Dynamic assessment represents an opportunity for educational psychologists to utilise a play-based approach for assessing the functional behaviour of children who struggle to perform in formal testing situations (Tzuriel, 2000; Hill, 2015). A systematic literature review aims to evaluate available empirical research on the use of dynamic assessment approaches within the early years to provide a clearer view of the evidence for their use and to support educational psychologists' development of such approaches within their professional practice. The review of this evidence indicated mixed results for the usefulness of dynamic assessment in the early years phase and warranted closer inspection of the use of dynamic assessment by educational psychologists. In the empirical project, a purposive convenience sample was used. Two practising educational psychologists were interviewed using semi structured interview schedules and observed delivering dynamic assessment in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis and a content analysis was used to analyse the videoed observations. The findings of this empirical project highlight the type and level of mediation required for dynamic assessment of children in the Early Years Foundation Stage; how educational psychologists evaluate the usefulness of dynamic assessment for assessing and identifying the needs of children in the Early Years Foundation Stage; and the implications of dynamic assessment for intervention for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Implications are discussed for promoting the use of dynamic assessment among educational psychologists as a useful tool for assessment of children in the early years age phase.

This study is a response to shifts in literacy education produced by the new affordances of multimodal texts and changing social dynamics as a consequence of an increasingly digitised, networked communications environment. Acknowledging the powerful influence of the teacher on student outcomes, the study involved intervention in teacher professional learning as a means for influencing print based literacy pedagogy to incorporate multimodality literacy practices. This study is a case study of the professional learning of four teachers of primary school students over the course of eight months in a workplace based research project instigated by the researcher in her role reviewing early years literacy policy, programs and resources within the Department of Education, Victoria. Professional learning interventions deployed within a participatory action research methodology were found to be efficacious in involving case study teachers as researchers of their own practice and in enhancing teachers' professionalism in the operationalisation of multiliteracies. They also had the effect of impacting on professional knowledge, practice and identity. The study indicates that schemas emanating from the New London Group's multiliteracies theory acted as stimuli for expanding teacher repertoires of multimodality pedagogies, thereby addressing disjunctures between digitised multimodal literacy and the existing print based literacy pedagogical knowledge. The deployment of a 'multimodal schema' influenced teachers to expand the modes of meaning taught as literacy meaning-making resources. Deployment of a 'pedagogical knowledge processes schema' influenced teachers' reflective practices resulting in more knowing and purposeful pedagogical practices. Used as an analytical tool, a 'dimensions of meaning schema' also illustrated patterns in teachers' choices, revealing an arbitrary character in the development of a metalanguage for different modes of meaning making. Recommendations arising from the study addressed the areas of educational consultancy; educational filming; literacy policy development; multimodality; pedagogical knowledge processes; and participatory action research methodology. Future research agendas indicated by the findings were presented.

Currently, attendance issues are prevalent in academic settings. When students do not attend school, it has an effect on their education and on the community at large. This study looked at the issue of truancy at the Early Years level and focused on studying one possible solution: the Walking School Bus Program. In this program two Community Outreach Workers were hired to walk students with attendance issues to school on a daily basis. A qualitative study was completed to obtain the perspectives of key individuals involved in the Walking School Bus program.

Currently, attendance issues are prevalent in academic settings. When students do not attend school, it has an effect on their education and on the community at large. This study looked at the issue of truancy at the Early Years level and focused on studying one possible solution: the Walking School Bus Program. In this program two Community Outreach Workers were hired to walk students with attendance issues to school on a daily basis. A qualitative study was completed to obtain the perspectives of key individuals involved in the Walking School Bus program.

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This research project aims to explore the role of the Key Person in Early Years preschool and nursery settings. The Key Person role is specified in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) guidance, and aims to provide an adult figure with which the children can form a positive and productive learning relationship. The present study originated from previous research conducted in the same authority which looked at the experiences of children in day care settings (Day, 2010). Day (2010) identified children’s attachment needs in day care settings as being an avenue for further research, and it was from this that the present study developed. The current study seeks to understand the role of the Key Person in terms of how relationships are formed with children in Early Years settings, and what those relationships look like on a daily basis. This is an important line of enquiry, as an understanding of Early Years, adult-child relationships can help inform effective future practice for Early Years staff, as well as enable outside professionals (such as Educational Psychologists) to design more effective means of early intervention for the children who may need additional support. The theoretical foundations for this research lie in attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), following the language used by the Government Guidance on the role of the Key Person. Attachment theory is used here as a basis for understanding early adult-child relationships, and the review of the literature looks at research that has explored the impact of children’s attendance in day care settings. The project is divided into two linked research papers. In the first paper, the role of the Key Person is explored through surveying and interviewing a sample of Early Years staff. In doing this, the following research objectives were addressed: • To examine the approaches that Key Persons use to form relationships with the children in their care. • To explore Key Persons’ perceptions of their role within the setting and the challenges they face. • To examine the awareness and impact of the current government guidance on Key Person practice. • To examine how settings organise and evaluate the Key Person role. In the second paper, the relationships between the Key Persons and the children they care for are explored through a series of case studies. This was in order to address the following research objectives: • To explore the relationships between particular children with adults in Early Years settings through intensive case studies. • To examine the Key Person-child relationship by comparing Key Person-child interactions with interactions with other adults in the setting. • To compare cases of Key Person-child relationships between children who have identified social or emotional needs and those who do not. The findings from paper one indicated that Key Persons do not generally seem to use the Government Guidance as a primary influence on the way they build positive relationships with their Key Children. Key Persons seemed to base their practice on experiential knowledge. Furthermore, the organisation of the role in most settings seemed to indicate a more administrative focus than a focus on building specific relationships. Paper two showed that Key Persons generally had more interactions with their Key Children than other adults had with the same children. Differences were found in the types of interactions children experienced with different adults. Relationships were reported to be close with both groups of children, with Key Persons reporting more conflict with the children identified with social or emotional needs. It is hoped that the findings of the two linked papers will inform EP practice in relation to Early Years settings, particularly in terms of developing early intervention. From professional experience, there seems to be a large amount of diversity in the way EP services work with preschool-aged children and the professionals who support them. Perhaps further uses for the findings in this research could be to inform future collaborative working, as well as areas to which EPs can contribute their body of research knowledge. The following document presents each study separately as individual papers, each with appendices which contain additional information on methods and data analysis. The papers are followed by the literature review, university Ethics form and the bibliography for the entire study.

