This research aimed to explore the perceptions of students and teachers involved in school plays in secondary schools. The main aims of the study were to investigate teachers’ and students' motivation to participate and to explore their perceptions regarding the potential benefits, challenges and positive and negative impacts of involvement in this activity. Given the limited amount of research investigating this area, literature relating to the arts in education, drama and theatre in education, youth theatre groups and extra-curricular activities have been included in the rationale for studying this area. The study employed a two-phase mixed methodology design, which involved an initial phase of questionnaires completed by students and teachers. This was followed by focus groups with the students and semi-structured interviews with the teachers involved. Results indicate that intrinsic enjoyment of the activity was one of the key motivators for student participants. A number of perceived positive impacts and benefits in relation to the students’ personal and social development were identified, along with a number of perceived challenges and negative impacts in relation to the process. The findings are discussed in relation to relevant psychological theories and the practical implications for the field of Educational Psychology.

This study explores how experienced science teachers promote conceptual change. It examines how instructional strategies, learning methods (Darden, 1991) and conceptual change interrelate. Three research methods (expert micro-teaching, verbal protocols and retrospective debriefing) were used. Data were video-recorded and managed using NVivo. Six groups of 11 year-old pupils took part (three girls and three boys) in each expert micro-teaching interview, led by a science specialist (Advanced Skills Teacher). A ‘Concurrent Verbal Protocol and Retrospective Debriefing’ interview (Taylor and Dionne, 2000) happened with the teacher approximately one month later. Six teachers participated altogether. About fifteen hours of interview data were analysed using grounded theory methods. The interpretivist theoretical perspective (symbolic interactionism) was underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology. What can be considered evidence is inevitably affected by the researcher’s methodological position. So what constitutes reliable evidence can be contentious. Appropriate criteria for evaluating the grounded theory emerging from this study were used. Interpretivist approaches for investigating conceptual change in school science are necessary to avoid dominance by positivist literature. This approach, proved successful in other fields (Pressley, 2000), is new to this context. The assumption that instructional strategy is a plan does not adequately explain the data collected here. However, abandoning attempts to unpick complicated interactions between pupils and teacher whilst learning takes place, leaves practitioners without guidance. Consensus exists among most conceptual change researchers that instructional strategies, learning methods and conceptual change must be considered together where possible. This present study proposes a grounded theory for how experienced science teachers promote conceptual change and questions how instructional strategy is understood in the literature. Findings show that during and between sporadic periods of ‘conceptual conflict’ participants used eleven ‘teaching and learning techniques’. The relative weight given to each technique was termed the ‘strategic profile’ of the teacher. ‘Tactics’ is the theory of the use of teaching and learning techniques in conceptual combat. ‘Strategy’ is the theory of the use of such conceptual combats to try to achieve an aim (here to promote conceptual change). Teachers (and pupils) demonstrated and described tactical and strategic behaviour. Techniques, tactics and strategies frequently failed. How participants managed such ‘friction’ was described. Teachers and researchers view classroom dynamics from different perspectives. This study argues that an interpretivist approach, which moves back and forth between the particular and the general, can help bridge the “gap” between practice and theory in this field (Duit et al., 2008, p.629).

This thesis offers the first and most comprehensive re-evaluation of the UK government’s Creative Partnerships education policy (2002-11) by drawing together my seven contemporaneous evaluation reports about Creative Partnerships and applying a retrospective and reflexive commentary to them. The term of reference explicitly named or implied in all seven evaluation briefs was to measure the ‘impact,’ of the policy. The principal contribution to new understanding in the thesis is the deconstruction and conceptual analysis of impact in the context of Creative Partnerships, drawing on hermeneutics, critical linguistics and policy analysis (Ozga, 2000; Fairclough, 1989). This clarifies and illustrates the ways in which impact was interpreted by those enacting Creative Partnerships, and proposes a fuller understanding of the term. I identify two contrasting approaches to impact adopted by Creative Partnerships’ national leadership: the politically motivated public relations approach and the substantive approach. I argue that the former approach was driven by the zeitgeist of its time: the political party in power (Ward, 2010; Buckingham and Jones, 2001), the recession after 2010 and the contemporary preference for evidence-based practice (Hargreaves, 2007). Research into ‘logical frameworks’ (Harley, 2005; Rosenthal, 2000) reveals them to be an essential corollary to the latter, substantive approach and shows how the lack of a full logical framework for planning and evaluating Creative Partnerships, impoverished the extent to which its impact was recognised and monitored by those enacting the policy. The thesis shows how the imperatives of the political cycle demanded evidence of the policy’s impact well before more valid and reliable longitudinal impact studies could, in principle, be completed. As a possible solution to this conundrum, the thesis argues that my ‘predictive impact model’ offered plausible predictions about the legacy of Creative Partnerships (Wood and Whitehead, 2012). I suggest that this could be further investigated and applied to similar education policies.

