20031212 Ioe Poster Conference

Doctoral School Poster Conference - 12 December 2003

Welcome from the Head of the Doctoral School I am delighted to welcome you to the fifth Doctoral School Poster Conference. We hope that you will enjoy looking at the posters and will find material of interest to discuss with each other. As Doctoral School staff we are strongly committed to providing research students with opportunities to present and to discuss their work. The poster mode of presentation is increasingly finding favour in national and international conferences and for very good reason. It provides an ideal opportunity to engage in a range of presentations and to have informal discussion and debate in a conducive setting. We hope that our Conference will provide a forum for you to do so too. I would like to thank all students for presenting posters, staff for their support, and the staff of the Registry who help to make our twice-yearly conferences happen and happen so successfully. The Summer Conference is on 25 and 26 June 2004 and I look forward to welcoming you to this event in due course. Welcome to the 2003 Poster Conference and seasonal greetings to you all.

Professor Ingrid Lunt Head of the Doctoral School

Posters and Participants Arts and Humanities Jo Plumb

Music in the National Curriculum: an examination of Key Stage 3 and GCSE Music

Gillian Stunell

Help! I’m not musical. Enabling the primary teacher in music

Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies Cathie Hammond

The contribution of education to health

Culture, Language and Communication Arlene Archer

Rural village project: visual representations of development

Chi-Tat Chan

Young people, subjectivities and media productions

Colm Crowley

‘That’s a bit gay!’ Promoting the concerns of young dykes and poofs

Margot Farnham

The impact of skills agenda on ESOL teaching

Claudia Lapping

A de-essentialised conception of gender: Bernstein's 'unthinkable' and Lacan's 'jouissance'

Tzu-Bin Lin

Media education: theories and practices: comparing media education policies and a case study of Taiwan

Rob Oliver

Redesigning ‘information’: children’s use of textual sources in multimodal research projects

Jenny Parkes

Children’s engagement with violence: a study in a South African school

Posters and Participants Culture, Language and Communication Joan Samuel

Intercultural Competency in English Art and Design Education

Kostas Voros

Video production in the primary classroom

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment David Cameron Vivien Cook Derek Nkata Cilel Smith

Interaction between Key Stage 3 consultants and teachers Advancing professionalism in medical education: a view from the margins Improving quality of classroom teaching and learning in universal primary education context: qualitative study of schools in Masindi District, Uganda Interrupted schooling: the educational pathway of refugee children

Early Childhood and Primary Education Sue Bodman Michael Fennell

Exploring interactions in a complex learning environment: reading recovery professional learning Constraints and parameters in teachers’ lives: a study of English language teachers in Nicaragua

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies Henry H L Chan Steven Cowan

A comparative study of markets' influence on the private and public higher education institutions. New sources for the study of historical literacy and reading in early industrial Britain

Simona D’Alessio

Making sense of inclusive education in Europe: a cross-cultural perspective

Ayo Mansaray

Teaching assistants in multi-ethnic schools: roles, perceptions and practices

Posters and Participants Educational Foundations and Policy Studies O’Connor, Eileen

Nicola Rollock Nanik Suwaryani

Leadership and emotions: an exploratory study into the emotional dimension of the role of the post-primary school principal in Ireland How black students become academically successful: an exploration of pupils’ experiences of schooling and the processes that facilitate increased academic attainment Educational policy for children with special needs in Indonesia

Lifelong Education and International Development Elfneh Bariso

New technologies: tools for widening participation in learning?

Anastasia Dimitriadou

An exploration of refugees’ experiences as adult ESOL students in FE colleges

Stanislaus Kadingdi

Improving teaching and learning in primary schools in Ghana: implications for the professional development of teachers

Marion Long

Stamping, clapping and chanting: an ancient learning pathway?

Rosemary Westwell

Success factors in mature language learning

Mathematics, Science and Technology Lyn Haynes

Young people in England and South Africa on cloning and other medical biotechnologies

Faezeh Seyedarabi

Tearing and sharing the web: avoiding the mosaic effect in personalising e-learning

Posters and Participants Psychology and Human Development

Liz Alexander

An exploratory study into the interpretation of Kodály’s philosophy of music education by teachers working in England and Scotland

Laura Brazier

Improving literacy and numeracy of young offenders

Sophia Cholidou

Chang-Hui Hsuan

A longitudinal and experimental study of phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, and Chinese reading acquisition of children in Taiwan aged between six and seven years

Evangelia Katsapi

A study of the spelling performance of Greek dyslexic children

Hiromi Tsuji

Developing a communicative mind: a longitudinal study of pragmatic development in Japanese-speaking children

Wayne Tennent

Developing inference skills in reading through explicit teaching: a proposed intervention

Karl Wall

Do year 1 pupils and their teachers share common interpretations of facial expressions?

