Sharing Student Projects

Homework has been a contentious issue for many years with some educators rallying behind traditional practices, while some are calling for it, in this digital age and following the Covid-19 pandemic, for its end. The need for homework needs to be reevaluated and redefined. It has become apparent that away from the old paradigm to a new landscape. This case study analyses teacher and student perceptions of effective homework and compare them to what literature and research suggest makes effective homework. This enabled further understanding of new homework how homework is perceived in the context of the school research site, and the findings were used to inform future homework policy. Results show that initial teacher training on the subject of homework was limited despite it being included in the National Teaching Standards. Early career teachers and experienced teachers showed frustration with the lack of student completion. However, student responses suggested an awareness of effective homework practices signifying an understanding and willingness to complete homework. This highlighted a lack of understanding of why students fail to complete homework which needed further investigation is the context of this case study. Additionally, despite the generation of ‘digital age’ teachers, early career teachers appeared to prefer more traditional book-base work as proof of homework so that students could revisit it easily and as a way of evidencing homework. In addition, there was a reluctance to fully utilise online systems, fearing that potential technical glitches might impact on student learning and would mean that they would not complete homework tasks. Lastly, the notion of the effect of homework within the context of school was ultimately flawed, as there was a limited understanding amongst teachers and students about what the purpose of homework. This lack of a consensus amongst the school community suggests the need for greater clarity in the homework policy in order to encourage more effective homework.

I chose to undertake this case study in my own school as this was where I had access to investigating homework on a day to day basis. I was able to speak with teachers regularly to promote the completion of homework feedback. In addition, I could work with students I teach to gain an insight into their perceptions of homework. As this was a case study, the purpose was to study "a contemporary phenomenon with some real-life context" (Yin, 2003). Therefore, this meant that the issue of homework and the debate around what effective homework looks like, could be studied in the context of school X.

This research was useful to the community as it has identified a key issue that is apparent in the debate around homework being that the purpose of homework is ambiguous and needs clarification. It has also provided a suggestion for creating effective homework which can be used by teachers in order to bring consistency of the provision of homework across the school. This means, instead of focusing on the activity, consider a criteria which identifies what effective homework looks like and compare tasks to this. In addition, it has identified the reasons why students may not have been completing homework and will allow the school to address this issues moving forward in a more appropriate way than they may have been previously.

The United Kingdom is a destination that attracts a vast amount of migrants for a variety of reasons. A high number of the migrants arriving in the UK are children who will access education, for instance, in 2019, 6% of children under the age of 18 had been born abroad (Fernández-Reino, 2020), whereas the majority of these children were non-English speakers. Additionally, a high number of children who attend schools come from families where at least one of the parents was born abroad (Fernández-Reino, 2020). As a consequence, these children will be required to learn the English language. The children who speak a different language from English are considered to have English as an Additional Language (EAL); however, they are expected to access education in the same way as English speaking counterparts. This, as a consequence, influences schools and more specifically classrooms. For that reason, this research aims to understand how teachers and teaching assistants in the Early Years Foundation Stage perceive EAL children and whether their teaching styles and approaches differ when teaching EAL children or English speakers. It also aims to understand whether practitioners recognise their ability to support EAL children and if they are aware of the EAL policies and guidance. In order to understand practitioners’ perceptions, asynchronous online surveys were applied to obtain information about how practitioners’ experience teaching EAL children in EYFS influences their practice. A selection criteria was stablished which intended to obtain information from practitioners who have experience working in EYFS with EAL children in state-maintained mainstream schools. Practitioners were contacted via email and social media, and they voluntarily decided to participate in the research. Although 129 participants replied to the online survey, only 51 questionnaires were fully completed, therefore, the rest Practitioners’ perceptions of EAL children in EYFS were removed. Once the data was collected and the unfinished questionnaires were removed, Thematic Analysis (TA) was used. Through the data analysis the following themes and subthemes emerged: Practitioners’ experience and language knowledge; Practitioners’ perceptions of EAL children and Effective ways of supporting EAL children. Following the analysis of the themes and subthemes, and according to the previous literature, it seems that EYFS practitioners believe they can adequately support EAL children. Practitioners believe that EAL children are a positive asset in the EYFS classroom because they bring diversity so children can learn from the different cultures, religions, languages or traditions. Regarding the EAL policies and guidance, EYFS practitioners thought that more specific training was needed to better support EAL children, mainly in the first years of teaching. They also suggested that schools and Local Authorities should provide more support to practitioners to ensure that EAL children access appropriate education.

