This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between student reading performance and achievement in science. Many students have difficulties comprehending written materials presented to them in science and many tests used to measure achievement in science rely heavily on reading ability. Students may have trouble demonstrating their science knowledge due to their lack of reading skills.In this study, the reading ages and science achievement scores of students were calculated. Twenty activity cards used to teach the science topic Plants and Animals were modified to reduce the language difficulty level. All students in two Year 8 science classes used the modified activity cards and modified science achievement measures. Five students were selected to form a sub-sample of the class group for in-depth observations, interviews, and analysis. These students were low performance readers who achieved poorly on science topic tests even though they had excellent work habits. The student reading ages in the class groups ranged from 8 years 1 month to above 16 years 10 months.The reading performance data were found to correlate significantly with science achievement as measured on topic tests. Class 1 produced a correlation coefficient of 0.46, while Class 2 produced a correlation coefficient of 0.75. In this study it appears that science achievement is related to reading performance.Qualitative analysis of data from the five students in the sub-sample showed that the modified activity cards were relatively easy to use. Students could work on the cards independently. This study demonstrated that textual material needs to be presented at an appropriate reading level for independent learning to occur.All of the students in the sub-sample demonstrated improved science achievement on the modified Plants and Animals topic test. In addition, most other students in the ++ / study improved their performance on the modified science test. Thus, the modiifications appeared to make it easier for most students to demonstrate their science achievement.A positive correlation was found between student reading age and science achievement. Reading performance may be a critical factor in achievement on science tests. If this is the case, learning strategies must be developed that focus on helping students to utilize textual materials effectively.

The operation and development of Western Australian senior secondary schools is based upon traditional theories of organisational management and school administration. The study sought to explore alternative conceptions of the nature of schools and the processes by which they can be improved.Examination of research on school effectiveness revealed that student learning outcomes were consequential on the values and norms of the staff of schools. These values and norms constitute the culture of a school and govern the professional activity of teachers. School culture can be contrasted with the formal school organisation in which the work of teachers is prescribed by explicit rules and regulations. Viewing schools from a cultural rather than organisational perspective requires conceptualising the school as a learning community. A learning community is bonded together by common expectations about the roles of teachers and the learning of students. The predominant consideration is the educative mission of the school and not the requirements of the formal organisation. Organisational development is viewed as cultural transformation. The improvement of the school is facilitated by the growth of a school culture which is supportive of the professional needs of teachers and the educative needs of students.The study utilised a developmental mixed-method research approach to investigate the nature, temporal stability and improvement of the culture of local senior secondary schools.A quantitative instrument was developed to measure aspects of school culture identified in the school effectiveness literature. The School Cultural Elements Questionnaire (SCEQ) provided a measure of the level of teacher efficacy, emphasis on learning, collegiality, collaboration, shared planning and transformational leadership in local schools. The SCEQ data were supplemented by data from a ++ / stratified sample interview programme in two schools. Empirical findings indicated school culture was internally dynamic, in interaction with its external environment and capable of changing. Interview data provided examples of internal and external influences on the maintenance, growth and decline of school culture.The results of the empirical phases of the study were applied in the development of a model of school culture, the School Improvement Model of School Culture. The model contained six cultural constructs which are characteristic of school culture and the processes by which it can be transformed. The model was then applied in a detailed examination of practical and theoretical aspects of Western Australian systemic school improvement initiatives. The effectiveness of these initiatives was explained as a consequence of implementation strategies and their interaction with the prevailing school culture.The study is important for school level personnel, school improvement programme designers and educational researchers. In particular, the School Improvement Model of School Culture provides a significant alternative conception of the nature of schools and the processes by which they improve.

