'Broadening horizons' : raising youth aspirations through a Gippsland school/industry/university partnership
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret , Dyson, Michael
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Educational researchers and the regional university : agents of regional-global transformations 6 p. 93-114
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- Description: The International Labour Organization characterises being young in today's labour market as 'not easy'. In parts of Gippsland, a regional area of Victoria Australia, it is certainly not easy because youth unemployment reached 21.7% in 2016, the second highest in the state. Within this regional-global context, research into youth aspirations is often bounded by a deficit-focused framework with little emphasis on contextual positives. This chapter, however, reports on a 5-year project of an innovative regional school-industry partnership. 'Broadening Horizons' provides project-based workplace learning units where partners immerse students in 'realworld problems' such as road safety and public transport. The Gippsland regional office of the Department of Education sought a formal evaluation of the project from the local university, at the time Monash Gippsland, but in 2014, we became part of FederationUniversity Australia. This chapter outlines findings from a mixedmethodology evaluation of the project's pilot stage and points out a number of important factors. These include a broader understanding of youth career support, youth aspirations and education/industry partnerships in a regional context, and the importance of involving parents. One school, in particular, achieved very successful parental involvement, which had a major impact on the learning and engagement of the students involved.We conclude that projects like this help to illustrate the complexities associated with youth aspirations in a regional context and may help to challenge associated, unsubstantiated stereotypes. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019. All rights are reserved.
A chronological history of the school
- Authors: Reeves, Mark , Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Surviving, thriving and reviving in adolescence : Research and narratives from the school for student leadership Chapter 2 p. 7-25
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- Description: This chapter introduces the Alpine School and its original purpose and goals before leading into the story of the historical development of the current School for Student Leadership (SSL). It outlines the extensive political background behind the creation of this unique Victorian school and the search for an appropriate principal. The development of the school from a single campus to the current three campuses is detailed, with photos of each included to illustrate the diverse environmental contexts that are represented. Also presented is an outline of some of the major differences in the curriculum and overall experience that students receive through a term spent at the SSL, compared to that offered via traditional mainstream education. The different learning opportunities resulting from a program that focuses on providing a rite of passage for adolescents and includes experiential learning, reflection and a Community Learning Project are discussed, illustrating the contemporary approach used at the school to meet the cognitive, physical, social and emotional needs of the attending Year 9 students.
A narrative account of the research journey
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Surviving, thriving and reviving in adolescence : Research and narratives from the school for student leadership Chapter 3 p. 27-42
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- Description: This narrative chapter unravels the story of the research journey undertaken over the last 16 years as part of a partnership between the Alpine School/School for Student Leadership and staff from Monash University’s Gippsland campus, which later became part of Federation University, Australia. It has been written in a narrative style to provide a conceptual context for discussing some of the major research insights from this partnership, including the significance of a ‘Landscape of Transformation’ as an overarching framework that has emerged from this longitudinal study. An outline of the research directions, and the associated teams who have been involved, is clarified. Also presented is a full listing of publications and reports associated with the research, with a focus on some of the key findings which are covered in more detail in later chapters.
A roadmap for change : charting the course of gifted educational provision in Lebanon
- Authors: Antoun, Maya , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Educational Reform Vol. 32, no. 3 (2023), p. 279-293
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- Description: This article reviews and further develops understandings gleaned from an investigation of public and private school teachers’ perceptions of talent development and their ability to implement specialized approaches for gifted students in a country without specific educational policies for this population. Through a discussion of findings from a previous study investigating the perceptions and practices of more than 280 Lebanese teachers, new insights to inform future policy are provided into how talent development is perceived and responded to within the Lebanese educational context. These understandings helped inform the development of a culturally appropriate conceptual framework, derived from Gagné's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (2008). The resultant framework addresses how the broader socio-economic cultural context within Lebanon appears to have influenced teachers’ perceptions and practices and the choices made in terms of gifted provision in classrooms. This framework could assist educational leaders in Lebanon to implement changes that would not only benefit gifted learners but also have potential flow on benefits for the country as a whole. © The Author(s) 2023.
A unique educational experience for adolescents: what do students and parents love and fear about the School for Student Leadership?