This research focused on practitioners’ perceptions and their approaches to teaching EAL children in the EYFS. However, not only EYFS practitioners may benefit from this research, but all of the practitioners, because schools are constantly welcoming children arriving at any stage to their schools and they may not know English. Although practitioners may think they can support EAL children during their learning, it is important they acknowledge their lack of training, and they are capable to seek support from their own school or their local authorities. However, not only practitioners but also schools may benefit from this research. Practitioners seemed to know how to support EAL children in EYFS classrooms and they thought they were able to use approaches that were helpful for EAL children and benefited their learning. However, practitioners may need further guidance to ensure that EAL children receive the right support needed. Finally, EAL children may benefit from this research, since practitioners may become aware of their lack of training and understanding which will encourage them to improve. Practitioners accessing EAL training will positively impact their practice and consequently influence children’s learning.

Data privacy has become a critical concern among internet users in the digital era due to emerging threats like cyberbullying and data breaches. Notably, children are vulnerable targets in the online world due to their limited consent understanding and media literacy. However, the adequacy of data protection policies for children remains uncertain. This research examines the implementation of children's data protection policies in specific countries and organizations with the aim of providing recommendation about children’s data privacy and privacy notices. The selected countries are Indonesia and the UK, known for having a significant number of internet users. The main focus is on two prominent online learning platforms for children: Ruangguru in Indonesia and BBC Bitesize in the UK. Afterwards, document analysis of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)/Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) in the UK and the Personal Data Protection (PDP) in Indonesia serves as the primary data source. Privacy notices from the respective companies are analysed to gain insights into their data protection practices. The findings reveal that the GDPR/DPA 2018 appropriately facilitates data protection for children, while the PDP exhibits several gaps. In the case of BBC Bitesize, concerns regarding children's privacy are evident in its privacy notice, while Ruangguru's notice lacks specificity.

Based on the findings, this research presents recommendations to address the identified gaps and enhance data protection for children on online learning platforms.

Islamic boarding school or pesantren is a religious education institution in Indonesia where students live in a provided hall for a long period. To get them focus on religious learning while protecting them from moral threats, students’ access to internet is restricted or even disabled. This raised questions of how students develop their digital literacy in such kind of environment. This research aims to investigate to what extent pesantrens support the development of digital literacy for their students, as indicated by the availability of digital learning resources, such as digital facilities, digital accessibility, and digital competences. This is built upon Luckin’s learner-centric ecology of resources model, which illustrates learning as an interaction between learner and the surrounding environment. Furthermore, this research also aims to distinguish different behaviour between pesantrens based on types and educational level. This study was carried out through survey method and questionnaire was developed to collect the data. Fifty teachers from different pesantrens across the country were involved as the participants, who were asked about digital literacy situations within the schools. The data indicated that pesantrens had accommodated students with digital facility in moderate level and incorporated digital competences into their teachings. However, digital accessibility in pesantrens was still limited. The data also illustrates different patterns in pesantrens based on type and level of education, where certain types and levels apply a more restrictive policy than others.

This study concluded that pesantrens had done the filtration process of their learning resources of digital literacy. Apart from pedagogical motive, this filtration was mainly driven by sociocultural factor, as they draw a huge concern on negative contents on the internet. Notably, with this limitation, students had a little opportunity to develop their digital literacy. Thus, it is crucial for pesantrens to review their policy to foster their students’ digital literacy.

