An investigation into: what are the factors that teachers in four primary academy coastal schools in South-East England identified as influential in the development of their respective school's curriculum

The aim of this research was to explore the process of how four primary academy coastal schools in South-East England reviewed their curricula following the implementation of the National Curriculum (2013) for England. The respective sample schools did not have to adopt the National Curriculum (2013) because of their academy status (DfE, 2013). However, in the process of their curriculum review and subsequent curriculum development, they had to ensure that their core curriculum aligned with the government’s increased expectations of pupils’ knowledge by the end of Key Stage 1 and 2 as set out in the National Curriculum (2013). This qualitative research was conducted using an interpretivist paradigm. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with four class teachers (participants). Each teacher had responsibility for subject leadership in their respective primary academy coastal school. The data (gathered from participant interviews) shows three key findings relating to teachers’ perceptions of factors that would influence the curriculum development process and, as such, impact the quality of the developed curriculum in the four primary academy coastal schools. The first key finding that emerged from teachers’ perceptions in all four primary academy coastal schools was that the school’s context/profile influenced their curriculum development process. This factor would need to be taken into account if their school’s curriculum was to provide pupils with the learning opportunities and experiences, they would need in order to prepare them for the next phase of education and life in general. The second key finding that emerged from this research was that teachers identified both internal and external factors beyond the school’s context/profile that influenced the curriculum development process in their schools. This determined their approach and influenced their thinking throughout the curriculum development process. They also highlighted the need for teacher training in curriculum development. The third key finding that emerged from teachers’ perception of the factors that influence curriculum development in their schools, was the importance of school leaders affording teachers’ autonomy in the process. Due to the autonomy given to academies in the development of their school’s curriculum, teachers are becoming increasingly pivotal to its success. This research has made a substantial contribution to the limited body of knowledge in existence about the process of curriculum development in primary academy coastal schools. It has provided valuable information about curriculum development and has shed light on an under-researched element of an ever-changing educational landscape

THE FAIRNESS PROJECT: DOING WHAT WE CAN, WHERE WE ARE

The legal profession, in common with other professions, does not represent the diverse society it serves. In England and Wales, it is significantly more difficult to become a lawyer if you are not white, male, middle class, privately and Oxbridge educated: this is also true for other protected characteristics, such as disability, sexual orientation and age. The students we teach are fundamentally and structurally disadvantaged. This article reports on the aims and objectives of The Fairness Project, and the consequent design of its learning materials. Structural inequalities are all- pervasive and long-standing. No one project, no one generation, will secure equality, more diversity and fairness in the legal profession. But that is not a reason to do nothing. As educators and as human beings, who ourselves are relatively advantaged, we have a moral and pedagogical imperative to do what we can, where we are. That is what The Fairness Project is all about

Catching up: What are the Critical Factors for success?

This paper addresses one of the oldest and most controversial issues in economics: Why do some countries succeed in catching up, while others fall behind? In recent years the quality and availability of data on different aspects of development have improved a lot. Attempting to exploit this opportunity for more in-depth research the paper starts with an overview and assessment of the different approaches in the literature and the empirical indicators and methods that these have given rise to. This leads to the formulation of a synthetic empirical model and, with the help of factor analysis on large variable set, to the identification of set of “capabilities” which might be assumed to be of critical importance for catch up. The explanatory power of these capabilities for economic growth is tested on a sample of 135 countries in the 1990s.

Hypotheses that attribute false beliefs: A two‐part epistemology

Is there some general reason to expect organisms that have beliefs to have false beliefs? And after you observe that an organism occasionally occupies a given neural state that you think encodes a perceptual belief, how do you evaluate hypotheses about the semantic content that that state has, where some of those hypotheses attribute beliefs that are sometimes false while others attribute beliefs that are always true? To address the first of these questions, we discuss evolution by natural selection and show how organisms that are risk-prone in the beliefs they form can be fitter than organisms that are risk-free. To address the second question, we discuss a problem that is widely recognized in statistics – the problem of over-fitting – and one influential device for addressing that problem, the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). We then use AIC to solve epistemological versions of the disjunction and distality problems, which are two key problems concerning what it is for a belief state to have one semantic content rather than another

What Are the Effects of Anxiety?