In this thesis, I present a modest polemic about science cultural myths and their influence on school science. My analysis is critical because I seek ultimately to free teachers and students from repressive science cultural myths. Within this thesis, my critical analysis reveals the character of prevailing science cultural myths and provides evidence of their power within school science to legitimate specific forms of science knowledge to the exclusion of other forms. Subsequently, I propose a philosophical science framework for enabling teachers and students of science to transform their teaching and learning practices. These three aspects provide the framework of my thesis.The first step in my critical analysis involved the identification of the major characteristics of cultural myths. A cultural myth is a shared network of beliefs that regulate and order social practices that forgets how it was created. I argue that myths are characterised by their apparent invisibility once their historical evolution has been forgotten. Using this definition, I then examined the genesis of myths during the emergence of experimental philosophy in Western Europe in the 17th century and identified the following science cultural myths: myths associated with a naive realist perspective of observation and experimentation; myths that present science as justified, true knowledge; myths of a mechanical cosmology; and myths associated with the apparent transparency of language.Next, I examined literary aspects of school science, specifically textbooks, to search for the presence of these science cultural myths. I argue that the science presented in school science can be described as science stories, and that within these stories there is an iterative relationship between the 'facts' selected for the telling and science cultural myths. I identified four different types of stories that I ++ / call heroic, discovery, declarative and politically correct science stories, each of which helps to maintain specific myths of science. Using literary theory, I developed an approach to analysis and reconstruction of school science stories that can be used by teachers and students to assist them to transform science stories. Such an approach would help students to hear the multiple voices of science, rather than the mythical single dominant voice.I examined also the power of science cultural myths to assist or enforce the enculturation of pre-service teachers into school science. This examination was a twostep process. Firstly, using repertory grid analysis and interviews, I identified the dominant notions of science held by pre-service teachers before they began teaching Later, in follow-up interviews conducted after they had gained some teaching experience, I obtained critical insights into the interaction between the notions of science held initially by the pre-service science teachers and those endorsed by the school science culture. The results indicate the power of science cultural myths to obligate pre-service teachers to adopt uncritically specific practices within school science.Finally, I propose a philosophy of science for science education that consists of five key referents: construction, tentativeness, dynamism, neopragmatism and critique. This holistic philosophy offers science educators a framework for evolving a school science culture that is critically aware of science cultural myths and their power and that can promote the multiple voices of science.

In an era of comprehensive school reform, it appears that the voice of teachers is seldom solicited or recognized in the process of planning and implementing school-wide reform. The primary purpose of this study was to report the lived experiences of teachers at Timberton North High School (pseudonym) as it related to the Smaller Learning Community (SLC) reform initiative. Research questions addressed how the faculty experienced the SLC initiative and how their experiences were different from their perceived notion of what SLCs were trying to accomplish and in what ways SLCs initiated a socially constructed understanding of educational purposes. This study utilized a social constructivist lens to identify the nuances of reform and the interplay of effects upon the social, historical, and cultural constructs as they existed on the Timberton North campus and in the minds of the faculty members who participated. The lived experience of the faculty members who participated in this study could be summed up in terms of frustration. The concept of frustration was manifest throughout the data as a unifying thread of a socially constructed understanding. Members of the faculty who formally and informally participated cited various evidences to substantiate their position of frustration, which proved invaluable to the success of this research. The theme of frustration, coupled with disaggregated subthemes, offers a hermeneutic understanding as to what was experienced on the Timberton North Campus. An additional theme of “hope” emerged from the data, as each of the faculty members expressed, in one way or another that something good would come as a result of their SLC efforts in the future. There is considerable attention given in this study to the way the SLC concept was first articulated by the school and district and what was actually realized on the Timberton North campus. This further situates the lived experience within the context of the themes. The themes that were derived in this study have also been situated into the current literature that elaborates on issues of teacher emotionality, educational policy, administrative leadership, and educational reform in general. This particular study is primarily beneficial to those who participated. However, this piece of research will provide some breadth to the growing body of research that involves how teachers influence comprehensive high school reform agendas.

