In August 1985 two small-scale Gaelic Units were opened by Strathclyde and Highland Regional Councils, situated within urban primary schools in Glasgow and Inverness respectively. Their purpose was to develop the use of Gaelic as a medium of education for children to the majority of whom it is not the mother tongue - creating a new, protected and prestigious domain for the language in contexts where its speakers are nowadays scattered and its use almost entirely confined to isolated intra-familial exchange. Evidence suggests that the establishment of these Units has already had political, cultural and educational repercussions far in excess of their direct effect on the lives of the individual city-dwelling families involved. ii. This thesis describes developments in Scottish Gaelic primary-school education during the period 1985-1989, places them in their historical, socio-linguistic and educational contexts, and attempts to extrapolate from the findings some pointers of practical utility for future development. Though due attention is paid to comparative evidence from other countries the central thesis is firmly rooted within Scottish experience, for the following reasons: (a) there has been a general dearth of recorded data relating specifically to Scottish Gaelic education, a situation which must be urgently addressed in support of present initiatives and to facilitate future development; and (b) circumstances have given the researcher access to unusually detailed local evidence, both longitudinal and latitudinal, prior to and during the period under discussion, as will be seen below (iii). iii. Throughout the 1980's the researcher has been personally involved in the promotion of Gaelic in education - observing (and hopefully assisting) is progress from within as activist, teacher and, latterly, education officer. Such pragmatic experience has inevitably amplified the response to available published data, given direction and purpose to the research methods employed, and inspired further lines of enquiry since formally embarking on the research. iv. The researcher trained and gained experience as a secondary school teacher in the 1960's, then, in preparation to embarking upon this study, attended a full-time Primary Conversion Course at Jordanhill College of Education, Glasgow. This provided invaluable theoretic and practical experience of modern methodology and classroom organisation, as did serving a teaching apprenticeship (1985-86) within Sir John Maxwell Primary, Glasgow, host school to the newly opened Gaelic Unit. Throughout 1986-88 (the first two years of the present part-time research) a close relationship was maintained with the Gaelic Unit, including regular service as supply teacher. Working closely with the children during this period allowed observation - informal but in depth (perhaps, one might argue, in greater depth than formal assessment procedures would have allowed) - of children's general progress since the inception of the Unit. It should nevertheless be noted that it is not within the remit of this thesis to assess the educational and/or linguistic success of this or any other Gaelic Unit, except in the most general terms: the close relationship with Sir John Maxwell Gaelic Unit might render objectivity difficult, if not impossible, for the foreseeable future. v. At national level the researcher has gained first-hand experience of almost a decade of Gaelic initiatives as active Patron of Comhairle nan Sgoiltean Araich (the Gaelic Play-group Association) and, since 1988, in the full-time employ of Comunn na G`aidhlig (the official Gaelic language promotion agency) as Education Officer with a national remit covering all aspects of Gaelic education. The relationship with Sir John Maxwell Gaelic Unit has continued, though in less depth, and to it has been added access to similar Gaelic Units throughout Scotland, attendance at national primary Gaelic INSET courses, constant dialogue with parents, teachers, educationists and officials throughout Scotland and beyond, participation in planning-meetings concerned with inter-authority resource production, linguistic and educational philosophy and funding, and in meetings with parents, activists and officials to review present measures and extend their remit. vi. Awareness of the international dimension was heightened and given focus by attendance (1986-87) of Glasgow University's Multicultural Education course and through the ongoing input provided by seminars and conferences on various aspects of education, language and culture - a process which has continued throughout the duration of the research period. vii. Though much of the above experience cannot be used as an explicit source of specified data, its cumulative influence cannot be dismissed as wholly impressionistic or subjective for the purposes of this thesis: it is implicit within case-studies, personal observation and analysis, etc., amplified by published comparative and historical sources where appropriate. Further original evidence has been established using the following methods:vii.i questionnaires: two separately designed and administered questionnaires were circulated and analysed as follows: vii.i.i to Gaelic speakers and learners aged 16+ throughout Scotland, to establish their awareness of recent Gaelic initiatives and their attitudes towards them, and vii.i.ii to the families of all children currently attending Gaelic Primary Units in Scotland, to establish the extent of linguistic usage and exposure in the child's present extra-mural environment.vii.ii interviews: in-depth personal interviews were conducted to establish detailed follow-up to data emerging from questionnaires; findings are both (a) incorporated into the text and (b) separately presented as case studies, both for descriptive and for comparative purposes. Although such data does not pretend to be scientifically controlled it contains much that is of interest, especially taken in conjunction with questionnaire results. Two different types of case-study are presented: vii.ii.i school studies: using classroom observation, in conjunction with the comments of parents and practitioners involved in Gaelic-medium education, to define and illustrate key aspects of representative urban Gaelic Primary Units, contrasting these with observations made in rural situations and in Wales and Northern Ireland andviii.ii family studies: using longitudinal observation, in conjunction with interviews with parents, to describe and illustrate educational affect in terms of the consumer.

