The purpose of this research is to add to the teacher effectiveness research paradigm by furthering understanding about how teachers promote student learning and achievement in mathematics. Across the teacher effectiveness paradigm, there has been a great deal of research that quantitatively measures the value added by teachers to student achievement on standardised tests. However, there is a current under-representation of the voices of teachers about how and why certain factors promote student achievement in mathematics. Therefore, in order to address the complexity of the teaching and learning process, this mixed methods study draws upon secondary TIMSS 2011 data, as well as qualitative interview data from fourth class teachers in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Results from this study highlight qualitative teacher insights as an essential tool for understanding the complex process through which teacher-related factors influence student learning and achievement in mathematics. Several factors which were perceived to promote student achievement on fourth class standardised mathematics tests were revealed. These factors include promoting constant revision of mathematics concepts, engaging in a collaborative staff strategic plan for assessing and addressing student underachievement on standardised tests, communicating a strong positive attitude towards mathematics to students, and holding consecutive years of experience at the same grade level. In addition, teacher insights were instrumental for understanding TIMSS score differences between Ireland and Northern Ireland. These findings suggest that researchers within the teacher effectiveness paradigm, as well as educational policymakers, should recognise teachers as experts regarding the teaching and learning process and include their insights in future studies through use of qualitative methodology. Furthermore, quantitative teacher effectiveness studies should consider including qualitative teacher insights in order to gain a deeper understanding of quantitative findings.

This thesis investigated influences on primary school deputy-principals’ motivations to apply for principalship in the early twenty-first century in the Irish Republic. This required the exploration of both principals’ and deputy-principals’ roles in management and leadership to discover how better to prepare deputies to continue to the principalship. The research approach sat firmly within the qualitative paradigm, using semi-structured interviews with twelve primary deputy-principals exploring their construction of deputyship and principalship from their professional socialisation experiences. Findings revealed the complex relationship which exists between both roles and the extent to which the pervading school culture determines how much meaningful leadership opportunity is distributed beyond the principal. A major outcome of the study is a constructed knowledge of the nature and culture of Irish primary deputyship. Three new typologies of deputy-principalship provide a new perspective on the deputyship role, concluding that the gap in experiences and knowledge between deputyship and principalship is so great that energy should flow into the formation of formal, planned and structured preparation for a deputyship transition into principalship.

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This thesis aims to explore how student learning in higher education may be improved. It builds upon research which links perception of assessment tasks to approaches to learning. The thesis therefore investigates how messages about assessment are conveyed by staff and how students' interpret them. In doing so, it embraces a humanistic approach to learning that stresses the interrelation of context, individual orientation and approach to learning. The thesis documents the findings of qualitative interviews conducted with staff and students at one UK university. As such, it is a study of perceptions about teaching, learning and assessment in the ethnographic tradition. Data analysis is concerned with representing the values and conceptions of learning held by individuals, therefore by unveiling the social world the thesis identifies with interpretive and naturalistic approaches to education research. Demands made of assessment by staff, student and government result in a tension between the facilitation of learning and the maintenance of standards. It is argued that this tension results in the use of two separate and discreet discourse; of assessment and learning. Therefore, a case is made for the conceptualisation of a discourse of development conditioned by improved communication about assessment and learning. Based on empirical research the thesis calls for a deconstruction of existing assessment paradigms in favour of a negotiated learning. This would enable students to acquire skills in critical judgement and decision-making necessary for contribution to a learning society. It is this theoretical rationale for self assessment which distinguishes it from other research and represents an original contribution to the field of education research.

