The aim of this research was to investigate the validity of the aptitude test used by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) to select bright pupils in Grade Three of the primary school in Malaysia to be promoted directly to Grade Five. It also sought to investigate the validity and consequences of skipping one year of teaching and learning processes at Grade Four. Thirty-three schools in Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan and Negeri Sembilan provided the sample, which was divided into four parts. The experimental group consisted entirely of Grade Six pupils who had been accelerated from Grade Three to Grade Five. The same grade comparison group consisted of an equal number of Grade Six pupils who had achieved the highest rankings on teacher-made tests. They were one year older than the experimental group. A third group, called the same age comparison group, consisted of an equal number of the highest-ranking pupils in Grade Five who had not been accelerated and so were of the same age as the experimental group. Finally, an equal number of Grade Five pupils of the middle ranks were selected as a norm group. The Primary School Achievement Test (PSAT) results were collected in 1998 for the Grade Six groups and in 1999 for the Grade Five groups. The scores obtained from this test were treated as criterion scores to study the validity and efficiency of the selection test. All groups had taken the selection test except the same grade comparison group which was in Grade Three before the selection test was introduced. In each group, there were 141 pupils. A sub-set of each group (289 in all) were administered the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test in 1998. Owing to its confidentiality, the raw data of the aptitude test was not made available to the researcher. Therefore the evidence used to judge the validity and efficiency of the aptitude test is taken from the results of the PSAT and SPM tests. Theoretically, if the test is valid and the promotion process is efficient, the performance of pupils in the experimental group on both PSAT and SPM should be the same as or better than that of the same grade and the same age comparison groups. The statistical test supports the validity of the aptitude test used to select pupils for double promotion but the treatment given to the accelerated bright pupils results in a drop in PSAT achievement. It is concluded that the promotion process is less than efficient.

This thesis is about how children experience starting school in England. Starting school is a time of transition for all children, and experiences at this time can have a lasting impact on children. Moving into an educational institution with associated rules and systems presents social, emotional and cognitive challenges for a young child. Most children in England start school in the September before their fifth birthday and children born in the English summer months are thus the youngest. Statistical analyses reveal that as a group these children achieve less than their older peers throughout school. The study uses an ethnographic approach and focuses on five of the youngest children. The researcher visited the reception classroom intermittently over a period of five weeks and adopted a role as a participant observer. Three of the children also took part in a child focused photography activity. Two teachers and three parents were interviewed. The ethnographic analysis explores each child's individual experience as well as overarching themes which relate to the classroom and broader curricular issues. Issues raised by the analysis include how different the children's experiences with rules and authority were, and how this affected their relationships with the teacher. This thesis offers in-depth insights into children's experience in the classroom which allow the reader to apply the findings to other situations. I suggest that Educational Psychologists have much to offer schools on general teaching issues, such as how best to support all children at this important time of transition. Policy implications such as the need for a diverse approach to school readiness and more exploration of the curricular tensions experienced by teachers in reception classrooms are are discussed.

This thesis involves a collaborative action research project in a primary class. Its aim was to shift talking rights and support the development of a more democratic ethos within the classroom through promoting dialogic pedagogy. The rationale was based on a critical consideration of the literature arguing that dialogue should have a central place in participatory practice. The research was viewed through the lens of dialogic theory. This theoretical allows an approach to transformation through dialogue which does not shut down diversity and difference. It is therefore arguably helpful to participatory agendas. Philosophy for Children (P4C) was used as a tool support the development of dialogic teaching. The action research process involved five plan-do- review cycles during which the teacher facilitated video recorded philosophy sessions with the class. Each of these was followed by dialogue between the teacher and researcher supported by video recordings of classroom dialogues recorded during the P4C sessions. The process attempted to balance the risk of theory dominating action through application of a Dionysian approach to planning. Following each evaluation and reflective dialogue with the researcher, the teacher had space to reflect and plan the next session. The thesis outlines the ways in which the project developed through these five cycles. Dialogue between teacher and researcher was analysed using a form of analysis based on dialogic assumptions about the multi-voiced nature of talk. The findings suggest that there were changes in the ways in which the teacher positioned herself in relation to the pupils. Pupil interview data suggests that children experienced an increased opportunity to express their opinions within the classroom. Their understanding of the right of expression was relational as they also emphasized their responsibility to receive the views of others even where these differed from their own. Although the findings suggest shifts in the form of talk and the patterns of control of talk, there were issues around small group dominance which require ongoing consideration. The multiple demands upon teachers attempting to implement such changes were considered together with approaches to supporting teacher development in this area.