Index of Participants Student's Name

Page

Liz Alexander

1

Arlene Archer

2

Elfneh Bariso

3

Sue Bodman

4

Laura Brazier

5

David Cameron

6

Chi-Tat Chan

7

Henry H L Chan

8

Sophia Cholidou

9

Vivian Cook

10

Simon Cowan

11

Colm Crowley

12

Simona D’Alessio

13

Anastasia Dimitriadou

14

Margot Farnham

15

Michael Fennell

16

Cathie Hammond

17

Lyn Haynes

18

Chung-Hui Hsuan

19

Stanislaus Kadingdi

20

Evangelia Katsapi

21

Claudia Lapping

22

Tzu-Bin Lin

23

Marion Long

24

Ayo Mansaray

25

Derek Nkata

26

Eileen O’Connor

27

Rob Oliver

28

Jenny Parkes

29

Jo Plumb

30

Nicola Rollock

31

Joan Samuel

32

Faezeh Seyedarabi

33

Cilel Smith

34

Gillian Stunell

35

Nanik Suwaryani

36

Wayne Tennent

37

Hiromi Tsuji

38

Kostas Voros

39

Karl Wall

40

Rosemary Westwell

41

Abstracts of Presentations

Liz Alexander

Psychology and Human Development

An exploratory study into the interpretation of Kodály’s philosophy of music education by teachers working in England and Scotland

Due to the many faceted perceptual and cognitive training offered in the Kodály system of music education, both teachers and observers have suspected that it has implications for children’s learning abilities in non-musical areas as well as musical ones. In Hungary, under Kodály’s guidance, Kokas (1969) observed how normal school children receiving daily Kodály music instruction seemed to perform better in reading and arithmetic, and also had better “study habits” than children who received less intensive music education. Further exploratory research in Hungary, also indicated the potential impact of Kodály music instruction on visual observation, spelling, language learning and movement. (Kokas 1969). Hurwitz et al. (1975) conducted a study of the effects of a Kodály based music training programme on other areas of children’s learning with American children from middle-class communities. They suggested that first grade children who had received seven months of Kodály music training performed more effectively on spatial and temporal tasks, compared with matched controls. In the UK, a pilot project carried out by a team of researchers in London in the late 1990s, claimed improvements in pupil’s performance and attitudes to school generally, through the intervention of a Kodály based music programme. However, none of these studies describe any specific curriculum content contained in the Kodály music lessons. This makes it difficult to evaluate the suggested claims of an improvement in other areas of learning. A survey of teachers working in different teaching settings in England and Scotland aims to build up a picture of how Kodály’s philosophy has been adapted for use in a twenty-first century Britain. The survey was confined to Reception and Year 1 age children. Information was requested on: 1) description of teaching setting, 2) curriculum issues, 3) selection of Material for Kodály work, 4) lesson structure, 5) lesson planning, 6) issues which the questionnaire has raised and 7) details of the respondent’s qualifications and training. Questionnaires were sent to forty teachers working in five different teaching settings: state schools, private schools, music schools, special schools and private groups. Twenty-seven teachers returned completed questionnaires. There were differences in approach between those teachers who had been trained by Hungarian tutors, and those who had been trained solely by British tutors. This affected curriculum issues and material selection. Experience and continuation of training also affected alignment of lesson structure and planning to Kodály’s original philosophy. More detailed information will need to be sought from selected respondents on specific methodology before conducting a pilot study.

1

Arlene Archer

Culture, Language and Communication

Rural village project: visual representations of development

This study investigates an Engineering Foundation Programme for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa. The challenge is to offer students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds an empowering and critical curriculum, not just bridges to established norms. To this end, this study advocates the notion of a ‘reciprocal’ curriculum, an equality of cultural exchange where the resources that students bring with them are validated. A reciprocal curriculum involves the utilization of available discourses, including those from students’ life worlds. This poster presents the site of investigation – a communication course with ‘rural development’ as the focus. The aim of this study was an attempt to understand students' representational resources as evidenced in students’ multimodal textual productions; to think around ways of utilizing these in the curriculum; and to explore the potential and limitations of these resources for access to academic discourse. Representational resources are seen as "the means and practices by which we represent ourselves to ourselves and to others" (Kress 1996: 18). The dominant discourses operating across these posters involved viewing technology as an undeniable good; liberation rhetoric; globalization and utopianism. This poster highlights the attempt to legitimate experiential knowledge; provide students with access to disciplinary knowledge and discourse conventions; and enable students to critically engage with regulated genres and conventions (through the use of parody, for example).

2

Elfneh Bariso

Lifelong Education and International Development and Mathematics, Science and Technology

New technologies: tools for widening participation in learning?

Many policy-makers and educators are promoting the use of new technologies, such as the Internet and email, to bridge the “learning divide”. Critics argue that this approach can exacerbate the learning divide due to the “digital divide”. The research question for this study is, "To what extent can the use of new technologies facilitate or hinder adults learning in a deprived urban environment?" Rees et al’s (2000) “learning trajectories” model with Cross’ (1981) “categories of barriers” are used to analyse adults’ learning experiences and views. Department for Trade and Industry’s (1999) “new technology adoption” model with Cross (1981) “categories of barriers” are applied to examine adults’ attitudes and uptake of new technologies. The data was gathered through semi-structured one-to-one interviews and focus group interviews with 95 adults and a survey questionnaire completed by 504 respondents from the London Boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest. The results of this study suggest that new technologies have the potential to address barriers preventing some adults from participating in learning, but they can also hinder the participation of other adults. Therefore, this study concludes that the potential for new technologies to assist widening participation is limited. It also suggests measures to be taken at national policy, institutional and individual levels to overcome institutional, situational, technological and dispositional barriers if the learning and the digital divides are to be bridged.

