Children researching links between poverty and literacy

Two groups of six children (aged eleven) in two UK primary schools – one in an area of socio-economic advantage and one in an area of socio-economic disadvantage – were trained in research methods. They were supported to undertake their own research projects about aspects of literacy, which they identified themselves. Areas explored include: - homework experiences - learning environments and - how confidence affects literacy. These research studies provide rich descriptions of children’s own literacy experiences, generating data that is not easily accessible to adults. The absence of power relations in the data collection by having child researchers means that the responses are untainted by efforts to ‘please the adult’. This report will be of interest to teachers, educationalists, government bodies, policy maker

An investigation of holiday club provision: impact on children's educational attainment, nutritional intake and wider family benefits

The aim of the current thesis was to investigate the potential benefits, uses, and impact of holiday club provision with food on disadvantaged children’s nutritional intake, educational attainment and the social well-being of attendees and their parents and carers. A sequential mixed methods research design was adopted for this thesis. An initial qualitative study informed the development of hypothesis and variables to be used in two subsequent quantitative phases of data collection. Study 1 was a qualitative investigation of the views of key stakeholders regarding holiday club provision, the findings of which are described and interpreted using the socio-ecological model of health. Study 1 found that organisations were motivated by concerns that children may be at risk of holiday hunger due to changes in UK Government policy relating to welfare and benefit reform. However, Study 1 found that the benefits of holiday club provision extended beyond just providing access to food. Benefits were demonstrated at an organisational, community, interpersonal and individual level in multiple ways. It was considered that the UK Government needed to be made aware of the issue of holiday hunger, the need for holiday clubs to address this need but that lack of appropriate funding hindered provision. Study 2 provides a detailed analysis of the effect of holiday club attendance on children’s nutritional intake. Data on the nutritional intake of N = 21 children aged 3-11 years was recorded in a retrospective food diary, covering a 26 hour period, including lunch the day before they attended holiday club, up to and including lunch on the day they attended holiday club. The results showed that holiday clubs may have a positive effect on the type of food children eat for lunch. Overall however, there was no effect of attendance on the amount of energy or macronutrient content of the lunches children ate and the majority of children did not eat enough food at lunch time on a day they did not attend and a day they attended holiday club. This suggests that clubs need advice and guidance on food to be provided in holiday club settings. Furthermore, on a day children did not attend holiday club, the majority children did not meet recommended intake 5 levels for fruit, vegetables, water or sugar sweetened beverages but what they did eat and drink reflected UK children’s intake as reported in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). Studies 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d provide a quantitative investigation of the effect of a six or seven week summer holiday on children’s educational achievements in spelling, word reading and maths computation and the effect of holiday club attendance on children’s performance in these domains. Participants were aged 5-11 years of age and lived and attended primary schools in areas of high deprivation in Scotland and the North East of England. Results suggested that a stagnation in learning occurred across the summer holiday in each of the domains investigated and that attendance at holiday club had no effect on educational achievement. The studies presented in this thesis are timely and offer useful insight for practitioners and policy makers involved in the development and delivery of holiday clubs. However, they also highlight key areas for consideration in future research on holiday club provision for disadvantaged children

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Social inclusion and higher education

This book is about the experiences of students in institutions of higher education from 'non-traditional' backgrounds with contributions from the UK, the USA and Australia which reveal that the issues surrounding the inclusion of 'non-traditional' students are broadly similar in different countries

