This thesis comprises of a critical literature review and case study. The literature review considers, in detail, the theory underpinning emotional intelligence and emotional literacy. It begins by detailing the shift in UK Education policy, between 2000 and 2010 and considering academic research into non-cognitive aspects of education. A critical evaluation of two theories of emotional intelligence (ability theory and trait theory) is then presented and these theories are subsequently contrasted with the theory of emotional literacy, as outlined by Claude Steiner. The paper concludes by considering how each of the three theories discussed may impact upon research practice. The case study, which was completed in a city suburban primary school, is made up of two embedded units, the first uses interview to examine staff perceptions of emotional literacy. The second employs collaborative action research to consider whether emotional literacy can be used to promote organisational change. Data was analysed using thematic analysis and is presented together with discussion regarding staff perceptions of emotional literacy. The collaborative action research resulted in four identified changes in the school: development of practice and policy at lunchtimes; the introduction of elements of the SEAL curriculum; the establishment of a student council and a staff collaboration project. The mechanisms supporting these developments are discussed.

This thesis explores the issue of imaginative writing of deaf children. Thirty deaf children aged 9-11 years were recruited form Hearing Impaired Units and mainstream schools. Thirty hearing children were matched on academic performance (according to teachers) and chronological age and recruited from the same classes as the deaf children. Three sets of imaginative stories were collected from the above groups at three points during one academic year. A mixed methodology was employed in order to investigate imaginative writing of deaf children. For the evaluation of children’s stories an “Imagination Story Scale” was developed based both on the literature review and on the in-depth analyses of four children’s imaginative stories. The scale consists of four categorised divisions (story structure, story plot, linguistic imagination, originality) and one additional division (overall assessment). Assessments of both deaf and hearing children’s stories using the scale revealed little variation between deaf and hearing children’s scores in the scale, indicating that deaf children do have imagination and are able to express it in writing. However, differences were observed between the scores for the different topics (for both groups of children) suggesting that the topic of the stories influenced their scores. Imaginative writing of deaf children was not predicted by: age, gender, degree of hearing loss, type of communication used at home, or use of activities to promote children’s imagination either in the classroom or at home. Teachers’ opinions of deaf children’s imagination were explored through interviews. The Teachers of the Deaf tended to under-estimate deaf children’s ability to demonstrate imagination in their writing by comparison with the stories that the deaf children produced.

