Speakers, native and non-native alike, frequently encounter difficulties expressing their intended meaning or attaining a desired communicative goal. To overcome such communication difficulties and achieve the desired communicative goal, speakers employ a variety of Communication Strategies (CSs). For example, circumlocution, clarification requests, gestures, conversation gambits and hesitation devices. Learners who successfully achieve their communication goals through the use of CSs are said to be strategically competent. Research has established that CSs can be effectively taught through explicit instruction. However, the impact of implicit instruction on the development of CSs has not been investigated to date. It is believed that implicit instruction may outperform explicit instruction in enabling learners to acquire the procedural knowledge which is the final step on the learning continuum. The acquired implicit knowledge can be accessed in time pressure situations, stored in mind, retained for longer periods and used more automatically. This study set out to assess the differential impact of explicit and implicit instruction on the use of CSs among pre-intermediate Arabic learners of English as a second language. The total number of learners was fifty-two learners enrolled in two English language centres in the United Kingdom. The learners in each centre were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: implicit instruction (n=18), explicit instruction (n=18), and no instruction (n=16). Both implicit and explicit conditions received strategy instruction in a TBLT format. In the implicit condition, learners were exposed to video examples of two speakers doing similar tasks but no instruction focusing on CSs was provided. In explicit instruction, learners were exposed to the same video examples and instruction focusing on CSs was provided. The third condition served as a control group which was only exposed to pre- and post-tests. Development of CSs was measured through observation of task completion, followed by stimulated recall interviews and completion of a self-report questionnaire. The results suggest that both explicit and implicit strategy instruction has a positive impact on developing participants’ use of CSs and on supporting task completion. The results showed that explicit instruction was beneficial for developing meaning-negotiation, positive self-solving, non-verbal and time-gaining CSs, whereas implicit instruction showed to be effective for developing positive self-solving and time-gaining CSs. Further, learners who received implicit instruction made greater gains in the use of meaning-negotiation strategies from pre-test to delayed post-test than learners who received explicit instruction.

Explicit reference to the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within nurse education literature is scarce, impacting on the understanding of senior lecturers; the focus of this study. There is also the absence of badly-needed transformative educational practices to prepare and support students for current and future decision-making and practice. The concept of ESD is based on the notion that human behaviour, both individually and collectively, directly contributes to climate change, which has an impact on health and well-being. The aim of the study was to investigate the different described ways that ESD is understood in relation to nurse education. The research question was, “what do senior lecturers understand by the term ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ in relation to nurse education?”. A phenomenographic, qualitative approach was adopted. Data collection was undertaken from a sample of ten participants, utilising semi-structured interviews, transcribed verbatim. Analysis was in accordance with the phenomenographical approach (i.e., familiarisation, compilation, condensation, classification/grouping, preliminary comparisons, naming of categories, contrastive comparison of each category) and resulted in the outcome space with referential and structural aspects. Results demonstrated relevance as the referential aspect and responsibility, globalisation and professional leadership as the structural aspects. The findings underpinned a proposed local framework for nurse education practice regarding pedagogical approaches and educator ethical reflection to facilitate effective interdisciplinary transformative educational practices and local change management strategies. Limitations are acknowledged and these include study size, local institutional particulars and manual analysis of the data which may have affected category formation. Face-to-face interviews, personal and professional experiences may have influenced participant responses. To effect purposeful nurse education, continued dissemination and further research should be considered by professional organisations and affected parties regarding explicit reference to ESD.