A paradox in action? A critical analysis of an appreciative inquiry

A journey comprised of three paths is the metaphor through which I i) reflect and report on my involvement with four New Zealand primary school Boards of Trustees (BOTs) investigating the emancipatory potential that applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) may have on their governance processes, ii) analyse appreciative inquiry through application(s) of critical theory, with specific reference to the investigation above so as to deepen understanding of the research method, and iii) reflect on my personal development, as achieved through my engagement with participants and the research process. Stemming from an interest in improving school governance I was keen to identify current use of ICTs by BOTs and to work with them to identify potential applications. Appreciative inquiry with its focus on enhancing existing positive organisational attributes seemed to provide an appropriate structure for my investigation. At the back of my mind however, a concern was formulating: Does this method of research deliver the benefits the literature espouses? What influence would the positive orientation have on the research process and on the power dynamics within the research environment? Complementary streams of critical thinking and reflexivity were invoked to assist my analysis. Applications of ICTs which may appear 'helpful' to BOT governance processes are identified in this report. However, uncritical uptake of these applications may not necessarily be consistent with the emancipatory intentions I aspire to. Framed within Habermas' theory of communicative action, the potential colonisation of the BOT lifeworld by the system is considered. Domesticating influences may potentially constrain democratic processes at local school and societal levels. The participatory action research process undertaken facilitated a deepened understanding of governance for all involved. Identification of time and funding constraints indicates BOTs may be prevented from reaching their true potential. Attempts to enhance governance through additional applications of ICTs will be of minimal effect unless efforts are made to better understand and resource the governance efforts of Trustees. Purported empowerment of the community as mandated in the Education Act 1989 comes with a heavy cost, for schools and individuals. Care must be taken to ensure that 'efficiency' gains are not made at the expense of democratic processes. Critical analysis of appreciative inquiry as a research method highlights the influences of power and language use within the research process. Appreciative inquiry should be seen as a process for, rather than a master of change. The contribution of appreciative inquiry to organisational and personal transformation may be drawn from the ontological basis of the approach rather than from the technicalities of a specific form of implementation. I suggest the focus on what is 'good' be made more complex, to recognise that appreciation may also mean 'to know, to be conscious of, to take full and sufficient account of'. Application of an enhanced definition of appreciation has deepened my understanding of not only the situation under investigation but also the research process itself. Through my enhanced concept of 'appreciation' embedded and sometimes obscured influences were highlighted, better understood, and at times transformed to serve the emancipatory aspirations of participants. In keeping with the reflexivity mandated by my commitment to critical theory and action research, I applied this enhanced definition of appreciation to my personal development during my engagement with participants and the research process. My struggles to apply my chosen social constructionist and critical theory lenses to this work are evident in my attempts to work with the largely functionalist literature in this field and the influence of my undergraduate education. Recognising the theoretical and personal developments I gained as I travelled the three paths of my PhD journey, the scene is now set for me to challenge the predominance of functionalist, mechanistic metaphors which dominate organisational literature. In doing so, I seek an alternative approach to understanding organisational activity; and a new vocabulary through which I might extend my understanding, and negotiate new and emancipatory meaning(s) with others

TIMSS 2015: Reporting Australia’s results

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study of student achievement directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS 2015 represents the sixth such study since TIMSS was first conducted in 1995. Forty-nine education systems were tested at Year 4 level and 39 tested at Year 8 level. In Australia, TIMSS is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the state and territory governments. The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries in order to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. TIMSS is designed, broadly, to align with the mathematics and science curricula used in the participating education systems and countries, and focuses on assessment at Year 4 and Year 8. A further dimension of TIMSS is its provision of comparative perspectives on trends in achievement in the contexts of different education systems, school organisational approaches and instructional practices; and in order to present this material, TIMSS collects a rich array of background data from students, schools and teachers, and also collects data about the education systems themselves. This report analyses and interprets the Australian data collected as part of the TIMSS study. Where appropriate, this report makes comparisons with the results of other countries and with the international average to better understand Australian achievement and its context

Design in the Age of Information: A Report to the National Science Foundation (NSF)

The Information Age is upon us - it has become a global force in our everyday lives. But the promise of significant benefits from this revolution, which has been driven largely by technologists, will not be realized without more careful planning and design of information systems that can be integral to the simultaneously emerging user-cultures. In cultural terms, information systems must be effective, reliable, affordable, intuitively meaningful, and available anytime and everywhere. In this phase of the information revolution, design will be essential