Environmental education in schools has a critical part to play in the reorientation of social attitudes and behaviours that address the perception of a looming environmental crisis. Many believe there is a need for a debate about the purpose of education. In the UK, government imposed educational change by introducing the Education Reform Act in 1988. There was a clear opportunity to address environmental education within this reform. In 1992 government made a commitment to Agenda 21 (UNCED) that included the proposal that, within 3 years, governments should prepare or update strategies to integrate environment and development into all areas of education. This thesis considers whether any of the rhetoric has been realised. It recognises the crucial role of teachers in implementing reform and it uses a Grounded Theory methodology to `give teachers a voice' in an attempt to understand the impact of teachers' beliefs on environmental education development in English secondary schools. The study was carried out in 3 schools that were participating in an environmental education pilot project in Cumbria and also in 3 schools in Merseyside. Interviews took place with 27 teachers, with one external consultant and with the co-ordinator for the Cumbria project. The key finding is that the limitations on environmental education provision at its most profound, socially reforming level are beyond the locus of control of teachers. The outcomes of the ERA (1988) with its imposition of a restorationist curriculum and the accompanying myths about the nature of knowledge are such that the role of teachers as experts-in-knowledge and a didactic mode of teaching have been reinforced. Neither of these promotes the collaborative endeavour of knowledge construction that would be prerequisite for reforming education to meet the needs of a complex, rapidly changing world. Within these constraints, environmental education is likely to remain in its infancy with provision being limited to the knowledge and skills defined in conventional subject areas.

This research study examines the issue of gender equality in high schools in Vietnam through the lenses of Vietnamese educators and Vietnamese students and compares the situation in that country with measures taken in England to promote gender equality in education. The sample consisted of staff and students in Vietnam and staff in England. In order to achieve the required in-depth analysis of the social experience of students and educators the research approach employed was qualitative and the main research tools were semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed by the combination of grounded theory and narrative analysis. The main findings of the research were threefold: firstly, dichotomies exist between what Vietnamese educators espouse and what they enact in terms of gender equality, thus revealing a critical disjunction between policy and practice; secondly, embedded gender stereotypes of both educators and students exist in Vietnamese high schools which place women at a disadvantageous position; thirdly, the curriculum operant in Vietnamese high schools is problematic in that it fails to challenge gender stereotypes and reinforces traditional views of girls and women. In addition, the comparative element in the research reveals many similar beliefs about the theories of gender and education in Vietnam and England such as the acknowledgement of the role of education in promoting gender equality and a commitment by both government agencies and schools to guarantee gender equality between boys and girls. Nonetheless, many interesting differences between the two countries emerged in dealing with gender issues attributable to the different culture norms in the two nations. Recommendations include the suggestions that the Vietnamese government should undertake more significant steps to target gender inequalities by issuing further legislation regarding gender equality in both education and in the wider society in order to close the gap between policy and practice. The researcher also offers the recommendation to improve the training of Vietnamese school leaders and teachers in terms of gender equality, especially in relation to the learning activities provided in schools. In addition, the researcher suggests amending the Vietnamese curriculum in order that it should become more gender neutral. Finally, the researcher suggests that Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes in Vietnam should be developed further in order to give greater emphasis to gender issues in the curriculum and to encourage practical classroom strategies to address such issues in the educational environment.

Bullying is a widespread problem in schools and a vast amount of research has been conducted on the subject. In order to examine how members of the school community perceive bullying, self-report questionnaires were devised for completion by secondary school pupils from two year groups, teachers and support staff. The scenario-based questionnaires compared their views on defining bullying, the perceived seriousness of different behaviours and the bullying perceived to occur in the school. The questionnaires indicated that perceptions of bullying were mediated by the age, gender and group (pupil, teacher and support staff) of participants. Indirect behaviours (such as social exclusion) were less likely to be defined as bullying and were perceived as less serious than direct behaviours. Where the victim portrayed in the questionnaire was female, perceptions of seriousness for the incidents described were higher than for male victims. Staff rated direct and indirect behaviours more seriously than did pupils. Differences between schools indicated that perceptions were not fixed and there was potential for change. Open-ended comments made on the questionnaires revealed further complexity in perceptions of bullying and illustrated the benefits of utilising qualitative techniques to study bullying. Therefore, an additional study was conducted whereby a sample of teachers and support staff from participating schools were interviewed, using a semistructured approach, about their experiences of bullying. Results were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2003) and findings suggested the need to consider bullying in a wider context, focusing on schools as organisations with external and internal influences affecting their functioning. The research highlighted the importance of schools working together to focus on what is understood by the term bullying. Interventions need to recognise the complexity of bullying and not treat it in isolation. Practical issues for studying bullying in schools and the potential benefits of combining quantitative and qualitative research are discussed.