*pages 337, 339, 341, 343, 345, 347, 350, 352 were removed from text. / Most research on secondary school dropout has been cross-sectional, and this has made it difficult to know whether the differences observed between dropouts and persisters are antecedents or consequences of attrition. Furthermore, little is known about the causes of dropout among non-majority students such as native Indians. Investigators also have neglected to consider the utility of using theoretical frameworks that have proved useful in understanding various behaviours. This thesis was directed at learning which variables contribute to dropout among Native and nonNative students and at delineating combinations of variables that are useful predictors of enrollment status. The relative merits of the Ajzen-Fishbein model and a general expectancy-value approach also was of concern. To these ends, a longitudinal, multivariate investigation was undertaken. Information from school records and questionnaires was used to determine which factors distinguished students who had persisted from those who had discontinued 1 year and 3.7 years after the initial survey. The results revealed that dropout can be predicted with considerable accuracy even over several years. Intentions, absenteeism, grade average, and perceived value of education were shown to be the most important predictors. Information in school records enabled good prediction. Of the two models, the Ajzen-Fishbein framework showed the most promise. Although the data were consistent with Fishbein's conceptualization of how intentions are formed, it was shown that the model needs refinement in accounting for actual behaviour. On the basis of the findings from this and other research, suggestions are given for decreasing attrition. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Access to an adequate education has been widely considered an undeniable right since Chief Justice Warren stated in his landmark decision that “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments…it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education” (Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954). State constitutions establish rights to public education. State legislatures define expected outcomes and funding mechanisms to operate schools. Over the past sixteen years, plaintiffs have overwhelmingly prevailed in court cases where they have claimed that children have been denied access to an adequate education. Close scrutiny of state education finance systems revealed that few states had seriously attempted to determine objectively the amount of resources actually required to meet children’s learning requirements (Rebell, 2006). The purpose of this study is to assist policy makers in efforts to link resources with expected and mandated outcomes. The central question addressed is “what is the cost of an adequate high school education?” Recommendations focus on: 1) how an adequate education should be defined; 2) understanding conditions that affect student outcomes; 3) using successful school smart practices to allocate resources; and 4) the cost of adequacy. Findings from this study identified three spending thresholds. Vermont high schools that spent below $10,006/ pupil in total “current expense,” below $685/pupil in student support services, or below $595/pupil in administrative services, were very unlikely to have provided an adequate education. The statewide cost of adequacy requires an additional 4.2% in spending per pupil if all schools spend at the threshold level (based on 4 year averages 2002-2005). Recommendations articulate the need for policy makers to accept responsibility for setting student-outcome standards within a framework that considers student needs and the resources they are willing to appropriate to achieve mandated results. State funding incentives for allocating resources to schools must be reconsidered to address the inequitable system presently in place. Further research which articulates smart practices related to governance systems, school leadership, experiential learning opportunities, and instructional methods is necessary.

In this study, the students in my Year 8 high school mathematics class and I set out to develop a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment. This research was informed by the multiple theoretical perspectives of collaborative learning in mathematics education, Vygotskian learning and teaching approaches, and the Constructivist referent for pedagogic practices. Merging these perspectives into a viable foundation for our classroom practices led to the successful development of our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment.Working in groups of three or four, the students developed their social norms and utilised a collaborative approach to their learning of mathematics. Groups engaged in discussion, explanation, negotiation, peer teaching, giving help, receiving help and consensus building as part of their daily routine in our classroom. I kept qualitative and quantitative records of our progress as we worked to improve our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment during the first six months of the school year. I collected daily fieldnotes, audio and video recordings, observations taken by researcher colleagues, learning environment surveys and a variety of other artefacts. All of this data was analysed daily, weekly and monthly, so producing the monthly narratives upon which we based our determination of the success of this implementation.By adopting a Vygotskian perspective we utilised our peer interactive environment to develop and enhance 'scientific' and 'everyday' concepts through individual and group dynamic, overlapping (multiple) 'zones of proximal development' as well as our classwide 'zone of proximal development'. Our constructivist perspective aided us in focusing on our prior knowledge and experiences, which in turn enhanced the effectiveness of our collaborative ++ / classroom learning environment. We utilised the MCI and CLES learning environment measures to direct our endeavours to further improve our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment. The detailed analysis of the data from Months 1, 2 and 3 of this implementation, coupled with highlight analysis of the data from Months 4, 5 and 6, led me to conclude that teachers and their students can develop a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment based on the multiple theoretical perspectives utilised in this study.This research improved my practice as a teacher and provided a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment for the students to work in. It informed many of the calls for further research of this type and established that the theoretical concepts, upon which the implementation was founded, were valuable and useful in the practical setting of our collaborative peer interactive classroom. The findings are also valuable for the support which they offer to the latest movements in education, particularly the student-centred, outcomes-based approaches to learning and teaching. These approaches advocate the use of collaborative learning environments, and this study provides strong guidance as to how such environments can be successfully implemented.

