Sharing Student Projects

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.

In education, literature suggest that strong relationships between teachers and pupils are seen as essential for academic progress. However, often the way in which these relationships are formed or the power dynamic of these relationships are ignored. As long as academic success is achieved, the goal has been reached. Often, pupil perceptions or experiences are used as a surveillance and check box tool disguised as pupil voice, rather than listened to. Yet, it is these pupils who schools and teachers have the purpose to serve. This paper aims to fill a gap in the discourse, identifying the issues surrounding relationships between Pakistani and Bengali pupils and White British teachers, from the perception of the pupil. Through the use of a case-study approach, by using a focus group interview of 7 Pakistani and Bengali pupils at a Northern English Academy, this study listens to the voices of the pupils to understand their perceptions of their experiences and how their perceptions effect relationships with White British teachers. The study found that pupils defined the strength of their relationships with their teachers based on how the time with the teacher was spent and when the time was given. Pupils felt that teachers who did not have strong knowledge about their heritage or religion often made stereotypes and assumptions about them, leading to weakened teacher pupil relationships. As well as this, the findings suggested that pupils felt confused by their identity and the lack of teacher knowledge further fuelled insecure feelings.

Visual depiction of impact is provided:

The project looks at the collaborative planning and evaluation of a journalistic writing unit for secondary English student where a group were working towards a shared goal, it will be something all teachers will be able to utilise and hopefully it will have future impacts for teaching and learning going forward. Additionally, I am hoping it solves the issue of teachers being unclear or confused on what is expected of them when a completely new scheme of work is expected to be delivered by them when they have had no input in the planning. My research questions were developed after the completion of my literature review as a lot of my academic research pointed to the fact that using pupil voice aids student performance and engagement. Does collaborative planning lead to a more successful implementation of a scheme of work?  What are the recommendations with regards to using collaboration to improve curriculum planning in schools? Does involving pupil voice in a scheme of work lead to higher engagement and academic achievement? A summary of the findings is as follows: Collaborative planning is integral to ensuring consistency across the teaching of a scheme of work. All future schemes of work should involve an initial meeting with all teachers to outline what should be included and what needs to be assessed. Planning of a scheme of work should fall on one teacher to ensure fluidity and consistency with the scheme and subsequent PowerPoint presentation. The teacher who conducted the planning must be given time during departmental meetings, prior to the scheme being launched, to discuss the scheme, make any final adjustments and clear any misconceptions from other teachers. Following the teaching of a scheme all teachers must provide honest feedback and recommendations for improvements.

Collaborative planning is integral to ensuring consistency across the teaching of a scheme of work. All future schemes of work should involve an initial meeting with all teachers to outline what should be included and what needs to be assessed. Planning of a scheme of work should fall on one teacher to ensure fluidity and consistency with the scheme and subsequent PowerPoint presentation. The teacher who conducted the planning must be given time during departmental meetings, prior to the scheme being launched, to discuss the scheme, make any final adjustments and clear any misconceptions from other teachers. Following the teaching of a scheme all teachers must provide honest feedback and recommendations for improvements.

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.

How knowledge is constructed, who decides what is taught, and when and how it is measured have long governed discussions around educational policy. Yet, dialogue around how our ‘knowledge-rich’ national curriculum sits within its contemporary, cultural context is far quieter. This dissertation reports on an inquiry into activating knowledge during maths lessons in a Year 1 setting in Greater Manchester. It explores themes of knowledge and power, place-based education and how these work in relation to activating knowledge. Qualitative data gleaned from student voice indicates that students are building their knowledge of maths far wider than school, revealing a plethora of ‘hidden’ adults and places. This makes the case for teachers building their awareness of students’ contexts and how these intersect with learning opportunities, especially in early education and especially where their socio-demographics differ to those of the school. Furthermore, this study found that one government-endorsed maths scheme does not match some research recommendations for how prior knowledge is most effectively activated through structural as opposed to surface tasks. This indicates that school bought schemes and subscriptions should not be blindly accepted, rather, subject to teacher discretion and adaption for student need. Finally, this project indicates that leading models of cognitive architecture and activation of knowledge, upon which policy is in at least part predicated, don’t yet adequately capture the idiosyncrasies and fluidity of knowledge in ways that can be monitored and used effectively in a classroom of Year 1 students. As these models form part of the dominant discourse of learning, there can only be benefit in apportioning space for teachers to learn more about the origins of ideas, the contexts in which they are used and their underlying ambiguities.

Visual depiction of impact is provided:

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.