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret , Dyson, Michael , Schneider, Peter
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: AARE 2013: Shaping Australian Educational Research, Australian Association for Research in Education p. 1-9
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- Description: The School for Student Leadership (SSL) was set up in Victoria, Australia, in 2000 to provide an avenue for Year 9 students in government secondary schools to experience an alternative to the ‘traditional classroom’. The three campuses of the school provide nine-week fully residential programs that promote the development of leadership skills and relationship building, within a framework underpinned by experiential education and cooperative learning practices. At a time when engagement and expectations are not necessarily in alignment, an opportunity to experience education in a unique way is enticing for both students and their parents. Yet there are also associated fears, particularly for parents. For example, the experience provided deviates substantially from the traditional school curriculum and this could be seen as impacting on student progress. There are also fears about how fifteen year olds will cope with sharing dormitories, taking responsibility for their own washing and cleaning, helping with cooking, taking part in physically challenging expeditions, having limited access to social media and surviving without ‘junk food’. This paper reports on part of a longitudinal study that began in partnership with Monash University in 2000. The most recent aspect involved a mixed methods study to collect data from parents and students who were participating in the program at the SSL during Terms 3 and 4 in 2012. Pre and post surveys were conducted as well as interviews with both parents and students. Data was analysed using SPSS and NVivo, however the focus of this paper will be the qualitative aspects of the initial findings from the interviews. Preliminary findings from 12 focus group and 24 individual interviews conducted with student participants, suggest a high level of respect for and engagement with the program offerings. While initial concerns about coping with physical and social challenges were expressed, educational concerns were almost non-existent. A major theme that emerged from the data was the importance of relationships, with the vast majority perceiving that lifelong friendships had been forged with their peers. Students also drew clear distinctions between the positive relationships they had developed with SSL teachers compared to teachers at their home schools. Parents were also overwhelmingly positive about the experiences they perceived their adolescent children had while at the SSL, despite initial fears. Interviews with 15 parents illustrated that they did have a number of concerns that were both educational and social, which was different to the focus of the students. However the reality for these parents was that these fears did not come to fruition, and thus they ended up sharing their child’s enthusiasm for the program, which they felt had supported both cognitive and social development in their adolescent children to a greater extent than traditional education.
Adapting structuration theory as a comprehensive theory for distance education : The ASTIDE model
- Authors: Aktaruzzaman, Md , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning Vol. 19, no. 1 (2016), p. 19
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- Description: Distance Education (DE) theorists have argued about the requirement for a theory to be comprehensive in a way that can explicate many of the activities associated with DE. Currently, Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) (Moore, 1993) and the Theory of Instructional Dialogue (IDT) (Caspi & Gorsky, 2006) are the most prominent theories, yet they still do not represent a unified and comprehensive theory for DE. This paper provides a review of the existing literature on DE theories and identifies potential gaps in theorising distance education. Building on Giddens’ (1984) work, an innovative approach to theorising DE is proposed through the conceptualisation of the Adapting Structuration Theory In Distance Education (ASTIDE) model as a means to explicate DE operations and practices at the institutional and national/international level. It also presents evidence, from a larger study, of the necessity of a comprehensive model such as the ASTIDE constructed through an investigation into the DE systems of developing and developed countries.
Alternative settings - alternative teachers? Reflections on teaching outside the mainstream
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Joint AARE-APERA conference,Australian Association for Research in Education p. 1-12
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- Description: While alternative educational settings in Australia have expanded over the past two decades, there has been little formal research conducted into teacher perceptions of what it means to teach outside the mainstream. This paper outlines part of a longitudinal study involving the School for Student Leadership (SSL), an alternate educational setting in Victoria, Australia, which offers residential programs for Year 9 students. The SSL began operating in 2000 as the Alpine School situated at Dinner Plain and since then two further campuses have been added. A research partnership between Monash University Gippsland and the SSL began in 2001, with this component commencing in 2009 involving a mixed methods study consisting of both surveys and interviews. The focus of this paper is the qualitative findings resulting from interviews with 33 teachers across the 3 campuses. While a small body of literature relating to environmental and experiential education (Brown, 2006, Schartner, 2000, Simmons, 1988, Smith-Cabasto & Cavern, 2006) from a teaching perspective does exist, none really captures the breadth of the type of program offered through the SSL, which does not sit in isolation from broader educational, social and global discourses. While there is an ongoing debate about how we should educate young people there are some points of general agreement. One is that we live in a world of rapid global, technological and social change and education should equip young people to deal with these changes. This particular research provided an opportunity to seek teachers' perceptions about whether this goal was easier to achieve in a non-traditional setting. A particular focus was on participants' current perceptions about their role as 'teacher' and whether it differed depending on the setting. The findings provided interesting insights about the focus of the teachers that choose to become involved, with most suggesting that they were searching for more meaningful ways to connect their pedagogy and practice. They also felt that mainstream settings rarely provided opportunities for the development of substantive relationships with students. There was an acknowledgement that the alternate setting of the SSL did provide a greater opportunity for equipping students to deal with change but this also required teachers to respond differently, shifting the emphasis from content to context and from being a teacher to being an educator, facilitator or mentor.
