The disparity between the educational achievement of children from disadvantaged backgrounds compared to children from more advantaged backgrounds in Scotland has led to a number of proposed changes to education. Many of the initiatives to address the disparity have involved multi-agency collaborations such as The Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland and GIRFEC. The only approach in Scotland to specifically involve educational professionals participating in collaborative inquiry across school and local authority boundaries, the School Improvement Partnership Programme (SIPP), is the focus of this study. Drawing on the capability approach and social network theory this study examines the use of school collaboration to ameliorate educational inequity. Educational professionals and pupils from a school partnership programme were invited to participate in this case study. 114 social network analysis questionnaire responses were received over two time points. 25 pupils participated in focus groups and 18 educational professionals participated in either focus groups or interviews. Many of the participating educational professionals took risks by introducing innovative strategies in classrooms, schools and local authorities. Support was provided in the form of resources such as supply teachers to allow classroom teachers to participate in collaborative inquiry. This thesis extends our understanding of the opportunities for capabilities to be fostered in pupils and educational professionals when educational professionals are united in purpose, but have the freedom and support to move between a variety of networks. Knowledge about the degree to which such networks were able to interrupt existing social norms, rules, power structures and pedagogy has implications for planning the appropriate conditions to support long term, dynamic partnerships for the amelioration of educational inequity.

This study investigates the efficacy of two whole-class approaches to classroom management, self-management and interdependent group contingency, in a sample of 8-9 year olds in the UK. Phase A investigates which approach is most effective in reducing off-task and disruptive behaviours in target lessons, and in improving behaviour in general. Phase B investigates whether combining the approaches further reduces off-task and disruptive behaviour, and improves general behaviour. The research employed a quasi-experimental design. In Phase A, pupils were allocated to one of four conditions: self-management (n=30), interdependent group contingency (n=29), waitlist control receiving daily rule reminders (n=28), or a waitlist control who continued as usual (n=26). The approaches were delivered by class teachers over four-weeks. In Phase B, the class receiving self-management in Phase A, received interdependent group contingency as well, for a further four weeks. The waitlist control group continued as per Phase A. Pre- and post-test measures for both phases were obtained through structured observations of whole-class on-task, off-task and disruptive behaviours. Teachers also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for each pupil. Findings indicated that self-management and interdependent group contingency reduced off-task behaviour, however only interdependent group contingency reduced disruptive behaviour. Combining the approaches led to no further reductions in these behaviours. SDQ data suggested that self-management, either alone or combined with interdependent group contingency, had no significant impact on general behaviour. However, interdependent group contingency alone, appeared to lead to greater general behaviour concerns. The findings are reviewed in light of the literature with limitations acknowledged. Avenues for future research are also identified. In conclusion, this research presents tentative evidence supporting the efficacy of these individual approaches for off-task and/or disruptive behaviour. Findings that the combined approach is not efficacious and that neither approach improves general behaviour, should be interpreted cautiously given the study’s limitations.

This research aimed to develop a framework to enhance the operation of quality assurance in Saudi Arabia’s higher education institutions, through exploring stakeholders' perspectives, considering educational management and the potential of e-management. In looking to generate an insight into the reality of QA practice towards developing a heuristic enhancement framework, a case study methodology consisting of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was employed. In the initial stage, a scoping study was employed to explore the main issues surrounding the operation of QA by conducting 10 interviews with elite stockholders. For the main study, interviews, focus groups and a questionnaire were employed to gather data simultaneously. There were 23 participants in interviews, 9 in focus groups and 301 responders to a questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed based on thematic analysis, descriptive statistics were applied to the quantitative data making use of the SPSS statistical package. Data were analysed separately and then integrated and compared in the process of interpretation of the overall results. This case study found that participants from all levels of the institution agreed that QA requirements are a primary part of academic commitments. The results showed that stakeholders are willing to engage in the QA operations at an individual level. However, not all faculty members accepted the changes resulting from a systematic QA approach. There are those who support and engage effectively and those who reject the idea because of uncertainty or lack of a clear understanding of QA. This study has identified that the largest group of stakeholders actively participating in QA operations is made up of QA staff, followed by administrative and faculty staff. In addition, the study found that stakeholders with experience in QA participate significantly more than others. The study noticed a disparity between the engagement of stakeholders at older long established colleges and new ones. Several factors driving this trend emerged, such as the work environment, availability of support from senior management, availability of human and financial support, and the extent of understanding of QAP. The study discovered a wide range of evidence indicating significant difficulties in relation to the participation of stakeholders in the QA operations, due to a number of common challenges; such as management issues, individual attitudes, staff development, incentives and external factors. The study indicated that the relationship between QA operation and e-management in the university is limited or unclear. In terms of the positive perception of participants toward the potential of e-management in the operation of QA, the results indicated that e-management could provide essential solutions to a number of challenges confronting stakeholders in QA operations. Five potential areas in which e-management could help in QA operations were outlined: administration, operation, information management, control and evaluation and support. However, the study revealed several potential challenges that could confront higher education institutions in taking full advantage of e-management in the operation of QA, namely, management aspects, stakeholders, and technical issues. The study has proposed a heuristic framework to enhance the operation of QA and to tackle the issues that arose over the course of the research. The framework’s development is grounded in the literature across three disciplines (Change, QA and e-management), and in the perspectives of stakeholders involved in the actual operation of QA. This framework considers seven main areas: leadership, stakeholders, QAP, staff development, rewards and incentives, e-management and external factors. The study proposes a framework with the intention of providing guidance and insight for higher education policy and decision makers, academic leaders in Saudi HEIs, and for HEIs throughout the region.

