The purpose of this study is to examine the aims of the education delivered in a small sample of schools in the boarding sector, using qualitative methods of data gathering - analysis of school documents, interviews with the key participants (pupils, heads, staff and parents) and a limited element of participation in the schools selected. Studies on school effectiveness have proliferated in recent decades, the majority focusing on day schools. In addition, the research has tended to focus on enhancement of achievement in the cognitive area, to the virtual exclusion of other aspects of pupils' development. The present study makes a contribution to the discussion of effective schooling in two ways: firstly, by looking at the practices of boarding rather than day schools, it extends the scope and applicability of effective school research; and secondly, it extends the focus on effectiveness to include the somewhat neglected psychomotor and affective domains, while also addressing academic achievement among the pupils in the sample schools. Case studies were made of three boarding schools: one state, two independent, drawing on analysis of the material gathered. The research questions were designed to throw light on the purposes, workings and effectiveness of the schools, as perceived by each interviewee. Analysis of collected data led to an exploration of three themes that emerged as crucial to the realization of each school's aims: curriculum, community and commitment. The study highlighted the responsibility felt in the boarding sector to enhance potential not only in the cognitive, but also in the affective and psychomotor areas of each individual pupil's development. Many researchers have voiced the need to exploit pupils' all-round skills and aptitudes and this study suggests that further research in boarding schools might well prove to be both fruitful and relevant to the day sector.

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Adolescent substance use is associated with a number of pressing problems on the public health agenda, including an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, violence-related injuries, depression, homicide, sexual assault, and accidental death. Teenage substance use remains high in South Africa, with a prevalence of smoking and alcohol binge-drinking estimated at 18.5% and 23% respectively. A previous quantitative cross-sectional analysis of data from a study cohort from which this study’s sample was drawn, demonstrated an association between adolescents’ sense of coherence (SOC) – a measure of coping ability – and smoking. The current study, using a qualitative approach, thus sought to gain more insight into adolescent substance use, particularly smoking, and to better understand how it may relate to coping. A mixed method sampling strategy was used in selecting 22 research participants between the ages of 16 and 19 in two high schools in Pretoria. They were then interviewed individually by an interviewer blinded to their SOC level and substance use status as documented in the quantitative survey in which this study builds on. The interviews were transcribed in full and a content analysis strategy was used in the analysis of the data. The results obtained were then merged with participants’ substance use status and SOC levels. Of the 22 participants, 6 had strong SOC and had never used substances; 8 had weak SOC and were current substance users. The other 8 also had weak SOC but were not current substance users. Further analysis of the results showed that adolescents’ substance use is associated with stress and coping as they (substance users) reported using substances in attempting to manage stressful life events. Of the 8 current substance users, 7 reported avoidance-oriented (disengagement) coping styles. Five of the 7 reported load imbalance such as academic and social pressures and distress (e.g. schoolwork overload, peer demands, and family problems) as a reason for using substances. The non-substance using adolescents with weak SOC reported strong social support, especially family and peer support in coping with life stressors. Hence, substances were more likely to make up for compromised coping where contextuallevel risk factors (demands/stressors) exceeded coping resources such as social support. Also, of the 8 substance users- in addition to stress related reasons for using substances- 4 reported sensation seeking, whilst 2 reported curiosity/experimentation- which are all non-stress related. Furthermore, although family and peer support were observed to be complementary in most cases, the reliance on peers for support was stronger amongst those whom family support was considered weak, which presented the context for social/peer pressure and vulnerability to substance use. The study findings suggest family support as a moderator of the influence of the adolescents’ inability to cope with stress (or have low SOC) on smoking behaviour. On the other hand, a close relationship was observed between strong SOC and using engagement coping responses and reporting family and school support as sources of support. Notably, all the participants with strong SOC reported that they had never used substances despite being equally affected by life stressors. The implications of the findings are also discussed, especially as related to enhancing SOC. More practically, in addition to providing life skills training to educate adolescents about substance use, school-based programmes could incorporate the notion of stress and coping in helping adolescents to develop desirable and effective coping strategies to deal with social demands as well as adopting advantageous lifestyles to meet their needs for stimulation and adventure (sensation seeking and experimentation). On the whole, the enhancement of social support and adolescents’ connectedness to various social systems may be the key to substance use prevention among South African adolescents.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University. / The primary purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes of twelfth grade students in Florida high schools toward selected areas of health and safety education. The study may be thought of as an assessment of attitudes which might provide the possibility for analyzing student behavior in health and safety matters. Related objectives are to determine the possible relationships of attitudes to sex, type of school, community, and previous experience in health education.

