This thesis explores the nature of peer support activities in Japan through the experiences of young Japanese peer supporters in a secondary school. Peer support is an approach that builds on the helpfulness and altruism characteristic of friendship by extending it beyond friendship to the wider peer group. Although moral and citizenship education has been carried out for over one hundred years in Japanese schools, the concept of peer support programmes in the educational system is relatively new in Japan. Peer support approaches have been developing in Western countries for over 20 years but it is only in the past 10 years that there has been a growing interest in these methods in Japan. In this research, qualitative methods had been used to gather more in-depth information about a phenomenon. Participants, aged 13 to 14 years, were drawn from a secondary school in Osaka, Japan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analysed using Thematic Analysis, aiming to explore their lived experiences of being peer supporters. Four main themes emerged from the peer supporters’ lived experiences; 1) Disconnection between training and practice, 2) Perceived generation gap, 3) Self-improvement, and 4) Cultural mismatch. These specific themes greatly assisted to explore the unrevealed children’s views, some critical issues of peer support practices in Japan and some confirmed the findings of quantitative studies (prior studies). A number of the findings were novel and also these results will provide opportunity to explore further children’s understandings of peer support programmes in school. In conclusion, some practical recommendations (e.g. “reform of the peer support training session” and “new classification for Japanese style peer support”) for the peer support activities are suggested in terms of the findings. Key words: peer support, bullying, counselling skills, social skills, Japanese style peer support.

There is a belief amongst educators and laymen that one-to-one tutoring is inevitably positive and effective. Although some research has shown that tutoring programmes can be very effective in raising achievement, other surveys have found negligible learning gains. These findings raise questions about the quality of PT. Literature has focussed on effective practice for specific subjects and age groups; few studies have examined effectiveness from the perspective of the tutor and student. This thesis aimed to determine the impact of private tuition (PT) on KS2 and GCSE achievement and to explore tutors' and students' views of effective pedagogy. Data on PT participation collected from over 2000 pupils in years 6 and 11 enrolled in 30 primary and 28 secondary schools was matched with government achievement and pupil background data. Using statistical modelling that reflects school effects in the data, pupils who received PT in maths achieved significantly higher GCSE maths results. There was no evidence to suggest that PT in English and science made an impact on respective GCSE or KS2 attainment. Using a combined measure of tuition in any subject, findings indicated that extended periods of PT made a small impact on maths and average KS2 score. In the second study, data was collected to determine tutors' and students' views of effective pedagogy by contacting tutors who advertise online and by utilising word-of-mouth recruitment methods. A total of 204 tutors and 90 tutored students completed questionnaires. The achievement gains perceived by both tutors and students contradict the quantitative findings; almost all participants considered PT to be effective in raising achievement and confidence, demonstrating that for some students PT can be very beneficial. Tutors' and students' views of effective tutoring included the perceived importance of subject knowledge, rapport and patience; although there was some variation by subject and age group.

A model can be built to represent aspects of the world establishing at the same time a world on its own. It might be considered in terms of its relation to the world or as an artefact having an identity related to the nature and kind of the modelling tool used to make it. The present research focuses on models being built by a computer-based modelling tool called WorldMaker (WM), which allows models to be built in terms of objects and the actions they perform. It is intended to be accessible to younger pupils. Therefore, children from the last years of primary and the first years of secondary education (aged 10-14) participated in the research. The research was carried out in three stages. The preliminary study aimed to explore children’s ability to use WM, as well as possibilities for the kinds of tasks that might be used with it. The first main study focused on rules, which define actions in WM, and their meaning for children. It mainly investigated children’s understanding, use and thinking about models in the form of WM rules. The second main study looked into children’s ability to think of situations in terms of structures as well as their understanding about the relation between models and reality. Its primary concern was to find out if children think about situations presented as stories or computer models in the ‘modelling’ way required by WM, that is, in terms of objects and the actions they perform. In the research tasks the children were called on to approach the modelling process by creating or exploring a model, as well as by describing and explaining the formal behaviour of a model or interpreting the meaning of it. It was found that the children were able to use WM as a modelling tool; they could represent actions in the form of a WM rule and they were able to think of situations in terms of objects and actions. Besides, the relation between models and reality is an issue when young children are involved with the modelling process.

