Complete thesis - Murdoch University

This leap, from one lecturer to all Engineering academics, would not have taken place withoutthe support provided by the rest of the SE team. In particular, Lynne Fowler was instrumentalin ensuring that a seamless approach to the learning of SE was maintained. What we didn’twant was to see-saw the students back and forth between the learning models I was applying,and more traditional approaches. Lynne was willing to follow through with student-centredlearning in the units she co-ordinated, so a holistic approach was generally maintained. Thesuccess of this was demonstrated when students complained that other units ‘treated themlike school students’. Lynne’s collaboration was also invaluable in the learning styles researchundertaken within the School. This was her initiation, that I wanted to use and extend.Action Research requires participants willing to change. To all the SE students who allowedme to scrutinise their learning, to place them in learning environments which both challengedtheir perceptions of how they should be taught and took them outside their comfort zone,thank you. The fact that so many of you have kept in touch since graduating, and are willingto share the joys of your successes is wonderful. Obviously your undergraduate experiencewas not that bad, although the grumbles were pretty extensive at the time.Outside of Murdoch support was strongest from two different directions.To my partner, Andrew Marriott, thank you for allowing me the space to do this work – thatoften meant pretending I was working full-time, rather than part-time.Considering everyone was undertaking some form of study during this period - Andrew wasundertaking a PhD part-time as well as being in full time work; our daughters were completingtheir secondary schooling and then undertaking tertiary study - our household has inevitablybeen chaotic. Our teenagers learnt to shy away from mum in front of the computer. Onlythe cats saw it as an opportunity to snuggle on my lap. So thank you to Ariel and Tegan(the daughters, not the cats) – I hope you get all the support you need as you further yourstudies.Finally I must acknowledge the encouragement provided by Professor Paul Swatman. Asupervisor who enables his research students rather than constraining them has a rare gift.Thank you Paul for helping me maintain a balance between this freedom and the disciplinenecessary to complete good research. I hope I do as excellent a job supervising my researchstudents.Jocelynxviii