This dissertation explores the development and efficacy of a novel framework aimed at enhancing and promoting responsible student interaction with AI-based tools, specifically focusing on ChatGPT. Guided by the components of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study seeks to optimise user experience while using the framework, addressing usability and user satisfaction. Employing a mixedmethod approach that integrates both qualitative and quantitative data collection, the study analyses the framework's role in facilitating effective interactions with ChatGPT. Participants' experiences using the framework are analysed through survey responses, while their interactions with ChatGPT are qualitatively examined for a nuanced comprehension of the framework's impact. The findings reveal a positive impact of the framework on optimising interactions with ChatGPT. Additionally, they highlight pain points and areas of success. Qualitative insights point out the role of language in shaping these interactions with ChatGPT, independent of the framework's application. Notably, this study identifies factors that enhance interactions with ChatGPT with the help of the framework, offering valuable insights for refining future iterations of the framework.

This study has implications for the use of AI in education, offering insights into the role of guidelines to enable an effective and responsible use of AI.

The notion of achieving the quality education as in the Sustainable Development Goals number 4 is within the next seven years. In Indonesia, similar aim has been postulated in the past two decades, however the effort to achieve it is still unseen in the near future. Quality education in the perspective of this project refers to an equal access to education for all children to help them be whatever they want to become. With that, this narrative review dissertation is aiming to establish 4Ex Learning Framework, a transformative learning framework, that will help middle schools in Indonesia enabling an interest-driven learning. To guide the study of this project, two research questions are fruited from the aim: 1) what are the elements of the learning framework? and 2) how can digital technologies support this learning framework? The advantageous features of formal and informal education practices are merged together in order to produce a new education practice which serves as the principle of the learning framework. As the result of this study, 4Ex Learning Framework is designed to have four elements namely, exposure, exploration, experience, and expertise. The role of digital technologies in this learning framework is significant, as in each element of the framework there is always digital technologies being in used. Since the main target of this learning framework is to help students, schools are encouraged to eliminate the competitive mindset, instead start to build connection and partnerships; with other schools, communities, universities, and industries.

The learning framework established here will be able to transform education practice and deliver a quality education for all whilst also promoting the lifelong learning opportunities.

This study explored the relationship between interactions and perceived learning outcomes (PLO) among DTCE students from University of Manchester in online learning. Perspectives on both direct and vicarious learner-learner interaction (LLI) and direct and vicarious learner-instructor interaction (LII) were collected from 55 participants through an electronic questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were employed to interpret the survey data. The research findings indicated that participants showed a slightly greater inclination towards LII compared to LLI. When interaction was categorized into direct LLI, vicarious LLI, direct LII, and vicarious LII, participants exhibited a slightly higher tendency towards both vicarious LLI and vicarious LII compared to direct interactions (DI). Both LLI and LII, as well as vicarious interaction (VI), exhibited significantly strong and positive correlations with PLO. Furthermore, DI displayed a moderate positive correlation. The results of the regression analysis indicated that LLI, DI, and VI could be used to predict the levels of PLO. The results of the study proved that the exploration between interactions and PLO was meaningful and that participants did benefit from interactive behaviors. The innovation of this study lies in considering the potential relationship between vicarious interaction and PLO, providing a foundation for future related research, and identifying the limitations of existing frameworks.

The innovation of this study lies in considering the potential relationship between vicarious interaction and PLO, providing a foundation for future related research, and identifying the limitations of existing frameworks.