The rationale for this study was to extend the knowledge about creative thinking among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by investigating the effects of creativity training upon concept mapping complexity. To verify whether the CoRT Thinking Lessons can enhance creative ability and improve concept map complexity, a Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design was used in this study. Sixty four students who are fourth and fifth graders (age 9-10 years) and classified as having ADHD participated in the investigation. In order to ensure that concept mapping is a familiar technique to all participants, they all were given a training session in concept mapping. Next to that, they were asked to complete a concept map and Torrance tests of creative thinking (TTCT) as a pre-test measure. After that, they were assigned to either experimental or control group, each group consisted of thirty two students. The experimental group was given creativity training (20 hours of CoRT thinking lessons during ten weeks) and the control group received no creativity training. Finally, all sixty four participants completed a second concept map and the TTCT as a post-test measure. Data collected from participants were analyzed via the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, the t test for two independent samples, and the paired-sample t test. Results of the analysis indicated that participants who received creativity training developed significantly more complex concept maps than those participants who received no such creativity training. Thus, creativity training enhances both concept mapping complexity and creative ability of students with ADHD as measured by the TTCT. Implications for practice include recommendation for teachers to design and establish educational activities and environments in which creative abilities of children with ADHD can be develop.

This study was designed to investigate what factors influence the motivation of engineering university students in province Sindh of Pakistan to learn English. In particular the study attempted to examine the shifting role of integrative motivation in Pakistan by looking at motivational change in these students over the period from the start to the end of the English language course at the university. To investigate these factors, I adopted a longitudinal quantitative and qualitative approach. The data were collected from the whole cohort of students who enrolled to take the English language course at university (N=541). They completed questionnaires at two points (1) at the start of the English language course and (2) at the end of the English language course. In order to have further illustrative insights some students (N=15) were interviewed at the beginning and at the end of the English language course. The questionnaires and interview tools used in this study attempted to measure students’ responses on 7 motivational factors (1) Instrumental Motivation (2) Integrative Motivation (3) Parental Encouragement (4) English course specific motivational components (5) English Teacher specific motivational components (6) English class and use anxiety and (7) Identity and English learning. The background questions explored students’ views on English learning experiences before coming to the university and students’ perceptions of their English learning at university after English language course. The results indicate that of the multiple factors that motivate students to learn English, the first among them is integrative motivation to become part of Pakistani community and the Engineering community whose members speak English. The instrumental motivation is for passing exams, raising status in society or to be successful engineer. The perceptions show that parents, grandparents and English teachers play a vital role in this process. The longitudinal nature of the study allowed a picture of motivation that changes with the passage of time to emerge. At the beginning of English language course the students were not confident about their English from their past experience, but were nonetheless motivated to learn English. The students’ attitude to the University English course is positive because they find the tasks in it relevant and interesting. At the end of the English language course the students felt that their confidence had increased and their anxiety had decreased. The background data show that the students come from a range of backgrounds including public and private English and vernacular medium schools and urban and rural areas of Sindh and because of this they have different learning experiences and levels of success with English. At the end of the course, all of them felt positive about learning English in order to become part of the professional community of Engineers, both in Pakistan and internationally. This suggests that the English language course at University has an equalizing effect and the students’ confidence in the English course and positive expectation to achieve their task of learning English raised their awareness of the progress they were making in learning English.

This thesis comprises of three stand-alone papers. The first paper exploits a natural experiment in Argentina to analyse what happens to maternal labour outcomes when there is an abrupt change in free public preschool provision. Using household survey data, the instrumental variable estimate shows that mothers work on average 9 hours more per week because her child is attending preschool. On the other hand, mothers for whom the access to public childcare was reduced did not change their labour supply, suggesting a shift in the mode of childcare from formal to informal. The main goal of the second paper is to measure the effect of observable individual characteristics on the whole conditional distribution of performances. Quantile regression methods are shown to provide a flexible framework to model the interactions between observed and unobserved factors, which are the source of non-homogeneous effects on performance that alter its conditional distribution in subtle ways improperly summarised by mean OLS based methods. Using a database of students at public universities in Argentina, the empirical results strongly suggest the presence of heterogeneous effects, which leaves room to question whether relevant factors like parental education or secondary school type are stronger or weaker for certain individuals. The third paper examines the role of labour market conditions on youth schooling behaviour using discrete time proportional hazards models. The findings show that, as predicted by human capital theory, labour demand has a significant effect on the hazard rate for dropping out of school. However, the results only hold for young males but not for females. The paper also tests whether each student’s hazard rate for leaving school without completion changes autonomously over time. Using a non-parametric specification, the results indicate that the risk of dropout is increasing over time for both males and females.