Transitioning from GCSE to ‘A’ level, students struggle emotionally and academically to meet the requirements of ‘A’ level study, drop out and fail (Hall, 2003; DfES, 2011a). The OECD (2003) found that post-16 learners rarely know how to learn on their own whereas effective learners have a positive academic self-concept related to higher attainment (Marsh, 2007). This study followed transitioning students working either collaboratively or alone asking what happens when a transitional intervention is used, such as a collaborative learning strategy, with students studying psychology and ethics for the first time and is there any impact on their academic self-concept and attainment? Rooted in a social constructivist paradigm, a mixed method, 9-month study followed 73 learners in their first 12 weeks of an ‘A’ level programme. Students chose one of three groups; a group guided by a more knowledgeable peer, dyadic pairs or alone. A concurrent triangulation strategy was employed to quantitatively and qualitatively assess students’ transitional experiences. Qualitative data revealed students valued a collaborative strategy. They felt a significant emotional attachment to their peers, which aided academic confidence and understanding. Dovetailed with quantitative data all three contexts showed increased academic self-concept correlated positively with increase in ALIS expected grades (r= +0.299). Emerging themes were the importance of choice of study group, the need for fun, that collaboration stabilised students’ emotional wellbeing, students developed a positive regard for others, an increased positive social identity and improved academic self-concept. Findings illustrate schools can facilitate students’ transition, protect them from isolation, boost their emotional wellbeing, and support their academic confidence, not only increasing their academic attainment but preparing them for life-long learning. This research is not only of value to students but also to teachers, headteachers and governors as well as academics and leaders of further education who lobby for more resilient, competent and buoyant learners.

This study investigates the challenges facing leaders and managers of independent special schools during the period during when inclusion of SEN students in mainstream schools has been government policy. The challenges investigated centre around ascertaining the key role of these schools at this time, the general challenges they have faced, and the implications for them in the years ahead. This has included research on how independent special schools respond to external demands and expectations and how they balance these with their own internal imperatives. The research was carried out using an empirical phenomenological approach, with the objective of gathering qualitative data through the undertaking of interviews at both the micro and meso level of the organisational structures involved in SEN education. Participants were drawn from three approved independent special schools and three non-maintained special schools from the south east regions of England. Schools represented varying medical forms of SEN such as deafness, physical disabilities, severe learning difficulties and specific learning difficulties. Interviewees consisted of the headteacher, a deputy and classroom teacher from each school and the data was triangulated through documentation analysis using the participating schools’ recent OFSTED and CSCI reports as well as interviews with three SEN Caseworkers employed by three different LEA regions. The findings revealed that a key role for independent special schools is propping up a seemingly failing national strategy. Challenges arise from educational matters when internal visions of what good special education should mean are over-ridden by external ideologies. External accountability tends to suppress innovation and change within the school by making the change process unwieldy. External accountabilities are inclined to conflict when they encroach upon the professionalism of staff, yet complement internal interests by effecting motivation to question objectives more closely. Balancing internal/external accountabilities is no problem for these leaders and managers, because their internal imperatives will always come first. Implications for the years ahead will arise from the success or failure of the national inclusion strategy to accommodate a rising number of SEN students under limited state provision.

This thesis explores the educational inclusion experiences of children with Williams syndrome (WS) in Irish primary schools from the perspectives of the children, their parents and teachers. Almost equal numbers of parents chose mainstream and special-education placements for their child with WS, although this choice was complex. Parents were very satisfied with their child’s education regardless of setting. Parental and teacher perceptions of the WS educational profile differed little. Teachers presented a slightly broader profile, yet showed less awareness than parents of anxiety in the children. Findings indicate a capacity in the children to learn Irish and other languages successfully, despite their entitlement to exemptions from language learning in the Irish educational system. Some features associated with WS (such as sociability) enhance the inclusion of learners with WS, while certain maladaptive behaviours impede it. Evidence suggests that maladaptive behaviours may be caused by high anxiety and poor expression of emotion due to poor comprehension of negative emotions. In addition, these children display more internalizing and self-regulatory behaviours, when parent and teacher data is compared, than has previously been noted in the literature, which may actually negatively impact on the child’s educational inclusion. Both parents and teachers support the children’s learning but teachers’ special education experiences and professional development influenced quality of supports and, hence, quality of educational inclusion. Some strategies used successfully by individual teachers to support learners with WS are those traditionally associated with autism, despite the sociability associated with WS. The children had clear images of themselves as learners and could identify personal learning strengths and challenges. Their liking for physical and social activities may be important aids to concentration, participation and, hence, inclusion. Different interpretations of inclusion were evident from parents and teachers. A definition of inclusion was proposed to compare educational placements. Such a comparison showed that Irish mainstream placements should not necessarily be viewed as the most inclusive educational setting for learners with WS. Consequently, a framework, based on the individual education planning process, proposes a way to maximize the educational inclusion of children with WS, regardless of setting.