In the tech start-up industry, learning in the workplace is imperative for the workforce to remain relevant and adaptable to change for the business to succeed. While workplace learning (WPL) generally consists of formal learning using digital platforms and informal learning through communities of practice, most workplace learning analytics (WPLA) solutions do not reflect the holistic learning journey of the individual. There have been different studies about Workplace Learning and Learning Analytics. However, there are few works of literature on which both topics intersect, and even fewer considering the perspective of stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to explore an effective workplace learning analytics solution from the perspective of Learning and Development (L&D) Professionals and Learners presenting the perspective of ‘two sides of the same coin’ related to WPL. Employing qualitative research methods, such as email questionnaires and focus group interviews, this study found that there is a need to align individual growth with organisational goals within WPL. It advocates for an expanded scope of metrics incorporating qualitative insights and behavioural shifts beyond the conventional focus on quantitative data. This study proposes a WPLA framework that integrates micro-meso and macro-level analytics to provide a comprehensive view of the organisation’s overall learning program and the quality of the individual’s learning experience. In addition to the current quantitative data sets, WPLA should include data from dialogues between managers and team members as well as self and peer evaluation of skills. With the introduction of large sets of qualitative data, there is the potential of using Artificial Intelligence, in particular, Large Language Models, to support the analysis. Considering the complexity of the WPL process, the collaborative effort among learners and various stakeholders to collect relevant learning data is also crucial for WPLA to be effective.

This research offers transformative insights into the workplace learning landscape, paving the way for future research and impactful Learning & Development practices.

This study was done as current national educational policy regarding moral development is limited in guidance regarding how schools could support moral development, therefore this study aimed to explore the relationship between adolescents’ perception of their school’s moral atmosphere and how important they personally think showing moral behaviours is. This study seeks to contribute to wider academic discussions surrounding moral education by providing empirical data regarding adolescents’ perception of their school’s indirect moral messaging. The target population for the study were older adolescents, aged 16-18 years old. This age group were selected due to this group being able to reflect on their full time at secondary school, and also due to adolescence being identified as an important period for the emergence of moral identity. 12 participants took part in an online survey with 51 questions. These questions asked them to rate on a 5-point scale, where 1=Strongly Disagree and 5= Strongly Agree, how much they agreed with statements about their approach to different situations and also about their perceptions of their school. Participants were recruited through social media groups on Facebook and via the social media application TikTok. Participants were also recruited via initial participants distributing the survey to other people within the target population. This study found that there was no significant relationship between rating of school moral atmosphere and moral identity. The data showed a moderate negative relationship between perception of social relations within school and moral integrity. These findings indicate that adolescents who rate the social relations within their secondary school lower are expected to have higher moral integrity scores. This goes against previous research that found a positive relationship between similar variables of moral competency and social relationships. However, it should be considered that the participants in this study all experienced significant disruption to their learning during the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This may have affected to their rating of their school moral atmosphere, as they may have had brief periods of online learning along with less consistent access to their regular physical school environments. Replications of this study could adopt a mixed methods approach, with the use of the two measures in this study and also interviewing participants to explore how they perceive their school moral atmosphere in the aftermath of the peak of the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic.

I think teachers and adolescents would benefit from this research. As discussed in the literature review, there is a lot of freedom, but also lack of clarity regarding best practises for provision for moral development within schools. From the findings of this study, I would highlight one key point for educators to consider within their classrooms and wider school. The findings of this study suggests that adolescents’ perception of social relations and sense of community within the school decreases if they place a higher value on acting in a way that is consistent with their personal moral values. This may indicate that adolescents’ feel that their personal moral values may not align with the moral atmosphere promoted by their school as an institution and as a community. Educators could adopt aspects of the Just Community approach to engage with their older pupils to discuss their moral values and what has contributed to these values being internalised. This may be achieved within classrooms through supported moral discussions between pupils and between pupils and teachers (Boheim et al., 2021), and also within the wider school environment through allowing pupils to help shape school ethos’ and behaviour codes. For adolescents, this study is impactful through acknowledging the value of their perspectives on their school environment. The School Moral Atmosphere Questionnaire emphasises that adolescents are engaged and important social actors within their school environment, therefore their perspectives are valuable to consider when considering non-academic educational policy that aims to support their personal development. Additionally, the findings could be interpreted as schools not having an impact on adolescents’ moral development. Further research using qualitative methods could provide an insight into what institutions or aspects of society adolescents feel contribute to their moral development, which then could be reflected in changes to current guidance for moral development provision in schools and wider socio-political discussion regarding adolescents and their morality.

