This study assesses the extent to which the educational needs of a group of very able Year 10 students reflect the perceived educational needs of gifted children as drawn from a study of the literature. In consultation with their teachers, fifteen students from five schools in two counties were selected to take part in the research. Using the case-study method, these students, their parents and teachers were interviewed. The information collected from their parents and teachers was used mainly for the process of triangulation. Letters were sent to all who were involved in the research in any capacity, explaining what the research was about and inviting them to participate in the project or seeking permission to approach others where this was necessary. There was eventually a full complement of interested and co-operative participants. Those interviewed gave responses which were very useful to the research and raised some unexpected and very interesting issues. Interview schedules were used and, to facilitate comparisons in the responses, the schedules for the students, parents and teachers were very similar. The responses of all three groups have been compiled into a series of tables and these and bar graphs illustrate the extent to which students' parents' and teachers' responses were in accord. The conclusions drawn from the study are that, in general, there was a good correspondence in the needs of this particular group of students with those needs in the list drawn from the literature and their needs were largely being met by their schools. However, some of the perceived needs were not confirmed as such for this group and there was a variation in emphasis in some of their identified needs. A number of issues also emerged suggesting needs which were not included in the original list. An especially interesting example of these was the part played by in-family role models, especially older sibling rival I role models, who appeared to have been very important in the motivation and achievement of some students. All the issues which emerged which were not included in the original list of perceived needs would make interesting topics for further research.

This thesis explores the effectiveness of discrete courses designed to prepare young adults with severe learning disabilities for the next stage in their lives, broadly assumed to be independent living and employment. It focuses particularly on the ways a small group of students in one college are prepared for supported employment. It captures the views of some of these students and of the significant adults who work with them. The thesis does not reject work as an option for young adults with severe learning disabilities; rather it promotes the view that work is one of the significant places where the adult community congregates. Inclusion in mainstream work, as is inclusion in mainstream school, is an important way to achieve first, public visibility and then, social acceptance for those with severe learning disabilities. In its final analysis, the thesis adopts a Foucauldian perspective and invites the further education sector to reconsider entrenched thinking which promotes normalised notions of work linked to the ability to perform a set of functional skills. Whilst inclusion in the workplace for people with severe learning disabilities is dependent on a normalised set of skills and behaviours and moreover, that these can be learned through behaviourist principles, this inclusion will not be achieved. The thesis suggest that a more positive way forward, may be to explore ways to harness the innate vocational aptitudes and aspirations of young adults with severe learning difficulties, and to support them in contributing to adult society, not judged by normalised measures of competence, but as valued participants whose particular talents are celebrated.

The research study for this thesis was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, factors that might affect the learning of introductory statistics for student teachers were investigated. The factors were attitudes related to learning statistics, and the effects of the limitation of the student teachers’ psychological characteristics (namely, perceptual fields or the degree of field dependency and working memory space). In addition to these factors, student teachers’ performances in a test to identify misconceptions in basic descriptive statistics concepts and probability and also in their final statistics examination were scrutinised. The results from the first stage indicated that student teaches generally had positive attitudes toward learning statistics but not toward the introductory statistics course which was described as dull or uninspiring and too mathematical. The student teachers appeared not to cope with the task of taking down the lecture notes and simultaneously trying to understand the statistical concepts to be learned. Student teachers’ performance in the statistics examination revealed a significant correlation with their working memory although not with their degree of field dependency. From the test, misconceptions about certain concepts in basic descriptive statistics and probability were identified. These correlations may reflect the nature of the test materials as much as the nature of statistics. Based on the findings from the first stage, interactive statistics learning materials employing the cooperative learning method were developed in the second stage and given to an experimental group of student teachers from five teacher training colleges. Another group of student teachers (called the comparison group) from the same colleges were taught the same materials but through the traditional lecture method. A post-questionnaire and a test based on the materials learned were given to both groups after the completion of the second stage study. The degree of field dependency for the student teacher in both groups was also measured. Results from the post-questionnaire revealed that the experimental group overwhelmingly favoured the learning units that were based on the interactive and cooperative learning while the comparison group regarded the lecture method as being dull and uninspiring. It also appeared that learning statistics based on the cooperative learning method was more favoured by the male student teachers, the Non-Mathematics Education group and the field dependent student teachers. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the experimental group performed better than the comparison group in the test based on the learning materials. In the third stage, opinions were sought from the student teachers in their final semester of study, concerning their readiness to teach statistics in school. They also sat a multiple-choice test about basic concepts in descriptive statistics and probability. In addition, the working memory capacity and the degree of field dependency of the student teachers were also measured. The findings revealed that a majority of the student teacher did not have confidence in teaching statistics. This probably stemmed from the difficulty in understanding certain statistical concepts and perhaps the statistic courses that they had attended did not provide them with a good training. The findings from the test also revealed that misconceptions in some statistical concepts still persisted and that the student teachers appeared to have forgotten some, if not all, statistical subject matter that they had previously learned in the statistics lectures. Generally, these findings indicated the weaknesses of the traditional format of teaching introductory statistics course through the lecture method.