3

Sue Bodman

Early Childhood and Primary Education

Exploring interactions in a complex learning environment: reading recovery professional learning

This work-in-progress looks at a seminal aspect of Reading Recovery (RR) professional learning for Tutors in the year-long Masters course at the ULIE. The live-lesson critique involves reflective discussions conducted whilst observing responsive teaching of a child experiencing literacy difficulties, achieved by using a one-way mirror. This is an unusual teaching tool as the simultaneous observation and critique is conducted in ‘realtime’- a unique component as it enables the development of practical and conceptual knowledge about matching teaching to child capability and rehearsal of the fast, ‘onthe-run’ reflection and response needed in teaching children in a RR programme. My study explores how the live-lesson critique contributes to tutor learning of theoretical and academic knowledge in addition to learning to use observations to engage teachers in critically evaluative and reflective processes to achieve teacherchange in both praxis and in their expectations for young literacy learners. A longitudinal case study design is used to study change over the period of the oneyear tutor-training Masters’ course at the ULIE. Participant observations (inc. videos), interviews and course documentation are being analysed using the constant comparative and negative case analysis method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

4

Laura Brazier

Psychology and Human Development

Improving literacy and numeracy of young offenders

Youth crime is a prevalent social problem. Links between youth crime and exclusion from education are well established. Consequently, this group of young people have serious problems with basic skills such as numeracy and literacy. Although direct research evidence is scarce, it is hypothesised that a lack of basic skills has an impact on future employment prospects, and the probability of re-offending. There is also a complex range of research findings regarding what works. There is a small, but growing body of literature, placing young offenders and learners at the centre of research endeavours. These studies are using new and innovative concepts and methodologies. The proposed study will use a variety of qualitative methods to examine the underlying psychological mechanisms and processes interacting with interventions aiming to improve literacy and numeracy skills of young offenders. It is hoped that the findings will both contribute to a sparse academic body of work and have policy and practice relevance.

5

David Cameron

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Interaction between Key Stage 3 consultants and teachers

This study will explore the relationships between teachers and consultants in schools within the Key Stage (KS) 3 Strategy. My methods in this project will be interpretive. I will follow characteristics of Mishler’s (1986) ideas of narratives within interviews as well as using some ethnographic techniques in following my own work life as a consultant. Through these methods, I will examine some of the characteristics of consultant-teacher relationships through perceptions that teachers and consultants have of their work together. Specifically, I am looking at the things within this relationship that have directly supported new actions within the classroom. In doing this, I am searching for deeper understandings of key issues within teacher self-development and satisfaction.

6

Chi-Tat Chan

Culture, Language and Communication

Young people, subjectivities and media productions

My research attempts to explore the ways in which young people have exercised their subjectivities in their media productions situated in the context of Hong Kong media education. At present, media education in Hong Kong is not a subject in the formal education system, but there are various modes of practice developed by the formal education sector, the social service sector and the arts sector. Different contexts may have addressed young people in particular ways well before the youth have said anything about themselves. My aim is to map out the ways in which various contexts may have positioned young people as well as the ways in which they have positioned themselves in due course. The diversity, density and hybridity of Hong Kong society may serve as an informationrich background that helps exploring the various conditions that substantiate media productions in different ways thus contributing to the discussion of media education in a broader worldwide context.

7

Henry H L Chan

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

A comparative study of markets’ influence on the private and public higher education institutions

The language and ideology of markets re-emerged in the 1980s, when the British Government wanted the market to be the guiding philosophy of managing higher education. The markets’ influence can be seen in the introduction of student fees, the change in employment patterns of academics, together with the internationalisation and commercialisation of knowledge in higher education. The commercialisation of knowledge can be seen as a diversification of funding sources for higher education institutions. The aim of marketisation in higher education is to rationalise the resources among different institutions in relation to the mass higher education. Policy transfer and borrowing has been a part of globalisation. In Hong Kong and Singapore, policy makers wish to learn from the best practice of the world-class universities in the US and UK, and see how they are being influenced by the notion of markets. The focus of my research will be a comparative study of markets’ influence on higher education. The methods that will be used to understand how the selected higher education institutions are being influenced by the market are interview technique and documentary analysis. Academics and administrators will be interviewed, while the documentary analysis will consist of institutional statistical figures, promotion material and artefacts, etc. The results obtained may not be generalisable, as only a small sample will be taken, and it is difficult to represent a diversity of higher education institutions across the US and UK. The findings will be relevant for Hong Kong and Singapore academics and policy makers, as how the world-class higher education institution operates may have a bearing on their policy making process. The implication of this study is that marketisation may have an effect on the direction in which higher education is heading, such as widening the access of higher education for the lower socio-economic group, without sacrificing the quality of higher education.

8

Sophia Cholidou

Psychology and Human Development

The present longitudinal study was undertaken to assess Greek kindergarteners’ concepts about print. This paper presents specific evidence about kindergarteners’ developing book knowledge. Fifty-four children who attended three kindergarten classes located in suburban areas of Athens, Greece participated in the study. The following concepts were assessed at the beginning and end of the kindergarten year before they entered primary school: a) the beginning of the story b) the end of the story, c) from the left to the right, d) from the top to the bottom, e) from the left page to the right page and f) line sequence. The results of this study showed that overall there was an improvement in children’s knowledge relating to concepts about print, though there were still children who had poor knowledge of CAP at the end of the year.

9

Vivien Cook

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Advancing professionalism in medical education: a view from the margins

This presentation consists of extracts from a conversation between myself, a “mainstream” educator and a clinical colleague, Dr Sandra Nicholson, on the nature of professionalism in medical education. This collaborative exchange arose from my work for the Foundations of Professionalism module on the EdD programme. We considered my arguments that discourses of professionalism within medical education often focus on the necessity of students acquiring the appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes. Professionalism in teaching has not always been a subject for debate to the same extent. Medical education can be viewed as emphasising the importance of teaching theory and methods whilst neglecting the social and political context in which students learn and teachers teach. The particular complexities of being both a doctor and a teacher and how this impacts on professionalism also need consideration.

