VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Promoting growth mindsets in Year 10: developing a scheme of work and evaluating student responses

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.

Keywords: MLT
MLT2016
Developing students’ independent skills through the use of assessment for learning strategies: How does this affect engagement?

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.

Keywords: Assessment
MLT
MLT2017
Encouraging reluctant readers to read: Sixth-form led literature circles for Key Stage 3 students

This research and development project explores the impact of sixth form led literature circles on reluctant key stage 3 readers. After identifying that approximately half of the students in a year 7 class of 11-12 year olds expressed that they did not enjoy reading and were not currently reading anything, I implemented the literature circles model outlined by Daniels (2002), with the help of two sixth formers - both keen readers. While studies on literature circles are mainly positive, literature has also often highlighted problems that can occur within groups of disengaged readers. The aim of this study is to determine whether literature circles can be more effective if sixth formers act as facilitators to students’ discussions, role-modeling talk about books and monitoring their efforts. Using the case study method, I observe and analyse two groups with different sixth formers. The primary mode of data collection was through recording the discussions, but students also completed questionnaires and were interviewed. Additionally, the sixth formers were also interviewed on their own. Findings showed that, while one sixth former was not useful in encouraging students to read, another sixth former pushed students along their zones of proximal development to acquire new ways of thinking about and interrogating texts, and positively affected students’ attitudes towards reading. This research suggests that sixth formers, with the right support, can positively contribute to improving students’ attitudes to reading when working in literature circles.

Keywords: Key Stage 3
MLT2015
MLT
An investigation into pupil oracy with Year 10 pupils studying GCSE History in an all girls' school

The promotion of pupil oracy is accepted as a key feature of an effective classroom. Pupil oracy has been shown to enhance learning in a wide variety of ways, notably at primary level. In addition, a potential link between the ways in which some girls speak at school and the way in which this could limit their progression in the workplace has been identified. However, there has been little research into girls’ oracy in single-sex secondary schools. Oracy in History teaching has also been somewhat neglected.
This study examined which teaching strategies might encourage girls’ oracy in History lessons and which factors appear to prevent girls from participating actively in History lessons. The question of whether the encouragement of girls’ oracy in History lessons can improve cognition and confidence was also investigated. Case studies, semi-structured interviews with pupils and teachers, pupil observations and teaching interventions were utilised in the investigation.
Findings suggested that learning activities such as the use of role-play and whole class discussion based around historical controversies can successfully promote girls’ oracy. It was also found that there is a range of factors that can prevent girls from participating actively in History lessons, such as a lack of confidence in girls’ understanding and knowledge of the topics being studied and pupils being given insufficient time to prepare for discussions. The role of confidence to speak in front of peers and the impact of social relationships between girls in the classroom also emerged as highly significant. It was concluded from this small-scale study that the encouragement of girls’ oracy in History lessons can improve girls’ cognition and confidence. This can be done by providing girls with repeated opportunities to discuss controversial topics in whole class settings.

Keywords: MLT
History
MLT2015
Material culture and identity at rural settlements in the Severn-Cotswold area in the Roman period

My research examines how Roman-style material culture was used to express identity, how this changed during the Roman period, whether different types of material culture were adopted at the same time and whether there were differences across different types of site. Evidence for expression of identities related to wealth, status, gender, group identities and ethnicity was also examined.
Datasets were analysed by four themes: literacy, including evidence for writing and knowledge of Classical literature; personal appearance, including personal grooming, hair-styling and dress; foodways, what was eaten, how it was prepared and served; and the use of settlement space as the setting for social interaction, and how individuals experienced these spaces. Taken together these provided a more nuanced understanding of the nature of identity expression at each site than is apparent from consideration of each site in isolation, or from consideration of single artefact types.
Data from forty-six settlement sites where detailed published excavation reports were available were examined to explore the similarities and differences in the use of Roman-style material culture between ‘nucleated settlement’, ‘shrine’, ‘estate centre’, ‘villa’ and ‘farm’ sites, with a comparison against data for ‘military’, ‘urban’, and ‘Iron Age oppidum’ sites. A non-statistical methodology was developed for comparison of different types of artefacts.
The four types of material culture were adopted at different rates and in different combinations at the different rural sites types, with a link between the function of a site and the way in which identity was expressed. Consideration of changes over time indicate that, contrary to general assumptions, adoption of Roman-style material culture in the study area was relatively slow and modest, comparable to other areas in Britain at the periphery of the Empire, with little evidence for differentiation of an elite material culture until the elite villa architecture of the later Roman period. Changes in the extent and use of material culture can be linked to the major re-organisation of the landscape in the early second century, and the establishment of Cirencester as the probable capital of the new province of Britannia Prima.