This research was undertaken to explore professional development in Western Australia secondary schools from the perspective of the classroom teacher. A study that bridged quantitative and qualitative methodology, it drew upon teachers' perspectives and reports of professional development activities in which they had been involved over an eighteen month period.The major focuses of the study were in exploring teachers' perceptions of their professional development activities across the following dimensions: choice, the influence of career stage, rationale for choice, equity in relation to access, levels of participation, gender factors, perceptions of effectiveness, influence of school/educational culture.The conceptual framework in this study (refer to Figure 2.1) acknowledges the teacher as the central point of reference due to his/her importance in the classroom as the architect of the learning experiences for students (Fogarty, 1999. Four aspects were identified as influences on teachers. These were professional development; factors affecting teachers' capacity to develop professionally; technological change in education; and the education system in which teachers work. Literature related to these four aspects was explored.The findings of this study, based upon in-depth interviews with teachers, indicated that the respondents were expending significant amounts of time engaged in professional development. Results demonstrated that half of the reported hours (150 hours/person/year) involved personally selected professional development. Teachers' rationale for choosing professional development was in order to become a more effective practitioner resulting in increased learning opportunities for their students. Effectiveness of professional development was predominantly related to the relevancy to teaching, level of interaction within the session, opportunities to ++ / obtain and discuss teaching materials, and the opportunities for reflection on their practices with colleagues.Career stage did indeed appear to influence teachers' choice of professional development, perceptions of effectiveness and quality, personal teaching philosophies, and perceptions of the school and educational culture. Less experienced teachers and those in the final career stage were more focused on increasing their repertoire of teaching strategies. Experienced teachers in the middle career stages were largely concerned with increasing subject knowledge, and expertise required to assist them in their additional duties other than teaching.Equity in accessing professional development was a distinct issue for rural teachers information technology teachers in this study. Information technology teachers reported experiencing frustration with the expense involved, and difficulties in accessing targeted professional development that catered to their specific requirements. Teachers situated in rural areas expressed concern with the lack of choice available to them in the rural situation. This was largely due to extensive travel time to the metropolitan area to attend specific programs, expense involved in accessing professional development and the lack of support by administration in their schools related to professional development.The teachers in this study displayed gender differences in relation to their perceptions and choices of professional development. Female teachers were generally more focused on professional development that directly related to their teaching whereas their male counterparts were overtly seeking professional development that would advance their career aspirations. Family commitments were more frequently cited by male respondents as the reason for non-attendance at out-of-hours professional development.School culture was acknowledged by ++ / teachers in this study as having an impact on professional development. Teachers resoundingly indicated they desired more self-determination in decision-making related to professional development. They expressed the perspective that the employer was demonstrating a lack of trust in teachers' professionalism and was not providing professional development to meet their teaching needs. It appeared that the professional development being provided was ad hoc and a more systematic approach was needed.As a result of this research a model of systematic professional development has been proposed that encompasses the expressed needs of teachers in this study, the literature on effective professional development to improve student learning, and the quality assurance and accountability mechanisms required by the employer.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Issues of culture and worldview and their impact on students' learning of science have become increasingly important to science teachers. This study details work that I carried out in the period 1995-1999 which examined the effect of culture on students' conceptualisations of nature. It is framed as the creation of my own 'living educational theory' as I, a teacher-researcher, dealt with what I perceived were the cultural inequities experienced by students in my classroom. I carried out my first study with a group of seven rural high school students in the Far North of Queensland in Australia, where I was teaching in 1995. Later, in two visits to China, I was able to carry out the same sort of research with a group of seven Chinese college students in Jinan, Shandong Province, PRC, largely using the Chinese language. I used a naturalistic inquiry approach and a semi-structured interview technique to determine students' conceptualisations of nature. I have chosen to embed the results of these two studies within narratives that describe my experiences in the two cultures as I carried out my research. For each culture, I have also developed an epic description of the role of science from the literature and history of that culture. From my three sources of data, interview, narrative and historical description, I have made knowledge claims about the students' beliefs about the natural world.My research findings are ironic to me since they are diametrically opposite to what I had expected. Initially I had believed that Mainland Chinese students would possess a world view full of alternative perspectives to that of Western school science. My research indicates however that students in rural Mainland China hold a traditional and integrated modem Western scientific world view. Although some researchers in other South-East Asian communities propose alternative frameworks for ++ / the teaching of science, frameworks that are actually 'pre-modern' these do not appear to be appropriate for Mainland Chinese students. I had expected that the Australian students would bring a modern Western scientific world view to the science classroom. However, the group of rural Western students that I interviewed displayed a world view that is not recognisable as that of modern Western science. Postmodernism and other cultural and social effects appear to have influenced them to such an extent that some have clearly not 'crossed the border' to a modern Western scientific world view. This thesis reflects my desire to overcome the perceived problem of inequity in my own teaching. The knowledge claims made here give some indication as to how I may improve my own practice. A return to the classroom will allow me to continue the cycle of action and reflection by which I can validate, develop and refine my living educational theory.