10

Steven Cowan

Education Foundations and Policy Studies

New sources for the study of historical literacy and reading in early industrial Britain

I am examining whether literacy rates were higher in some place in early industrial England than previously believed. In order to test this I want to examine new sources for the history of literacy such as state archives. I have chosen early industrial England because it was a time of massive transition and people's conceptions of what reading was, or what a book was, changed in important ways. I am particularly interested in reading communities as against the individualistic notion we have today of the single literate reader with reading as a private act.

11

Colm Crowley

Culture, Language and Communication

‘That’s a bit gay!’ Promoting the concerns of young dykes and poofs

Researching the lives of school-age young people in Britain with same-sex attraction has tended to throw up significant difficulties. The sparseness of relevant empirical data is therefore understandable, notwithstanding the contrasting prominence, in recent years, of controversy surrounding changes in legislation affecting this population of young people. So as to further an appreciation of issues of concern to today’s lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teenagers, depth interviews were conducted with ten participants (aged 15-18) in an LGB Summer School held in London. Preliminary findings, focusing on themes drawn from participants’ narratives, are presented. Reflections on the relevance of a critical perspective in psychology to research in this context are offered for discussion. (This case study is part of a more extensive study of identity formation in adolescents with same-sex sexuality.)

12

Simona D’Alessio

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

Making sense of inclusive education in Europe: a cross-cultural perspective

In this poster I will explore the issues of inclusive education in Europe with particular reference to Italy and England. The research aims to provide a critical analysis of inclusive policies at a European level focusing on their implementation in two secondary schools. The wider setting of the study is the general commitment of European Union bodies and International Organizations (EDF, UNESCO, OECD) to move from the policies of integration of disabled students in mainstream schools implemented in the 1980s to a new inclusive educational agenda. Although there is a general attempt to dismantle segregated provision and to fight social injustice and discrimination, many students, in particular disabled people, still experience exclusion in educational settings and in society. The main research questions will be to examine and interpret European inclusive policies, to explore how they contribute to the creation of inclusive schools and to investigate how schools make sense of this international inclusive agenda given their different national and local challenges. The data will be collected using a qualitative methodological approach, in particular two case studies, along with documentary research analysis of international reports. Interviews and observations will be conducted along with the analysis of legal and school documents in order to illuminate the complex patterns of the process of implementing inclusive practices.

13

Anastasia Dimitriadou

Lifelong Education and International Development and Culture, Language and Communication

An exploration of refugees’ experiences as adult ESOL students in FE colleges

English language acquisition is a major component of refugees’ integration into British society. Accessing free ESOL courses at FE colleges, refugee students are being placed in culturally and educationally diverse classrooms. Beyond language acquisition, this environment provides not only opportunities for social interaction, but also for the encounter of British culture and societal norms. Influenced by social capital theory, an attempt has been made to ‘see’ the ESOL environment as a network that mediates benefits – access to resources, information sharing, norms and obligations, relationships and trust – to refugee students through language acquisition. Findings from a pilot study in two FE colleges provide information on demographic characteristics and educational experiences of ESOL students, their views on migration’s effects on identity, their experiences as adult students and the barriers faced by their social or immigration status.

14

Margot Farnham

Culture, Language and Communication

The impact of Skills Agenda on ESOL teaching

The identification of a national ‘skills deficit’ and associated remedial measures are at the core of Basic Skills and ESOL initiatives. What ‘skills’ are now needed by ESOL teachers to deliver Skills for Life to ESOL learners? Have these skills changed with the paradigm shift in ESOL provision and the changes in migration as a result of globalisation? Are the skills taught in classrooms different from the situated skills of the workplace? How have these changes impacted on ESOL practices, professionals and programmes?

15

Michael Fennell

Early Childhood and Primary Education and Culture, Language and Communication.

Constraints and parameters in teachers’ lives: a study of English language teachers in Nicaragua

Episodes in human lives may evoke the spectre of the mundane yet without them the knowledge of life is impoverished. This study that is ‘ethnographic in intent’ looks at the lives of four Secondary School English Language Teachers in Nicaragua. It examines the parameters and constraints on their lives through a comparison of oral histories with written documentation. The findings should enrich an area of knowledge which Widdowson, the British Applied Linguist, deems to be lacking - that of how teachers operate in their local context. Such knowledge sheds light on the trajectories of the English teachers’ lives within their occupational sphere. These trajectories and their guiding forces such as family, early schooling and university training are, arguably, of relevance when it comes to improving the Nicaraguan national syllabus. Moreover, they are of importance in addressing the issue of appropriation of methodology, which originates from Britain, Australia and North America (BANA), and in questioning the ‘rightness’ of imposing BANA methods and their course materials on countries in the developing world. In addition, it is expected that English language teachers will recognise and identify with some of the episodes in the participants’ lives – a sense of déjà vu, which will perhaps, inspire and empower. The evocation of themes necessitates the presence of a central theoretical thread. The thread is needed to tie the themes together, pulling them in a common and intellectual direction towards the realisation of a global argument and contribution to knowledge. This is what the study lacks, perhaps because of a deficiency in the research questions – ‘too localised and too mundane’. Consequently, the author is asking for the readers’ help - to take time to read the poster, to negotiate the research map and then to write their choice of directional research questions.

