The deployment of technology across the globe towards creating efficient learning environments is growing rapidly. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is investing an enormous amount of money in primary school early years programming lessons. The ideology behind this push is to strengthen the link between the younger generation and the technological growth that will continue to have an ever-increasing impact on their lives and to fuel the pace of innovation. One of the core themes of this area is that of computer programming, which has now become a mandatory subject in early years’ education. As a result of this change, many challenges are being faced by teachers and pupils; for example, teachers require more training and young students need appropriate tools that suit their level of learning. Therefore, this research aimed to help facilitate the process of teaching and learning programming for the young generation via the provision of a suitable technologically educational programming system whereby they can develop their programming skills. This proposed system has some pedagogical characteristics that distinguish it from other programming tutoring systems. The proposed system is based on assessment-driven learning whereby pupils are provided with suitable programming learning that fits their appropriate learning levels. Another characteristic of this proposed system is that pupils are learning programming through a deep learning approach, e.g. thinking and analysing how to solve the problem, not like other existing tools which have attempted only to achieve lower learning outcomes, e.g. remembering a concept and then answering multiple-choice questions. Two experimental studies were conducted on pupils from two UK primary schools to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed system, and the results indicated that pupils found the proposed system helped them to learn programming, as well as they made good progress and they enjoyed what they were learning. Consequently, it can be interpreted from the research findings that an automated teaching and learning programming system that supports the right pedagogical aspects, e.g. assessment-driven learning with the inclusion of game-based learning, would make the learning process more successful and enjoyable for pupils in early years of education.

School absenteeism can have serious implications for the individual. Young people who display school refusal behaviour (child-motivated absence that is often underpinned by anxiety) present an ongoing challenge to professionals. Previous research has found an association between anxiety, cognition, and absenteeism. The current study extends this research by exploring the relationship from a developmental perspective. 36 young people (aged 7–16 years) with school attendance ≤93%, their parents/carers (n=31), and teachers (n=18) participated in the study. They completed a number of self-report measures to assess symptoms of anxiety; behavioural difficulties; and the young person‟s motivation for refusing school. In addition, young people completed an emotional Stroop task to assess attentional bias associated with separation and social anxiety. Bivariate correlations revealed association between attendance and a number of behavioural symptoms, highlighting certain developmental trends. Hierarchical Regression Analysis provided evidence that cognition mediates the relationship between behaviour (anxiety and behavioural difficulties) and school attendance. Directions for future research and implications for clinical and educational practice are discussed.

The thesis concentrates on both the supply and the demand sides of the post sixteen education market place. On the supply side, the study examines four key issues - responses to competition; changes in the performance of colleges; the effect of the market on social inequality; and the possibility of bias and manipulation in marketing information. Firstly, on the supply side, the marketing undertaken by one sixth form college is examined alongside quantitative data from college records, (retained over a period of twelve years.) Data are analysed to determine patterns and trends in the profiles and qualifications of students entering the college throughout the period when a niche marketing strategy was emerging. On the demand side, qualitative research data were collected through a series of interviews with twenty five fourteen to sixteen year olds, in a multisite study. Analysis concentrates on the decision making processes and strategies emerging during the period when students selected among post sixteen colleges. The study concludes that firstly, the potential to manipulate information about colleges is increased in a culture of markets and competition. Colleges need to evaluate and gain feedback on the success of promotional communications through marketing research, to monitor the development of the college's reputation, as well as to identify new markets. Secondly, markets have the potential to allocate resources by socioeconomic class. Colleges seeking to reduce inequalities in post sixteen education and training need to ensure that a number of niche markets are identified, appropriate to local need and labour market conditions, to accommodate a range of decision makers in the market. Thirdly, the findings suggest that sixteen year olds are rarely able to give coherent reasons for selecting colleges until they are exposed to the marketing and promotional information provided by colleges. The findings emphasise the importance of effective promotion and public relations, to ensure that positive and accurate marketing information is entering the marketing and choice cycle. Finally, a 'Typology of Decision Makers' is developed to summarise the decision making behaviour of sixteen year olds. The study concludes with a 'Marketing, Choice and Communications Input-Output Model', which highlights the significance of 'psychological defence mechanisms', and reinforcement strategies', in the decision making processes employed by sixteen year olds when selecting among post sixteen colleges.

