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.
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.
Making a difference by embracing cooperative learning practices in an alternate setting: an exciting combination to incite the educational imagination
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Classroom Interaction Vol. 47, no. 2 (2012), p. 13-24
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- Description: This paper outlines a study of an alternate approach to educating Year 9 students in a residential setting. The School for Student Leadership (SSL) in Victoria, Australia, provides a nine-week program focusing on leadership, relationship-building and self-awareness. The philosophy of the school, which has continually evolved since its inception in 2000, appears to have strong connections with the principles of cooperative learning, while also being influenced by theories relating to experiential and service learning and adolescent leadership development. A mixed methods approach was used to collect data through surveys and focus group interviews relating to student perceptions of their educational experience at the SSL. The qualitative findings presented in this paper suggest that all five elements of cooperative learning, as theorized by Johnson and Johnson (1989; 2009), feature in students' discussions of their experiences and that cooperative learning within this context provides a unique platform for the development of positive attitudes toward learning and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Shifting the focus in teacher education: foregrounding the value of teacher/student relationships
- Authors: Dyson, Michael , Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: The Australian Teacher Education Association Conference p. 1-6
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- Description: Alternate or non-traditional educational settings within Australia have undergone a period of expansion over the last decade, yet there has not been any substantive recognition of this growth within teacher education programs (Plunkett & Dyson, 2010). However, since 2000 a research partnership that has been operating between one of Victoria’s most innovative alternate educational settings - the School for Student Leadership (SSL) and Monash University, has attempted to redress the dearth of research into alternate settings and related potential change within Teacher Education. This paper reports on part of that ongoing longitudinal mixed method study, specifically highlighting the impact that reflection on practice, which is built into the program, has had on building positive relationships between staff and Year 9 students (Dyson & Plunkett, 2010). Findings support Mezirow’s (1991) contention that transformative learning occurs as the result of the reflection process, which in turn leads to a shift in the role and nature of the teacher and allows for openness in communication with students, creating enhanced relationships. As acknowledged by both Cranton (2007) and Glasser (1998) the recognition of the importance of self and ones values and beliefs in relation to others is an essential part of learning. In particular we suggest that connectedness, especially between teacher and students, promotes active engagement concomitantly enhancing transformative learning. We propose that it is important that an understanding of these factors should foreground any discussions about future developments in teacher education.
New teachers learning in rural and regional Australia
- Authors: Somerville, Margaret , Plunkett, Margaret , Dyson, Michael
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 38, no. 1 (2010), p. 39-55
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- Description: This paper reports on a longitudinal ethnographic study of beginning primary school teachers in rural and regional Victoria, Australia. The study uses a conceptual framework of place and workplace learning to ask: How do new teachers learn to do their work and how do they learn about the places and communities in which they begin teaching? In this paper, we focus on data from the first year of the three-year longitudinal study, using a place-based survey and ethnographic interviews. We found that the space of the classroom was the dominant site of learning to become a teacher for the new teachers in this study. This learning was understood through the discourse of classroom management. Analysis of these storylines reveals the ways in which the community and classroom are not separate but intertwined, and the process of learning about their communities began through the children in their classes.
Re-conceptualizing ability grouping within a social justice framework : A student perspective
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Gifted Education Vol. 18, no. 2 (2009), p. 5-16
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- Description: Ability grouping has continued to attract considerable negative press due to a perceived lack of fit within a socially just educational framework. Yet the student perspective on this issue has been notably absent from much of the research. This study investigated the views of Year 12 students reflecting on their educational experience at a disadvantaged rural secondary college, where for the first 3 years they were grouped in two different settings: ability based and mainstream. As year 7s these students had participated in an initial study examining differences in perceptions relating to the academic and social aspects of their first year of secondary education. This research represents part of a longitudinal follow-up study aimed at determining whether the different settings impacted over time on student perceptions of their experience. Initial findings suggested that both student groups viewed their educational experience as both appropriate and positive and that neither considered themselves disadvantaged, a perception that was supported by the longitudinal data. Therefore the question could be posed: if students perceive their educational experience as appropriate, within a framework of awareness of the possible alternatives, could this be considered socially just, and concomitantly, could ability grouping then be re-conceptualised as having a place within a socially just educational framework?
Student attitudes towards learning in differentiated settings
- Authors: Kronborg, Leonie , Plunkett, Margaret , Kelly, Liz , Urquhart, Felicity
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Gifted Education Vol. 17, no. 2 (2008), p. 23-32
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- Description: This research examined the attitudes of Year 7 students in an independent girls' school in Melbourne, towards the learning environment in their English, mathematics and science classes. Whilst science classes at the school were not explicitly differentiated on the basis of ability, an Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) operated for English and maths classes. Fifty-eight Year 7 students completed surveys examining their perceptions towards achievement, motivational orientation and overall satisfaction with their classes. Results indicated that students with involvement in extended curriculum classes had more positive perceptions of these classes but their overall attitude towards learning in the mainstream environment was also more positive. A finding of particular interest was that ECP students rated themselves as more intrinsically and less extrinsically motivated than peers in mainstream mixed-ability classes and thus had motivational orientations that were more likely to be associated with achievement, even in mixed ability settings.