This dissertation explores students' and teachers' perceptions of technology's role in the secondary mathematics classroom. The research used a case study approach to focus on individuals’ views and experiences of using technology to support learning in the case school, where heavy emphasis was placed on using technology in classes. The study aimed to contribute rich, small-sample contextual data to existing research and build on existing research conclusions in the field of education technology. The research demonstrated how students and teachers both aspired to use the technology to access and provide, respectively, more direct and personalised learning than traditional methods would allow. Technology was used in the case school by teachers to leverage students’ engagement and motivation, while both parties leveraged aspects of the technology to improve the accessibility of learning. Students used technology to gain more autonomy and independence. Key barriers and limitations were the high demands on infrastructure to support the technology, friction with the traditional classroom, and the prevalence of off-task student behaviour. The study concluded that to realise the perceived benefits of the technology used in the case school, there must be thorough and precise training in the technology for both teachers and students, an explicit understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of technology that could be leveraged when planning programs of learning, and robust infrastructure.

I disseminated my findings and recommendations to SLT at the case school. This is because these individuals have the capability to enact the recommendations, should they be persuaded. They also do not necessarily have daily first-hand experiences or oversight of how technology is being used around the school, due to the high-autonomy norms of the school and could benefit from the insight given by this research. I had met with some key members of the leadership them – the head teacher, the head of secondary, and the head of maths – before embarking on my project, to discuss and be transparent about my research as I would be using school time and access in part to complete it.At this time, they expressed interest in project and I would like to show my appreciation by involving them in this final stage. SLT has a need to plan effectively with knowledge of how technology is being used in the school. SLT is responsible for planning continuous improvement by making key decisions about the curriculum, staff development and resourcing. In my research, I provide SLT with this insight and knowledge. I also make recommendations, based on the findings, about how this planning and decision-making could be most effective. I have generated knowledge on how to improve the effectiveness of technology in the case school, by drawing upon the experiences and perceptions of individuals in the case school who interact with it daily. I have provided SLT with information about how technology is currently being used and perceived in the school, the potential for its development and how we might begin to bridge this gap. The knowledge will impact this audience by giving them the means to recognise and work towards achieving the potential of technology in the case school. The audience here is in a unique position to achieve this due to the school’s existing priority focus and heavy resourcing for technology. SLT can recognise the impact of my study by enacting the recommendations I set out: initially by acknowledging the findings of the study in determining the value and best use of technology, and then by following the further recommendations on how to realise this in context.

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.

The consensus that CPD is key to school reform means that it is necessary to investigate teacher experiences of and attitudes towards CPD. The definition of CPD is contested in the field, and there are debates as to whether it should be evidence-based, internal or external to the school, time-rich or time-poor, and if it really improves student outcomes. Despite these conflicts, research reveals that teachers of all career stages are rarely asked about their views on CPD even though they are the participants of it. Therefore, this thesis presents the findings of a pilot case study (undertaken within approximately 7 months by a researcher-practitioner in a North-West England academy) of 8 purposively sampled participants which assesses how teachers of all career stages feel towards the CPD they experience as part of their professional work. After thematically analysing data generated generating through questionnaires and interview, the study reveals that teachers have varying, inconsistent CPD experiences. Nonetheless, teachers view CPD as a vital tool to improve as a professional and their desire for good CPD rarely wavers across career stages. Teachers admit to external influences like time and psychological pressures impacting their attitudes towards CPD, but still viewed CPD as something which can, and should, benefit them. Teachers seemed to value colleague-to-colleague support above all else – even their strong desire for CPD that helps them achieve day-to-day tasks. This suggests that all teachers should have a mentor/coach style support, allowing colleagues to support and challenge each other to create the best CPD. The disparities between teachers at different career stages also revealed that CPD should be monitored across one’s career, allowing it to shift to cater to individual, ever-changing needs. Ultimately, the study reveals that to become the best practitioners, teachers need bespoke CPD that caters to individual needs.

Visual depiction of impact is provided:

Social media is widely used and has many educational advantages in various types of organisations, including higher education institutions, and is considered a platform for university students to collaborate and perceive digital social support. The LRB is a widely used platform in China that receives little attention from the education sector. Little is known about which types of students use LRB for collaboration, how they collaborate, and how different modes of collaboration influence their views of digital social support. By creating structural equation modelling (SEM), this thesis uses a quantitative research approach to analyse the relationship between variables. I found three ways in which students collaborate in LRB using questionnaire data from 199 university students in China: information seeking, information sharing, and information co-creation. Students' characteristics, such as self-efficacy and interest, were positively correlated with the three types of collaboration, with higher self-efficacy being more willing to participate in co-creation and higher interest in learning being more willing to share information. In addition to information sharing, the other two types of collaboration were positively connected with students' perceived digital support.

These study's findings encourage future study by demonstrating that learning through social media promotes student collaboration and access to social support, and hence, the use of social media in education deserves additional attention and research.

Speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) include difficulties related to all aspects of communication including fluency, forming sounds and words, formulating sentences, understanding others, and using language socially (Bercow et al., 2008). SLCN is estimated to affect 10% of children and young people (Bercow, 2018). Children with SLCN are more likely to present challenging behaviours than peers with typical language development (Yew & O’Kearney, 2013). Yet, SLCN may not be recognised in children and adolescents presenting challenging behaviour (Hollo et al., 2014). Previously undiagnosed SLCN is widespread amongst young offenders (Snow et al., 2015). As teachers manage behaviour daily, they need to be aware of factors that affect behaviour. However, only one study had considered if teachers believe SLCN may affect behaviour, and this took place in the US with preschool teachers (Nungesser & Watkins, 2005). In the UK, secondary school pupils are ten times more likely than primary pupils to be permanently excluded (Gov.uk, 2020). Therefore, this project focused on what secondary mainstream teachers perceive to be the causes of challenging behaviour and their awareness of the link between challenging behaviours and SLCN. Seven current mainstream secondary teachers and one secondary special needs teacher, who had previously worked in mainstream, were interviewed through Zoom. They were recruited to the study through social media rather than through schools to encourage them to speak freely about the topic. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed to look for patterns. Four themes were constructed: impact of home and local area; the indirect role of education systems on behaviour; role models and relationships; and the links between SLCN and social-emotional development. The impact of the home environment on behaviour is consistent with previous research (Wang & Hall, 2018). Similarly, the importance of the student-teacher relationship in behaviour has been previously discussed (Stanforth & Rose, 2020). Generally, teachers have been found not to consider school-based factors to affect behaviour (Wang & Hall, 2018), which was not the case in this project. Teachers believed the curriculum and ability grouping affected self-esteem and behaviour. As this was the first study to consider secondary teachers’ perceptions on SLCN and behaviour, the link that teachers made between SLCN and social-emotional development was a new finding. Teachers in this study showed limited explicit awareness of SLCN. However, they discussed relevant factors such as how pupils struggled to discuss feelings, how teachers used simple questions to help students explain incidents, and how students’ behaviour may show that they are unhappy or finding school-work difficult. This study supports the recommendation that more training on SLCN is needed for education professionals (Bercow, 2018) but would add that the link to challenging behaviour must also be shared. An increased presence of speech and language therapists in secondary schools is also recommended to help schools recognise SLCN and provide additional support for those displaying challenging behaviours.

School leadership could use this dissertation to improve the professional development they offer staff, ensuring awareness of the link between SLCN and behaviour. With increased awareness that SLCN may accompany challenging behaviours, schools and teachers are more likely to arrange for assessments from SLTs and implement SALT programmes. SALT has been reported to improve confidence, communication, and behaviour in YOs (Snow et al., 2018) and similar outcomes could be expected for school students. As challenging behaviours can cause disruptions in learning for peers (Gregg, 2017), SALT could improve outcomes not just for students displaying behaviours but also for others in the class. The findings of this study could be used by universities to improve their teacher training by including content on SLCN and behaviour. Understanding students’ additional needs has been found to impact how teachers appraise behaviour (Hart & DiPerna, 2017) and teachers with less experience have been found to be more likely to engage in exclusionary practices (Stanforth & Rose, 2020). Thus, including SLCN in teacher training may support inclusionary practices amongst teachers who are new to the profession. Finally, the findings of this dissertation may empower parents to seek more support and assessment from schools if their children are displaying challenging behaviour. If parents are more aware of factors that may cause challenging behaviour, they can push for schools to provide the correct assessments and support. This would subsequently improve the wellbeing of students displaying challenging behaviour.

This study examines secondary school teachers' beliefs and perspectives on data-trace ethics when integrating apps into their classroom teaching routines. The literature review revealed that the digitalisation of education has accelerated the extraction and manipulation of children's data. While educators and schools adopt new technologies, they often fail to understand EdTech's ability to extract data and related ethical implications. This knowledge gap influences their ethical adoption of technology. The research is foregrounded in the UNCRC framework, recognising the unique and universal rights of vulnerable children that teachers must protect. The research employed in-depth semi-structured interviews and a focus group with 6 secondary school teachers. The interviews focused on classroom technology use, educators' beliefs on data-trace ethics, and how these beliefs influenced their practices. The findings revealed that the educators' reasons for adopting apps aligned with established technology adoption models. Educators held mildly negative views on data extraction by firms and displayed limited awareness of the data types extracted. They showed diminished personal responsibility regarding data-trace ethics, relying on institutional accountability and showing implicit trust in institutionally imposed technologies. Feelings of futility were prominent, stemming from perceptions of the overwhelming scale of the data being extracted by commercial firms and due to perceptions of the school and children's practices regarding data privacy. The study supported conclusions from previous research concerning educators' limited awareness of data extraction's consequences.

The study's findings highlight the urgent need for educators to understand data extraction techniques and institutions' roles in supporting this. The 'iceberg' model developed in this study offers a potential scaffold for this understanding. Concerns are raised in this research regarding observed apathy to online privacy, and further research exploring this is proposed. Other recommendations include exploring school leaders' perspectives and continuing to explore educator perspectives across more diverse settings.