This study initially aims to draw up a plan for the implementation of the concept of translation strategies in translation training. It presents a new method to improve translation competence in an educational context. Moreover, it is an attempt to determine how the application of different facets of the concept of competence can lead us to establish an effective plan for translation training courses in any environment. This will be sought for through the analysis of more significant strategies in terms of educational value and through a novel methodology. The scope of the concept of strategies for pedagogical purposes is initially identified, while various considerations of the same term within the discipline are examined. As an important related notion, the issue of translation universals and their link to corpus-based translation studies are presented before introducing and developing a strategy-based translation training model. In order to recognise the educational significance of strategies, i.e. to find and classify the degree of the importance of translational solutions for any language pair, an analytical paradigm is proposed. The paradigm is based on the relation between the frequency of the occurrence of each strategy, on the one hand, and the average scores which are given to that strategy by the raters, on the other and examined through English-into-Persian translation practice in an academic setting. As the theoretical framework of the study, the main categorisation of translation problems proposed by Baker (1992/2011) and slightly revised by González Davies (2004) is analysed and modified based on different theoretical discussions as well as the findings of the mentioned paradigm. Though, the ultimate goal of this study has not been confined to the two languages involved, the researcher has reached some important findings for English-Persian pair through such an exposure. Baker’s primary categorisation that sees translation problems ‘at word level’ and ‘above word level’ is extended by adding a new category, ‘at the level of non-lexical items’, by considering difference and less popularity of using punctuation marks in languages like Persian as the target language. In the second degree, and according to the analysis of academic translation data, new subcategories are added to her list, while the importance of some of her subcategories is not observed in reality of current students’ works. Therefore, by introducing and testing a problem-strategy paradigm, the areas of educational significance of translation strategies are demonstrated, not only by re-defining the Baker-Davies’ model but also by proving the practicality of the methodology. On the whole, the research has aided to explore a developed strategy-based translation training model by linking the principal concepts categorized as: ‘translation strategies’, ‘translation competence’ and ‘paradigm of educational significance’.

Programmes provide a useful foundation for managing the classroom, many of the curriculum theories and approaches often appear too linear and inadequate for preparing teachers to manage the complex emotions and behaviours that their students may present on a day-to-day basis. This thesis investigates these claims and suggests that whilst effective teaching strategies can influence classroom behaviour a teacher’s ability to cultivate a culture of learning necessitates that they have a sensitive awareness of their students and an ability to positively regulate their own emotions and behaviours. Whilst it may be assumed that teachers will already have these intuitive abilities, personal experience and research highlights that this cannot be guaranteed. Reflecting on past experience as a nurse therapist in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and drawing on the findings of empirical research studies, it is suggested that teacher education can learn a great deal from the world of therapy. In developing this area of research at a practical level this thesis reports on a small-scale action-based project that involved designing and trialling a Cognitive Behavioural Toolkit with groups of teachers in the second year of an initial teacher education programme. Data was collected through questionnaires, personal diary entries, interviews and classroom observations. The findings of this research suggest that the majority of teachers in the sample found CBT useful for regulating their thoughts, increasing their self-confidence and improving relationships with their students. Although the results of this small-scale study cannot be generalised to other teacher education programmes, it is suggested that it provides a foundation for supporting teachers to bridge the gaps which currently exist between the curriculum theories of behaviour management and the realities of classroom practice. At the time of writing no other studies have investigated this particular topic, hence there is no comparative data to validate these claims, and so this is a notable area for further research.

Integrating computer technology into schools has been a key government agenda (Wellington, 2005). Individual computer programs have been introduced to support students across the curriculum, including with the development of literacy skills. This paper explores how computer technology can be used in supporting the development of word reading, with particular emphasis on how technology can be employed in novel and innovative ways; namely through the use of mobile phone text-messaging. Firstly, reading research is considered, with a focus on the role of phonological awareness and implications for reading interventions. Current uses of technology at home and at school are explored, before specific computer-based literacy interventions are discussed and evaluated. Finally, the possibility of integrating text-messaging into an intervention is proposed. Correlational evidence suggests a positive relationship between use of textisms (abbreviated words in text messages) and literacy (Neville, 2003). However, the causal nature of this relationship has not yet been tested experimentally. Consequently, this review is followed by a study that aimed to provide further insights into the relationship between textism use and literacy skills. Sixteen 9-10-year-old children, inexperienced with mobile phones, undertook pre-measures in textism use, phonological awareness, reading and spelling. Children were matched for reading and allocated to either a control or an experimental group. Both groups received a 30 minute texting intervention once a week for six weeks. The control group simply spent each session texting, whereas the experimental group completed activities translating and composing textisms. Following the intervention, children in the experimental group used more spontaneous textisms (in an elicited text) compared with controls. However, no significant differences between the groups were found in any of the literacy measures following the intervention. Implications for future research are discussed.

