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This thesis explores the impact of simulation upon learning for undergraduate nursing students. A brief history of the evolution of pre-registration nurse education and the development of simulation for nursing provide background and context to the study. The conceptual frameworks used for this study draw upon the work of Benner and Sutphen (2007) and Engeström (1994). Benner and Sutphen’s work highlights the complex nature of situated knowledge in practice disciplines such as nursing. They suggest that knowledge must be constantly integrated within the curriculum through pedagogies of interpretation, formation, contextualisation and performance. These pedagogies present a framework, which enhances the understanding of the impact of simulation upon student learning. Engeström’s work on activity theory, recognises the links between learning and the environment of work and highlights the possibilities for learning to inspire change, innovation and the creation of new ideas. His notion of expansive learning offers nurse education a way of reconceptualising the learning that occurs during simulation. Together these frameworks present an opportunity for nurse education to articulate and theorise the learning inherent in simulation activities. Conducted as a small-scale narrative case study, this study tells the unique stories of a small number of undergraduate nursing students, nurse mentors and nurse educators and explores their experiences of learning through simulation. The nurse educators viewed simulation as a means of helping students to learn to be nurses, whilst, the nurse mentors suggested that simulation helped them to determine nursing potential. The students’ narratives revealed that they approached simulation learning in different ways resulting in a range of outcomes: those who were successfully becoming nurses, those who were struggling or working hard to become nurses and those who were not becoming nurses. A theoretical analysis of learning through simulation offers a means of conceptualizing and establishing different perspectives for understanding the learning described by the participants and offers new possibilities towards an expansive approach to learning nursing. The study concludes by examining what this interpretation of learning might mean for nurse education, nursing research and nursing practice.

Reflective journal writing has frequently been used in nursing and other health care fields as an educational strategy to promote reflection and learning. Although reflective journal writing is recognised as a valuable tool to promote students' learning, very little research has been undertaken to evaluate its use. The overall aim of this study is to examine the use of reflective journals in the promotion of reflection and learning in post-registration nursing students. In order to achieve that aim a qualitative descriptive case study design was utilised to examine four objectives. The first was to analyse reflective journals completed by students during a period of learning in order to determine the extent and level of reflection achieved. The second, to examine the use of reflective journals as an educational strategy for facilitating learning in the practice setting. Thirdly, there was the intention to examine the nature and content of guidelines given to students with regard to the use of a reflective journal, and fourthly, to examine the support given to students by preceptors in relation to completing a reflective journal during their practice experience. A purposive homogenous sample of eighty one part-time post-registration nursing students undertaking one of four modules, either as part of the Diploma in Professional Studies in Palliative Care Nursing or the Diploma in Breast Care Nursing during one semester constituted the total sample. Forty- two students agreed to participate in the research. Data were collected from reflective journals completed during one module and by interviews with fifteen students, two teachers and three preceptors. Forty-two journals were analysed to determine the extent and level of reflection using a model devised by Boud et al. [1985] and adapted by Wong et al. [1995]. A model devised by Mezirow [1990] was used to identify the non-reflectors, reflectors, and critical reflectors. The findings suggest that student writing can be used as evidence for the presence or absence of reflective thinking. Allocating students to the three categories of non-reflector, reflector and critical reflector was possible. However, identifying textual elements within the journals and allocating them to the finer levels of reflection was more difficult and less reliable. Evidence suggests overall that journals are a useful tool for promoting reflection and learning. However, some students appear to benefit more from journals than others. Approximately two thirds of the respondents were able to demonstrate varying levels of reflection and were classified as either reflectors or critical reflectors. The remaining one third of the respondents were unable to demonstrate any levels of reflection. Overall respondents expressed positive views, regarding the use of reflective journals. However, a small number found writing challenging and some questioned their use. Some respondents preferred to talk about their reflections rather than write them in a journal. The importance of receiving clear guidance on the purpose of journal writing from teachers, and the need for non-judgemental feedback were highlighted as important factors in promoting the effective use of journals. Some concern was expressed regarding the disclosure of confidential information, and also who would have access to journals when used for assessment purposes. The issue of the time required for reflection and writing a journal was a major concern for some respondents. Students valued the role of preceptors in supporting their journal writing during the practice experience. Preceptors considered that the preparation they received for their role was adequate. However, they did request debriefing sessions following their support of students who had experienced difficult situations. This study has presented further evidence that overall, reflective journals may be used as a tool to promote reflection and learning in post-registration nursing students.