In this paper, we aimed to discover the compilation of effects that anxiety has on different elements of life, so that we could better understand how to cope with its influence. Previous research has predicted how sexual trauma, academic performance, and codependency are all impacted by anxiety. In our first (correlational) study, we tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a period of one week. We measured sexual trauma with a traumatic rumination scale, academic performance by using an academic performance scale, codependency by using three codependency scales, and Anxiety with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). Based on the strength of correlation found between anxiety and codependency in our correlational study, we then conducted a second (experimental) study to test for a causal relationship between these two variables. Over a period of one week, we randomly assigned participants each day to either do a guided meditation or scroll through social media. Using a single-blind procedure, we then measured the effect this manipulation had upon codependency. Data pooled across participants in our correlational study showed significant correlations of anxiety with academic performance and codependency, but not with sexual trauma. Data pooled across participants in our experimental study failed to establish a causal role of anxiety on codependency. Our experimental study showed only one significant relationship which occurred in the opposite direction that we predicted (see Table 2). The findings from our study revealed that was no large impact of anxiety on codependency. However, considering the significance of the results from our correlational study it could be suggested that the real-world implications of this research may highlight a relationship between anxiety and reduced functionality - predictive qualities for people with anxiety.Supervising Instructor & Course Number: Michael Pollock, Psyc 110 (“Experimental Psychology”

Philosophy and the practice of Bayesian statistics

A substantial school in the philosophy of science identifies Bayesian inference with inductive inference and even rationality as such, and seems to be strengthened by the rise and practical success of Bayesian statistics. We argue that the most successful forms of Bayesian statistics do not actually support that particular philosophy but rather accord much better with sophisticated forms of hypothetico-deductivism. We examine the actual role played by prior distributions in Bayesian models, and the crucial aspects of model checking and model revision, which fall outside the scope of Bayesian confirmation theory. We draw on the literature on the consistency of Bayesian updating and also on our experience of applied work in social science. Clarity about these matters should benefit not just philosophy of science, but also statistical practice. At best, the inductivist view has encouraged researchers to fit and compare models without checking them; at worst, theorists have actively discouraged practitioners from performing model checking because it does not fit into their framework.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures. v2: Fixed typo in caption of figure 1. v3: Further typo fixes. v4: Revised in response to referee

True or false? The contested terrain of false allegations

This paper aims to contribute to and clarify the debate around false allegations of sexual assault by providing a summary of recent literature, including consideration of the classifications and methods of defining a false allegation, whether there is a prevailing scepticism around allegations of sexual assault, and the motivations for falsifying reports.Key messages:There is ongoing speculation about the prevalence of false allegations of sexual assault, however, without consistency in definition and classification of what actually is a false allegation, accurate measurement of prevalence is difficult.Assumptions are made about the truth of allegations of sexual assault at various decision-making points in the justice response. These assumptions are based on individual and societal beliefs about gender roles and sexual assault that may not accord with the actual experiences of sexual assault.The perception that false allegations of sexual assault are common has negative consequences for victims of sexual assault and society more generally by perpetuating victims’ fear of being disbelieved or being blamed for the assault. This reduces the likelihood of reporting.A more useful approach to considering false allegations of sexual assault is to undertake more contextual analysis of the factors that play into a label of false allegations

What are we learning from the life satisfaction literature?

The recent availability of cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data on life satisfaction in a large number of countries gives us the opportunity to verify empirically (and not just to assume)what matters for individuals and what economists and policymakers should take into account when trying to promote personal and societal wellbeing. The wide array of econometric findings available in this booming literature display evidence, generally robust to different cultural backgrounds, on the effects of some important happiness drivers (income, unemployment, marital status) which can be co*nsidered “quasi stylized facts” of happiness. If economic policies, for many obvious reasons, cannot maximize self declared life satisfaction as such, we are nonetheless learning a lot from these contributions. In particular, results on the relevance and the risk of crowding out of relational goods, on the revisited inflation/unemployment trade off and, more in general, on the measurement of the shadow value of non market goods obtained with life satisfaction estimates, are conveying relevant information about individual preferences and what is behind utility functions. Such findings suggest us to move beyond anthropological reductionism toward behavioral complexity and to refocus target indicators of economic policies in order to minimize the distance between economic development and human wellbeing.life satisfaction, shadow value of non market goods, unemployment/inflation