Nowadays, marketing activities of HE institutions are increasingly important as they operate within their competitive and regulated environment. HE institutions have borrowed service industrial concepts to focus on the services they provide to students. They need to identify and implement tools to further understanding of the issues that impact on students' experiences. Apart from, focussing specifically on the learning experience in the sense of formal learning (where most of the past research has concentrated on), studies have also shown that support services are just as important in influencing students' learning experience. Hence, one of the support services, programme administration (PA) has become increasingly important due to the diversity of programmes offered and it contributes to the learning experience of students as well as indirectly impacting upon institutions' competitiveness. In order to enhance the learning experience of students and to manage the service encounter between students and programme leaders (PLs), it is argued that there must be an understanding of the service encounter behaviour (SEB) of the interacting parties and more importantly from a dyadic perspective since a service encounter is a two-way interpretive process. Thus, this research is set in the HE context, focussing particularly in PA, exploring the SEB (the situational definition and situational roles) of student-PL from a dyadic perspective (from student's and employee's perspective) to improve the management of service encounters as well as to enhance the learning experience of students. The conceptual framework is based on Czepiel et al. (1985) concept of a service encounter emphasising that it is purposeful where tasks need to be completed within a set of rules constrained by the nature of service and the behaviour bounded by roles assumed by the interacting parties. To manage a service encounter, the SEB of the interacting parties needs to be understood and from a dyadic perspective paying attention to roles represented by each participant. This research has borrowed literature from the social psychology discipline i.e. Mead (1934) SI perspective of role and McHugh's (1968) situational definition to further understanding of the dynamism of interactions to gain further understanding of the SEB (role expectations and role response of the interacting parties). Taking the social constructionist epistemology, this research seeks to understand the meanings student- PL construct when interacting and how these meaning have led to specific SEB. By adopting the interpretivists' paradigm embedded in symbolic interactionism, the researcher tries to interpret the underlying meaning of students'-PLs' SEB from a dyadic perspective. Qualitative case study methodology is employed using the critical incident technique (CIT) as a method to elicit student-PL experiences in service encounters, helping them to focus on specific situations when recounting their SEB. To make sense of these data, narrative analysis is used to interpret the constructions of students¬PLs in their interactions. The study has included 42 participants (26 students and 16 PLs) from 4 private colleges in Malaysia. It has yielded 63 service encounters categorised into 11 types of service encounter, covering most of the situations where a student would approach their PLs in a typical semester. The findings have indicated that defining a service encounter is significant and is functional in shaping the situational roles to be represented, thereby influencing the outcome of the situation. It has shown that even though service encounters can be similar, different situational roles can lead to different outcomes. These key findings are evidenced in a SEB guide, giving a bundle of possible situational roles in identified service encounters. These outcomes have implications for students, PLs and the management as well as future research.