The study of the perspectives of student nurses with dyslexia has an under-represented knowledge base as this is a relatively new branch of nursing educational research. While researchers have suggested that those with dyslexia experience deficits of executive functionality within practice placements, one outstanding area for exploration is the student nurses’ own lived-experience of the challenges faced in this context. Using mixed-methods my study investigated this phenomenon. I replicated some earlier studies examining the students’ perception of the practice mentor’s provision for learning and student satisfaction with their clinical learning environment. My study’s data showed that there was a perception of satisfaction with the quality of practice placements that were ‘not boring.’ There was apparently little difference in whether or not students look forward to ‘going to shifts on practice placement’ or perceive them to be a ‘waste of time’. The environment was perceived to be ‘very interesting’ for learning. There was a perceived significant difference in mentor behaviour shown in support of the student’s learning and toward them as a person the effect of this relationship was examined further. I also explored interpretations of the students’ own lived-experience of being a student with dyslexia in the practice placement context. A probing investigation into the impact of dyslexia within nursing practice found surprisingly high levels of psychological discriminative abuse (on issues relating to diversity, inclusion and equality), directed toward this vulnerable group of students. For the first time pragmatic constraints around reasonable adjustments were also revealed. The thesis concludes that there is a role indicated for changes to normalise diversity, inclusion and equality with reasonable adjustments in the pedagogy practiced within practice placements. The thesis strongly suggests future work is needed to further eliminate discrimination within practice placement education of nurses.

This study focused on how and why secondary school mathematics teachers might situate real-world equity issues in their lessons. Real-world equity issues in the context of mathematics education are real-world issues which might be critically examined in the mathematics lesson and so encourage pupils to be democratic citizens who are critically literate through mathematics. The first phase of the study involved data collection through semi-structured interviews with eight teachers to learn about teachers’ mathematical beliefs. Four of the participants had mathematics degrees and the others had degrees in other disciplines. An adapted version of Ernest’s model of mathematics-related belief systems was used as card sort prompts for the interview. The second phase of the study collected data from observing the participants teach a mathematics lesson in which they situated real-world equity issues. It also gathered data on the participants’ reflections of the lesson. The data formed the basis of eight case studies. In order to identify the different ways in which real-world equity issues can be situated in the mathematics classroom, data from the lesson observations and teachers’ reflections were used to address the question: ‘How might secondary school mathematics teachers situate real-world equity issues in their lessons?’. The data was analysed by identifying the areas of the curriculum addressed in the lesson, and Skovsmose’s Milieus of Learning matrix was used as a framework to analyse the structure of the lesson. Data from interviews and teachers’ reflections were used to address the question: ‘Why might secondary school mathematics teachers situate real-world equity issues in their lessons?’. Ernest’s model of mathematics-related belief systems was used to analyse the interview data and identify what motivated teachers to situate real-world equity issues in their lessons in the way they did. As the cohort comprised of mathematics teachers with mathematics degrees and degrees from other disciplines, the study also analysed the data between participants to determine if there is a difference between teachers from diverse academic backgrounds in terms of their mathematical beliefs and practices. By drawing on the analysis, the study arrived at conclusions to provide potential ways in which teachers from diverse beliefs and academic backgrounds might be able to situate real-world equity issues in the mathematics classroom.

This study addresses the question: What are the issues associated with using moving images in the history classroom regarding motivation and engagement and historical understanding? Moving images are defined as footage extracts of historical events occurring at points in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries shown on newsreels, documentaries and news broadcasts. In an image-rich, technology-influenced education, learning history with moving images is something that requires investigation. It is possible that as students progress through schooling, motivation and engagement vary. The development of historical understanding, the depth of which may be dependent on the use of procedural knowledge in relation to historical content, is an important objective of history education. This context provides a valid area for research. Using a single-site study to research moving images in the history classroom, two cohorts of Year 11 mixed-ability students (age 15/16) in a Maltese state secondary school following the history option programme and who were in their final year of secondary schooling, participated in this study. Data sources included audio-recorded whole-class teacher-student dialogues, students’ writings and semi-structured group interviews. Findings indicate that students seemed to be interested in moving images because of their visual and auditory appeal. It was found that features of classroom talk, evidenced in students’ spontaneous observations, being responsive to peer contributions, and giving form to understanding through talk, combined to demonstrate motivation, engagement and historical understanding. Analysing the substantive-procedural connection showed that historical understanding was supported when students saw a link between topics and when substantive and procedural knowledge were related. Building on existent research, it is argued that moving images lend themselves to classroom talk as a way of engaging students in a dialogic context, for developing historical understanding and assessing student learning. Recommendations are made for further research and pedagogical development.