Previous research has explored children’s musical participation in relation to motivation, instrumental lessons, extracurricular activities and the historically low uptake of GCSE and A Level music. This ethnographic study set out to investigate pupils’ musical participation in different school settings, the musical culture within these schools and the place of music in children’s everyday lives, including the wider contexts of home and school. Observations, questionnaires, aural and photo elicitation and focus group interviews were conducted with pupils, parents and teachers and revealed more differences than similarities in four main areas. The results are explored through the themes of teaching and learning, attitudes towards music, continuation of music education and the ‘triad’ of home, school and child. Schools attracting pupils from more middle-class backgrounds had more established musical cultures compared to those with an intake from economically deprived areas. This was apparent through the resources available to the music departments, the range of instrumental lessons on offer, the number of pupils learning an instrument, the amount of extracurricular provision present and the attitudes of pupils, parents and teachers. The findings from this study also showed that the views children experienced at home, whether positive or negative, were strongly influential. The results of this study showed the imbalance in provision between school type and socio-economic background and the importance of positive school-parent relationships in pupil engagement and have wider implications for schools and their pupils.

'Pipeline shrinkage', the steady attrition of women in the ICT industry despite their academic achievement, has been of great concern not only in the United Kingdom but also internationally for almost a quarter of a century. This study reviewed literature and prior research from both national and international perspectives, with a particular research focus on the experiences of students in three British secondary schools. The situation may have been exacerbated in British schools as government strategies have increasingly focussed on male students' apparent 'underachievement' relative to female students. One aspect of focus has been the resurrection of interest in single-sex classes in state schools. The comparatively strong academic achievement of female students has led to little focussed research on why they fail to capitalise on their ICT ability and study the subject beyond school level. Their behavioural intentions have not been the focus of the research. This study tested the fit of The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) as a theoretical framework to examine how behavioural, normative and control beliefs differed, both between male and female students in mixed and single gender schools and female students taught in mixed or single sex classroom contexts. Samples of 150 students were questioned from which 120 were useable; 40 from each of the three participating schools. In two cases 25 students were Key Stage 4 students and 15 were A-Level students. A series of semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a further sample of 30 Key Stage 4 ICT students. Results showed data fitted the TpB model and explained female students' lack of intention to study ICT beyond their current level as beliefs were found to be related to that intention. Recommendations were provided for changes in practice based on attitudinal responses to behavioural beliefs, learning styles and teaching strategies.

The current research was carried out by a Trainee Educational Psychologist (TEP) between September 2013 and May 2015 in a large County in South-East England as part of a Doctorate in Child, Community and Educational Psychology. Using critical realism as a guiding epistemological position, the study sought to bring school based peer mentors and mentees voice to the forefront, by exploring their view of what works. The study aimed to offer a framework for understanding and developing peer mentoring relationships and inform safe and effective peer mentoring practice in secondary schools. This study was conducted using grounded theory methodology as a strategy of inquiry. Data was captured from semi structured interviews which were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed, assisted by MaxQDA. Purposive sampling was used to select nine participants from two secondary schools: of which 4 were peer mentors and 5 were mentees whom had participated in their schools peer mentoring programme during the academic year 2013/14. The BONDS model addresses the delivery of peer mentoring within the context of peer support interventions and secondary educational settings. The acronym ‘BONDS’ represents the data which emerged from grounded theory methodology as 5 integrated mechanisms which mediate effective peer mentoring. The model proposes that effective peer mentoring is synonymous with a nurturing experience characterised by ‘boundaries’ within peer mentoring, the ‘openness’ of the mentee to engage, the mentors abilities to build a safe and supportive relationship, the peer mentor and mentees ‘dual experience’ of the school system and ‘staff contact’ with mentors. This study adds to the limited body of research which explores the views of peer mentors and mentees engaged in peer mentoring programmes in the UK. The implications of the findings are discussed and good practice recommendations are made to inform the work of school staff, Educational Psychology services and other professionals working to support young people through school based peer mentoring. The limitations of the study are also addressed and suggestions are made for future research.