This study examines the issue of school choice in the context of Free Schools in England. It focuses on three different aspects, each one related the Free Schools policy from a social justice and equity perspective. First, the admissions arrangements of secondary Free Schools, are explored. Second, the reasons and strategies that parents reported when choosing a school are considered. Finally, the student compositions of the schools are analysed. The study as a whole takes a multi-method approach, using Annual School Census data, parent questionnaires and interviews and a documentary analysis of admissions policies. The findings show a complex picture, reflecting the heterogeneous and diverse nature of Free Schools. Disadvantaged pupils are under-represented in the majority of Free Schools, but not in all. The admissions policies also suggest that the majority of Free Schools are using similar methods for allocating places as those used by other schools in their area. Parents that had chosen Free Schools tended to report looking for similar features but had taken different routes and encountered varying circumstances during the decision-making process. Many were attracted to the Free School by its promise of quality and used a range of proxy features to determine this, including factors relating to the social composition, comparisons with other school types and a focus on a traditional approach to schooling. Recommendations for how the Free Schools policy (and education policy more widely) could be used to encourage equity of access and opportunity are included at the end of the study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia de Toledo Silva.pdf: 5239913 bytes, checksum: f81ed58cdf156de4d4c55d8de3fe0042 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-07 / The present thesis had as objective to distinguish the literacy process on the early years cycle of the basic education, between 2010 and 2011, to know if at the end of this path, the students were independent writers, producing alphabetic script hypothesis. For this, it was chosen the qualitative research, drawing on action research, as the observation tool of the alphabetic scripts at a school, named as "School A", at Poá city, on the east side of São Paulo Metropolitan Area. The objective of the research was to draw on the literacy process realized on the beginning cycle of the basic education, between 2010 and 2011, answering the question: "Will two years cycle promote the development of six and seven years students, so that at the end of the cycle the students are producing texts with writing hypothesis in alphabetic level?". Research was founded among others, by the assumptions of Freire (1986, 1994) Ferreiro and Teberosky (1985, 1993); Kleiman (1995), Soares (1999, 2011), Rojo (1998, 2009), Freitas (2003); Mainardes (2007, 2009). According to the analysis of the collected material, the official results had shown that at the end of two years, 100% of the shown sample subjects had their wrinting hypothesis tested in alphabetic level, but the obtained results led diagnose that only 22.2% of the research subjects reached the target set; 33.3% partially reached it and 44.4% did not reached the target, counteracting the result described in the Map of Survey of Classes. The research also provided to evidence important factors that must be reviewed urgently as: Teacher Training on Assessment and Learning Cycles; Turnover of Teachers, were evident and collaborated with the inefficient outcome of literacy cycle observed. Thus the implementation of Public Contest with Career Plan certainly end the turnover of teachers, providing in-service training, to obtain better results in the process of literacy. The relevance of this study lies in its contribution to the improvement of the results of school performance cycle in School "A" extending the reflection of the results and proposed solutions to the Municipal Education aiming at real literacy of students / A presente tese teve por objetivo caracterizar o processo de alfabetização no ciclo dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, no período 2010/2011, para saber se ao final desse percurso, os educandos produziriam hipóteses de escritas alfabéticas com autonomia. Para tanto, optou-se pela pesquisa qualitativa, servindo-se da pesquisa-ação, como instrumento de observação das ocorrências de alfabetização em uma escola municipal, denominada Escola A , do município de Poá, Zona Leste da Grande São Paulo, respondendo à questão: Será que o ciclo de dois anos favorecerá o desenvolvimento da alfabetização dos alunos de seis e sete anos, de forma que ao final do ciclo, os alunos estejam produzindo com autonomia, textos com hipóteses de escrita em nível alfabético? A investigação esteve alicerçada entre outros, pelos pressupostos de Freire (1986, 1994); Ferreiro e Teberosky (1985,); Kleiman (1995); Soares (1999, 2011); Rojo (1998, 2009); Freitas (2003); Mainardes (2007, 2009). De acordo com as análises do material coletado, os resultados oficiais demonstravam que, dos sujeitos participantes da amostra investigada, ao final dos dois anos, 100% tinham suas hipóteses de escrita, avaliadas em nível alfabético, porém os resultados obtidos propiciaram diagnosticar que 22,2% dos sujeitos participantes da pesquisa, atingiram a meta estabelecida; 33,3% atingiram parcialmente e 44,4% não tingiram a meta, contrariando o resultado descrito no Mapa de Sondagem das Classes. Dessa forma, fatores como: Necessidade de Formação Docente sobre Avaliação e Ciclos de Aprendizagem e Rotatividade de professores (as), foram evidentes e colaboraram com o resultado ineficaz da alfabetização no ciclo observado. Assim, a implementação de Concurso Público com Plano de Carreira, certamente acabaria com a rotatividade dos docentes, propiciando a formação em serviço, visando melhores resultados no processo da alfabetização. A relevância deste trabalho reside em sua contribuição para com a melhoria dos resultados do rendimento escolar do ciclo na Escola A , estendendo a reflexão dos resultados e soluções propostas, à Secretaria Municipal de Educação objetivando a real alfabetização dos educandos

Denna studie behandlar problemlösning med fokus på lärarens val av undervisningsmetod i syfte att utveckla elevers matematiska kunskaper. Vi har uppmärksammat brister i nyttjandet av strategier i problemlösning hos elever i årskurs F-3. Studiens syfte är därför att bidra med vad tidigare forskning om problemlösningsundervisning har resulterat i och jämföra dessa resultat med varandra. För att undersöka detta har tidigare forskning granskats genom en systematisk litteraturstudie. De databaser som använts för att finna tidigare forskningsstudier är ERIC, UniSearch samt SwePub. Resultatet av studien visar att en väl genomtänkt undervisningsmetod i problemlösning är av stor vikt för elevers kunskaper i matematik. Genom resultatet framkommer även att en god problemlösningsförmåga underlättar för elevers fortsatta matematikutveckling.