The study investigates the rationale and value of using cooperative learning strategies in the mathematics classroom with special reference to its effectiveness in promoting problem solving skills and levels of achievement in mathematics. In this it is compared with traditional teaching methods. The study sample was composed of 348 eighth grade students in eight classes from two separate female and male schools and included female and male teachers. Two female and two male teachers were trained in the use of cooperative learning strategies in their classes during the implementation of the experiment, while the other four teachers had been asked to keep using their usual traditional teaching methods. The experiment took place within two scholastic semesters and the same mathematical content was covered by the two groups within the experiment. Pre- and post-mathematical achievement tests were employed to assess students' progress in achievement and problem solving skills. Also, a programme evaluation questionnaire was applied at the end of the experiment for all students involved. In addition to the quantitative methodology, the study also addressed qualitative issues. All the teachers involved in the experiment, and a sample of students, were interviewed. Lesson observations were conducted within the research programme to evaluate the implementation of the cooperative learning strategies and teachers' and students' responses towards it. In addition, teachers were asked to record weekly diaries to assess their judgement on student progress within the experiment. The researcher recognises that teachers and students who apply cooperative learning strategies might be strongly motivated and be more enthusiastic by the very fact of trying a new strategy. Consideration was, therefore, given to this point at all stages. The study tries to determine if such strategies are really valuable in the mathematics classroom, allowing for all the variables, and have measurable effects in promoting problem solving skills and achievement in mathematics. The study demonstrates that cooperative learning strategies enhance the teaching and learning process by transferring focus from a teacher-centred situation into a student- centred learning context. This enriches the cognitive, competitive and social interaction and, hence, develops outcomes in the cognitive, affective, motivational and social domains. The study proved the positive impact of applying such strategies in enhancing mathematical achievement and promoting problem solving skills compared with the impact made by traditional teaching strategies. Cooperative learning strategies could offer all students with different abilities the opportunities to cooperate, interact and participate in the mathematics lesson. This gave them a chance to do mathematics by themselves, speak their thoughts, offer and receive explanations, introduce several procedures for solving problems and, hence, profit from the mathematical knowledge available in the group as a whole. The new learning approach encouraged students to challenge problems and provided them with the opportunities to speak mathematically, to understand the mathematical concepts and rules and to use them. Results from the study also demonstrated that cooperative learning developed other skills. It improved student interaction, communication and social skills and built more positive attitudes towards learning compared with the traditional methods. Developing student behaviour and personality was, therefore, an important additional feature. The study illustrated that cooperative learning strategies help to solve problems faced by teachers in classroom management. As expected, the research showed that outcomes differed from case to case and from one situation to another. The academic ability of students and the quality of mathematical material played an obvious role emphasising positive or negative affects. On the other hand, gender differences examined in the study showed that, despite female students achieving better results, male students actually displayed more positive attitudes toward mathematics. But again, female students were more enthusiastic in applying cooperative learning. The study is the first of this nature to be applied in Jordan and has several implications for theory and practice. No teaching method is the best, but it is recommended to provide teachers with professional training programmes to apply more developmental teaching methods effectively and to modify mathematical textbooks and teachers' guides for the use of different teaching methods. It is recommended that more research be carried out in different fields of study to concentrate on improving the quality of learning and enhancing problem solving skills.

This study examines the educational choices made by some of the first cohort of further education students at an art college to face fees of up to £9,000 per annum for higher education study. Focusing on lower socio-economic status students, potentially most easily deterred by increased fees and debt, it explores the influences on their decisionmaking and considers the adequacy of the theoretical models underpinning their choice processes. It is a case study essentially concerned with why students make the choices that they do, what processes are involved and what influences shape student choice. The study was undertaken in the case study college – which delivers undergraduate programmes of study – partly as a result of the potential impact on the college of reduced FE to HE progression. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 16 students on three occasions during the 2011-12 academic year, to coincide with particular points during their decision-making process. An interpretivist paradigm was adopted as the literature shows that many aspects of higher education choice relate to socially constructed realities which could only become fully apparent during qualitative inquiry, with a close relationship between the researcher and what is studied. The study found that students were not deterred unduly by the prospect of increased tuition fee debt on graduation, but that their choices of where to study were strongly influenced by concerns about living costs whilst studying and other considerations such as proximity to home that are already documented in the literature on higher education choice, largely from the theoretical perspective set out by Pierre Bourdieu (1974). The need for ontological security (Giddens, 1991) was clearly evident in many participants’ comments and was a strong underlying theme. Fieldwork demonstrated that at the point of decision-making, actors sought to make pragmatically rational decisions, within limits conditioned by their social capital, and therefore argues for a two-stage model of decision-making similar to that espoused by Raymond Boudon (1974). Glaesser and Cooper (2014) have argued convincingly for a combination of Bourdieu and Boudon’s work in this manner. Whilst this has merit, this thesis notes Hodkinson’s (2008) concerns regarding the explanatory capability of existing theoretical models in simultaneously addressing key aspects of HE choice at both macro and micro levels, rather than merely severally. It argues that at a micro level Herbert Simon’s 1957 model of bounded rationality best explains decision–making, and uniquely that the boundaries of actors’ choices are limited by their habitus. It concludes that actors’ boundedly-rational decisions and levels of satisficing are conditioned by their habitus, such that higher education choice is best characterised as ‘conditioned bounded rationality’.

