The rapid rise of technologies and global interdependencies has generated novel epistemological, economic and social patterns of human behaviour. This creates emergent landscapes for education and learning and particularly for the idea of authentic pedagogy, which seeks to enhance and enrich connections between learning at school, the learner-self and the contexts where knowledge is generated and applied. Authentic pedagogy has been adapted in schools across many countries; its impact on the quality of learning has been progressively explored and the challenges of implementation have been reported repeatedly. Less attention has been paid to the pedagogical dynamics of adapting authentic pedagogy to the dominant performance oriented culture of Western schooling. This thesis critically explores this issue through the lens of complexity theory and a mixed methods participatory case study in two secondary schools in Northern England. Data collected include classroom observations, teacher's lesson plans, interviews with teachers and learners, and surveys of learner's learning power, engagement in learning, and pedagogical perceptions. The data were subjected to thematic and causal loop analysis and a modelling methodology was trialled to explore the dynamics between pedagogical authenticity and the development of students' learning power and engagement. Educational authenticity, personal authenticity and systemic fitness were identified as three quality components that underpin authentic pedagogy. These components were found to be in conflict with a performance oriented culture while they were able to form a virtuous improvement circle in an agent-based culture. The findings are synthesised in the elaboration of an agent-based pedagogical archetype. This archetype and the complexity lens through which it was developed will contribute to educators' capability in designing and steering pedagogical innovations to fulfil a locally defined purpose.

The education reform of Hong Kong began in 2000. School-based curriculum development and professional development are the two main points of focus of the on-going education reform efforts in Hong Kong schools. Against this background, this research was unde11aken in a Hong Kong secondary school to investigate how the junior level Humanities teachers perceived their roles in the development of a school-based curriculum, and to examine how the capacities of teachers might be enhanced through the development of a professional learning community and in paI1icular by adjusting the professional development programmes. The provisional model of effective professional learning community proposed by Bolam et al. was used as the theoretical framework of this research. Action research was the methodology adopted to understand, improve and reform the practice. By using the thematic network analysis, the findings help develop four global themes: 1. paradigmatic shift of the teachers' role from knowledge h'ansmitter to curriculum planner; 2. teacher 's role as facilitator of learning and teaching processes; 3. enhancement of teachers ' capacities and capabilities through continuous professional development, to supp0l1 their needs in terms of school-based curriculum development, and 4. a professional learning community strengthens collaborative networks, creating an established system within a school to address school-based curriculum development. This research, based on the Bolam et al. 's model and the findings, has put forward a new model of professional learning community which is relevant to the case-study school. The new model is also used to compare and contrast with the measures of professional development advocated by the Hong Kong education authority. The analysis helps advance the professional development in Hong Kong secondary education.

The transition to secondary school can be an important time in the personal, social, and educational lives of students. There were three aims of this research. The first was to gain an understanding of students' lived experiences of the transition to secondary school. The second aim was to explore their perceptions of the impact, if any, of the transition on their emotional wellbeing. The third aim was to find out what support young people found helpful in negotiating the transition, and to explore what suggestions they have to improve the process. Data was gathered from semi-structured interviews with eight students towards the end of their first year in secondary school. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data relating to the experiences of students of the transition and the impact they perceived it had on emotional wellbeing. A questionnaire was administered to 46 students examining support and suggestions for future support they had. Thematic Analysis (T A) was used to analyse this data. The following themes emerged for young people's experiences of the transition; dynamics of sodal relationships and influence on identity. They perceived that anxiety, pressure and loss during the transition impacted on their emotional wellbeing. Anxiety presented for various reasons, including the fear of the unknown about secondary school, social anxiety, and anxiety triggered by older students. Types of pressure discussed included academic pressure and peer pressure. Three areas of loss were identified; loss of security, loss of freedom and loss of old school. Family, friends, teachers and familiarity with secondary school were a support during the transition. Suggestions to improve the process included; access to more information, facilitation of social relationships, greater continuity between schools, practical preparedness, and sense of belonging. The findings raise implications for professional practice to support student during the transition from primary to secondary school.

This research uses a group learning process to investigate pupil and adult perspectives about their experience of learning and teaching, and what makes learning difficult. I was interested in finding out how a group learning process could help in gaining the perpsective of underachieving secondary age pupils. From my initial interest in pupil views about ways to maximise learning and attainments, a research question emerged: What can we learn through a group learning process about the pupil and adult perspective of their experience of learning and teaching, and what makes learning and teaching difficult for pupils who are underachieving? A qualitative case study group learning situation was used with an underpinning epistemology of post positivist social constructivism. Secondary age pupils took part in a group learning process to give their perspective about how best they learn and attain, and to explore what is important for their learning. The group learning process intended to facilitate pupil experiences of giving their voice and to find out about situations that elicit pupil voice. The activities completed in the group, the views expressed in the group and individual interviews with each pupil formed the data. Key adults were also interviewed, pupils evaluated the group learning situation and a research diary was kept which formed additional data. Thematic analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001) was the tool used to systematically analyse the textual data. Seven Global Themes were identified summarising the wealth of textual data and aspects of the group learning process that appear to promote pupil participation and pupil voice. I Jane Gould: D. Ed. Psych 11 conclude that there is some consistency of my research findings with current literature. This research adds to existing knowledge by highlighting the importance of language and relationships to pupils’ learning and attainments. Benefits of using a group learning situation to gain pupil perspective is highlighted. The unique contribution of the research and the limitations of the study are recognised. Through this research I had the privileged opportunity to enter the lives of a group of underachieving pupils, to look inside the perspectives of pupils and adults and to rethink learning and teaching. I suggest that a way of understanding the themes that emerge is through the relationships that are formed within the learning situation.