Bystanders play an important role in school bullying dynamics, having the power to provide or withhold the social rewards bullies seek. Bystander support is also beneficial for bullying victims, who experience less social and mental health problems if they have defenders. Even though bystanders generally disapprove of bullying, they rarely intervene in bullying incidents. Research suggests that two factors closely related to bystander intervention in bullying are moral disengagement and self-efficacy. Cultural influences and gender may also play a part in bullying and bystander dynamics. The main aim of this study was to explore Mexican secondary school students’ perceptions of their role in bullying situations. The study focused on gender differences in these perceptions, students' levels of self-efficacy, students’ use of moral disengagement dynamics, and student receptivity to material that encourages prosocial bystander behaviour. A questionnaire was developed to gauge students’ views on these topics, and administered to a sample of 186 secondary school students. Focus groups were also conducted to gain insight on group understandings and norms. A six-session workshop was designed and implemented to expose students to material on prosocial bystander behaviour. Results suggested that most students feel empathy towards bullying victims and acknowledge that they have the power to make a difference. However, participants are reluctant to put ideas into action for fear of bully retaliation and the belief that they cannot rely on support from other peers and school staff. This sense of powerlessness seems to have a cultural component to it, and is more common in male students. Other gender differences were observed: females displayed higher self-efficacy to help and lower moral disengagement levels. Research on cultural influences on bullying and bystander behaviour worldwide is needed, as well as further research on the implications, obstacles and opportunities of gender differences in this regard. Studies on what bystanders need to feel safe when helping bullying victims would also be a valuable resource for anti-bullying intervention efforts.

World Englishes (Kachru, 1985) and English as an International Language (EIL) are grounded in the concept of multiplicity. Such proliferation of non-native varieties of English leads to several controversies including the intelligibility of its speakers. Although the concerns have been continuously addressed in EIL research, the focus was mainly toward major ESL accents. Thai English language educators know very little about the scenario of Thai English in relation to its use in international settings. This study explored the macro-sociolinguistic characteristics of Thai English of which the underlying investigation: what level of Thai accentedness in English pronunciation can be considered intelligible to international users of English and what pronunciation features instances result in intelligibility failure, was undertaken. Thai-accented English spontaneous speech with different levels of accent was measured for overall intelligibility using a transcription task performed by the listeners from a variety of different L1 backgrounds. Intelligibility level was measured by the accurate transcription of the recorded speech while the errors in transcription were phonetically analysed to ascertain which phonological features of Thai English led to a decrement in intelligibility. With the concept of Lingua Franca Core (LFC) (Jenkins, 2000), these features must be the focus in teaching English for communicative purposes. Analysis of the results revealed that the interaction between level of accent and intelligibility affected the different L1 groups in a diverse manner, especially non-native speakers. The salient features identified as posing the highest threat to international intelligibility were cluster simplification, consonant devoicing, lack of final consonant released, and fully stressed unstressed vowels. This research also discovered that intelligibility predictors as gained from subjective methods as questionnaires displayed an unstable correlation to the actual intelligibility as measured by the objective tests.

My research addresses the question: How can UK kitchen-table charities that focus their efforts on educational projects in sub-Saharan Africa mitigate factors that negatively affect the sustainability of their work? Kitchen-table charities are managed by volunteers that meet in the home of one of the trustees, usually around the kitchen table. My professional experience as a founder member and Chair of Trustees of a kitchen-table charity, whose mission is to provide secondary education in a remote area of Tanzania, is integral to this research. Despite the contribution of small charities to the funding of education at grass-roots level in sub-Saharan Africa, research into their experiences and challenges appears non-existent. My study has three objectives: to identify issues that affect the long-term sustainability of kitchen-table charities, to investigate and record ways of building resilience to these issues and to produce an original research information booklet, based on my findings, as a practical tool for practitioners. I adopted action research as the methodological framework and used grounded theory as my analytical approach to the data. Key findings have been drawn from the generation of sub-categories that I connected to core-categories and include: lack of an exit plan; problems relevant to management at a distance; corruptive practices in-country; no succession plan. Issues of sustainability can be mitigated with increased awareness and thought for the preparedness of problems. My research has shown that small charities encounter common issues relating to sustainability. I devised a template based on an action research model to assist with problem-solving and forward planning strategies. This template is included in a Research Information Booklet entitled A Practitioner's Handbook (Appendix 1). The booklet contains the findings of my research and has been welcomed by the participants and other interested trustees.