The underlying thesis of this research was that children possess more complex understandings of their large scale physical environment than were captured by existing models of classification for their artefact maps. In order to investigate this thesis, a convenience sample of 40 children was obtained at three (3) schools in East Kent in the United Kingdom and those children were asked to perform two tasks. Task One investigated whether or not children of 7-9 years of age could identify nominated features on a map of a fictional area through their ability to interpret conventional cartographic symbols. Task Two investigated the children’s survey and environmental knowledge of a known large scale environment by constructing a free-recall sketch map of ‘their town’ without them being given a subsequent purpose for this map. During the construction of this artefact map the researcher interacted verbally with the children so that the temporal order of construction could be examined and the environmental knowledge of the children could be explored. Consistent with the thesis, the children displayed considerably more detailed environmental and survey knowledge about their town that it would have been possible to obtain from adult-centric post-factum interpretations of their artefact maps. Following this finding a new model for the classification of children’s artefact maps was proposed.

Mathematical reasoning can be considered to be the pursuit of a line of enquiry to produce assertions and develop an argument to reach and justify conclusions. This involves processes such as conjecturing, generalising and forming arguments. The pursuit of a line of mathematical reasoning is not a routine process and perseverance is required to overcome difficulties. There is a lack of research on pedagogy to foster children’s perseverance in mathematical reasoning, hence this study sought to answer the research question: how can primary teachers improve children’s perseverance in mathematical reasoning? The study took place in two year 6 classes in different English schools. The study group comprised eight children, purposively selected for their limited capacity to persevere in mathematical reasoning. An action research approach was used to develop and evaluate two interventions. Data relating to the children’s cognitive and affective responses and the focus of their attention, a conative component, were collected by observation and interview. Data analysis synthesised the children’s reasoning processes with their affective responses and their conative focus. The use of this tripartite psychological classification to analyse children’s mathematical reasoning offered a new approach to analysing the interplay between cognition and affect in mathematics learning and revealed the role that engagement and focus play in both restricting and enabling children’s perseverance in mathematical reasoning. The interventions comprised providing children with representations that could be used in a provisional way and embedding a focus on generalising and convincing in mathematics lessons. These enabled children to improve their perseverance in mathematical reasoning; they were able to strive to pursue a line of enquiry and progress from making trials and spotting patterns to generalising and forming convincing arguments. This study found that children were not necessarily aware of when they encountered a difficulty. This lack of cognisance impacted on their capacity to apply the self-regulatory actions needed to monitor and adapt their use of reasoning processes. One outcome of this was that they tended towards repetitious actions, in particular, creating multiple trials even when they had spotted and formed conjectures about patterns. Their perseverance in mathematical reasoning was further compromised by their enjoyment of repetitious actions. When the children engaged in activities involving reasoning, their common affective response was pleasure, even in instances when they demonstrated limited perseverance. However, when they were able to persevere in reasoning so that they generalised and formed convincing arguments, they expressed pride and satisfaction. They attributed these emotions to their improved mathematical understanding. The bi-directional interplay between children’s cognition and affect in mathematics is discussed in literature; however, the impact of children’s focus on their cognitive understanding and affective experience augments existing literature.