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Quality in relation to higher education is anything but an innocent project: it is ideologically constructed and conducted. Quality has been set up as its own enterprise and systematically disseminates the meaning of higher education, explicitly and implicitly, stabilizing an ideological formation and establishing a social consensus. In a spiral of mutual reinforcements, quality naturalizes particular practices and, also, legitimizes this naturalness. The systematic critics of quality, however, call that ideological synthesis into increasing question. Quality in higher education is faced with a legitimation problem. It is therefore an appropriate moment to ask: can quality in higher education ever be legitimate? This study comes at these issues by being essentially conceptual in character, although there are also some empirical elements in it. In developing a theoretical understanding, quality in higher education is here advanced as a network of discourses. I further contend that these discourses and networks are backed up by power and that this helps to sustain their ideological character. The theoretical resources for the thesis have mainly been drawn by writers working in philosophy arid sociology and from social and educational theory, as well as in the field of higher education. The empirical location of the research is that of England and Greece. By drawing on examples of quality practices from these two countries, I am trying to illustrate my argument. The argument though is independent of England and Greece. The thesis has more than a purely theoretical interest. I try to show, in the face of a legitimation problem, that a legitimate quality system in higher education is still possible. I suggest that epistemologically a legitimate system can only be enhancement led, as it is the only place where creative spgces are possible. The major task is to imagine the characteristics of a theory which can account for these creative spaces in enhancementled environments of higher education. Accordingly, I go on to offer a set of principles for a legitimate quality system in the twenty-first century.

This thesis argues that oral storytelling by pupils in the secondary English classroom has a potential neglected by teachers and the education system in Britain. Part One considers the history of traditions of storytelling from pre-literate times, through the development of communication technologies, the increase in the numbers of readers in the population and the development of schooled literacy, foregrounding oral continuities. It traces the development of the traditional concept of literacy as a neutral technology of the intellect, arguing against the notion of an oral-literate divide. It supports a revised conceptualisation of oral-literate relations which accepts that, in any society, there are multiple literacies. From a developmental perspective, it insists on the centrality of oral narrative discourse to the individual's thinking and sense of social identity. Finally, it reviews narratological theories and shows that the application of some of them to the transcripts of oral stories can reveal the literary competences of tellers. Part Two applies theory drawn from authorities consulted in Part One to data collected in English lessons where 12/13 year old pupils performed oral stories for an audience of their peers (public performances) or alone with a tape-recorder (private performances). The multiple contexts of the empirical study and the collection of data are described; ethnographic and discourse analyses of the public performances are presented through a paradigmatic instance. The findings of the textual analyses of ten exemplars are scrutinised and three related but separate significances identified in them, all signs of pupils' communicative and narrative competence. The private performances are analysed separately, using categories drawn from literary theory; comparative analyses reveal literary competences in experienced and inexperienced readers alike and enable an outline developmental perspective on literary competences to be constructed. On the basis of the findings of this work, the educational validity of oral storytelling in the secondary English classroom is asserted as a form of inclusive social justice.

No description available.

No description available.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers is considered as an essential requirement in Education. In Thailand, the government has made an attempt to develop teachers through a scheme of CPD, which is seen as not yet reaching its intended goals. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the provision of CPD in Thailand and to search for practical ideas for CPD of teachers in the country. An investigation was carried out of the perceptions of public secondary school teachers and school administrators toward CPD for teachers in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The objectives were to highlight teachers' perception ofCPD, to study the needs of teachers, to explore the opportunities of CPD available for teachers, to reveal influential factors upon teachers, to investigate the problems and obstacles facing teachers, and to examine schools' problems, supports and school administrators' opinions toward CPD for teachers. The major fmdings were: 1) the teachers saw CPD as an important part of the teaching career; 2) the needs of teachers for CPD were high; 3) teachers do not have equal opportunities in CPD; 4) teachers were influenced by school administrators and education policy; 5) fmance is a major problem for teachers 'in CPD; 6) schools did not give enough support to teachers in CPD because the schools were lack of budget and planning, and school administrators viewed teacher development as an unimportant issue. Based on these findings, it is recommended that: the management system of CPD must be improved; follow,.up assessment activities should be conducted; opportunities of CPD should be widely opened to all teachers; and promotion, genuine supports, clear information and achievable incentives should be offered in order to encourage teachers to engage in continuing professional development.