Advisor: Gosden, C
MacDonald, A
On the potential future effects of population structure on financial stability

In several advanced economies, the post World War II baby-boom was followed by a sustained drop in fertility rates to sub-replacement levels. In parallel, adult life expectancies have seen an unprecedented increase. The aim of this study is to better understand the potential future effects of these demographic dynamics on financial stability. Two major channels of influence are investigated. The first channel is through the housing market and the second is related to debt sustainability.
We present a probabilistic numerical model that simulates and projects future population dynamics. This model is used to project potential future growth of two major actors of the supply and demand in the housing market; old age market leavers and first time buyers. We also use this model to project actual income and consumption trends as well as their potential quantile distributions. The models parameters are estimated and calibrated to Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We run Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analysis to convey uncertainty.
Our results show an overall continuous and long lasting increase in old age generated supply. Potential first time buyers demand varies from country to country. However, in all countries in focus, it is increasingly sensitive to migration. Projections of actual income and consumption trends leads to decreasing support ratios. We discuss how these potential imbalances could impact the housing market, debt and to a larger extent financial stability.
Automating inference, learning, and design using probabilistic programming

Imagine a world where computational simulations can be inverted as easily as running them forwards, where data can be used to refine models automatically, and where the only expertise one needs to carry out powerful statistical analysis is a basic proficiency in scientific coding. Creating such a world is the ambitious long-term aim of probabilistic programming.
The bottleneck for improving the probabilistic models, or simulators, used throughout the quantitative sciences, is often not an ability to devise better models conceptually, but a lack of expertise, time, or resources to realize such innovations. Probabilistic programming systems (PPSs) help alleviate this bottleneck by providing an expressive and accessible modeling framework, then automating the required computation to draw inferences from the model, for example finding the model parameters likely to give rise to a certain output. By decoupling model specification and inference, PPSs streamline the process of developing and drawing inferences from new models, while opening up powerful statistical methods to non-experts. Many systems further provide the flexibility to write new and exciting models which would be hard, or even impossible, to convey using conventional statistical frameworks.
The central goal of this thesis is to improve and extend PPSs. In particular, we will make advancements to the underlying inference engines and increase the range of problems which can be tackled. For example, we will extend PPSs to a mixed inference-optimization framework, thereby providing automation of tasks such as model learning and engineering design. Meanwhile, we make inroads into constructing systems for automating adaptive sequential design problems, providing potential applications across the sciences. Furthermore, the contributions of the work reach far beyond probabilistic programming, as achieving our goal will require us to make advancements in a number of related fields such as particle Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, Bayesian optimization, and Monte Carlo fundamentals.

Advisor: Wood, F
Osborne, M
Investigating mechanisms of premature ovarian insufficiency using a mouse model

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) occurs in 1% of reproductive-age women. The ovarian manifestation ranges from the presence of a variable population of follicles (follicular) to the absence of follicles (afollicular), and in the majority of cases the cause is unknown.
The Double Mutant (DM) mouse model of follicular POI, arises from the oocyte-specific deletion of Mgat1 and C1galt1 required for the generation of Oand N-glycans respectively. DM females are subfertile at 6-weeks, infertile by 9-weeks and undergo POI by 3-months of age and exhibit increasing numbers of primary follicles and a depletion of follicles at the later stages. This is accompanied by elevated gonadotropins and decreased sex steroids, which is characteristic of POI in women.
In this thesis, characterisation of follicle development reveals multiple defects at various stages of development including the presence of abnormally large primary follicles resulting a block in follicle development, and luteinisation of unruptured preovulatory follicles resulting in anovulation and infertility. Analysis of in vitro follicle development demonstrated that follicles retain the potential to develop indicating that intra-ovarian factors may be playing a role in the follicle dysfunction. Finally, reaggregated ovaries demonstrate that although DM germ cells retain the potential to develop follicles, DM somatic cells are imprinted with the POI phenotype.
These findings highlight new avenues for investigation to further elucidate the mechanisms underpinning POI as well as targets for treatment.

Advisor: Williams, S
The swarm: children in Chicago, 1890-1933

Children made up almost half the population of Chicago in the 1890s, and they dominated street spaces in the city for the next forty years. While adults often spent their work and leisure time indoors, huge numbers of mobile and destructive children worked, committed crimes, had sex, and played outside in city spaces. Concerned middle-class adults developed a vast array of institutional and regulatory reforms to get them off the streets. Despite this, we know almost nothing about children’s lives outside of schools, homes, and other institutions. This dissertation, The Swarm: Children in Chicago, 1890-1933, seeks to change that. Using Chicago as a case study – after all the city was the home to a host of child-saving institutions like municipal playgrounds and juvenile courts which still shape children’s environments – this dissertation tells the forgotten story of this so-called swarm of children. Chicago’s mainly working-class, immigrant children shaped the city. They disrupted adult uses of the street and enforced racial segregation. By the 1920s, gangs of school-aged children provided bootleggers with stolen vehicles and a stream of would-be gangsters. The Swarm demonstrates that children outside of institutions, overlooked by even historians of childhood, are key to understanding the history of urbanizing, industrializing America during the long Progressive Era.