16

Cathie Hammond

Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies

The contribution of education to health

There is consistent evidence to suggest that more educated people are healthier. The evidence also suggests that spending more years in education and achieving higher qualifications in itself leads to better health. If education has the potential to improve health outcomes, then policy makers and practitioners should understand the inter-related processes involved. The objectives of the research are: • • •

To assess the extent to which education throughout the life course contributes to psychological health and wellbeing, health practices, and physical health. To investigate the processes through which education affects these health outcomes, with an emphasis on the roles of immediate psychosocial outcomes such as changes in confidence, selfconcept, aspirations, social attitudes, and social integration and responsibility. To investigate how the impacts of education on health vary depending upon the characteristics of the learner and the type of education provided.

The programme of research involves a number of stages: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

A literature review, Qualitative fieldwork mapping out the diversity of relationships between education and health, Quantitative analyses assessing impacts of adult learning on a range of health practices and wellbeing, Drawing together these findings and refining the research questions, Further quantitative analyses, Further fieldwork, but this time integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches. Drawing conclusions and discussion of implications for policy, practice, and further research.

I have completed the first four stages of the research. Here are some findings so far: • • • •

I have found consistent evidence that initial and continuing education can have important and beneficial impacts on emotional resilience, wellbeing, mental health, health practices, and physical health. Adult learning can have both transforming and sustaining effects. Education may act as a catalyst and facilitator for change (a transforming effect), and may also protect mental health and wellbeing during periods of difficulty, or enrich stable and happy lives (sustaining effects). In Britain, adult learning experienced during one’s thirties during the 1990s did, on average, lead to the adoption of healthier practices. Effects on mental health and well-being were positive in some contexts, but negative in others. Education can undermine as well as promote psychological health. These impacts can be minor or dramatic. Impacts of education depend on the match between the strengths, interests and needs of the learner, and the type of education provided.

17

Lyn Haynes

Mathematics, Science and Technology

Young people in England and South Africa on cloning and other medical biotechnologies

Between May 1998 and July 2003 more than 1300 15 year-olds in a total of three schools in each of England and South Africa were involved in research to ascertain their understandings and perceptions about cloning and other medical biotechnologies. The data reveal that there are statistically significant differences between the countries and gender. An important aspect of this research was to ensure that the views of these young people reach the public domain.

18

Chung-Hui Hsuan

Psychology and Human Development

A longitudinal and experimental study of phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, and Chinese reading acquisition of children in Taiwan aged between six and seven years

The purposes of this study are to investigate (i) the relationship between individual differences in phonological awareness, oral vocabulary knowledge and reading ability from the age of 6.5 to 7.5 and (ii) whether the individual differences in 6.5 to 7.5 yearold children’s phonological awareness and oral vocabulary knowledge can predict the ability to read new semantic-phonetic characters. A longitudinal and experimental study is designed to attempt to answer the aforementioned questions respectively. According to the results of the pilot study, phonological awareness is more related to Chinese vocabulary than character reading; and the Chinese tone detecting of Chinese Phonological Awareness is particularly related to Chinese vocabulary reading. In the main study, 120 pupils from two primary schools in Taiwan will be tested twice over a year, and of the 120 pupils, 60 will be deliberately chosen to participate in the experiment.

19

Stanislaus Kadingdi

Lifelong Education and International Development and Culture, Language and Communication

Improving teaching and learning in primary schools in Ghana: implications for the professional development of teachers

Teachers are the 'silent' recipients of policy, and yet the cardinal players in education policy change process. The notion of talking to teachers as a means of understanding the importance of educational policy is relatively new. This poster describes the methods used to gather data from primary school teachers in a disadvantaged district in Ghana regarding a change in education policy. The poster attempts to summarise some of the teachers' experiences of educational change and richly presents their concerns and need for support in improving upon teaching and learning in basic education schools. The specific influences of personal, organisational, and policy factors and how all these interact on the teacher’s work with less professional development support are explored.

20

Evangelia Katsapi

Psychology and Human Development

A study of the spelling performance of Greek dyslexic children

This thesis is a study of spelling problems among Greek children who have been identified as being dyslexic. The theoretical underpinning of this thesis comes from ‘dual-route’ model of reading and spelling (Snowling, 1987); and is also informed by recent developments in ‘grain-size theory’. The aim of the project was to investigate the difficulties that Greek dyslexic children may have in learning to spell; and by studying them to contribute to the general understanding of literacy development across different orthographies. The sample consisted of 44 children divided into two groups: a control group with non-dyslexic children and a group with dyslexic children. A repeated measures design was used as children were tested on IQ, self-esteem, memory, reading and spelling tests. The reading and spelling tests examine the children’s ways of reading and spelling real and exceptional words, pseudo-words, polysyllabic and homophonic words. The results have shown some significant differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children in the investigated areas.

