In experiments 4 and 5 it was shown that grade 8 and 9 students were initially disadvantaged by the inclusion of a checking method. However, after a more substantial period of acquisition, for the students with a lower level of prior knowledge, those who received checking instructions performed significantly better than did those who did not receive such instructions. In contrast, higher knowledge students were continually disadvantaged by the inclusion of a checking method. Higher knowledge students receiving checking instructions experienced a significantly higher cognitive load than did those not receiving them, as shown by a measure of mental effort. The positive effect of checking for lower knowledge students and the negative effect for higher knowledge students in this domain is a further example of the expertise reversal effect. Evidence was found that the inclusion of checking instructions led to a redundancy effect for higher knowledge learners and caused retroactive inhibition for all learners.

Many large-scale national and international testing programs use the Rasch model to govern the construction of measurement scales that can be used to monitor standards of performance and monitor performance over time. A significant issue that arises in such programs is that once a decision has been made to use the model, it is not possible to reverse the decision if the data do not fit the model. There are two levels of question that result from such a situation. One of them involves the issue of misfit to the model. That is, how robust is the model to violations of fit of the data to the model? A second question emerges from the premise that the issue of fit to the model is a relative matter. That is, ultimately, it becomes the decision of users as to whether data fit the model well enough to suit the purpose of the users. Once this decision has been made, such as in the case of large-scale testing programs like the ones refocused to above, then the question reverts to one in which the focus is on the applications of the Rasch model. More specifically, in the case of this study, the intention is to examine the consequences of variability of fit to the Rasch model on the measures of student performance obtained from two different equating procedures. Two related simulation studies have been conducted to compare the results obtained from using two different equating procedures (namely separate and concurrent equating) with the Rasch Simple Logistic model, as data-model fit gets progressively worse. The results indicate that when data-model fit ranges from good fit to average fit (MNSQ ??? 1.60), there is little or no difference between the results obtained from the different equating procedures. However, when data-model fit ranges from relatively poor fit to poor fit (MNSQ &gt 1.60), the results from using different equating procedures prove less comparable. When the results of these two simulation studies are translated to a situation in Australia, for example, where different states use different equating procedures to generate a single comparable score and then these scores are used to compare performances amongst students and to predetermined standards or benchmarks, it raises significant equity issues. In essence, it means that in the latter situation, some students are deemed to be either above or below the standards purely as a consequence of the equating procedure selected. For example, students could be deemed to be above a benchmark if separate equating was used to produce the scale; yet these same students could be deemed to fall below the benchmark if concurrent equating is used. The actual consequences of this decision will vary from situation to situation. For example, if the same equating procedure was used each year to equate the data to form a single scale, then it could be argued that it does not matter if the results vary from occasion to occasion because it is consistent for the cohort of students from year to year. However, if other states or countries, for example, use a different equating procedure and the results are compared, then there is an equity problem. The extent of the problem is dependent upon the robustness of the model to varying degrees of misfit.

This study sought to explore the question of what personal and professional characteristics may be particularly relevant to effective teachers of the gifted, by investigating the characteristics of effective teachers identified in both the general teacher effectiveness literature and the gifted education literature, through the perceptions of gifted primary students about teachers they regarded as effective. A questionnaire was created for this study, comprised of items which represented characteristics identified from the literature review and determined to be relevant to students' experiences. This questionnaire was distributed to the sample of intellectually gifted primary students (n = 168), and their responses were examined for differences between moderately gifted (n = 74) and highly gifted primary students (n = 94), as well as female (n = 84) and male (n = 81) gifted primary students. This study also recorded gifted primary students' opinions regarding what they believe were the characteristics that made their nominated teachers so effective, through the use of an open-ended question in the questionnaire. This study found that the characteristics of effective teachers identified in both the general teacher effectiveness and the gifted education literatures were supported by gifted primary students' perceptions of their nominated teachers. This study also found differences between moderately gifted and highly gifted primary students, as well as gender differences on a number of characteristics. These differences support the need to examine, more carefully, teacher behaviour and strategies in the classroom for differences in how they may influence the learning of students of different levels of ability and gender. A qualitative analysis of gifted primary students' answers to the open-ended question also revealed in-depth information about how teachers' characteristics are related to each other, and how students perceive them to be effective, as well as suggesting characteristics that were not identified in the previous review of the literature.

The older woman's body is an example of the discontinuous nature of those beings who come under the rubric of woman and, as such, demontrates the impossibility of a unitary representation of woman. This thesis explores the social construction of the older woman's body both as abject and as 'docile/useful' and proposes how this abjectification can be re-inscribed as transgressive through a de-territorialization of the older woman's body.This thesis positions the older woman's body as (un)becoming because it lacks cultural intelligibility as representative of the feminine on the one hand and, on the other, because it disrupts normative ideals of femininity and eludes disciplinary practices. Sexuality is used as a resource to conjure, construct, reinforce and validate the 'ideal' woman, a model against which the older woman is redefined as asexual. I argue that the particular technologies employed in the production of the older woman's 'docile/useful' body are those of the health sciences. A 'docile/useful' body transforms the older woman into a knowable, treatable and profitable body through discourses of health. Mass mammographic screening is analysed in order to illustrate how the biomedical sciences are employed in the regulation of the older woman's body through the co-option of health promotion strategy as a disciplinary practice. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Social, economic, and cultural changes in the 1970s brought about a level of anxiety as to what constituted masculine identity in an era of rising unemployment; diminishing paternal authority within the family; a feminising of the workplace accompanying technological development; and the insistence on 'equal rights' by homosexual, women's and racial minority groups. The feeling of panic that accompanied the rapid social change of the period was reflected in a body of mainstream American films that have come to categorise 'eighties cinema'. These films depicted a style of masculinity that centered on tough, muscular bodies; violence that was both sadistic and masochistic; sexuality that was simultaneously homophobic and homoerotic; patriarchy restored through a refigured father that incorporated the maternal; the creation of all-male worlds through the exclusion of the feminine; and a nostalgia for a stable masculine identity derived more from a fear of the future than a remembrance of the past. The representations of masculinity in these films can be seen as part of a New Right Movement, symptomatic of Reaganite values. The films can also be read as a postmodern play with the images of another generation, in an acting out of excessive cultural expectations. The movies' version of masculinity also offered a fantasy space, providing heroism and power as a counterpoint to dissatisfaction and impotence. In encompassing elements of all of these, a conservative role playing that offered the protection of fantasy and the fun of a game, the films functioned as masquerade. This group of films were a masculine masquerade, in that they were an enactment of a conservative version of masculinity that was a pleasurable game of excess, and at the same time a defence against anxiety in the face of changing social patterns. The masquerade disguised as a quest for the phallus, hiding both the desire, and the refusal, to renounce masculine social power / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the results of a hepatitis B vaccination questionnaire study that was completed by medical officers, nurses, carers of the developmentally disabled, and correctional officers in the Greater Western Sydney area of New South Wales, Australia. The main aim of the study was to contrast these four high risk occupational groups for their acceptance of hepatitis B vaccination, seroconversion status, and behavioural, attitudinal, motivational and institutional determinants of their vaccination status. The results of the thesis revealed that medical officers and nurses were the most likely to be tested and vaccinated for seroconversion, while DD carers and correctional officers had the largest number of Not Vaccinated respondents. The findings of the questionnaire are discussed in some detail. It is also suggested that groups differ in the degree of hepatitis risk anxiety they experience as well as the degree of control felt over their health status. A number of indications for personal, institutional and governmental interventions to increase vaccination levels are discussed. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)