Relationships of trust are increasingly considered central to the provision of welfare services. This thesis undertakes an empirical exploration of trust within a key welfare field - early years education and care. While trust is often identified as a key dimension when parents use preschool provision, a rigorous investigation of trust - its meaning, its production and its complexity – is lacking. The thesis has in addition a subsidiary focus. Empirical research into trust in welfare services has not adequately addressed organisational form or behaviour as a location of trust production. Within the study there is, therefore, a particular enquiry into trust at the organisational level. Empirical investigation was undertaken through in-depth interviews with parents and managers across diverse preschool organisations. The thesis identifies how parents gave prominence to their own critical determination of the trustworthiness of provision, derived from information collected from multiple sources. Parents did not, as some theorists propose, undertake a calculation of the extrinsic constraints and incentives upon providers’ behaviours. Instead they constructed an inductive portrait of workers’ competence and benevolence through both conscious deliberation and less conscious intuitive reasoning. Such trust construction was framed by parents’ interpretations of care, quality and risk, and mediated by barriers to information which they might face. At the organisational level, a priori features such as organisational form or sector had little effect on trust; of significance instead were trust-producing behaviours, such as transparency, and trust-reducing behaviours, such as staff turnover. The thesis makes an original theoretical contribution by developing explanations of parents’ trust in preschool provision, by linking such explanations to literature on care and on intuitive reasoning, and by adding to the general stock of theory around trust. It also carries implications for policy and practice. There is little support for concerns that contemporary welfare service reform may undermine trust: regulatory systems provided a useful underpinning for trust; market-based provision – as long as any monetary exchange was sensitively handled - was not antithetical to parents’ construction of trust. The thesis nonetheless identifies benefit in provision through an integrated centre, where parents developed trust over time prior to use of preschool provision. Such a process was especially helpful to parents who faced disadvantage.

No description available.

Aims of the study are to address the issue concerning public perception of quality education. A theoretical approach derived from consumer psychology is adopted which involves application of dimensionality to schools. There is description of a model for prediction of satisfaction and quality in relation to secondary education. After a review of issues concerning the political context, empirical research, and the characteristics of education, service quality, theories of motivation and impression formation, and definitions of satisfaction are considered. A consumer model of service evaluation is described, with implications of its relevance to education. There is an account of information gathering, by means of depth interviews and focus group discussions. This is followed by descriptions of four surveys and analyses of data. The study shows that a wide range of issues are involved in the school judgement process. A number of categories are matched with service quality dimensions proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Information sources are investigated and factor analyses of data provides a group of overlapping judgement criteria, which contrast with the SERVQUAL structure described. Findings indicate that 'Tangibles', 'Academic', 'Communication' and 'Socio-emotional' dimensions are of consequence in the school judgement process, and various features related to satisfaction are identified. It is concluded that several criteria are taken into account in the judgement process, and a satisfactory model is additive in nature. Although there are important differences between evaluation processes in respect of education and other services, a gap definition of service quality judgement and the dimensional structure are useful. Findings are reviewed in relation to background literature and implications for school management are indicated.

Universities in response to government initiatives, have engaged with the vocalisation of Higher Education. This has included the extension of placement opportunities in the belief that this will imbue undergraduate teaching with enhanced relevance to the world beyond the university while increasing the employability of graduates. Among a range of claimed benefits for internships, it has been asserted that there will be enhanced academic performance; to date there has been virtually no published empirical evidence on this relationship. This thesis addresses this lacuna. A set of investigations was designed to test for enhanced academic performance post-placement, with differences in the architecture of the placement as intervening variables. It was found that under work environment architecture, there was no significant difference between the academic performance of placement undergraduates on return to academic studies and that of their non-placement peers; under learning environment architecture there was a significant difference between those who had taken placement and their non-placement peers. There was evidence of prior-selection: students who were academically stronger tended to undertake placement. There was indications that in the learning environment architecture, those who had taken an internship did not add value to their academic performance, whereas their non-intern peers did. There was some evidence that academic motivation in the immediate post-internship period was diminished. In accounting for the findings, the processes of transfer of learning are considered as well as sub-issues including the role of contracts and motivation in transfer of learning. Consideration is taken of the implications of the findings for the constituent stakeholder groups. Issues relating to the public policy are considered and directions for further research are suggested. The results support the view that internships can be designed to promote academic values and learning; they should not be seen merely as vehicles for promoting the learning of skills and competencies which are not readily produced in the universities.

No description available.

This study argues that time is a significant factor for the ways in which early years education is conceptualised and experienced. Three time scales are shown to be important. Firstly, the historical background to early years teaching is examined. In particular, I argue that the way in which women have come to be seen as the most appropriate teachers of young children has implications for how early years teaching is perceived and experienced in the 1990's. Secondly, the life history approach adopted by this study highlights the importance of early years teachers' own histories. The biographical accounts of fourteen early years teachers show how past experiences influence teachers' perceptions, understandings and experiences of their work. Thirdly, the particular time period, contemporary time, in which teachers live and work is shown to influence the way in which early years teachers perceive and experience their work. Of particular importance here are the recent educational reforms and the ways in which early years teachers have responded to them. I examine the role that early years teachers construct for themselves, a role shaped by the responsibility of being children's first school educators, and argue that for many teachers this role conflicts with current educational reforms.