In 1990, secondary schools in Libya were transformed into specialized schools; a move, which require all Libyan students to choose a specialty subject which would become the focus of their secondary school learning and determine the academic direction of their future education. This ethnographically-oriented mixed-methods study is concerned with the motivation to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL) among students in English-specialty secondary schools in Libya. Conceptually, this study builds on Dörnyei’s (2005) L2 Motivational Self-System with the aim to investigate empirically a largely unexplored area within this theoretical framework: the relationship between the learners’ possible L2 selves and their L2 learning situation. The study was conducted in one secondary school in the north west of Libya over a period of one academic year. The data come from a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative data provide a bigger picture of English specialty secondary school students’ motivational orientations, future self guides and their interaction with classroom-specific variables. The focus of the qualitative component is on three key student participants from the same school with the aim to obtain a fine-grained picture from interviews, classroom observations and student diaries of the interaction between their future self guides, their learning experience and their engagement in learning tasks in EFL classes. The findings show that the relationship between the L2 learning situation and the L2 selves is an intricate and complex one. First, the L2-self construct itself has emerged from this study as a complex nested system of multiple L2 visions that the students entertain in their working self-concept as they choose their specialty. The findings further indicate that the L2 learning situation plays a key role in foregrounding or, in contrast, rendering irrelevant specific L2 selves that the students bring to the L2 learning situation. And finally, the study shows that the students constantly negotiate the relationship between their future guides and their L2 learning situation by either adjusting and adapting their L2 visions in order to give meaning to their L2 learning experience or by actively engaging or disengaging with aspects of their learning situation in order to remain connected with their well defined future L2 selves.

In the UK education system, an ‘audit culture’ has led to pressures being placed on students to achieve high grades in their GCSEs (Torrance, 2004). It has been suggested that schools are required to achieve good academic results and look after their students’ wellbeing, causing a conflict in relation to public examinations, such as GCSEs (Putwain, 2009). School staff support both performance and wellbeing by preparing students for exams. However, research suggests that there is a danger that many underperform, or are negatively affected (emotionally) by exam stress, or both (Putwain, 2007). The aims of this research were to explore the views of students who had recently taken GCSE exams. The research aimed to gain an understanding of how Year 12 students felt their GCSE experiences affected their wellbeing and performance, what factors contributed to or alleviated their levels of exam stress, and whether theories such as Achievement Goal Theory (Elliot and McGregor, 2001) could be used to explain the individual differences in levels of exam stress. The research questions were explored using semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings and conclusions provided ways to improve the support for students during their GCSEs, improving academic performance and wellbeing.

This thesis concerns an exploratory practice (EP) project conducted at a two-year college in north east Japan, which was severely affected by the earthquake of March 2011. The focus of research is a 13-week EFL course for 25 first-year college students, specifically designed to enhance their future visions of themselves as L2 users (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014). This study examined opportunities that the course created for the students’ vision development in the classroom and the factors that may have contributed to these opportunities. The data came from 1) students’ written narratives, 2) semi-structured interviews, 3) teacher/researcher reflections, field notes and audio- and video- recordings of the classes, and 4) course evaluation questionnaires. Findings show that the course was beneficial for enhancing students’ appreciation of their language-relevant futures and the thesis engages with the factors that contributed to these findings by 1) tracing the trajectories of L2 learning and intercultural experiences of selected interview participants, 2) examining group dynamics and pedagogy adopted for the course, and 3) piecing together an understanding of the role that the teacher played in mobilising one focal participant’s future vision. The key contribution of this EP inquiry turned out to be more far-reaching than originally envisaged; however, pointing to the broader role that language education can play in young people’s lives. The thesis concludes by discussing educational and research consequences of this finding.