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Active learning opportunities are linked to characteristics of effective learning and enable progress and longer term outcomes. I conducted a quantitative systematic literature review asking the question, ‘What key characteristics of the early years learning environment are effective in advancing active learning?’ The studies acknowledged the importance of considering the environment provided for young children. The themes identified as contributory elements of effective learning environments were grouped and named as: ‘configuration of children’, ‘physical environment,’ and ‘pedagogical approach’. I concluded that current knowledge is diverse and contradictory with gaps in need of further exploration, particularly for the under three population. The reviewed research focused on structured observations; individual views were not sufficiently represented. Consideration of the practitioner experiences in the construction of appropriate environments was needed, in order to provide a comprehensive overview with a focus on developmentally appropriate practice for discrete age groups. Informed by gaps highlighted in the literature review, as well as the government directive to increase free nursery places for two year olds, my empirical research aim was to gain practitioner perception to generate a theory about effective learning environments for two to three year olds. Five early years professionals were asked questions, informed by Personal Construct Psychology theory, to discover their perceptions. Semi-structured interviews took place (with photograph elicitation in four out of five interviews). Data were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach, creating four thematic categories of ‘responding in context’, ‘joining up thinking’, ‘perceiving the child’s world’, and ‘facilitating child participation’. The practitioners’ theory suggested that creating effective learning environments for two to three year olds involves a prerequisite of supporting emotional needs, along with perceiving the child’s world via a reflective process of responding in context and joining up thinking. The following theory was created: The Toddler Telescope – perceiving the world of a two to three year old. The practitioners’ theory has the potential to act as a guiding frame supporting practitioner metacognition when considering how to advance active learning opportunities.

We present a method for unsupervised learning of event classes from videos in which multiple activities may occur simultaneously. Unsupervised discovery of event classes avoids the need to hand-crafted event classes and thereby makes it possible in principle to scale-up to the huge number of event classes that occur in the real world. Research into an unsupervised approach has important consequences for tasks such as video understanding and summarization, modelling usual and unusual behaviour and video indexing for retrieval. These tasks are becoming increasingly important for scenarios such as surveillance, video search, robotic vision and sports highlights extraction as a consequence of the increasing proliferation of videos. The proposed approach is underpinned by a generative probabilistic model for events and a graphical representation for the qualitative spatial relationships between objects and their temporal evolution. Given a set of tracks for the objects within a scene, a set of event classes is derived from the most likely decomposition of the ‘activity graph’ of spatio-temporal relationships between all pairs of objects into a set of labelled events involving subsets of these objects. The posterior probability of candidate solutions favours decompositions in which events of the same class have a similar relational structure, together with three other measures of well-formedness. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedure is used to efficiently search for the MAP solution. This search moves between possible decompositions of the activity graph into sets of unlabelled events and at each move adds a close to optimal labellings (for this decomposition) using spectral clustering. Experiments on simulated and real data show that the discovered event classes are often semantically meaningful and correspond well with ground-truth event classes assigned by hand. Event Learning is followed by learning of functional object categories. Equivalence classes of objects are discovered on the basis of their similar functional role in multiple event instantiations. Objects are represented in a multidimensional space that captures their functional role in all the events. Unsupervised learning in this space results in functional object-categories. Experiments in the domain of aircraft handling suggests that our spatio-temporal representation together with the learning techniques are a promising framework for learning functional object-categories from video.

Background: The field of positive psychology is still gathering momentum and consideration is being given to strengths and how these can be used to enhance learning. Emphasis is moving towards strengths-based assessments and Educational Psychologists are well-placed to encourage and promote a more strengths focused environment within schools. Alms: The research aimed to investigate what information about pupil strengths teachers would find helpful in their planning and teaching. The research looked at teachers views about strengths and also asked them how they could use knowledge of pupil strengths within the classroom. Sample: The study involved 12 teachers - 10 secondary school teachers and two primary school teachers and 12 pupils with special educational needs. Method: Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit information from the teachers. These were analysed using thematic analysis. The 12 pupils completed three different strengths assessment tools-the BERS-2, the Children's Strengths Survey and the Affinities Questionnaire. A Pupil Profile of Strengths was created to help inform the teachers. Results: The teachers valued the Pupil Profile of Strengths. They felt additional information was of benefit and they wanted to use it to inform their planning. The teachers wished to know about learning strengths and character strengths but were not confident in using character strengths. Conclusion: Although this study was small and exploratory in nature, it has highlighted areas where teachers can use strengths to enhance learning and acknowledges the importance of good communication amongst staff and pupils regarding pupil strengths.