This thesis examines the impact of introducing roblem-Based Learning (PBL) into the Islamic Education (IE) curriculum at Year 11 level (students aged 17) in the Kingdom of Bahrain (KB). The research was motivated by recent recommendations (2011) by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in KB that secondary education should develop students’ independent and critical thinking skills, and by my own professional and academic interest in pedagogy. This study is pragmatic and it uses a mixed methods approach to enhance the validity and reliability of the findings. In view of the examining nature and the context specificity, the casestudy strategy of a secondary girls’ school in KB was adopted. The core of the research is the implementation of an IE module (Islam organises marital life), designed using PBL methods, into four IE classrooms in a girls’ school in KB. The intervention took place over a period of seven weeks. Qualitative data takes the form of classroom observations before and during the PBL intervention and interviews with students, teachers and curriculum specialists employed by the MoE. Quantitative data was collected via questionnaires distributed to students before and after the PBL intervention and through student self-evaluation forms. This data was used to generate statistical results. The thesis provides a detailed explanation and critical analysis of PBL, and examines its relationship with constructivist learning theories specifically within the context of curriculum IE in KB. It presents a refined model of PBL that is workable for secondary IE in KB, and which might be transferable to similar contexts. This model is new to the education system in Bahrain and is being trialled to test its effectiveness and hopefully integrate it into the country’s current secondary teaching methods. The outcomes of this study revealed that teachers deliver knowledge through the use of conventional methods which in turn minimized the role of students in the learning process as passive receivers. Therefore, this study suggests PBL as an appropriate teaching approach to be employed in IE in KB, because it has offered advantages to Islamic Education learning by encouraging students to take a more independent proactive role and communicate more freely. Nevertheless, the implementation of PBL had its difficulties, particularly with regards to getting used to a new learning style, but it was noted that teachers provided sufficient support. The thesis also argues that constructivist learning approaches, albeit within certain boundaries, can be beneficially implemented to confessional religious education, such as curriculum IE in KB. The implementation of PBL under the umbrella of constructivism enhances the independent thinking and knowledge creation by Bahraini learners which in turn helps them comprehend religious resources, and boost their faith. The research discussed in the thesis is an original contribution to knowledge because it is the only research about PBL in IE in Bahrain as this is a completely novel pedagogy in this particular context.

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This small-scale study into the summative assessment practices in ICT of schools in the North West of England identifies a lack of consistency in teacher assessment at the end of KS3. Central to the research is a consideration of what is meant by ICT capability. This phrase is important in this research because it is the term used in Government policy documents to indicate what schools are to assess in ICT at the end of KS3. Hence, if ICT assessment is to be consistent, there should be a shared understanding of this term. The research explores the lack of common understanding of the term in literature and then goes on to illustrate how this lack of understanding is mirrored in schools. This results in inconsistency of practice in assessing ICT in schools. This inconsistency of practice is explored through in-depth interviews with a number of Heads of Department from a range of Secondary Schools in the North West of England. Alongside the main consideration of assessment of ICT, the research also explores recent trends in assessment practices in English schools. The problematic nature of summative assessment is discussed as indicated by the attempts in the English National Curriculum to link assessment to observable and measurable criteria and how this leads to more and more trivialisation of what is being assessed. Assessment ‘backwash’ is considered where the outcomes of summative assessment are used in ways for which they were not originally intended; for example where summative assessment results such as those generated at the end of KS3 are used to measure the overall ‘quality’ of a school in comparison with other schools. Brief consideration is given to the recent focus on formative assessment techniques, as typified by the 2008 UK Government publication of an Assessment for Learning Strategy, although only in order to illustrate emerging assessment practices in schools. A range of implications for schools and their assessment practices (particularly in relation to ICT) are identified.

This thesis examines the learning styles preferences of secondary PGCE trainees (n=316) using a mixed methods approach. Having reviewed the literature, it builds meaningfully on the relatively little that is known about the learning styles preferences of trainee secondary teachers in England. Its originality lies in the way it then explores the ‘lived experience’ of trainee English teachers (n=12) in relation to their self-reported learning styles preferences over a nine month period. Using data from Felder and Solomon’s (1994) Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire, it considers whether the learning styles preferences of English, mathematics and science trainees differ according to subject specialism. Subsequently, using a series of three in-depth phenomenologically based interviews, it examines the learning journeys of the English trainees and considers to what extent their learning styles preferences impact on their learning and development as teachers. Quantitative analysis of the data from the ILS questionnaire, using descriptive statistics only, indicates that there are ‘typical’ and ‘atypical’ learning styles preferences for trainees in different subject disciplines. In particular, these can be seen in relation to the sensingintuitive and the visual-verbal learning styles dimensions of the ILS. Qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts indicates that the learning styles preferences of the English trainees consistently shape their attitudes towards/and experience of learning and development. The influence of their learning styles preferences is apparent in their memories of prior education and learning, their evaluations of university and school based teacher training and the choices they make as teachers in the classroom. The thesis concludes by making a number of suggestions for future research. It also offers several recommendations about the effective use of information about learning styles preferences for policy makers, initial teacher educators and providers of continuing professional development.