This longitudinal mixed methods study traces the request development of eight UK based students learning German in Germany and Austria. Although language socialisation was used as an underlying contextual framework, the main focus was on the development of politeness as operationalised in requests, and the factors which may have influenced this development such as the establishment of an L2 identity and membership in communities of practice (CofPs). Five participants were English native speakers, two had grown up bilingually, one speaking Croatian and English and the other Italian and Twi, and one was a French native speaker. The requests were primarily elicited in semi-structured role plays carried out with German native speakers, yet the participants were also asked to record authentic interactions in service encounter scenarios, expected to lead to the utterance of requests. The role play data, which amount to 144 role plays, were collected before, during and after the students’ stay abroad. In-sojourn, the participants were also asked to record authentic exchanges, three of which were used in the present study. In addition, the students were also interviewed pre-in-and post-sojourn (24 interviews) and were asked to fill in an online background questionnaire before going abroad and a language engagement questionnaire while they were abroad. The role plays were coded based on the CCSARP coding scheme to determine the degree of directness and of internal and external mitigation in learner requests. The authentic data were analysed with Conversation Analysis. The data show a shift towards more directness, i.e. less internal and more external mitigation in-sojourn, thus indicating an adaptation to target community specific language behaviour. However, the degree of adaptation varied partly in line with participants’ degree of awareness of differences in linguistic politeness and identification with German society, and partly in line with the extent of their engagement with local CofPs. The variables which mostly influenced the change between pre-and in-sojourn request realisations, were the awareness of differences in linguistic politeness and the successful establishment of an L2 identity. Interaction with the host-community, which did not have a noticeable influence on the general pre- to in-sojourn change data, and awareness of difference in linguistic politeness, did however impact the change in pre- to in-sojourn request variation. The CA analysis of the authentic exchanges and the corresponding role plays both show the same preference structure for requests, thus providing researchers in the field with important new validation for role play methodology.

In this thesis I explore the feasibility of technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches in rural Bangladesh. The secondary teachers of English are my research focus and, apart from them, the core stakeholders include the head teachers and the local teacher trainers. My research questions cover specific inquiries on the learning culture of these teachers, their attitudes about the application of technology in teacher-learning, and realistic pedagogical and management procedures for operationalising technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh. In my investigation I follow the critical realist and mixed-method research approaches by addressing the psychological, social, educational and technological perspectives of the stakeholders. Based on an extensive literature review on learning, pedagogy and technological interventions in professional development, I propose that the post-constructivist approaches (I use this term to refer to social constructivism and connectivism) are appropriate for the teacher-learning programmes for rural Bangladeshi teachers. The approaches are also compatible to various technological interventions. I initially design a technology enhanced teacher-learning framework emphasising the applications of teachers’ experiences and reflections which, based on my research findings, extends to the applied form by incorporating the management, application of teacher-learning in teaching, and monitoring procedures. For collecting the research data I conduct a questionnaire-based survey and a series of six workshop-led focus group discussion sessions in a rural district of Bangladesh. In the process I emphasise the inclusion of different stakeholders and their higher participation to gain relevant indigenous knowledge representing realistic findings. The collected research data and their analysis provide useful baseline information particularly about the learning culture of the stakeholders and their perceptions about technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches. It also provides practical guidelines on the effective and sustainable approaches of technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh context. I expect that the learning from this research would help design and implement effective technology enhanced teacher-learning schemes for rural Bangladesh and, at the same time, provide guidelines to operationalise similar professional development programmes for the teachers of other subjects of other institutional levels representing different educational contexts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors and strategies which enable pupils to focus their minds on the conceptual issue being taught, and how teachers may build and maintain the pupils' self confidence in articulating scientific ideas. The study focused on the work of the science department in a boys' 12 to 16 comprehensive school in Southern England, where the researcher was Head of the Faculty of Science and Technology. This was an ethnographic case study where the researcher was a participant observer in action research. The research focused on national curriculum years 8 and 9 and involved three methodological stages; the exploratory, field operational and explanatory search. The exploratory stage involved the development of the Responsive Teaching Model and the writing and implementation, by all the science teachers, of schemes of work which bore this model in mind. Formal data collection involved; lesson observations, pupil questionnaire, analysis of end of year 8 pupil profiles and interviews with the science staff and the school's Special Needs coordinator. The field operational stage involved a science teacher working with an advisory teacher in the production, implementation and reviewing of a module of work. This stage also involved the detailed observation of science lessons using an observation schedule developed from the initial findings from the other instruments. During the period of the research, the GCSE examination results improved considerably and were found to be significantly higher than may have been expected. The explanatory search stage revealed that successful lessons were associated with science teachers orchestrating a number of interrelated characteristics: the teachers' planning, individual pupils' conceptual understanding, the group social behaviour of the children and the interpersonal relations. It appears that the interpersonal relations have a central role to play in enabling effective learning. There was evidence that the manner in which whole class and small group work is organised could facilitate effective learning. The way in which the science department had worked together as a team had encouraged teachers to reflect on their practice, and seemed to enable teachers to adapt their teaching styles and strategies. The reflectivity itself, and the fact that it was research based was felt to be particularly significant. This study raises further issues related to; the initial training of teachers, the in-service training of established teachers and the possible advantages of undertaking action research in schools.