In the context of the current study, an expectation-related observation (ERO) was defined as the biased collection or interpretation of data, influenced by a desire to reach a predetermined conclusion. EROs are common in science classrooms, and consequences are thought to be largely problematic, encouraging an adherence to unscientific methods and the continued existence of misconceptions. In order to investigate EROs in a school science setting, three largely quantitative research phases were devised, the general aims of which were: a) Exploration into the nature of EROs. b) Determination of whether students who were committing EROs differ from other, more scientifically behaving individuals. c) Finding out why students ERO. d) Testing if encouragement of EROing could actually improve learning. To provide further focus for the study and help differentiate the many distinct issues in play, seventeen operational research questions (RQs) were formulated from these general aims, and the three phases were planned and executed using the RQs as a framework. The general lesson phase involved delivering a set of fifty lessons, enabling EROing to be explored and recorded. The convergent phase allowed for variable reduction, supplying ‘cleaner’, less cluttered data, and examinations of associations between EROing and other variables were possible by means of questionnaire and interview methods. The final, experiment phase was a series of educational experiments to determine the effectiveness of a particular type of practical lesson in correcting a misconception. Findings from the three phases demonstrated how student observations of experiments were frequently biased by personal theory. A variety of behaviours are described where learners purposely manipulated apparatus, invented results or carried out other improper operations to either collect data which they believed were scientifically correct, or achieve social conformity. Unconscious behaviours guided by these same motives were also thought to have occurred. Rationalisations were offered, though were frequently irrational; however, honest admissions of inappropriate evidential considerations were forthcoming at interview. Generally, EROing students differed inherently from more scientifically behaving peers, tending to be male, less able, high-risk takers and competitive. Inferences from triangulated data proposed that a trio of initiators constituted motivation for EROs: a desire to determine the scientific answer, a need to co-ordinate data with theory, and a wish to confirm the observations of peers. Affectual arousal provided a conduit so allowing these internal influences to drive ERO-related behaviours. Notwithstanding the often undesirable effects of EROing, an intervention is described where EROs were encouraged in attempts to boost affectual arousal and increase engagement with the science, and the proposition that these processes facilitate memory and favourable conceptual change was supported by experimental data.