21

Claudia Lapping

Culture, Language and Communication

A de-essentialised conception of gender: Bernstein's 'unthinkable' and Lacan's 'jouissance'

My thesis is an empirical study of undergraduate classes in two disciplines: American Literature and Political Thought. It describes the way the positions available to students are constructed in relation to both disciplinary methodologies and codes of gender and class. My poster will attempt to illustrate the derivation of the de-essentialised gendered terminology I am using within my analysis. I am using the terms 'masculine' and 'feminine' to describe different relationships between the speaking subject and language. Both Bernstein's conception of the 'unthinkable', as that which is excluded from codified knowledge, and Lacan's conception of 'jouissance' as that which is excluded from the Symbolic order, are describing the same object. Lacan's gendered terminology, I would argue, has no necessary relation to a naturalised conception of sex, but it is, nevertheless, more accurate and evocative than the gender-neutral terminology that Bernstein uses. The gendering of Lacan's concept is based on the contingent but persistent social regulations that define sex as the primary mark of subjectivity. This prioritisation of sex in the construction of subjectivity means that women may have much to gain from the maintenance of their 'feminine' exclusion from knowledge, or codification of their experience, desires and interests. The same lack of codification may be far more uncomfortable for men, since they have nothing to gain from this 'feminised' position.

22

Tzu-Bin Lin

Culture, Language and Communication

Media education: theories and practices: comparing media education policies and a case study of Taiwan

This research aims to explore the practice of media education in the context of Taiwan’s current educational reforms, which include the introduction of media education at all levels of the educational system from primary school to the university. The research will focus on three dimensions: 1) the process of policy making and the roles that different social agents play; 2) the dialectical relationship between global models of media education (primarily from the US, Canada and the UK) and local models; 3) the initial implementation of media courses and the responses from media teachers and students. The research will draw upon relevant work in the sociology of educational policy and debates about globalisation in education, as well as on research in media education. It will involve the analysis of policy documents, curriculum materials and other relevant literature, in-depth interviews with policy-makers, teachers and other stakeholders, and some carefully targeted observation of classroom practice.

23

Marion Long

Lifelong Education and International Development

Stamping, clapping and chanting: an ancient learning pathway?

In this poster I present the procedures and findings of a preliminary and exploratory investigation into learning difficulties that may be associated with issues of ‘timing’ and, in particular, those that are associated with a weak sense of metrical pulse. The learning difficulties that are of interest here are approached in terms of ‘fluency’, both in the reading of text and music notation. The school children participating in the intervention activity under investigation in this study were required to metrically stamp, clap and chant, while reading music notation, for ten minutes each week for 6 weeks. This investigation is theoretically underpinned by a model of temporal integration, developed to account for previous theories concerned with movement and learning behaviours and also recent neurological studies concerning temporal regulation. The statistically significant findings of the study so far, are presented for discussion regarding improved reading comprehension, and therefore reading fluency. These findings suggest that by participating in the intervention activity, school children with a weak sense of metrical pulse benefit from increased temporal integration, demonstrated by improved reading comprehension scores.

24

Ayo Mansaray

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

Teaching assistants in multi-ethnic schools: roles, perceptions and practices

Teaching Assistants, or more commonly classroom assistants (CAs), are pivotal to the government's restructuring of teachers' roles and workload in primary schools; yet CAs are undervalued and under-researched. My study focuses on CAs in Key Stage 2, investigating the dialectical relationship between CAs and teachers, how they respectively perceive their roles, the tensions (micro-political or otherwise) and the dramas. What are their main tasks and responsibilities within primary schools and what impact is their work having in terms of processes of inclusion/exclusion? Also, what contribution does ethnicity, gender and cultural background make to the nature of the role and its performance by CAs? Furthermore, how can the CA be theorised in academic discourses vis-à-vis teacher professionalism, the new managerialism, school cultures, etc.? I intend the research design to be a two-school case study. This builds on a preliminary study I conducted (for my MSc) looking at a small sample of CAs in Hackney. This poster offers an initial interpretation of those findings.

25

Derek Nkata

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment and Culture, Language and Communication

Improving quality of classroom teaching and learning in universal primary education context: a qualitative study of schools in Masindi District, Uganda

The poster relates seven aspects of my research in the area of improving quality of primary classroom teaching and learning in a situation of expanded access due to implementing the Universal Primary Education programme. The aspects portrayed in the poster are the: • Research problem • Research topic • Research objectives (main and sub-objectives) • Research questions (main and specific questions) • Research context • Research participants • Methods of data collection (primary and secondary sources of data) Photographs showing classroom settings, environments, events and happenings are included.

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Eileen O’Connor

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

Leadership and emotions: an exploratory study into the emotional dimension of the role of the post-primary school principal in Ireland

This research study is situated in the Irish education context where in recent decades the rapid pace of ongoing change in education has impacted significantly on postprimary schools and their leaders. International research highlights the need for a greater emphasis on the affective dimension of leadership and the need for an increased awareness among school leaders of this aspect of their role. It indicates that the emotional experience of leaders is rich in its potential to assist us in deepening our understanding of leadership. This study is exploratory in nature, based on a sample of four interviews. It examines Irish post-primary principals’ perceptions of and attitudes to, the emotional dimension of their role as school leaders and explores how this impacts on their well-being and work. It is envisaged that the process and findings of this small-scale research will inform and assist in the design and modification of a future larger study.

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Rob Oliver

Culture, Language and Communication

Redesigning ‘information’: children’s use of textual sources in multimodal research projects

This poster summarises one aspect of my ongoing work on children’s research projects in the final years of primary school. The study is part of a broader enquiry into the role of intertextuality, and in particular practices of ‘citation’, in literacy learning. The work featured here focuses on the materials, technologies and designs used by children to appropriate information from texts such as web sites, reference books and CD-ROMs, and how appropriated or ‘cited’ elements (chunks of text, phrases, images, design formats) are taken over and reworked in new texts. The poster presents examples from one research project, examining in detail how material textual sources, in both verbal and visual mode, are drawn on, integrated and transformed. I also attempt to outline the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in researching literacy from an intertextual and multimodal perspective.

