VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Where are the digital natives? Identifying and mapping digital literacy skills of students and teachers in an international college
Keywords: MLT
MLT2015

This research aimed to identify and map the digital literacy skills of students and teachers in an international college. Digital literacy is increasing in importance: effective digital literacy skills now determine the level of access to an individual’s economic future and full digital citizenship. Conversely, a lack of digital skills excludes individuals from digital life, including being able to contribute to the discourses that are shaping their future. In the college, the contact time for teaching basic digital literacy skills to students has been cut by 50%. In addition to this, the weekly hours for providing training and mentoring support for teachers to develop their digital literacy, through the Advanced Practitioner team, have been cut by 50%. Therefore there was a need to find out how the digital literacy skills of students and teachers are developing in this environment. This study firstly carried out an extensive review of the current empirical research in this field before proceeding with three action research cycles, which involved 69 research participants: 24 students and 45 teachers. The data collection methods included 5 online student learning journals, an online survey (skills audit) for teachers and feedback sheets gathered from a focus group of teachers. Collaboration with teachers to develop the action research cycles was a key feature of the study and Activity Theory was used as an additional analytical lens. The findings revealed that students have limited access to opportunities to develop their digital literacy in lessons. They are asking for help to develop their digital literacy skills and knowledge, whilst acknowledging that they have gaps in their knowledge. Furthermore, they want teachers to develop their digital expertise so that they can collaborate with them to help them navigate the digital world. The findings of the skills audit revealed that with a few exceptions, generally teachers in the college only feel confident in the basic use of learning technologies. The findings evidence that digital literacy is an important issue that has been overlooked in this setting, with ramifications for how the college and the wider organisation are perceived by potential students/future customers. The key recommendation is for a strategic approach to the issue of digital literacy to be adopted by the college/wider organisation, which must include: improving access to learning technologies for students by further embedding digital literacy across the curriculum; plus upskilling teachers by providing a comprehensive time-tabled programme of digital literacy training.
Improving the educational outcomes for a 'looked after' child in Year 10: a case study
Keywords: MLT
MLT2015

Michael is a looked-after child at the school where I am the Vice-Principal (Pastoral). He was placed in foster care at the age of 10 as a result of being emotionally abused by his biological mother. Michael presents with very challenging behaviour and was at risk of suspension and/or expulsion – outcomes which would only serve to further compound his difficulties and contribute to poor educational outcomes. As such, the basis of our intervention was to provide staff with training which would enable them to better understand how Michael’s insecure attachment and history of maltreatment contributes to the problem behaviour he exhibits. This piece of research suggests that when equipped with this understanding, teachers respond to Michael’s behavioural difficulties in a more empathetic and less punitive manner, helping to ensure his continued enrolment at the school. Other findings include: the valuable role that an educational psychologist played in delivering this school-based training; the intervention being strengthened by the role Michael played in its design; the need for greater collaboration between the school and Michael’s social worker; and concluded that although important, attachment theory should not be the sole framework used to help ameliorate the behaviour of looked-after children.
Gradient of a straight line: an investigation into the effect that making different links between representations has on student understanding
Keywords: MLT
MLT2015

The aim of this research is to explore whether using different approaches to finding the gradient of a straight line results in better conceptual understanding of gradient and tools to attempt questions about straight lines and linear relationships in different contexts.
The research was carried out in the context of a department that does not feel it teaches gradient of straight line well and is facing the prospect of greater emphasis on working with linear relationships in the new Mathematics GCSE.
An action research model was adopted with lessons taught by colleagues with the control groups observed and used as the basis for devising a series of intervention lessons. These lessons used different approaches to linear relationships including looking for increments in tables of values and describing the relationships between variables in sentences based on the definition of gradient as well as the traditional rise/tread approach used with the control groups. Pre- and post- tests were used with both the control and intervention groups to investigate the effect of the intervention; these tests were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Analysis of the quantitative results did not show any significantly higher level of attainment for the intervention group either relative to the control groups or the baseline data for the whole cohort. However, qualitative analysis on an individual level suggests a greater breadth of understanding for the intervention group which puts them in a better position to attempt questions in a variety of contexts.
Marginal anthropology? Rethinking Maria Czaplicka and the development of British anthropology from a material history perspective
Keywords: female fieldworker
women anthropologist
Pitt Rivers Museum
material anthropology
museum collections
history of science