An innovative approach toward a comprehensive distance education framework for a developing country
- Authors: Aktaruzzaman, Md , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: American Journal of Distance Education Vol. 30, no. 4 (2016), p. 211-224
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- Description: ABSTRACT This article reports on part of a study conducted to collate the policies and practices of two successful distance education providers of the developed world with those of a provider in Bangladesh in order to inform a culturally appropriate distance education framework for a developing country. This article also describes an innovative theoretical model, Adapting Structuration Theory In Distance Education, conceptualized as part of a broader study, to address the underlying issues and to generate propositions for the framework.
Becoming a teacher and staying one: examining the complex ecologies associated with educating and retaining new teachers in rural Australia?
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret , Dyson, Michael
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 36, no. 1 (2011), p. 31-47
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- Description: Abstract: The problem of teacher retention has intensified in Australia, particularly in rural areas, with a number of studies suggesting that beginning teachers are not entering the profession with a commitment to remaining there. This paper reports on a study of 102 new teachers graduating from a rural campus of a major Australian university. Utilising a self devised survey over a 3 year period, graduate reflections were captured on what it meant for them to become a teacher. The research sought to determine graduates’ goals and aspirations for working in the profession in both the long and the short term. Participants reported that while they were looking for stability and would like to remain in their current positions, they were hampered by the present contractual system which eroded any sense of permanence. It is argued that contractual employment disrupts the development of a sense of belonging to the profession and the building of meaningful connections between teachers and their schools, a factor that will require attention if retention issues within rural Australia are to be seriously addressed.
Choice theory, relationships and community
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Surviving, thriving and reviving in adolescence : Research and narratives from the school for student leadership Chapter 4 p. 43-67
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- Description: The themes of ‘relationships’, and ‘community’, amongst others, have been constantly framed and reframed in the research conducted at the three campuses of the School for Student Leadership (SSL), and in the SSL China project, over the past 16 years. The student participants involved in the various research projects continue to highlight these themes and others, revealing that something unique happens at the SSL. This chapter on the student perspective discusses the themes of relationships and community, in the context of an Indigenous cohort of students who attended the Alpine School, which is what the SSL was originally known as. They were a unique cohort, who attended for a 6-week shortened program in 2006. Through focus group discussions at the end of their stay, these students provided through their narratives, key insights into what the experience meant to them. It appears that while the focus of the SSL experience is different, much of what is covered is transferable into mainstream schooling, which means that schools both nationally and internationally have much to learn from the practices of the SSL. This is further evident in the next chapter (Chap. 5), which is also on the student perspective, particularly examining leadership and student engagement in relation to the SSL experience.
Concluding summary
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Surviving, thriving and reviving in adolescence : Research and narratives from the school for student leadership Chapter 12 p. 203-205
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- Description: This final summary brings to a conclusion the narratives and the research associated with our description of the journey of development of this unique school.
Control and resilience : The importance of an internal focus to maintain resilience in academically able students
- Authors: Kronborg, Leonie , Plunkett, Margaret , Gamble, Nicholas , Kaman, Yvette
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gifted and Talented International Vol. 32, no. 1 (2017), p. 59-74
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- Description: This article reports one component of a longitudinal multilayered research project originating from a unique partnership between a university and a selective secondary school in Victoria, Australia. One hundred and twenty-five Year 10 academically able students at the school completed a survey at two different times to investigate a range of motivational constructs, including locus of control and resilience. Students were grouped according to their locus of control (LoC) focus (either internal or external), and, subsequently, scores from their resilience profiles were compared using multivariate analysis of variance. Findings illustrated that students with a more internally focused locus of control were more resilient at two time points. These findings have important implications for educators, as resilience is recognized as an important attribute to be developed in all students, including academically able students.
Curricular responses to teaching gifted students in Australia
- Authors: Kronborg, Leonie , Kelly, Liz , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Curriculum Development and Teaching Strategies for Gifted Learners p. 317-327
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Curriculum differentiation : An innovative Australian secondary school program to extend academic talent
- Authors: Kronborg, Leonie , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Gifted Education Vol. 17, no. 1 (2008), p. 19-29
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- Description: Within Australia, the response to giftedness, whilst undoubtedly influenced by the educational policies of both Britain and the United States, has followed a slightly different developmental trajectory. Individual states and territories have retained the responsibility for primary and secondary education, resulting in quite distinct educational provisioning for gifted and talented students depending on where one lives. The state of Victoria offers a range of options, including some unique programs that appear to be successfully meeting the needs of highly able students in a range of different learning environments. While a number of requirements appear to be vital to any successful programmatic response to meeting the needs of high ability students, curriculum differentiation inevitably emerges as perhaps the most important of all. This paper outlines the results of an evaluation of an Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) in an independent inner city school, where a complex structure of curriculum differentiation was combined with acceleration and ability grouping to provide for a large and diverse range of student needs.