This study uses interviews to investigate what kinds of teaching material three teachers in the early years of compulsory school use, and how and why they have chosen to use these particular materials. The study also examines which factors guide the teachers in their choice, and what they see as teaching material. The study applies a sociocultural perspective on learning, viewing teaching aids as artefacts created by humans and as a communicative tool in teaching. The informants’ interview responses have been analysed using content analysis. The result shows that the teachers use several different forms of material to teach Swedish to pupils in the early years of compulsory school. They see and use both publisher-produced textbooks and traditional photocopied handouts, as well as tablets, computers and other material, as teaching aids. The teachers think it is important to use more than one form of material in teaching, and that a functional teaching aid should be capable of individual adaptation so that every pupil can work at his or her level of knowledge. Teaching material should also be motivational so that the pupil will be able to acquire an improved knowledge in the subject of Swedish. The potential for individual adaptation is a factor that guides the teachers in their choice of teaching material, but they also consider the look of the material and the faith they place in the textbook publisher.

This thesis is concerned with developing our understandings and knowledge of children within Early Years Learning (EYL) and the importance of movement and play in processes of social class and cultural (re)production. The ways in which parents from different social classes are involved and invest in their children s education and physical activity have been researched quite extensively. This research therefore looks at the nature of transactions and interactions within EYL settings and the influence social class and parental investment has on children s embodiment, knowledge construction and learner identities. The study pays particular attention to how social inequalities are produced and reproduced within EYL through differences in its organisation, curriculum structures, pedagogical interactions and transactions. Data were collected over a ten month period of sustained critical ethnography in three socially and culturally diverse EYL settings in central England through observations and informal conversations. The collected data were first analysed ethnographically to determine the organising categories and concepts of the setting, while second order analyses brought into to play the researcher s sociological interests in questions of equity, social reproduction and control, imposing another layer of questions on the study. A Bernsteinian theoretical lens was adopted to interrogate the transactions within EYL settings in relation to power and control, while those of others (namely habitus , physical capital and the corporeal device - pace Bourdieu, Shilling, Evans and Davies respectively) were used to embellish such understandings and bring processes of embodiment to the fore. The findings illustrate the complexity of the discourses and practices that children negotiate when re-contextualising knowledge and constructing their learner identities within EYL settings. They also reveal how children learn about their own and others bodies through the various forms of play that feature in EYL settings and that these processes are profoundly class related. At the heart of the thesis lies the claim that extant social class hierarchies and ability differences are sustained rather than eroded or lessened through the structure, organisation and transactions of EYL settings. Finally, recommendations are made as to how UK Government policy relating to EYL might begin to promote pedagogies that enhance the potential for greater social mobility in the UK.

This inquiry was prompted by a desire to understand ‘partnership working’ (DfE, 2012, p.3) with the diverse parental body of a British International School Pre-Nursery based in Bangkok. It was hypothesised that this necessitated the co-construction of a shared understanding between home and school about a child’s learning. Nonetheless, the manner in which this could be achieved was unclear. Consequently, an explorative case study was instigated to gain a greater understanding of home-school interactions within this context. Influenced by Early Years policy and literature, as well as concepts of dialogue and interculturalism, it was hypothesised that involving parents within the redevelopment of a reporting and assessment tool may support the co-construction of a shared understanding about the child as a learner. Accordingly, a series of parental meetings were organised to elicit parental views. The parental meetings were illuminating and prompted the adaptation of a range of tools and artefacts to scaffold parents into a greater understanding of Pre-Nursery pedagogy and to engage them in a learning dialogue with school. At the completion of the study, evidence indicated that the development of a shared understanding between home and school had been achieved. This suggested that integrating conceptions of scaffolding and co-construction within home-school communication enhanced the potential for partnership working. Nonetheless, the complexities of engaging with the diverse parental body found within international education were also highlighted. In addition, the inquiry highlighted the difficulties of sustaining and extending practice innovations. It was concluded that further research may be necessary to fully understand partnership working within this context and to develop the consistent whole school approach deemed necessary to support its implementation.