The territory covered by this work includes the response to new information in science by adults. A central aim is to shed some light on the problem of how new and more complex knowledge (specifically conceptual knowledge) develops or arises from old and less complex knowledge. This problem has challenged both philosophers and educators for over twenty centuries. The study draws on perspectives from several academic disciplines, in particular from philosophy, science, and sociology, and to a lesser extent from psychology. These disciplines are used in the first part of the thesis to set the context, both for the problem and for the qualitative research approach which tackles it, as well as to review literature that pertains to the field. Among hindrances to learning that are considered, particular attention is given to difficulties encountered with science texts; trials of some experimental approaches to the problems are included. The central research question concerns how adults learning science respond to new information, especially information that conflicts with their existing knowledge. The problem is approached within a constructivist framework using the metacognitive tool of the concept map as a means of tracking the type of learning (deep or surface) that is taking place. Data relating to the type of learning are also produced through questionnaires and interviews from volunteer participants who are pursuing further and higher education courses that include mandatory science components. The results of the study indicate considerable reluctance to abandon what has been learned previously, in favour of new information. Contrary to expectation was the discovery that adults respond to new information with surface learning strategies, placing extensive reliance (initially at least) on memory, whether or not they declare a preference for meaningful learning. There are implications of this discovery for those who plan and deliver short 'refresher' training courses.

This research investigates the discourses of e-learning and the way in which these discourses underpin the practices in the field. Having reviewed the relevant literature and looked at the teaching practices in two case studies, I propose that the collaborative learning discourse is very significant in e-learning, but that the didactic and institutional discourses, although not as immediately evident, are equally important in shaping the practices of online teaching and learning. The intertextual nature of all texts, in particular the different voices found in the language of the tasks in the case studies, reveal that the practice associated with online teaching and learning draw on texts and voices from three discourses, collaborative learning, didactic and institutional. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective of discourse, the investigation of how the discourses operate at the level of practice makes it possible to look at the teaching and learning practices in the field of educational technology from a discursive perspective. In so doing, the historical and contextual perspectives embedded in the teaching and learning practices are taken into account, the aim being to understand the complexity and range of elements that help construct these practices. Finally, the contributions of the study to the field are indentified, and some suggestions are made regarding the possible direction of future research.

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In this thesis an investigation is conducted into the justification for various aspects of the teacher's role in schools, being concerned in particular to find out whether certain aspects are in some way necessary for the role as a justifiable one in a justifiable institution. That thesis is, itself, an instantiation of a further thesis concerned with the prescriptive implications of philosophy of education, which is discussed in the first section. The second section discusses what it is to be teaching someone something, raising objections to the current orthodox analysis of the concept of teaching, which is argued to be inadequate to account for our current understanding of it. Various terms of art are considered and found unsatisfactory, and a new schema for analysing teaching is introduced. An alternative analysis which does not embody certain important assumptions of the orthodox analysis is presented. Objections to it are considered. The third section examines the concept of role, using as its basis an analysis presented by R.S. Downie. This analysis is considered to be too crude for the investigation of this thesis, and an alternative analysis is again developed for application here. Some of the problems of role concepts are discussed in relation to the social sciences. The fourth section applies the above analyses to a consideration of the teacher's role in respect of the following aspects: (a) the teaching of understanding, beliefs and skills (including the specifying of low-level objectives) (b) the teaching of values (c) assessment and evaluation (d) authority in the sphere of knowledge and, briefly, the personal/impersonal dimension of the teacher-pupil relationship. Particular attention is given to the psychological concept of interest.

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In this thesis I argue that there are limitations inherent in many of the research projects undertaken within the traditions of school effectiveness and school improvement. These limitations, in my view, are in large part due to assumptions that change in schools is a linear process and that innovations can be introduced most effectively through rational planning and implementation. I argue that these assumptions may misrepresent the fundamentally dynamic and inherently unpredictable nature of many educational contexts. Complexity Theory appears to provide useful insights into such dynamic contexts elsewhere. This thesis explores the application of Complexity Theory to education. A unique contribution of the work undertaken in this thesis is in the attempt to develop instruments and techniques of data collection and analysis to detect Complexity features. Research was carried out in three primary schools in a South Wales Local Education Authority where I work as an Education Adviser. Quantitative and qualitative data were utilized including interview and observational data integrated to form what I have called a 'Learning Episode'. In the longer term these are being used with teachers in a relatively non-judgemental and 'evolutionary' way whereby practitioners act to select and refine ideas from a published bank of such episodes. This approach has a strong affinity with some Action Research programmes. Within the time-span of the thesis a first attempt has been made to identify the 'fractal' nature of learning at different levels within the three schools, it being argued that learning is central to the life of schools. Other Complexity principles have also been explored culminating in a proposed pair of 'attractor states' for schools in the study. These findings have been compared with those generated by official inspections and by school effectiveness and school improvement approaches. A principal outcome of the work has been a radical change in my own professional practice. This study makes a contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of learning and change within schools.

The question of relevance in education in general, and in the curriculum in particular, is a major concern in present-day educational discourse. Often the interpretation of the concept is far too narrow, emphasizing vocational issues and ignoring more general ones, and concentrating on immediate rather than long-term problems. Such an interpretation, if rigidly adhered to, would result in an education irrelevant to present needs and changes in the field of education and in society. For the purpose of this thesis, relevance in education is taken as relating to a number of issues connected with the quality of education and the quality of life: the relationship of the content and system of education to the socio-economic and cultural environment in both the local and the global dimensions; relationships within the structure of education itself, as well as issues concerned with concepts of knowledge in relation to culture; with methodology; with the interests and stages of development of the learners. The whole process needs to be viewed in the context of the nature and stages of human development. The diffuse nature of the issue of relevance makes it necessary to find an organizing conceptual framework that will act as a base for a curriculum that incorporates external and internal, individual and social, local and global aspects of relevance. Such a framework is provided by a fusion of the concept of "Basic Human Needs" as derived from an analysis of the theories of Abraham Maslow, with some central educational principles, to draw up a list of the learning needs most conducive to present requirements for the improvement of the quality of life of the individual, of the society and of humanity at large.