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Despite a plethora of proposals and counterproposals, the framework of the A level system has remained largely unchanged for forty years. This study reviews the historical context of sixth form education and provides an insight into students' perceptions of A level courses in the late 1980s. It also examines the reasons behind students' choices of subjects for study at A level and students' subsequent satisfaction with their chosen courses. The variables which most strongly influenced students' choice of subjects for study were the subject's perceived interest value, previous success in the subject and its compatibility with other subjects chosen. Also important, in some subject areas, was the perceived career value of a subject and its necessity for higher education. The students began their A level courses with very positive perceptions. The overwhelming majority view was of students' confidence in their ability to cope and high expectation of their courses. Unfortunately this initial positivism was not sustained. As students progressed through the course an increasing proportion reported that A level work was boring and became more sceptical about the utility of A levels. This growing disillusionment was probably partly responsible for some of the dissatisfaction evident in this study, gauged partly in terms of drop-out rates. It is concluded that A levels in their present form do not seem to be meeting the needs of a proportion of those who are studying them.

In 1981 the author submitted that "many of the (then) more recent school syllabuses remain disjointed and give expression still to a school mathematics course as step-by-step progression through a list of disparate topics". The position has not changed. It is not yet generally accepted that there can no longer be an accepted body of mathematical knowledge that needs to be taught. The rapid development of new technology and the introduction of the microcomputer should enable the 'modern' mathematics of the early 1960's to enhance the mathematical experiences of pupils in a practical and comprehensible way and prompt a new style of teaching and learning mathematics. There is, however, a fundamental core of mathematics which must inevitably find a place in the school mathematics curriculum. In Part I of the thesis the emphasis is on a method of presentation of certain key topics which illustrate the basic pattern of a group structure. Former complications at school level of putting plane geometry on a logical footing have to be avoided. The use of complex numbers highlights significant and sometimes rather difficult geometrical ideas. In Part 11 the author attempts to show how some of these ideas may be presented to extend the basic pattern to that of linear algebra. The work culminates in Part III with the use of linear complex algebra to present more vividly the symmetries of the Platonic solids. The author anticipates the realistic presentation of the aesthetic side of 3-dimensional geometry and takes a look at its possible presentation through the medium of the microcomputer. At this early stage of the development of the ideas to be discussed, there can be no formal testing of the results by quantitative analysis. Evaluation of the viability of the proposals will be qualitative and the comments of 'critical academic friends' will be included. The originality demanded of a piece of research goes beyond the exposition. Here it will consist of new insights into ideas appropriate to senior pupils in schools and a rewriting of existing material often thought to be beyond their scope. The work is supported by suggested lesson sequences, transcripts of recorded presentations, and examples of students' work. Subsequent development must face the question of assessment and evaluation at sixth-form level of the proposed new style of teaching mathematics. The author makes some suggestions in the concluding chapter.

The purpose of this study is to investigate sixth form students’ pronunciation, and their exposure to English during their English lessons in school. The focus of the study is to investigate whether or not the students have problems with pronouncing the contrastive consonant phonemes that do not exist, or are rarely used in the Swedish language (i.e /z/). In order to investigate the students’ pronunciation, questionnaires were handed out, followed by a reading exercise that was recorded. Also, a questionnaire was handed out to the students’ teachers in order to investigate their thoughts about the importance of teaching pronunciation. The participating students and teachers in this essay were chosen from a school in the south-west part of Sweden. The results in this essay show that the majority of the students participating had difficulties pronouncing the English consonant phonemes which do not exist, or are rarely used, in Swedish i.e /z/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. Furthermore, the results in this essay show that the students are more likely to pronounce English words with consonant phonemes similar to those used in Swedish.

There has been considerable research into the teaching and learning of argumentation (e.g. Andrews, 2009; Sadler, 2004), focusing on strategies designed to help students to structure their written arguments. My study, however, focuses on the process of argumentation because I want to help sixth form students, aged 16-19 years old, improve the written argument in their A level History essays. The methodological approach followed was an adapted form of Design-based research, which incorporated an exploratory study, teacher trials and three case studies as part of the iterative design process. A classroom intervention was devised underpinned by design principles based in persuasive argumentation (Kuhn, 2005) and dialogic talk (Wegerif, 2012), derived from an extensive literature review, and the findings of the exploratory study. The exploratory study involved interviews with History education academics and examiners as well as classroom observations and semi-structured interviews conducted in collaboration with the teachers and students of four secondary History departments. Observations were taken of the teacher trials of the prototype intervention, whereas the data gathered from the case studies included pre and post intervention essays, audio and video recordings of the developed intervention in action, post intervention student interviews and questionnaires as well. In Case study 1 and 2, AS and A2 students’ post-intervention causation essays, when measured for argumentation, showed improvement but those whose written arguments improved the most were those students who had engaged in interactions rich in dialogic talk (Wegerif, 2012). The findings from Case study 3, which involved the integration of documentary evidence into AS History essays, were unexpected. Students found the integration of source-based evidence difficult not only during the course of the spoken argumentation but also in their written responses. Further development of the intervention is necessary to help students handle source material effectively in both the spoken and written forms of argument.