Educational provision for children with autism is increasingly being made within mainstream settings and a range of intervention strategies to cater for the diverse needs of this heterogeneous population are needed (Ali & Frederickson, 2006). This research presents an evaluation of ‘Comic Strip Conversations’ (CSCs) (Gray, 1994b) for addressing the target social behaviours of five primary-aged pupils with autism in mainstream schools. CSCs are a story-based intervention which use visual systems designed to support understanding of situations and encourage more appropriate social behaviours in individuals with autism. A systematic review of existing research into the effectiveness of CSCs highlights the limited evidence base that currently exists. A series of multiple-baseline across behaviours single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) were implemented for four participants, in which two specific behaviours were targeted through a CSC intervention. An A-B SCED was implemented for a fifth participant, targeting a single behaviour. Repeated measures were taken through structured observations to assess the frequency of target behaviours. These measures were triangulated with pre- and post- measures of staff perceptions of the target behaviours and intervention effectiveness. This research additionally explored the relative impacts on behaviours of creating single versus multiple CSCs. The repeated measures data was analysed using a combination of visual analysis and effect size analysis (Tau-U). The outcomes of this indicated mixed results, with the intervention appearing to be moderately to highly effective in addressing at least one target behaviour for three of the five participants. Outcomes in terms of changes in staff perceptions of target behaviours and ratings of intervention effectiveness were similarly mixed and did not consistently triangulate with the repeated measures data. The behaviour targeted through multiple CSCs demonstrated greater improvement than the behaviour targeted through a single CSC in three out of four participants, however the difference was negligible in one case. Therefore, no clear association between intervention frequency and outcome could be concluded. The results are considered in view of the limitations of the research, taking into account the research design, characteristics of the data obtained, and threats to internal validity. Implications for practice are outlined and suggestions are made for future research. The research concludes with some support for CSCs as a promising intervention which may aid the development of socially appropriate behaviours for some pupils with autism.