In the Irish healthcare system ward staffing is not matched with client acuity. With the recession came a moratorium on staffing and this combined with reduced length of stay for clients impacted significantly on nursing staff. Added to this a large number of front-line staff took early retirement leading to burnout of existing staff. Clear guidelines have been laid down by HIQA (2012a, 2012b) on the appropriate governance structure to ensure that client care is delivered safely and is of a high quality. The environment where nursing students undertake their clinical placement can have a positive or negative effect on them depending on the ratio of staff nurses to clients. The undergraduate nursing degree programme has been in place in Ireland since 2002. Nursing students register their qualifications with Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann (Nursing and Midwifery Board, Ireland) upon successful completion of the programme. Nursing students are supported and facilitated on clinical placement by a qualified staff nurse named a preceptor. The term “preceptor” is the term used in Ireland to refer to a registered nurse who supports, guides and assesses nursing students on practice placement; the terms “mentor”, “practice placement supervisor” and “clinical supervisor” are also used in the literature to refer to the same role (Mead, 2012). For the purposes of this study the term “preceptor” will be used throughout this document. The quality of the nursing programme depends on the experience and level of supervision the nursing students receive in the clinical learning environment. This qualitative study explored current standards of the preceptorship model of nursing, to determine how preceptors perceive their role and the values preceptees place on the level of support they receive from preceptors during their clinical placements. I also needed to determine the level of support and training preceptors received from lecturers in higher education and management in the teaching hospital. The theoretical frameworks I used in the study were the Legitimate Peripheral Participation Theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991), which describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old-timers of a community of practice, and Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977), which proposes that learning takes place as a result of social interaction with other staff, including preceptors, through both verbal and non-verbal language. The literature implied that the role of the preceptor is stressful and the training inadequate (Haggerty et al., 2012; Eley, 2010; McCarthy and Murphy, 2010). This study set out to explore the tripartite relationship between preceptors, nursing students and lecturers. Using a qualitative approach, I conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with nursing students (n=8), preceptors (n=8) and lecturers (n=8). The study findings suggested that the preceptor’s role is difficult owing to time constraints, ward acuity and lack of resources. Part of the remit of a nurse working on a ward necessitates working different shifts and preceptors identified that it can be difficult to match the duty of a staff nurse with that of a nursing student. Preceptors found it challenging to give enough quality time to the students. Client care is always a priority with staff nurses, and must come first; the time they can spend with nursing students therefore tended to be ad hoc in nature. According to the preceptors they need on-going support from management of the hospital and lecturers in higher education. Those interviewed suggested they loved their role but felt they could not give enough quality time to the students. They would like more support from clinical placement coordinators (CPCs), from lecturers in higher education, and from management of the hospital. The preceptors also suggested that the training they receive needs to be more comprehensive, and to include more refreshers on curricula, teaching and assessing nursing students and providing feedback. The nursing students valued the time they spent with their preceptor, but this was sometimes limited owing to resources, ward acuity and working different shifts. They latched on to any available nurse when their preceptor was busy elsewhere or off duty. Overall, they would much prefer to have their named preceptor with them for support and guidance and because the preceptor was their assessor for their final interview on the clinical placement. The lecturers acknowledged the wonderful work the preceptors do in facilitating the nursing students in the clinical area. They believed that the preceptors should be given more support in the form of refreshers and “protected time” to precept the students. The lecturers would like to be more visible in the clinical area, but because of their teaching, research and administrative role their time is limited to quick visits to the ward. Some lecturers acknowledged that to remain current it is important for them to spend more time in the clinical area. Preceptors, employed by health care institutions, undertake the responsibility of supporting nursing students without protected time or remuneration. The nursing students are also supported by clinical placement co-ordinators (CPCs) on a 1 : 30 ratio. CPCs are employed by health care institutions to co-ordinate clinical placements. They assist with teaching and learning of students but do not formally assess them. They were not included in this study as there were insufficient numbers to match the sample size. To conclude, if there is insufficient time to precept nursing this can be a lost learning opportunity for the students. The nursing students miss the direct support and feedback from their preceptor and their learning is limited. They can finish their clinical placement not having reached their potential and maximised their learning. Despite the current climate of austerity there is a need to retain our highly qualified and capable nursing workforce.

This study seeks to explore the rationale for Masters level study as part of teacher training in England, the reality as experienced by those students and their perceptions of the value of Masters level to their personal and professional development as early career teachers. Teacher education has ‘consistently been a significant site of social and political struggle’ (Menter, 2010) including the aspiration to become a postgraduate teaching profession, of Masters level in initial teacher education and top-up programmes for qualified teachers. Yet, development of postgraduate provision has been haphazard and reactionary, leaving the University provider in the sector with the burden of promoting its importance and defending its relevance. In a sector where training of teachers has moved from higher education to schools led, there has become a palpable separation between theory and practice (Hargreaves and Fullen, 2012). This research pursues the value of the Masters level elements in teacher education and also to the development of a teacher’s own personal and professional attributes. This qualitative study uses a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology from a practitioner researcher perspective, in order to explore the student teachers perception and experience to develop a substantive theory outlining the value and use they make of their Masters level study. An early literature review, conducted to sensitise and inform the interview schedule was used within semi-structured interviews, undertaken with fifteen participants. Participants were purposively and then theoretically sampled to support the emerging theory until saturation of categories was achieved. Data was analysed using the CGT process outlined by Charmaz (2014). Core categories emerged describing qualities and characteristics that students earned, achieved and received while studying at Masters level that included professional capital (combined human, social and decisional capital) and personal capital. In addition, participants described the optimal educational environment for the promotion of these capitals; that of constructivist forms of teaching, learning and assessment (TLA). Furthermore, participants stated that the value and qualities of a challenging learning journey were enhanced when provided by an overall structure of transformative programme design. In the final theoretical rendering of the data, a conceptual model of programme design was formed, demonstrating the importance of transformative programme design, delivered through constructivist modes of TLA. Approaches found to provide a robust start to a teacher’s career, offer longevity in the field, promote effective and reflective teaching and critical but co-operative teachers.