'This thesis explores whole school inspection in the Republic of Ireland since its inception in 1976. It is located within the tradition of qualitative research and examines government policy. the process of inspecting and the impact of the operation on selected schools from the vantage point of participating inspectors and teachers. Ihe research is centred on three primary schools that underwent whole school inspection during the school year 1998-1999. A total of twenty teachers in all together with the three inspectors who conducted the inspections were interviewed immediately after the inspections, they were allowed a wide measure of freedom to express their views on the operation and their responses were analyzed. The senior management of the primary inspectorate was also interviewed and their views on official policy and on the efficacy of whole school inspection in general were elicited. The schools were revisited some six to nine months later and the teachers were once more interviewed in an effort to determine the level of impact made by the inspections and to gauge any change of view. What emerges is a lack of consensus among the key players on what constitutes the primary purpose of whole school inspection. In general the teachers saw it primarily as a surveillance exercise that generated high levels of anxiety, whereas the inspectors were more inclined to emphasise the developmental dimension. The teachers were unanimous in their perception of the inspectors as persons of sensitivity. courtesy and credibility and appreciated the fact that they engaged actively with the children in the classroom. However, they declared that the inspections had made little or no useful impact, and the field inspectors expressed a similar opinion. Given the lack of consensus on what constitutes the role and function of inspectors, the research questions the validity of this judgement. It is argued that whole school inspection is best seen as an exercise located within the naturalist paradigm. and that its impact is percolative in nature and not readily amenable to positivist measurement. While acknowledging shortcomings especially in the area of reporting, the problematic nature of identifying the direction of causality is discussed in support of this position. Arising from this, suggestions for development are offered and these centre on a vision of whole school inspection as an operation that seeks to validate assisted self-review arrangements by the provision of high quality evaluation and strategic advice. The lesson for the Department of Education and Science is that school self-evaluation ought to be promoted on a systematic basis nationally. 'The implication for inspectors is that they should be released from the discharge of great many duties that distract them from their core work of providing information and analysis on the individual school and on the system in general. It is suggested that to the extent this happens whole school inspection will be nearer the realisation of its potential.

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This study aims to explore how similarities and differences in early years curriculum practice are constructed in selected Chinese and English settings and how this can be identified from the perspectives of the research participants. The aim of the study made an ethnographic approach the most suitable. Data collection methods used were participant observations, open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and informal conversations. A case study of one Chinese kindergarten and one English nursery school was conducted between August 2005 and July 2006. The major findings have been located in three levels of analysis – the micro, meso, and macro. The micro level reveals the prevalence of direct teaching in the process of language, mathematics and arts activities in the Chinese setting whilst the English setting shows a tendency that the children play a major part in their learning process. Children’s free-flow play activities in both the settings share much more similarities than differences in that children’s dynamics, concentration, curiosity, imagination, and creativity are fully evidenced. The meso level mainly looks into the research participants’ perspectives on issues underpinning the early years curriculum such as the relationship between the curriculum, teaching and play, views of childhood and the ways for children’s learning. For example, contested childhood is strongly voiced among parents in the Chinese and English settings and is represented in their romantic idea of ‘a happy childhood’ with an emphasis on children’s play, well-being, and positive interactions with others and in their anxiety about childhood pressure with regard to children’s learning. The macro level explains that the curriculum practice in the Chinese setting is closely associated with Basil Bernstein’s concept of visible pedagogy whilst the English setting shows a strong link to his notion of invisible pedagogy. Visible pedagogy is characterised as strong classification and framing, which is identified by direct teaching, the low status of play, and a one-way direction of teacher-child interactions in the Chinese setting. Indirect teaching, the dominance of play, a two-way direction of practitioner-child interactions, and the dynamic of child-child interactions in the English setting are indicators for invisible pedagogy centring around weak classification and framing.

Students in Kuwait are not taught art history in schools and know very little about their cultural heritage. This study developed a formal curriculum unit which introduced a traditional women’s craft into the art curriculum for girls in Kuwait. The aim was to use art history to increase their understanding of their cultural heritage and of their female identities and roles in society. The action research methodology involved collaboration with three local primary art teachers, a professional weaver and a Kuwaiti education expert. The actions, in order, were: researching art education theory, policy and practice; researching and developing curriculum content (Alsadu artefacts); designing an experimental curriculum unit and teaching materials; implementing the unit in a school and evaluating it formatively; then refining the curriculum materials and revising and modifying aspects of the model. The curriculum was then implemented again and summatively evaluated before the research questions were answered. Key findings were as follows: first, art history as such cannot be introduced into art education in Kuwait yet, because there is no expertise in this field and it is not an established discipline; second the Year Five Art curriculum can, however, accommodate the Western theory and practice of art heritage and cultural education by focusing on Bedouin culture and including a traditional women’s craft; third, because Kuwait society deals with gender issues differently, Western theories about women and crafts have to be modified before they can be transferred. Thus, the research ended by recommending educational policy makers to promote cultural learning instead of art history, through school trips to museums in particular. Because the action research methodology worked so well in this curriculum experiment, educational policy makers are recommended to apply it more widely in schools.

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No description available.

Drawing on a socio-constructivist conceptual framework and connecting to current work in the area of creativity, drama and teacher talk, this study seeks to reveal features of children's possibility thinking (PT), types of teacher talk and the relationship between these two strands during the Drama Game (DG) method in Cypriot primary classrooms. This is the first empirical study in Cyprus concerning the DG method; drama is a new curriculum area in primary education (CMEC, 201Ib). Possibility thinking has been conceptualized as a process of thinking leading to creative development (Craft, 2000), although its relation with teacher talk has not been fully illuminated. The empirical study undertaken in this thesis involved two teachers and four classes of 8-9 year-old children in two urban public primary schools. Six lessons were naturalistically explored using the following qualitative data collection methods: video-recorded classroom observations, interviews with the teachers and group interviews with children using video-stimulated review. The analysis of the findings sought to combine deductive and inductive analytic methods. The aim was to test the evidence-based concept of PT and also identify emergent themes and relationships regarding children's PT and teacher talk. The study identified that children's PT, manifest through their talk and physical engagement, was in interplay with teacher's PT manifest through talk and body language. It revealed that the teacher's 'Possibility Broadening Communicative Style' (possibility broad questions, provocations, modelling, pauses, and affirmative feedback) framed the open, playful, immersive and collaborative context for nurturing children's PT. The children's PT in turn was manifest through a co-determined endeavour amongst the children and their teachers to find solutions to imagined problems in the world of DG.