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Jenny Parkes

Culture, Language and Communication and Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

Children’s engagements with violence: a study in a South African school

In the aftermath of apartheid, violent crime figures in South Africa are amongst the highest in the world, and this study explores children’s experience of living in violent neighbourhoods. Through working with children in one primary school, I am exploring the construction of beliefs, practices and perceptions about violence. This poster will give an overview of the study, and will report on one strand of the analysis – how children talk about the violence in their neighbourhoods. I will show how, like a magnet, violence both attracts and repels, and will consider how children resist the pull of violence.

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Jo Plumb

Arts and Humanities

Music in the National Curriculum: an examination of Key Stage 3 and GCSE Music

Music is a foundation subject and therefore an area of compulsory study within the National Curriculum at Key Stage 3 (pupils are 11-14 years old). When given the choice to complete an optional examination course in music (GCSE) the vast majority of pupils do not. This is especially true of male students. This research begins to investigate why music has become a minority subject and to what extent 'perceptions of femininity' cause a loss engagement and motivation for male pupils in school music. Quantitative data, in the form of examination entry and pass rates from 1999-2003, is analysed. Qualitative data, including self-reported musical identities and experiences of pupils, is presented. The aim is to produce an initial picture of pupil attitudes to school music and the impact of Key Stage 3 experiences on subsequent subject choice age 14.

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Nicola Rollock

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

How Black students become academically successful: an exploration of pupils’ experiences of schooling and the processes that facilitate increased academic attainment

Despite agreement by academics and policy makers that Black pupils do not attain equally in relation to their White (and Indian) peers, research that examines the opposite side of the equation - Black pupils and academic success - is rare. This research explores the school processes that facilitate the academic success of Black (African Caribbean) secondary school students and seeks to understand how they perceive their educational experience. Teachers, support staff and pupils were interviewed at times convenient to the school and individual workload over the course of an academic year. The pupils, boys and girls aged 14 to 16 and from a range of ethnic backgrounds, had been identified by the school as academically successful. The findings will add a much-needed new perspective to current academic and policy debates regarding Black students and attainment and may suggest new ways for public authorities to abide by the legal imperative to promote race equality. These outcomes will have long-term benefits for the increased attainment and subsequent life chances of Black pupils.

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Joan Samuel

Culture, Language and Communication

Intercultural Competency in English Art and Design Education

The thesis examines the proposition that the intercultural aspects of English art education require greater attention than is currently given to them. The enquiry is framed in a constructivist methodology and research questions are addressed in three text-based, historiographic narratives, supported by findings from ethnographic enquiries made in art educational settings. These competing narratives on competency in teaching about English/other visual culture are seen as coexistent in the post-modern, intellectual climate; they are differentiated epistemologically as: positivist/traditionalist, critical/emancipatory and postcolonial/post-structuralist, and they are positioned in a non-hierarchical relationship. Ultimately, four competency criteria are identified, but it is concluded that intercultural competency in English art and design education is best recognised when art teachers’ performance engages with is best recognised when art teachers’ performance engages with the dilemmas which arise when competing narratives, such as those described, meet. Recommendations are made regarding strategies for promoting intercultural competency in the English context through art teacher education.

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Faezeh Seyedarabi

Mathematics, Science and Technology

Tearing & Sharing The Web “Avoiding The Mosaic Effect In Personalising E-Learning” In order to conduct this research we have asked the following questions: 1.

How can we diagnose an object on the web into content and presentation, for the purposes of reusing and sharing?

2.

How can we THEN use this information to Personalise the Content as well as the Style Sheet by using the User Profile?

Therefore, on the poster I will be discussing issues with regards to ‘E-learning, World Wide Web’, ‘The Mosaic Effect’, ‘The Relationship the Separation of Content from Presentation and its relation to personalisation in E-Learning’. For example: Lets assume that you are looking for a particular course like “Leaning how to make web pages using HTML codes”. The first thing that might come to your mind would be to search the web. Therefore, you type in your query and click on the search button. However, you realise that there are many web sites that you must look into one by one, in order to find your preferred course. This process can be time consuming, costly and above all, it will be a stressful task to perform. But what if the content and the style sheet were personalised to suite you?! Meaning that after you type in your query and click on the search button, you only get the information on courses/classes that teach how to create a web pages using HTML codes (course information) that you want and need, like extra classes in English if English is your second language, nursery school for your child, travel information from your home to the college etc, (Personalising The Content). What's more, the content will be presented in the style that you like e.g. in a specific font, colour, size, layout, language etc, (Personalising the Presentation).

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Cilel Smith

Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Interrupted schooling: the educational pathway of refugee children

The poster sets out to provide an overview of the educational pathway of the refugee child. It focuses on the pre-migration, the journey, post-migration and arrival in the United Kingdom. The pathway is highlighted in the text boxes. They provide information of the three phases, the reason for fleeing their country of origin and educational provisions available in the country of origin, the neighbouring countries and refugee camps. The third phase and textbox focuses on the social, emotional and educational factors influencing their schooling in the United Kingdom. It is hoped by providing an account as quoted by refugee children, that the reader will get an insight of the three phases of the pathway as described by the refugees themselves. Their account of their experiences in schools in the United Kingdom will lead to reflect what the education department and government is doing or not doing to contribute and address the interrupted schooling of refugees in the United Kingdom. A definition explains who the refugees are and the legal explanation of a refugee and asylum seeker. The educational pathway of refugees forms part of the first chapter of the literature review as a background to refugee children and their interrupted schooling.