Includes handbook in pocket. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / In September 1951, the superintendent of schools in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and the director ot guidance had a conference to determine methods of increasing the effectiveness ot the guidance program in the high school. Among the topics considered was that of pupil orientation. Various means ot orientation were discussed and several proposed plans were adopted. Among the guidance devices chosen tor development was a student handbook. The writer was placed in complete charge ot the program, including the preparation and publication ot the handbook.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

The current focus on school leader preparation around the world is based upon the belief that school leaders make a difference in both the effectiveness and efficiency of schooling (Hallinger and Snidvongs, 2008). This study is an evaluative case study on the NPQH programme in Malaysia and it sought perceptions of eighteen incumbent secondary school headteachers who are graduates from the Masters degree group of the programme to determine the effectiveness of the programme in their headship practices. The study is a qualitative dominant mixed methods research which used semi-structured interview as its main method and adopted a mixed approach of evaluation models. Overall perception on the NPQH training programme was sought with strengths and weaknesses identified and influence of school context considered. The extent of leadership learning from the time of graduation was also sought from those who were not appointed straight into headship. As NPQH in Malaysia was acknowledged as the proper national level programme in preparing heads, further improvements were indicated in this study. A tentative model for headship preparation in Malaysia, derived from the findings of this study, is presented alongside contribution of this study to the knowledge of school leadership preparation.

This study explored my own societal gatekeeper role as an Ofsted inspector, using a systems thinking model of creativity, within the domain of vocational business studies curricula, in further education (FE) colleges in England. My research questions sought to explore how business teachers and inspectors define, recognise, measure, reward and promote creativity skills in vocational business education. To provide a definition of creativity, I propose a framework based on its seven key aspects: process, person, place, pressures, product, persuasion and permanence. In addition to evidence-based success, I argue that we recognise the need for trust and freedom, through quality of relationships, to stimulate creativity. Through critical self-reflection on my role as an inspector and thematic analysis of data from multiple sources including interviews, Ofsted reports and Further Education college websites, I conclude that there is a low level of interest in promotion of creativity skills in the business curriculum in FE and that Ofsted is associated with normalisation, standardisation and efficiency rather than creativity. Creativity is an important business skill, so Ofsted inspectors, as societal gatekeepers, need to be self-reflective in acknowledging pressures that may distort perceptions, resulting in biased judgments that fail to reward and promote creativity appropriately.

This study involved exploring the leadership of sponsored academy schools, in particular sponsorship and the realisation of the ethos and vision. The research focused on: the motivations of sponsors; the roles of sponsors and academy principals and how the ethos and vision have been realised in their academies. This is a nested case study of five nests of differing sponsored academy types. It is a qualitative study which adopted a nested case study methodology and the semi-structured interview as a method. Nineteen key actors were interviewed from ten academies including sponsor representatives and principals. The findings show that there were a range of motivational factors for the motivations of sponsors. These varied from the holding of deep philosophical beliefs on the nature of education, to a philanthropic ‘giving back to the community’ and, for international sponsors, the status from joining the state education in England. The roles of academy sponsors and relationships with principals varied across the sample. Some sponsors have greater day to day involvement than others; they were more prescriptive in their relationship with the academy principal. There appears to be a relationship continuum for the principal and academy sponsor which varies from autocratic to laissez faire. The final research question explored how the leadership of academies has sought to realise their ethos and vision. The emergent themes of leadership, branding, buildings (BSF), educational values, sponsor vision and high aspirations were evident in all nests.

In this thesis I explore high achieving students’ experiences of learning and being examined in mathematics during their two-year post 16 modular course. I am a practitioner researcher and used a mixed method case study approach with interview data collected from eight students during the learning of each pure mathematics module and subsequent examination. Data was also gathered from their mathematics teachers regarding their perceptions of the students’ experiences. This interview data was triangulated by questionnaire responses from the cohort of mathematics students at the end of each year. In a second strand of analysis, I developed a model from Sierpinska (1994) to analyse the nature of the demand the examination papers taken by these students. The level of challenge was found to be surprisingly consistent. Synthesis of the data showed that these high achieving students do find A-level mathematics difficult, with the difficulties remaining similar throughout their two year course. There was a significant overlap between learning and being examined and the difficulties described by the students reveal external factors such as workload, pace, memory and decision making. There very few references to mathematics as a source of difficulty, instead the majority of descriptions featured novelty.