This thesis explores the history of British anthropology at the start of the twentieth century through a biographical focus on Maria Antonina Czaplicka (1884-1921). The title calls into question the marginalisation of people and processes in the history of anthropology that do not explicitly contribute to the dominant lineage of British social anthropology and offers to add depth and nuance to the narrative through analysis stemming from material sources. I use Czaplicka as a case study to demonstrate how close attention to a seemingly marginal person with an incomplete and scattered archival record, can help formulate a clearer picture of what anthropology was and what it can thus become.
My research contributes to the understanding and appreciation of women’s involvement in anthropology, calls into question national borders of the discipline at this point in time, highlights the networks that nurtured it, and demonstrates the potential that museum collections have for an enriched understanding of the history of anthropology. I propose that history of anthropology is better understood through a planar approach that allows multiple parallel developments to exist together rather than envisaging a linear evolution towards a single definition of social anthropology. The project lays the groundwork for further research into the role that museums can have for understanding anthropological legacy and the possibilities they may have in creating fresh understandings of the contemporary world.
Maximising staff 'buy-in' in the development of a whole school literacy approach
Keywords: MLT
Literacy
MLT2015

Literacy is crucial in enabling young people to achieve across the curriculum, and in the wider world beyond the school gates. Schools are expected to demonstrate that they have put in place a clear literacy policy, promoting high quality literacy teaching across the whole range of the school's provision (Ofsted 2014), in order to close the gap between the 'word poor' and the 'word rich' (Rigney 2010).
However, teachers can feel that literacy directives are imposed on them from above, as time-consuming 'bolt-ons' to their own subject teaching. This research suggests that a 'top-down' literacy policy may meet with resistance from staff, and fail to become embedded in their practice, thus being an ineffective tool with which to raise literacy standards. The project seeks to maximise teacher buy-in through taking a collaborative approach to policy development, guided by the overall research question: 'How do staff respond to an approach to policy design that seeks to consult teachers and enhance collegial professional development?
Viewing the enactment of policy in schools through a cultural-historical activity theory framework, action research aiming to align community perceptions with policy development was designed, resulting in the collaborative drafting of a new literacy policy following a cycle of teacher interviews. A further action cycle of peer coaching was carried out with the object of empowering staff to implement literacy-focused pedagogical techniques in their classrooms. Feedback from staff and analysis of the peer coaching sessions has indicated that almost all staff involved were taking decisive action to engage with specific aspects of the new whole school literacy approach.
An emerging outcome of the action research has been the positive response to co-constructive professional discourse as a possible model for expansive learning (Engeström 1987) within a school in an isolated rural setting. A new Literacy Coach role has been created for the next academic year, to develop professional learning and support the enactment and translation of the literacy policy into practice.
Supporting pupil premium attainment in science exams
Keywords: MLT2015
MLT
Pupil premium
Science

The idea for the study originated from my own experience of having to enact interventions in School A to increase the level of exam attainment of Pupil Premium pupils in Science. I wanted to examine the impact that the interventions had over the course of a year to assess how they would translate into gains in exam scores.
Three intervention types were trailed and evaluated by comparing the intervention group to a control group and the previous years results to see if there had been any effect. The intervention for the Summer School and Trips, Easter Revision and Breakfast Revision did not yield any statistical improvement for Pupil Premium students exam scores, but did produce a positive effect in attitude indicated in results from questionnaires. The intervention using a computer programmes called Tassomai yielded a positive result for Pupil Premium exam scores when compared to the control group and previous year’s results.
The findings from this report will be used to inform further interventions in School in the following academic year.
Student autonomy in assessment: an investigation into self-evaluation in the classroom allowing students to progress personally and academically
Keywords: MLT2015
MLT
Assessment

This study aimed to identify how self-assessment can be used more effectively within the classroom. The research involved 4 staff members and 225 year 8 students and was conducted within the area of Citizenship Education. This was as a result of the identification of clear connections within the literature between the aims of Citizenship and the desired outcomes of self-assessment. Through an understanding of current school policy alongside staff and students views, an intervention was set up to help guide students through the self-assessment process. A key focus of the intervention was student autonomy, an ability to be self-reliant, when evaluating. Evidence suggests that as a result of the intervention students were able to identify what they had done well as well as set appropriate targets to aid their progression. Reactions were positive and students indicated that they felt more confident about how to develop their own learning as well as how to transfer skills to other areas. Staff within Citizenship reflected these views and found the intervention had helped with teaching and learning in their classrooms.
Spatial resolved electronic structure of low dimensional materials and data analysis
Keywords: Graphene
Convolutional Neural Network