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Gillian Stunell

Arts and Humanities

Help! I’m not musical. Enabling the primary teacher in music

Many generalist primary teachers in English schools are unhappy about teaching curriculum music to their classes. A pre-pilot interview survey found that teachers say they lack confidence in the classroom music context. The research proposes that this context is formed by political, economic, educational, cultural and musical discourses within society. To each of these the teacher has a professional, a musical and a personal relationship. The research question is: how do English primary school teachers perceive their position in relation to music and to the policy context in which they are expected to practise? The case study methodology with four teachers uses informal interviews, observation, and video-recordings of their classroom music sessions. Preliminary findings suggest that these teachers lack confidence where they have poor musical self-belief or where they lack musical subject knowledge.

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Nanik Suwaryani

Educational Foundations and Policy Studies

Educational policy for children with special needs in Indonesia

Despite the high enrolment rate (95%) at the primary school level, the completion rate is still as low as 70% as a result of high repetition and drop out rates. Pupils who have high potential in dropping out are those with special needs. This study examines two main questions, what policies regarding education provision for children with special needs at the different levels of government are currently in effect and how these influence schools in supporting these children. The method of inquiry is basically using a qualitative approach. Interviews with teachers, head teachers, policy makers, and disabled activists were conducted at the first stage of data collection. Initial findings suggest that the only policy for disabled children exists at the national level. No support is provided by the government for mainstream schools to enable them to include children with special needs (including disabled pupils).

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Wayne Tennent

Psychology and Human Development

Developing inference skills in reading through explicit teaching: a proposed intervention

It is acknowledged that there are two components to reading: word recognition and reading comprehension. Recent research has highlighted ways to improve poor word recognition. However, there are further constraints beyond structural awareness that impact upon reading comprehension, attested to by the fact that some children have adequate word reading but poor reading comprehension. Numerous studies point to the central role of inferential processing in reading development suggesting that if inferences are not drawn then understanding cannot take place. The Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) method of guided reading has been used successfully to develop specific reading comprehension skills – but not specifically inference making. This proposed study will attempt to discover whether the explicit teaching of inference skills through Reciprocal Teaching can lead to improvements in children’s abilities to make inferences. This will be judged against the current method of guided reading promoted by the National Literacy Strategy.

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Hiromi Tsuji

Psychology and Human Development

Developing a communicative mind: a longitudinal study of pragmatic development in Japanese-speaking children

This poster describes the process by which young children develop ways of communicating with their caregiver at the beginning of their second year, with a particular focus on the period before they have developed substantial verbal communicative acts. This study has identified a dramatic increase in the children’s ability to engage in joint attentional episodes during the second year, which appeared before an increase of their linguistic competency. This paper argues that the communicative exchanges that the children experience during the pre-linguistic period plays a key role in constructing the foundation that guides them to use language in order to communicate with others.

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Kostas Voros

Culture, Language and Communication Video production in the primary classroom

The aim of this study is to investigate the place video production work can have within a primary media education framework as (a) a means for children of upper primary school age to appreciate the affordances of the medium and understand the conventions of media language and (b) as a ‘space’ within which they can express themselves and explore their identities. Questions that will be addressed include: 1. How do children draw on media genres when they do video production? 2. What happens when the passive knowledge becomes active and how do children use it? 3. How do children choose to represent themselves and other people through their production? 4. How do children use media language in their production? 5. How do they debate about and eventually choose shots, camera positions and movements, lighting, music, editing etc? 6. How can the process of discovery in the use of media language make them able to communicate what they want to communicate?

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Karl Wall

Psychology and Human Development

Do year 1 pupils and their teachers share common interpretations of facial expressions?

Common facial expressions are thought to have universal interpretations by some working in the field of gesture research. As part of a larger research project investigating teacher and young pupil use of gesture in grouped work, a supporting study was undertaken, to explore this possibility. Participants (66 pupils and 31 teachers) interpreted the expressions of young children shown in a series of 12 naturalistic photographs taken from a publicly available collection. Participants were free to use any words to interpret the various expressions apparent in the photographs. Contrary to expectations, teachers and pupils were only consistent in their interpretation of two expressions, those relating to ‘Happy’ and ‘Sad’ faces: pupils in particular showed a wide range of conflicting interpretations of other expressions. As facial expression can mediate mutual understanding in face-to-face interaction, the implications of these findings are assessed in relation to teacher classroom practice.

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Rosemary Westwell

Lifelong Education and International Development

Success factors in mature language learning

Objectives: The primary objective is to determine that a mature student can learn a language successfully and to determine the most significant factors involved.

Design (including rationale): Diary entries provide detailed, reflective comments that are firsthand and therefore close to the truth. Thus, the design of this study consists of: • An analysis of the diary of a mature student learning Spanish as a beginner. • An analysis of a questionnaire completed by other mature second language learners and • Qualitative analysis and comparison of data.

Methods: Twenty factors believed to contribute to successful language learning were isolated. These were incorporated into a reflective learner diary in which the language learner comments on them as relevant. The effects of these factors are analysed using data from the diary, literature and questionnaires.

Results and Conclusions: The final analysis will point to the most important factors in successful language learning for a mature language learner.

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