Since the Enlightenment, the notion of scientific rationality and abstraction has been closely associated with the male gender more so than the female. Mathematics is seen as a subject that deals with the abstract using rational logical methods of inquiry. Transitively, then in mathematics has become known as a subject more suited for males to pursue as a career. Societal stereotypes and narratives in a patriarchal society have propagated this association throughout history through the use of binary oppositions that privilege the personality traits commonly associated with the male gender. What effect, therefore, has this had on female pupils studying mathematics? This research explores the influences on the self-perceptions of mathematical ability of high attaining female pupils during their GCSE years of study. In my professional life as a teacher and through news reports on every GCSE results day, we find that female pupils are just as good as, if not better than, male pupils in GCSE subjects. However, when we look at a level participation, we find that a notable majority of mathematics students are males. What is happening to those high attaining girls so that they do well in GCSE mathematics, but decide not to pursue mathematics at A Level? As well as analysing and explaining how self-perceptions affect mathematical aspirations, we will also compare female self-perceptions with male self-perceptions of mathematical ability. This will allow us to evaluate the extent to which this dualistic opposition thinking from the Enlightenment still permeates contemporary societal thinking about mathematics attainment and aspirations. This research aims to answer two research questions: 1.     How do high attaining female pupils perceive their own mathematical ability and aspirations? 2.     What is the difference between self-perceptions of mathematical ability and aspirations in high attaining male and female pupils? Through the use of pupil questionnaires and pupil focus groups, the notion of gender socialisation, intersecting with GCSE mathematics lessons is analysed. How the different gender groups view this socialisation and the influence on their mathematical aspirations (or lack thereof) were evaluated to conclude whether archaic gender stereotypes about mathematics as being a ‘male subject’ is still affecting high attaining students.

The community I have chosen for my Dissemination of Impact presentation is the mathematics department at my school of employment. The reason I have chosen them is because my research is an exploration into the self perceptions of some of our pupils. Recent narratives in education have focused on white, working class boys or engage low attainers, however, as my research has shown, high attaining girls also need focusing on. The purpose of my research was to find out about the self perceptions of my high attaining class and why it was that they were not choosing to do A level maths in college. This was a problem, not just in my high attaining classes, but others too (as shown by the pupil questionnaires I conducted). Therefore, my findings and recommendations are extremely relev ant to

my mathematics colleagues in school, as they can then use my research to inform their own practice. By using the recommendations, and reflecting on the ideas that I have discussed, they can better their own teaching so that they can become a more feminist teacher. The effect of this should be that narratives in our school that exclude girls, or treat maths as a subject for boys, will be eradicated. Hence, high attaining girls have a more positive self perception of mathematical ability and feel empowered to take maths at A level if they so wish. If the department wish to implement my recommendations and use the issues I have raised to further reflect on our teaching practice and the way we talk about mathematics, then the effect should be a more inclusive classroom, where female (high attaining) pupils feel more open to the possibility of continuing with mathematics study post GCSE.

A great number of Chinese students continue to speak mute English and struggle to write in English after learning this language for many years. The reasons for the poor productive skills are suggested to be related to insufficient practice in the classroom and limited opportunities to use them in everyday life. Research has shown FC may be able to improve students’ language skills by increasing their engagement with learning both in and outside of the classroom. This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of FC in enhancing student engagement and their attitudes towards this mode of learning in IELTS speaking and writing classes in the Chinese higher education context. A mixed research method including observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews was utilised to obtain data from the teacher’s and students’ perspectives. After triangulating the data obtained from observing 15 students and their responses from 13 questionnaires and 11 semi-structured interviews in both the IELTS speaking and writing classes, the findings of this research show FC can enhance student emotional and social engagement, and students perceive positive attitudes towards this mode of learning. But more research is needed to further understand whether FC can enhance student behaviour and cognitive engagement.

The results indicate FC is able to enhance student learning time outside of the classroom; the time for group work, class discussions, practice, and feedback in class is also increased, which is likely to enhance learning effects.