Background Effective disease diagnosis and treatment relies on a conceptual knowledge base that is both expansive and well-networked. The problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum is considered as being well-suited to creating this kind of knowledge. The facilitator plays a crucial role in establishing and maintaining the knowledge construction discourse as students interact to resolve case problems. An exploration of tutorial talk could provide opportunities to understand and improve verbal interactions of this nature. Many of the previous studies have only analysed a small amount of tutorial talks owing to methodological constraints, and the existing literature on the subject matter only scarcely touches upon the utility of lexicogrammatical methods for the development of an understanding of knowledge construction in medical PBL tutorials. In this research, a blend of corpus linguistics methodology and a lexicogrammatical approach was employed for the analysis of talk in 8 PBL tutorial groups in order to deepen our understanding of how students jointly construct knowledge and how the facilitator guides the process. Aims In this study, a corpus of 2,37,820 comprising eight PBL students’ and facilitators’ tutorial talk was created to achieve the following aims: I. To use the students’ subcorpus to answer the research question (1) by measuring the frequencies and describing the functions of the frequently occurring (1) referring expression indicators; (2) shared knowledge indicators; (3) knowledge extension indicators; and (4) knowledge enhancement indicators. II. To use the facilitators’ subcorpus to answer the research question (2) by measuring the frequencies and describing the functions of the commonly occurring (1) facilitators’ questions; (2) facilitators’ directive expression indicators; and (3) facilitators’ probability indicators. III: To make recommendations based on the results of the study. Methodology Wmatrix 3 was used to retrieve defined linguistic indicators relating to the research questions. A quantitative analysis of the indicators was performed through word frequency computation and a keyword-in-context analysis. Descriptive statistics with SPSS version 22 was used to computer frequency profile of the indicator functions, and the Log likelihood calculator was used to determine the variation of the functions across the eight PBL groups. Extracts from the dataset were provided to illustrate the indicators’ functions. I. Results of Students’ talk analysis The subcorpus contained 2,10,077 words. The most frequent contents of the students’ talk comprised biomedical science and cause-effect vocabularies. 1. Analysis of referring indicators There were 2,325 referring expression indicators. They were used to mark verbal expressions, amounting to 44.04%; mental expressions, amounting to 42.24%; and learning situation and materials, amounting to 13.72%. The referring expressions were used for providing peer commendation, sharing knowledge, fostering social and cognitive regulation, and for constructing knowledge; the mental referring expressions were used to generate hypotheses, achieve mutual understanding, and define group tasks; and learning referring expressions were used to share learning resources, explain concepts, as well as guide discussions and resolve conflicts. 2. Analysis of shared knowledge indicators There were 3,437 shared knowledge expression indicators, which are the following: affirmation (73%), negation (17%), and non-lexical content (10%). Affirmative indicators were mostly used for integration-oriented knowledge sharing (42.31%); negation affirmation expressions were mostly used for conflict-oriented knowledge sharing (70%); and non-content indicators were mainly used for idea and information orientation. Shared knowledge was commonly achieved among group members through information addition, repetition and rephrasing, paraphrasing, causal and noncausal elaboration, correction of ideas and information recollection, and by establishing orientation to ideas and information from the group members. 3. Analysis of knowledge extension indicators There were 6,520 retrieved knowledge extension indicators, which comprised the following: additive 4,227 (63.54%), alternative 1,001 (15.05%), and adversative 1,424 (21.41%). Adversative indicators were more frequently used for knowledge construction compared to additive (33% versus 16%; LL 32.58, p < 0.01) and alternative indicators (33% versus 13%; LL 95.74, p < 0.01). The students commonly used additive indicators for simple, temporal, causal-conditional, elaborate, contrastive, and indefinite additions. Alternative indicators were commonly used for offering alternative questions and ideas while adversative indicators were frequently used to link elaborative, contrastive, concessional, and causal-conditional clauses. 4. Analysis of knowledge enhancement indicators A total of 6,402 indicators were retrieved. The most frequent among the retrieved 6,402 indicators were because, so, as, when, and that. Between 16.94% and 29.24% of the indicators were used for knowledge co-construction. The most frequent indicators’ functions were conditional, extension, report, consequence, inference, and feature specification. The reporting functions regularly concerned biomedical theory, previous peer knowledge, research evidence, professional opinion, as well as cognitive tools and criticism; extension function related to biomedical knowledge; and feature specification functions involved biomedical attributes and explanation; the conditional functions were frequently used to state logical conditions for disease presence, manifestation, and treatments; the inferential functions were more consistently used to link biomedical deductions to their premise; and the consequential functions commonly related to the linking of physiological mechanism and organ function to their respective consequences. II: Results of facilitators’ talk analysis The subcorpus contained 27,743 words. The most frequent content comprised biomedical science and cause-effect vocabularies. 1. Facilitators’ questions There were 35 types of question indicators. The facilitators asked 0.78 lower-order questions per 100 tokens, and 0.25 higher-order questions problem-based per 100 tokens. The questions functioned to stimulate elaboration, elicit information, prompt students, and the offering of suggestions. 2. Analysis of directive expressions ‘Should’, ‘have to’, ‘need’, ‘supposed’, ‘would’, and ‘can’ directive expression indicators were found to be most frequent. They were used to mark expectation, indirect question, and they were commonly used to preface requirement, exhortation, and intention. The indicators functioned frequently to facilitate group process (53.45%) and direct learning (42.00%). 3. Analysis of probability expression indicators There were of 27 types, out of which 9 were frequently occurring. The probability expression indicators were frequently used to mark possibility, prediction, hedging, and logical deductions. The indicators functioned to preface content information given to the students, to mark process facilitation remarks, and to mark facilitators’ questions. Discussion and conclusion The study demonstrated the feasibility of using corpus linguistics to study medical students’ knowledge construction talk; provided evidence of knowledge construction through prior knowledge mobilisation, knowledge extension, and enhancement; and signified the attainment of shared knowledge. The facilitators frequently asked lower-order questions; the directive expressions indicators were used to mark content-related and learning behaviour expectations and requirements; and the probability expression indicators were frequently used to mark content information given to the students. This study shows that students construct knowledge in their PBL tutorials. The pedagogic issues that emerged from the study relates to subversion of the PBL facilitation principles. A wholistic understanding of the factors that affect the behaviours of the facilitators in the classroom is important to resolve this problem. This may involve tutor pedagogic education and recalibration of administrative policies and institutional culture to provide an enabling environment for PBL instructional approach.