This research is a case study of the way students at a Further Education College are making use of computer technology, in particular their use of the Internet, both at home and at college. The research used a multi-method approach that involved the collection of data by use of questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was completed by two hundred students drawn from a range of courses offered at the college. The students invited to complete the questionnaire represented both full time and part time students. From the students who completed the questionnaire twenty were invited to take part in individual interviews. From the data collected the researcher has been able to establish a link between a student's cultural background and their use of computers and the Internet. The researcher has been able to gather data to support the theory that for students from some cultural backgrounds there is a likelihood that they will use Infonnation Technology for certain tasks more than students with a different cultural background. As a means of identifying groups of students who could be described as having the same cultural background the data gathered was analysed by comparing students by gender, ethnic group and religion. This research has shown that the use of computers and the Internet has become part of everyday life and as such part of our society's culture. However the research has shown that different cultural groups within our society are using the Internet in different ways and for different purposes. The data showed that male students had a more positive attitude towards computers than female students; it was also found that male students made more use of email at college than female students. The researcher has found two significant differences regarding students' use of the Internet, namely that males use the Internet more than females for entertainment and that students from a Pakistani ethnic origin use the Internet more than white students for private use. Students from Pakistani ethnic origins were also found to use email at home more than students from other ethnic backgrounds. Part of the questionnaire was used as a student self-assessment of Infonnation Technology (IT) skills and the training they had received. Analysis of this section of data showed that whilst the amount of training of students in the use of IT is independent of gender, religion and ethnicity the level of skills claimed was not. Male students claimed a higher level of IT skills than female students and the level of skill in IT claimed by Christians is significantly less than that claimed by both Muslims and those of no religion. The questionnaire results led the researcher to believe that students from different cultural backgrounds were using computers and the Internet differently. The interviews were used to probe the implications of these differences with students from particular ethnic groups. The results showed that, at the college where the study took place there were Muslim Pakistani females students who were using the Internet as their main means of social interaction, when not at college. For these students this level of social interaction would not have been available to them they did not have access to the Internet. These students were making extensive use of chat rooms on the Internet. They prearranged to talk on line to people they knew, and they did this on a regular basis. This is in contrast to female students from other cultural groups who did not use chat rooms to the same extent, and when they did it was to talk to people they did not know. The research also found that some computer use was independent of a student's cultural background. One such area related to students having difficulties or problems when using the Internet. From the students interviewed the researcher believes that for many of the students the instruction they are receiving, particularly with reference to using the Internet, is inadequate to meet their needs. In addition to the lack of IT training, some students saw the monitoring of computer use as problematic. Parental monitoring students' use of computers at home was mainly done by having the home computer located in a family room. Few of the students said that content monitoring software was being used on these machines. All students accepted this monitoring within the home environment but many were unhappy with the monitoring arrangements that the college had put in place. This research project has shown that it is not sufficient for future education researchers to investigate computer use in terms of type of use alone, as has been the case in many previous studies. This research has shown that how students choose to use computers needs to be interpreted in terms of their gender and cultural background.

Higher education in the UK has changed from a system catering for an elite, to one which aims to improve the potential of over 40% of young people (Clark, 2003). Whilst not rejecting the idea of education for its own sake, this thesis suggests that one of the purposes of this mass higher education is to fit students for employment. It maintains that for students studying English and Media, this purpose includes the ability to produce Standard Written English. It examines the complexities involved in producing English and Media graduates who have this competence and explores the power relationships involved in teaching and assessing writing. The theories of Bourdieu are used to give a perspective on the use of Standard Written English as an important aspect of cultural capital which distinguishes members of the educated discourse community. Using written work and interview data from fifteen English and Media undergraduates at one university, plus written tutor feedback and comments, it considers the reasons why students might not meet the criteria set. It challenges the notion that because spelling, punctuation and grammar are ‘surface features’, achieving competence in using them is easy or relatively unimportant. In firmly rejecting the ‘student deficit’ approach, this thesis maintains that there is a need to openly acknowledge different literacies, their social consequences and the complexities involved in changing writing habits. This acknowledgement then necessitates a curriculum which includes genuine opportunities and encouragement to acquire a valuable asset. It is suggested that in doing so, the UK higher education system can move a step further away from its elitist, gatekeeping function and closer to delivering meaningful qualifications and relevant expertise to those students whose employment prospects are linked to written communication.