Nowadays and more generally, discrepancies in economic growth between otherwise similar countries are vast and in a large extent unexplained by economic theory. Economists in their endeavour of disentangling this puzzle bring education in the frontline as empirical evidence indicates that in some cases reforms in education are significant in explaining shifts in economic performance. This thesis consists of three papers which address different questions in related fields regarding the economics of education. The second chapter of this thesis concerns the effect of releasing information to students about their relative performance within their school and nationwide. Knowing how one's characteristics compare to those of other individuals is important in every setting of economic decision making. This chapter examines the effects of providing relative performance information on students' short and long term outcomes. I exploit a large scale natural experiment that took place in Greece. Using unique primary data on students' performance throughout senior high school, we find an asymmetric response to feedback: high-achieving students improve their final-year performance by 0.15 of a standard deviation, whereas the final-year performance of low-achieving students drops by 0.3 of a standard deviation. The results are consistently more pronounced for females indicating greater sensitivity to feedback. I also document the long-term effects of feedback: high-achieving students reduce their repetition rate for the national exams; they enrol into university departments that are more selective by 0.15 of a standard deviation and their expected annual earnings increase by 0.17 of a standard deviation. By contrast, the results for low-achieving students are negative. I provide suggestive evidence that feedback encourages students from low-income neighbourhoods to enrol in university and to study in higher-quality programs, which may, in the long run, reduce income inequality. The third chapter of this thesis examines the extent to which college decisions among adolescents depend on the decisions of their peers. In the recent years, the importance of one's group of peers-be that friends, colleagues, neighbors- has been widely emphasized in the literature. In this paper, I ask whether individuals derive utility from conformity in college enrolment. I propose a new methodology in mitigating re ection and endogeneity issues in identifying social interactions. The instrument that I propose is the percentage of females in one's school, neighbourhood and preferacture the year before. Evidence from the psychology literature support our assumption that the prevalence of females creates a less violent and disruptive environment. I exploit a special institutional setting, in which schools are very close to each other, allowing for students from different schools to interact. I investigate utility spillovers from the educational choices of students in consecutive cohorts. Spatial variation allows us to identify social interactions in groups of various sizes, using a new dataset that spans the universe of high school graduates. I find positive and significant externalities in the decision to enrol in college among peers who belong to the same social group. Results indicate that students who attend high school with 10% more classmates who enrol in college are 4.5 % percentage points more likely to themselves attend college. In the forth chapter, I investigate the causal effect of school attendance on students' performance. I exploit a natural experiment that changed the school absences allowance for the high achieving students in order to identify the effect of school attendance on educational outcomes. I use a novel dataset that contains class attendance information about students in eleventh and twelfth grade. The natural experiment took place in Greece in 2007 and provided higher performing students with 50 more hours of excused absences from school. I start off by using a Regression Discontinuity approach in order to measure the change in total absences and exam score due to the reform around the cut-off. The regression discontinuity cannot find an effect around the cut-off. The reason behind that is that the effect might not be caused by students around the threshold but by students in the right tail of the performance distribution. Next, I employ a combination of differences-in-differences and instrumental variables techniques in order to identify returns to absences. Our estimates show significant negative returns to absences.

This research enquiry was conducted to investigate contemporary teaching and learning methodologies in the mathematics classroom for pupils with Asperger Syndrome and to explore ways in which the pupils are supported in the mathematics learning environment. Asperger Syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder that can affect the motor system, memory, organisation and intrinsic motivation. Accordingly, the condition has the potential to adversely affect the learning of mathematics both theoretical and practical. Therefore, in addition to an exploration of external factors which could influence the mathematics learning experience for pupils with Asperger Syndrome, also considered was the potential part played by intrinsic and self-regulated processes. The investigation was divided into distinct phases. The first of these was an examination of how compatible intrinsic characteristics are perceived to be with contemporary mathematics teaching and learning. The second was a review of mathematics teaching pedagogical frameworks and settings. A case study approach involving ten students with Asperger Syndrome between the ages of 11 and 19 in a variety of educational establishments and interviews with internal and external professionals provided the data for analysis. The pupils were observed working on various mathematics tasks delivered via differing teaching and learning methodologies using a range of resources. There were several outcomes of the study. It was ascertained that the greatest factor governing a pupil’s perseverance with a task is a mathematics specialist Teaching Assistant who utilises a ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) scaffolding style of support as proposed by Vygotsky (1978). Secondly, activities presented via a genuine real-world cross-curricular perspective had the greatest influence on interest in mathematics learning irrespective of subject matter. Thirdly, it was found that there was no significant difference between one-size-fits-all computer-based tasks and traditional methodologies in the support of mathematics learning. Finally, despite ongoing debates about the importance of educational setting, it appeared that school type alone (specialist or mainstream) had no discernible effect on the mathematics classroom experience for pupils with Asperger Syndrome.