Two dimensional (2D) materials with interesting fundamental physics and potential applications attract tremendous efforts to study. The versatile properties of 2D materials can be further tailored by tuning the electronic structure with the layer-stacking arrangement, of which the main adjustable parameters include the thickness and the in-plane twist angle between layers. The Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) has become a canonical tool to study the electronic structure of crystalline materials. The recent development of ARPES with sub-micrometre spatial resolution (micro-ARPES) has made it possible to study the electronic structure of materials with mesoscopic domains. In this thesis, we use micro-ARPES to investigate the spatially-resolved electronic structure of a series of few-layer materials:
1. We explore the electronic structure of the domains with different number of layers in few-layer graphene on copper substrate. We observe a layer- dependent substrate doping effect in which the Fermi surface of graphene shifts with the increase of number of layers, which is then explained by a multilayer effective capacitor model.
2. We systematically study the twist angle evolution of the energy band of twisted few-layer graphene over a wide range of twist angles (from 5° to 31°). We directly observe van Hove Singularities (vHSs) in twisted bilayer graphene with wide tunable energy range over 2 eV. In addition, the formation of multiple vHSs (at different binding energies) is observed in trilayer graphene. The large tuning range of vHS binding energy in twisted few-layer graphene provides a promising material base for optoelectrical applications with broad-band wavelength selectivity.
3. To better extract the energy band features from ARPES data, we propose a new method with a convolutional neural network (CNN) that achieves comparable or better results than traditional derivative based methods.
Besides ARPES study, this thesis also includes the study of surface reconstruction for the layered material Bi2O2Se with the analysis of Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) images. To explain the origin of the pattern, we propose a tile model that produces the identical statistics with the experiment.
How can lesson study be used to develop MFL teachers and their practice?
Keywords: Modern Foreign Languages
MLT2016
MLT

This study sets out to explore how Lesson Study (LS) can be used to improve the teaching and learning of Modern Languages in a UK secondary school. LS is a method of teacher collaboration, which originated in Japan and facilitates teachers working together to develop best practice by observing one another’s lessons, developing resources, interviewing pupils, analysing their work and discussing relevant pedagogy in a collegiate environment.
Findings show that this method can be adapted well to develop new, or improved teaching methods and departmental practice. Teacher participants generally reacted very positively to being involved in the project and chose to continue to use LS in their work after the data collection part of this project had ended.
This method has also shown that it can lend itself to investigating and then refining many aspects of teachers’ work, such as marking and giving feedback on pupil work, group work, behaviour for learning and developing specific aspects of the curriculum (translation from a foreign language into English here). It enables teachers to get straight into discussing the detail of what teaching their subject is really about and avoids some of the superficiality, which sometimes can result from other methods of lesson observation.
Assessing the nature of early farming in Neolithic western Asia: a functional ecological approach to emerging arable weeds
Keywords: Neolithic
Weed ecology
Archaeobotany
Early farming
Western Asia

Research on the origins of agriculture in western Asia has placed great emphasis on the location and pace of domestication. However, much less attention has been given to reconstructing the specific nature and social implications of early cultivation practices across the agricultural transition, and to the potentially varied land management strategies involved. By employing a functional ecological approach to the interpretation of arable ‘weed’ taxa associated with early cultivars, this research addresses this gap in archaeobotancial research by enabling detailed analysis of the growing conditions and farming methods involved in early plant cultivation in western Asia.
The core methodology analyses the functional ecological attributes (e.g. leaf area and thickness; canopy dimensions; stomatal density and distribution) of the relevant arable weed taxa isolated from archaeological contexts to determine the specific growing conditions of early crops and hence the nature of management practices. Functional attributes are morphological or behavioural characteristics that predict species’ potential in relation to major environmental variables, such as soil productivity, disturbance and moisture. Statistical analysis incorporating these attributes is used to explore variation amongst early cultivation contexts and compare them with weed survey data from contrasting (semi-)arid modern regimes, including a recent study of traditional cereal farming in Morocco.
Ecological ‘signatures’ were determined using the isolated weed dataset from four well documented and contextually rich Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic sites, which were strategically selected to explore agricultural strategies from its initial stages through to the established Neolithic, as well as to exploit detailed sample-by-sample data and extensive in situ deposits. The sites investigated are PPNA Jerf el-Ahmar and PPNA/EPPNB Dja’de in northern Syria, PPNB Tell Aswad in southern Syria, and PPN-PN Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia. Refined identification of selected weed genera at these sites enabled more accurate indications of their arable ecologies. The results generated suggest that early farming practices were highly variable within sites, reflecting the specific affordances of local climate and surrounding landscapes, but relatively labour-intensive in comparison with later urban agrosystems. Furthermore, there are indications for greater cultivation intensity over time, as households became more autonomous.
Algebraic topology of manifolds
Keywords: Euler characteristic
Orientability
Steenrod squares
Cobordism category
Nested manifold