The present and categorical correspondence between how students approach their learning and the way such approaches impact on the acquisition and augmentation of clinical decision-making skills is neither well understood, nor yet clearly established, in nurse education research. To address this gap, this study investigated the approaches to learning and the clinical decision-making of adult nursing students in their final year of training on two separate campuses of a central London university. Approaches to Learning Theory, promulgated by Martin and Sӓljö in 1976, and subsequently expanded and updated by Entwistle and colleagues, provided a theoretical lens and explanatory framework for this study. Acknowledging that the Approaches to Learning Theory adopts a hierarchy of three domains of approach, surface, strategic, and deep, it is argued that students’ clinical decisionmaking should be improved by changing their predominant approach to learning from the surface or strategic to the deep approach. To test this hypothesis, a research intervention was implemented for a purposive sample of participants who adopted either the surface or strategic approach to learning. Consistent with the underpinning principles of the deep approach to learning, the intervention focused on enhancing engagement with learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. A second survey of approaches to learning and clinical decision-making was administered after the intervention, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to further corroborate the statistical findings. Instruments for data collection comprised the Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students, known as the ASSIST (Tait et al, 1998), Jenkins’ (1985) Clinical Decision-making Nursing Scale (CDMNS), and a short demographic questionnaire designed by the researcher. This research found that by altering the learning approach, consequent on the researchintervention, the adoption of the deep approach to learning enhanced clinical decision-making. Post-intervention findings revealed a strong positive correlation between the deep approach and clinical decision-making. Participants’ disposition for the surface approach also decreased significantly. Male participants indicated an affinity for the deep approach in comparison to female students who predominantly adopted the strategic approach. The study concluded that by cultivating students’ deeper engagement, underpinned by the intention to seek meaning and understand their learning, clinical decision-making was improved.

This qualitative study seeks to examine the experiences of pupils identified with special educational needs and disability (SEND) in a London special school, and better understand what constitutes authentic voice and participation. The research focuses on pupils labelled as having Complex Mixed Needs (CMN) who may be considered "harder to reach" (Porter, 2009, p. 349) because of their speech and communication difficulties, learning disabilities or complex health needs. I was motivated to undertake this research by the introduction of Education, Health and Care plans (EHCp) proposed by the Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA) and the updated SEND Code of Practice (CoP) (DfE, 2015), because legislation appears to be championing inclusive practice and enabling unprecedented opportunities to ensure pupils have a say in key issues that affect them. This research scrutinises aspects of SEND reform and contends that while new legislation enshrines pupil voice and participation in law there appears to be no coherent plan for how this is to be implemented. The concept of voice as speech is far from straightforward and I argue for a reconceptualisation of voice beyond speech. This study examines how voices are heard and if pupils' experiences of participation correspond to the principles outlined in the EHCp process. The methodology applied is child-focused and encompasses an action research (AR) approach. This sits well with the emancipatory principles of critical disability theory because it places the voices of pupils identified with CMN at the forefront of research. The Draw, Write and Tell (DWT) approach was utilised to access 19 pupils' perspectives which provided rich and complex visual, written, verbal and non-verbal data. This research has important implications for education policy and practice and makes a series of recommendations for change. It advances the debate about pupil voice and participation and establishes that a visual, child-friendly methodology can be employed to support pupils identified with CMN to have their say.