This study analyses the relationships between Secondary school music trainee teachers and the mentors who are primarily responsible for training them to teach music. The methodology was an in-depth collective case study of a sample of trainee music teachers and their mentors, adopting primarily the methods of non-participant observations and interviews. The study is located within a review of pertinent theories of mentoring and an analysis of empirical research. This analysis compares studies of ITT mentoring in different contexts, and demonstrates that, despite the diversity of mentoring practice, research has produced findings which are consistent across two or more studies. The collective case study consists of five individual cases ofmentoring relationships, each of which is presented so as to preserve its individuality. The talk in meetings between trainees and their mentors is then analyzed drawing on Mercer's (1995) typology of classroom talk as exploratory, cumulative and disputational. The analysis shows that exploratory talk has an underlying structure which is missing in cumulative and disputational talk. Analysis ofthe talk also reveals three further types of conversation between mentors and their trainees which are characterised as solo conversations, short conversations and parallel monologues. The study has two major conclusions: first, that in mentoring conversations exploratory talk is more likely to promote productive reflection than other types of talk, and second, that the potential for exploratory talk to promote reflection may not be fully realised by music mentors.

This mixed methods study explores the relationship of an academic English language proficiency test - the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTEA) - to the academic performance of its test takers at university. The particular focus is on the English language proficiency and academic performance of students from the “outer circle” (Kachru, 1985), many of whom have an accompanying ownership of English (Norton, 1997, Widdowson, 1994; Higgins, 2003). The implications of this proficiency and ownership of English for admissions, test performance and academic performance, are explored in the two strands of the study. The first strand uses mixed methods including statistical analysis of a large data set of PTEA test scores; analysis of university admissions policy documents; and thematic analysis of interview and survey data. The second strand of the research uses interviews (tutorials) to investigate the interpretability of the test for four individuals from the outer circle (Anglophone West Africa), in particular, looking at what can be inferred from the PTEA score profiles about their English language proficiency at university. The strand investigates whether the test served any purpose for the evaluation of these four individuals’ English language proficiency. The study indicates that there are some statistically significant differences in the proficiency of test takers from the outer circle as compared to the expanding circle (as expressed through mean test scores) according to nationality sub-groups and L1s. Ownership of English is a theme manifested in the educational and social background of the survey and case study participants emerging from thematic analysis of the data. Regarding inferences from test scores, the PTEA score profiles for the four cases do, to some extent, match their actual experiences at university regarding linguistic difficulties encountered on their courses. The case study also reveals other important factors in academic performance which are related to language proficiency but are also part of the adjustment to university experienced by all students including acquisition of academic skills and academic literacy. The study makes a contribution to the study of World Englishes and language testing, in particular the legitimacy of the English of test takers from the outer circle and how they are viewed and processed in the admissions system to UK universities.

No description available.

This thesis seeks to explore history teacher engagement in debates surrounding the 2013 draft National Curriculum for History and locates these in the wider context of English history teacher identity. The 2013 draft curriculum, which was announced in February, was withdrawn in August 2013 following complaints of political bias (see Smith, 2014). This “curriculum war” might be interpreted – as others have been (e.g. Crawford, 1998; Taylor & Guyver, 2011) - as an attempt by both the left and right to frame a curriculum which furthered their political metanarrative, but this research shows that such views are oversimplifications. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight history teachers in the north-west of England who actively opposed the draft curriculum and their responses were analysed using van Dijk’s (2009) sociocognitive approach to critical discourse analysis. These responses uncover a complex nexus of motivations in which political opposition is only a small strand. Instead, the strongest motivation was a deep loyalty to the epistemological and methodological underpinnings of their subject (Bernstein, 1999). In opposition to the narrow nationalist conception of school history, the interviews indicated strongly the existence of a social realist (Young, 2008) counter-hegemonic discourse which informs and underpins a vibrant history teaching community. This shared discourse argues that historical knowledge is constructed and contested, and that it should be taught as such (Lee, 1991). In this paradigm, the draft curriculum was opposed not because it advanced a rightist narrative, but because the concept of a single narrative was itself considered inherently unhistorical. The epistemological unity of the history teaching community contributes to a project-identity of resistance (Castells, 1997) which is further bolstered by the research activities of the Schools History Project and the Historical Association. A Gramscian (1971) analysis is used throughout, but history teachers are not found to be, in the main, Marxists. Gramsci’s work instead provides the framework for understanding the nature of the history-teaching community and the mechanics of its resistance.