One of the most enduring issues in the area of women and management is the concept of the glass ceiling. This thesis explores whether there is still a persistence of attitudes that place women in an antithetical position to executive power, by examining how men and women construct their professional identities or representations of themselves as managers through their discourse. The research considers whether women use language differently in carrying out their management tasks, i.e., in ways that reflect their feminine social identities. Further, the study focusses on determining whether some women disqualify themselves from senior management posts by the way in which they construct their identities. The assumption underpinning the thesis is that the discourse used by managers to create their professional identities presents clues to the values, attitudes and beliefs of managers within the organisation, a further education college. Analysis of the data revealed evidence for three main gendered discourses at play in the further education college under discussion: (1) some women downplay their authority; (2) they prefer a collaborative, team-based approach to management; and (3) they make reference to differentiating their management behaviours to demonstrate care and concern for individual circumstances. There is evidence that some women bring valuable skills to the workplace, particularly in the areas of a potential people-focussed, supportive style that nurtures and develops staff, as well as their emotional literacy and sensitivity to the face needs of others. However, the deferential demeanour and use of mitigating language can make some women appear to be hesitant, unsure and sometimes unclear as managers; the performative identity constructed through this type of discourse is potentially one of uncertainty, and this demeanour could conceivably disadvantage some women in terms of advancement or promotion. While the findings may not be fully transferable to other contexts, the study makes an empirical contribution to knowledge in offering the conclusions as relevant material to inform the conceptualisation of management development programmes and to develop existing managers in the further education sector.

No description available.

The design of the physical learning environment (PLE) in Higher Education facilities, has been found to influence students’ satisfaction (Hill & Epps, 2010, Riley, 2013, Yang & Mino, 2013). With the initiation of the Teaching Excellence Framework, the consideration of students’ satisfaction is becoming more prominent. Beckers et al. (2016a) concluded that further research should explore preferences of students to identify if preferences differed between groups of students. Features of the PLE were identified that required further examination as to the impact they can have on students’ satisfaction, specifically, their individual requirements, which may be influenced by their personality traits. In the quality of the PLE; it was also noted that the sense of community is important. Utilising a sequential mixed methods design this research aimed to identify students’ specific requirements of their PLE. Case study methodology was adopted in Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), across the schools Art and Design, Built Environment, Engineering and Business. Surveys were used to examine relationships with features of the PLE, school specific requirements and personality traits. Factor analysis was conducted to identify components of the PLE. Focus groups were undertaken with students to explore students’ perceptions of the PLE and expand current understanding regarding students’ specific requirements. Utilising grounded theory analysis, features of the PLE were identified and a framework developed. The research found that there is a notable difference in preferences for features within the PLE between students in different schools, and that these differences may be due to the influence of personality traits. The research also identified a framework for defining what students perceive to be a quality PLE. Alongside which, features of the PLE that students identify as being important for the development of a sense of community were identified. The research has led to the development of a framework for the design of the PLE based on students’ specific requirements that can be used to inform universities of the aspects of design to consider in future developments or refurbishments. Validation of the findings of this research was also conducted to evaluate the usefulness of the final framework.

This thesis focuses on the learning and use of English as a tool of instruction inside Libyan universities. The study begins with an investigation of the challenges that students and lecturers face in the learning and teaching of the language of English in higher education. In-depth qualitative research was carried out at Sebha University in the South of Libya, including individual and group interviews with staff and students. The thesis, in this respect, makes a particular contribution as it sets out the multiple and contradictory challenges that all parties experience. It seeks not to lay blame but, rather, to understand how the parties concerned understand the issues from their unique point of view. This element of the thesis shows up the major challenges in the teaching and learning of English in higher education in Libya. The second element of empirical work concerns how English is then employed as the language of transmission in a professional field – medicine. This second ‘layer’ of work, then, illustrates what happens when a language which is not the language of either the lecturers or the students is used to try to communicate and develop complex information and understandings. This second element of the work shows then how the challenges evident in the teaching and learning of English are carried into a professional field. The concept of ‘deep rote’ learning in extrapolated from the data. The reliance on rote learning in the teaching of English ‘translates’ into a deeper level of rote in the teaching and learning of Medicine, as lecturers and students alike struggle both with the language and the content of the material they are working with. This ‘deep rote’ is consolidated through social and cultural issues and the challenges associated with funding, resourcing and training of staff in Libyan Higher Education. Connections are made between the area of study and the personal experience of the researcher carrying out the study with a methodological reflection on the challenges faced by a student of this same system. To this end, 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff and students from medicine and education departments at Sebha University, divided as follows: 21 semi-structured interviews with students and 24 semi-structured interviews with staff members. These interviews were followed by three focus groups with a particular focus on shedding light on the issues that the students raised in one-to-one interviews, including the main challenges they face when the lecturers use English as the medium of study instead of Arabic, their experiences of learning English, and the different methods that lecturers use in order to support students’ learning in different areas of study. Each group had five participants with two groups being made up entirely of young women. Grounded Theory was used as the theoretical approach to investigate the collected data. The author tried to put to one side any a priori assumptions about what he would find and used a systematic process of organising the data under themes and categories which were then related to each other. The main motivation for the use of this theory was that the findings gained can be valid and reliable in respect of representing real-world settings. In addition, the stories that are told through this approach are context-specific, detailed, and robustly connected to the data.