Deep or surface learning? Perceptions of Chinese international and local students in Australian universities
- Authors: Li, Boli , Burke, Jenene , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Issues in Educational Research Vol. 32, no. 1 (2022), p. 149-181
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- Description: Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese international students (CIS) still constitute the largest international population in Australian higher education. Yet limited research has examined the lived learning experience of CIS and local students in Australian universities. Underpinned by Biggs, Kember and Leung’s (2001) 3P model of learning, this article explores the perceptions of CIS regarding their approaches to learning in Australian universities, as compared with Australian domestic students (ADS). Surveys incorporating the Revised Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) were conducted with 156 CIS and 212 ADS from two Australian universities. The findings demonstrated that perceived disparities existed between the two cohorts in terms of their approaches to learning. These disparities, however, did not support the well-documented view of CIS as mainly surface oriented learners but rather as more rounded learners than ADS in their learning approaches. This study gave voice to CIS to reflect on their learning in Australian universities, in conjunction with and supplemented by insights provided by their Australian student counterparts. It also enabled a greater understanding of CIS learning in Western universities, particularly in Australian universities. © 2022, Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Inc.. All rights reserved.
Developing sustainable education in regional Australia
- Authors: Gunstone, Andrew , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Developing sustainable education in regional Australia p. 1-7
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Educating for a sustainable future through the redevelopment of the online learning experience for off-campus students
- Authors: Howard, Renata , Tennant, Judith , Plunkett, Margaret , West, Andrew
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Developing Sustainable Education in Regional Australia Chapter 2 p. 8-24
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Enhancing interpersonal relationships in teacher education through the development and practice of reflective mentoring
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Interpersonal Relationships in Education: From theory to practice Chapter 4 p. 37-56
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- Description: This chapter presents research on a model of reflective mentoring developed and implemented as a way of enhancing interpersonal relationships between pre service and mentor teachers involved in a longitudinal school-based professional experience. The process of reflective mentoring (Dyson, 2002) was developed as an alternative to the more traditional forms of supervision, which tend to involve a power relationship in which the student teacher is monitored and assessed by an experienced teacher or a university lecturer.
Examining teacher attitudes and perceptions of teacher competencies required in a new selective high school
- Authors: Kronborg, Leonie , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Gifted Education Vol. 21, no. 2 (2012 2012), p. 33-36
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- Description: This paper reports on an innovative partnership developed between researchers at an Australian university and a new select entry secondary school. The university-school partnership aimed at assisting the development and growth of the school, through providing expertise in the field of gifted education to teachers, most of whom had limited experience teaching highly able students. Teachers were introduced to relevant research and literature and provided with opportunities to examine their attitudes and understandings. Through a case study utilising qualitative and quantitative methods, teachers participated in surveys and semi-structured interviews. The resultant data formed the basis for the development of a responsive program of on-site professional learning, providing invaluable assistance to the school while also affording teachers the opportunity to develop deeper understandings about teacher knowledge, skills and associated educational needs required in a selective educational environmen
Experimenting with place : The China project
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret , Dyson, Michael , Holcombe, Wendy
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Surviving, thriving and reviving in adolescence : Research and narratives from the school for student leadership Chapter 11 p. 173-201
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- Description: This chapter presents an overview of a research project conducted to determine the impact of an immersion experience in China that was offered to students attending the Alpine campus of the SSL in 2014. The students participated via a state government initiative—the Victorian Young Leaders to China (VYLC) program, which aimed to aid intercultural awareness and understanding of secondary school students. Through pre- and post-surveys and focus group discussions with 43 students and 10 teachers, data was collected about the immersion experience and the impact it had on the participants. Both students and teachers reported on the value of the experience, particularly in terms of increasing intercultural awareness. However, as it was the first time that the China program was offered through the SSL, a number of issues and challenges were highlighted, which provided a sound context for associated changes to ensure that future experiences were as successful as possible. The program was also offered to groups of students attending the SSL during 2015 and 2016 due to the positive feedback from the initial pilot reported in this chapter.