This thesis reports on research into a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme in Senegal: Strengthening Mathematics, Science, and Technologies in Education Project (Projet de Renforcement de l'Enseignement des Mathématiques, des Sciences et de la Technologie, or PREMST). The literature review reveals very few examples of CPD changing teaching practices of teachers especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. However in this case, large-scale official project evaluations claim that some positive changes seem to have occurred, but give few details about the nature of the changes or how they have been brought about. This research seeks to understand the complexities of pedagogical change that teachers have gone through as a result of their participation in the CPD programmes through a more detailed investigation. The research examines the cases of five teachers in three schools that stakeholders claim to have gone through positive changes in the last three years. The research methods include focus-group discussions, lesson observation, and interviews before and after lessons. Lesson observation was aided by video and audio recording engaging with particular actions in the lesson observed. This process allowed me to understand how teachers reflected upon their own teaching and pupils' learning. The research finds that PREMST helped teachers envision how teaching should be conducted, by providing a structured approach to conduct a lesson. A visible change has been brought about in the classroom because the way training is conducted is well-integrated in the learning mechanism of teachers. However, the change in teaching practice has not necessarily brought a positive change in the learning of pupils. Apparent emphasis on group work has changed the modality of lessons, but it has not changed how teachers think about teaching. Given the difficulties involved in pedagogical change, emphasising specific skills may have been the necessary and practical first step, but changing these teaching practices is not enough. The research found that teachers still paid little attention to the learning of individual pupils. Teachers have changed their practices in terms of teaching methods used in the classroom, but the change in pedagogy has remained minimal because they have not understood the underlying premise of the new pedagogy. Unless they realise that their present manner of teaching does not enable the learning of pupils in a sufficient manner, their change is likely to remain at the level of teaching methods, not the pedagogy which incorporates the theories of learning and assumptions behind the practices. A key outcome of the research was to identify the next step for PREMST, namely to redirect the focus of teachers from the teaching procedures to the learning of pupils, by asking them to pay attention to what pupils say or write during the lesson. The thesis concludes by describing how this is being achieved through a shift in focus on classroom practice, through a training model based on lesson study.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo identificar os significados que os alunos da escola de educação básica atribuem à atuação dos profissionais de saúde tanto dentro da escola, como nos serviços de saúde que eles frequentam. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, fundamentada na abordagem histórico-cultural de Vigotski, que considera o desenvolvimento humano e a construção dos significados culturais a partir das relações sociais. A coleta de dados foi realizada em uma escola de educação básica da rede municipal de ensino do interior do estado de São Paulo. Foram realizados grupos focais com alunos matriculados da escola de educação básica. Participaram da pesquisa 13 alunos de duas turmas do 4º ano do ensino fundamental. Os dados foram transcritos analisados e realizada análise temática proposta por Braun e Clarke. Os resultados encontrados neste trabalho levaram aos seguintes temas: Profissionais da saúde e seu trabalho, Relação com profissionais da saúde, Saúde X Doença, Saúde na escola. A análise aponta que alguns profissionais de saúde são mais citados pelos alunos. As influências externas que os alunos sofreram, como suas vivências e lembranças com os profissionais de saúde, era o que mais determinava o seu olhar sobre o trabalho deles. A ideia curativista sobre o trabalho de profissionais de saúde aparece muito forte e a promoção da saúde dentro das escolas ainda é bem inexpressiva, pois poucas ocorrências foram narradas pelos alunos / This work aimed to identify the significances that the primary education school students attribute to the work of health professionals, both inside the school and in the health services they attend. It is a qualitative research, based on the historical-cultural approach of Vygotsky, which considers human development and the construction of cultural meanings from social relations. Data collection was carried out in a primary education school of the municipal education network, of the interior of São Paulo state. Focus groups were held with students enrolled in the primary education school. Thirteen students from two classes of the 4th year of elementary school participated in the study. The data were transcribed, analyzed and done thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke. The results found in this study led to the following themes: Health professionals and their work, Relation with health professionals, Health X Disease, Health in school. The analysis points out that some health professionals are more cited by the students. The external influences that the students suffered, such as their experiences and memories with health professionals, was what most determined their look on his work. The curativist idea about the work of health professionals appears very prominent and the promotion of health within the schools is still quite inexpressive, because few occurrences were narrated by the students

This reflexive account is of a phenomenological study that took place over two years. It explores how a group of primary-aged children perceive, express and reflect on their embodiment through movement. Children aged between four and eleven took part in sessions of yoga, somatic movement and developmental play during the school day. The data include field notes, observations, a reflexive journal, photographs of and by the children, their drawings, mark-makings, writing and posters. Children were also interviewed at the end of the study, when they had an opportunity to reflect on all their work and experiences. All the children were capable of expressing and reflecting on their experiences, and the oldest children in particular appeared to enjoy and seemed to benefit from the reflective process. By linking together a sense of self-awareness and reflection, the children appeared able to gain insight into their embodied experience and reflect on emotions, feelings and events. Embodiment is a process as much of a state of being, and as such has implications for perceptions of mind and body, learning, and reflective practice. This approach to embodied reflective practice thus has potential for educators, and teacher trainers as well as direct work with children.