This thesis explores the policy and practice of the secondary school guidance and counselling programme in Kenya in the context of the school. The study was conducted in three stages beginning with an initial survey at stage one and case studies at stage two. At the third stage of the study, discussions were held with various stakeholders including a focus group discussion with students. The theoretical framework for the study is based on prismatic society (Riggs, 1964; Harber and Davies, 1997), and Fullan’s (2001) model of educational change, using the person centred counselling approach as the background to counselling. Findings suggest that despite the emphasis on guidance and counselling in schools, the provision of guidance and counselling services is highly variable and somewhat fragmented in scope largely depending on individual schools. The main implication of the study is the need for a more comprehensive guidance and counselling policy in this increasingly important area of education. These relate to the appointment of counsellors, professional issues including a code of conduct for counsellors and the need for a more comprehensive programme that is learner friendly.

This thesis has developed out of a classroom practitioner’s desire to find out what works when trying to improve both the quality of the writing and the attainment of GCSE Business Studies students. It investigates the body of literature on writing approaches and in the context of the current educational framework in UK secondary schools considers how suggested writing interventions can be used. It describes the use of an exploratory randomised controlled trial conducted with 14-15 year-old students in English state schools who were studying business start-ups as part of a course in ‘Business Studies’. Students participating in the trial were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group within each class in each participating school. The intervention uses a ‘Story Grammar’ strategy to improve students’ reasoning by increasing the frequency and complexity of their use of ‘connectives’ such as ‘when’, ‘if’ and ‘because’. The analysis reports positive effects of the intervention on students’ understanding as judged by the use of a standard examination style mark scheme, and the number and complexity of connectives used by students in their extended writing. The design of the experiment and its practicability as a model for investigating effects of classroom interventions are discussed.

The increased prevalence and negative impact of mental health difficulties amongst those with autism and Asperger syndrome has been reported by researchers, clinicians and people with autism themselves. Schools are key environments for those with autism, but there is little research regarding how they promote or demote their mental health. Eleven young people in Key Stage Three from three mainstream schools were part of a multiple case study, which explored and compared the perspectives of young people, their parents and school staff, regarding the mental health of those with autism or Asperger syndrome. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and subjected to thematic analysis. The well-being of many young people was reported to be good, although two showed signs of stress daily. In some cases well-being had varied significantly over recent years. Eight pairs of factors that promoted or demoted mental health were identified. These related to ethos, awareness of needs, friendships, learning support, pastoral care, noise levels, predictability and organisational skills. Further research is needed to clarify these factors, but this study supports the notion of schools as mental health promoting environments for those with autism and Asperger syndrome and highlights potential areas of focus.

School attendance is a high profile issue at both national and local levels, and links have been made between poor attendance and low attainment, poor employment outcomes and antisocial behaviour (Reid 1999, 2002). This small scale research study focuses on a group of young people referred to as school refusers, who experience difficulties attending school associated with anxiety and emotion. This small scale, case study based research revolves around five young people who have been reintegrated into mainstream school following a period at a Short Stay School (PRU) for key stage 3 and 4 pupils with mental health and medical needs. In addition to the young people, participants include their mothers, the learning mentor from the Short Stay School and a mentor from the receiving mainstream school. Findings underline the heterogeneous nature of cases and an experience of school refusal associated with intense emotions for the young people and their parents. Change associated with school and home factors are implicated in school refusal as are factors including social anxiety, bullying, the child/parent dynamic and characteristics of the young person. School refusal is a long term matter requiring ongoing support even after reintegration.