In synchronous educational discourse, teaching is predominantly perceived in terms of competences and scientific knowledge. In this thesis, I suggest an alternative understanding of teaching as an ethical, virtue-driven practice. This premise, while it is based on the idea of educating learners as persons, instead of simply teaching them knowledge and skills, postulates the practice of aretaic pedagogy. In drawing upon an Aristotelian view of virtue ethics and MacIntyre’s theory of practice, this study investigates the potential contribution of two courses, Drama Education and Theatre Education and Theatrical Play, to the promotion of the student primary teachers’ conception of teaching as aretaic pedagogy. Both courses are those I teach within the context of a teacher education programme at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Two qualitative methodological traditions contributed to the design of this study: case study and phenomenography. The research participants were six student primary teachers who attended the courses. Data emanated from both narrative/text-based and audio-visual-based methods, over the course of one academic year. In attempting to satisfy the research paradigm of both methodologies, the schema of analysis that I adopted was constructed on open-coding strategies and categorical aggregation consistent with constant comparative analysis. Findings indicate that the courses’ ensemble-based artistic work is the poetic space, which enables participants to practice both personal and professional virtues. Their personal aretaic development can be defined by virtues originated by dialogue, the beautiful, the will and consciousness. A nexus of these virtues, such as joy, trust and friendship/love are embedded in their pedagogy of drama/theatre education, which fortify their communication, playfulness, vigilance and artistry.

This study investigates the teaching methods for EFL speaking in developed secondary schools for females in Saudi Arabia. The research methodology employed in this study was a qualitative case study, in which the main data collection techniques are classroom observations and interviewing. The study aims to understand and evaluate the teaching methods of EFL speaking by determining the extent in which the teaching methods of EFL speaking address the different aspects of speaking, based on the theoretical conceptualisation presented in the thesis, namely accuracy versus fluency, speaking functions, speaking as a skill versus knowledge of the language, communication routines, negotiation skills, speaking strategies, and conversation features. The study also examines the use of mother tongue in the classroom by the teachers as well as the students and its purpose. The findings of classroom observation reveal that the teachers mostly implement a traditional method of teaching, where instruction is led by the teachers and the roles are rigidly defined. However, the communicative approach is employed to some extent by the teachers, where group work is sometimes used. The classroom interaction is led and dominated by the teachers, where students’ contribution to classroom talk is limited. In addition, the various aspects of EFL speaking were not taught explicitly to the students. Hence, there is not any guarantee that all students will acquire the desired skills of EFL speaking. It is found also that the English language is largely employed by the teachers in the classrooms, where their use of the mother tongue is limited. However, the students use Arabic most of the time. In addition, the study provides an understanding of the teachers’ and students’ opinions about EFL learning, their EFL speaking knowledge, the nature of EFL speaking and its value, and the current EFL speaking teaching methods. The interview data reveals that the teachers and students generally have a positive attitude towards English language learning and show a desire to develop their English language speaking. However, the teachers and students have an undeveloped understanding about the nature of EFL speaking and its related aspects. The teachers believe that the current teaching methods are a good way to teach EFL speaking. However, they believe the speaking skill does not receive enough emphasis in the textbook. The students, on the other hand, are not satisfied with the teaching strategies they experience, and most of them declare that these strategies need to be modified, as they believe that they don’t have enough opportunities to practice the language in the classroom. The thesis provided detailed description of how EFL speaking is taught inside the developed secondary schools for females in Saudi Arabia and proposed recommendations to improve it.

Scientists within the materials engineering community produce a wide variety of data, ranging from large 3D volume densitometry files (voxel) generated by microfocus computer tomography (μCT) to simple text files containing results from tensile tests. Increasingly they need to share this data as part of international collaborations. The design of a suitable database schema and the architecture of a flexible system that can cope with the varying information is a continuing problem in the management of heterogeneous data. We discuss the issues with managing such varying data, and present a model flexible enough to meet users’ diverse requirements. Metadata is held using a database and its design allows users to control their own data structures. Data is held in a file store which, in combination with the metadata, gives huge flexibility and means the model is limited only by the file system. Using examples from materials engineering and medicine we illustrate how the model can be applied. We will also discuss how this data model can be used to support an institutional document repository, showing how data can be published in a remote data repository at the same time as a publication is deposited in a document repository. Finally, we present educational material used to introduce the concepts of research data management. Educating students about the challenges and opportunities of data management is a key part of the solution and helps the researchers of the future to start to think about the relevant issues early on in their careers. We have compiled a set of case studies to show the similarities and differences in data between disciplines, and produced documentation for students containing the case studies and an introduction to the data lifecycle and other data management practices. Managing in-use data and metadata is just as important to users as published data. Appropriate education of users and a data staging repository with a flexible and extensible data model supports this without precluding the ability to publish the data at a later date.

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