This thesis analyses the college placement element of pre-service initial teacher training (ITT) and its impact on ideas about teaching in Further Education (FE). It considers both trainees and serving teachers to investigate this impact on ideas in relation to individuals’ experiences of placement and in relation to ideas held in general society by distinguishing cultures and questioning how they each shape notions about teaching. The placement experience is examined within the broad context of work-based learning (WBL) and the thesis draws on and assesses the explanatory power of three theorisations commonly adopted within WBL research; communities of practice; Cultural Historical Activity Theory; and Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus. Though trainees’ experience of the placement is characterised by messiness and diversity, the small groups they work within at colleges generally cannot be defined as self-sustaining cultures. Moreover, ideas about teaching held in society are often more influential on trainees’ development than the particular situation of their placement during training, even where trainees are placed within distinctive cultures. Trainee and serving teachers in FE, therefore, experience a hierarchy of influences, including government policy, as well as concomitant tensions between agency and control, all relating to the unequal structures of society. This understanding exposes the weakness of some theorisations in describing how ideas about teaching are formed and disseminated. This thesis argues that the Marxist concept of alienation more adequately describes the situation of trainees and teachers in FE and the formation of their ideas and practice. It finally argues for ITT for FE to be constructed around a body of professional knowledge as a counterbalance to the limitations of the experience of placement.

The argument made by the Leitch report and subsequent government policy documents is that an improved supply of skills is central to national economic progress in the face of increasing competition amongst nation states for business investment. Over the period 2005-9 higher education institutions in England were encouraged by government departments and HEFCE to engage with an emerging higher skills policy, and commit to building their capacity to develop and deliver workforce development provision in collaboration with employers and Sector Skills Councils. This thesis explores the implementation of this policy with the aim of developing an analytical framework that can be used to explain processes of implementation in this specific policy environment, at the interface of ‘skills’ and ‘higher education’. The approach to implementation recognises the importance of interpreting the structural character of the policy environment, the influence of the prevailing norms of the higher education sector, and the manner in which processes at the ‘street level’ interpret and adapt policy to institutional context. The analytical process takes account of the insights of sociological institutionalism, Matland’s ambiguity-conflict model and the focus on belief and coalition formation in the Advocacy Coalition Framework, and makes use of a range of documentary and interview material. The approach is deliberately sceptical about the possibility of the development of an overarching implementation model, and instead focuses on the characterisation of key factors that are likely to influence the implementation process and outcomes in this specific policy environment. To that end, the analysis produced can find use as an insight into the process of policy implementation in higher education in the U.K., and provide an indication of how similar policies may be re(formed) in future contexts.

This thesis addresses the learning experiences of Libyan students studying master’s courses in different disciplines at a UK university. It is a story of students who came to the UK at a particular point in time after civil war and from ongoing conflict. This study uses communities of practice (CoPs) theory as a conceptual framework to highlight the significance of the knowledge and skills that are developed through social interaction with colleagues and tutors within the master’s course and the effects of that on Libyan students’ learning and identity. The aims of the research are to investigate Libyan students’ perceptions and perspectives of their experiences in the United Kingdom higher education (UK HE) system; to explore Libyan students’ perceptions of their previous educational and socio-cultural experiences on their acculturation and learning; to evaluate the nature of the interaction between Libyan students and their colleagues; and to consider their perceptions of identity and change. The study was qualitative and interpretive, examining Libyan students’ expectations, perceptions, perspectives, experiences and aspirations of the UK HE system. Semi-structured interviews and observation were the main sources of data. The findings reveal that Libyan students encounter a number of challenges in the new learning environment. Some of these challenges are common to all international students such as unfamiliarity with the UK HE system, currency and confidence and the challenge of independent study; other challenges such as concern about the environment and lack of security might be attributable to the consequences of civil war and ongoing conflict and specific to this group of Libyan students. Among other things, the findings indicate that there was antagonism, avoidance of interaction, fear and distrust between the Libyan students themselves owing to tribal loyalties and political divisions that relate to the consequence of the initial and ongoing conflict within Libya. This limited integration, hindered mutual engagement and undermined the support that might have been expected between fellow Libyans. However, despite the alienation and schism within their own community, Libyan students joined multicultural classes to create new communities of practice and to interact and share activity with other international colleagues. The findings also reveal that participation in multicultural classes and mutual engagement with international colleagues assisted the Libyan students to acquire the essential components of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and to complete each other’s competence (complementary contribution). They acquired knowledge and skills through social interaction in shared activity with their colleagues and tutors within the master’s community and through employing individual strategies and techniques. Finally, the results also indicate that participants modified some aspects of their Libyan traditional cultural values, temporarily while in the UK. Religious values, however, which are core aspects for all Libyan students’ identity did not change despite the impact of living in a new socio-cultural context and being members of the master’s community, nor did they appear to inhibit integration and socialisation with their host and international colleagues. Published papers see appendix 9.