Part I of this thesis concerns the question in which dimensions manifolds with higher orientability properties can have an odd Euler characteristic. In chapter 1 I prove that a k-orientable manifold (or more generally Poincare complex) has even Euler characteristic unless the dimension is a multiple of 2k+1, where we call a manifold k-orientable if the ith Stiefel-Whitney class vanishes for all 0 &LT; i &LT; 2k (k ≥ 0). For k = 0, 1, 2, 3, k-orientable manifolds with odd Euler characteristic exist in all dimensions 2k+1m, but whether there exist a 4-orientable manifold with an odd Euler characteristic is an open problem. In Chapter 2 I present calculations on the cohomology of the first two Rosenfeld planes, revealing that (O ⊗ C)P2 is 2-orientable and (O ⊗ H)P2 is at least 3-orientable.
Part II discusses the homotopy type of spaces of nested manifolds. I prove that the space of d-dimensional manifolds with k-dimensional submanifolds inside Rn has the homotopy type of a linearised model Tk&LT;d, which can be thought of as a space of off-set d-planes inside Rn with a (potentially empty) off-set k-plane inside of it, compactified with a point at infinity representing the empty set. Applying an induction I generalise this result to the case of higher nestings, establishing that the space ΨI (Rn) of nested manifolds inside Rn, for I a finite list of strictly increasing dimensions between 0 and n − 1, has the homotopy type of a linearised model space TI .
Promoting growth mindsets in Year 10: developing a scheme of work and evaluating student responses
Keywords: MLT
MLT2016

This assignment explores ways to promote mindset theory, based on the research of Carol Dweck, amongst Year 10 female students at a single sex selective school. A review of relevant literature on the topic of mindsets shows how mindset theory can benefit students and how mindset can be conveyed to students. An intervention was planned, with the intention of moving students towards adopting growth mindset views. Students were surveyed both before and after the intervention, in order to assess its impact and success. It was found that the majority of students held growth mindset views before the intervention, although a significant number did not, and some experienced disadvantages associated with the fixed mindset, such as discomfort with leaving the comfort zone and high sensitivity to criticism. Following the intervention, a general shift in attitudes towards growth mindset ideas was observed, although it could not be ascertained how long lasting this change would be and not all students accepted the value of growth mindset theory. Strategies to improve the efficacy of the scheme of work for use with future cohorts are outlined and will be used within the school context over the next academic year.
Developing students’ independent skills through the use of assessment for learning strategies: How does this affect engagement?
Keywords: Assessment
MLT
MLT2017

In this study, I aimed to explore how I could implement AFL strategies to enable my Year 8 students to develop their independent learning skills in mathematics and to help them develop significant competent skills that will help them prepare for the next stage of their education. A small-scale practitioner research approach was adopted through which various AFL interventions including self-assessment, peer feedback, peer teaching and group work presentations were implemented. The sample used for this study was a Year 8 top-set class consisting of 30 students. At the beginning of the study, a prequestionnaire was administered to serve as a benchmark for assessing how well the research objectives have been achieved. The research tasks included real-life problems and activities intended to increase students’ engagement and motivation in mathematics. Observation of students’ interactions, field notes, postquestionnaire and semistructured interviews were also utilised in data collection.
The evidences collected suggest that AFL strategies have a strong potential in enhancing the development of students’ independent skills. However, the rate at which these skills were developed was found to vary among individual students and was dependent on a number of factors (such as the type of AFL techniques and tasks implemented). Results from the postquestionnaire also found that 89% of the students agreed that AFL strategies have helped them become more engaged in mathematics lessons. This was found to be enhanced by peer feedback through effective collaborative learning; which aided in shifting power from the teacher to individual students.