Advisor: Keire, M
Religious life in classical and Hellenistic Rhodes: cultic activity, identity, and organisation

The present thesis constitutes a study of the religious life of Rhodes, from the classical to the late Hellenistic period. Chronologically, this spans the significant chapter of the island’s synoikism at the end of the fifth century and the united state’s rise to power as one of the foremost trading centres of the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period. The structure of my thesis is partly chronological and partly thematic. I aim to determine the developments that took place in Rhodian religion, largely due to the synoikism, but also affected by other factors, such as the all-important incorporation of the peraia. Aside from that I focus on the different groups that were involved in the island’s religion: demes, tribes, religious personnel of all levels, foreigners and inhabitants of the surrounding islands and mainland, whose status and rights are often difficult to establish precisely. This goal is reflected in my choice of chapters, which cover Rhodian (pre-synoikism) religious identity, the effects of the synoikism on religious life, a detailed study of the cults in the different cities of the island and of religion in the ‘peraia’, and chapters on priests, associations, and, finally, the interplay between religion and society, in which chapter I hope to draw out what is distinctively ‘Rhodian’ about religion on Rhodes.

Advisor: Parker, R
Between nature and culture: animals and humans in Old Norse literature

This thesis demonstrates how animals and humans are interconnected in Old Norse literature. The two categories are both constructed and challenged in a variety of ways, depending on the textual genre and animal species. It thus reveals medieval Norse-Icelandic ideas, values, and beliefs about animals. The thesis is theoretical, comparative, and interdisciplinary, yet firmly rooted in a close reading of the sagas and analysis of their cultural-historical context.
The first chapter explores relationships between people and domestic animals, namely horses and dogs, and to a lesser extent, cats and livestock. The second chapter evaluates the limitations to the human-animal relationship: prohibitions against bestiality and the consumption of certain animals as meat. The third chapter studies animals in dreams, which reflect human characters and share their fate and defining characteristics. The fourth chapter investigates human-animal transformations, whether physical, psychological, or both. The fifth chapter analyses human-animal communication, with a particular focus on human comprehension of the language of birds. The sixth chapter considers relations between animals and gods in Norse mythology; these parallel the connections between humans and animals in the sagas.
The thesis determines how the human/animal dichotomy might have been thought about differently before and after the conversion to Christianity, with boundaries between animal and human becoming more clearly delineated; it examines how medieval Icelandic authors wrote about animals in experiential terms, but also drew upon conventional symbolism from continental Europe; and it proves how these literary representations of animals reflect an environmental ideology that was actively engaged with the imaginative, the supernatural, and the animal.

Advisor: Larrington, C
Mathematical modelling of membrane filtration

In this thesis, we consider four different problems in membrane filtration, using a different mathematical approach in each instance. We account for the fluid-driven deformation of a filtercake using nonlinear poroelasticity in Chapter 2. By considering feeds with very high and very low particle concentrations, we introduce a quasi-static caking model that provides a suitable approximation to the full model for the physically realistic concentration regimes. We illustrate the agreements and differences between our model and the existing conventional cake-filtration law. In Chapter 3, we introduce a stochastic model for membrane filtration based on the quantised nature of the particles and show how it can be applied for feeds with different particle types and membranes with an interconnected pore structure. This allows us to understand the relation between the effects of clogging on the level of an individual pore and on the macroscopic level of the entire membrane. We conclude by explaining the transition between the discrete and continuous model based on the Fokker--Planck equation. In Chapter 4, we consider the inverse problem of determining the underlying filtration law from the spreading speed of a particle-laden gravity current. We first couple the theory of gravity currents with the stochastic model developed in Chapter~3 to determine a filtration law from a given set of experiments. We then generalise this idea for the porous medium equation, where we show that the position of the front follows a power law for the conventional filtration laws, which allows us to infer the clogging law in certain instances. We conclude the thesis by showing in Chapter 5 how we can combine experimental measurements for the clogging of a depth filter and simple fluid dynamics to accurately predict the pressure distribution in a multi-capsule depth filter during a filtration run.

Keywords: Membrane Filtration
Mathematical Modelling
Porous Media
Gravity Current
Porous Medium Equation
Advisor: Please, C
Griffiths, I
Dante's masterplot and the alternative narrative models in the Commedia

This thesis investigates the narrative models in Dante’s Commedia with the aim of opening up the poem to alternatives to the dominant narrative embedded in the text, which it terms Dante’s masterplot. This is the teleological trajectory which allows the poet to subjugate earlier works or earlier parts of the poem to the revisionist gaze of its endpoint. The thesis analyses the masterplot’s workings in the text and its role in the interpretation of the poem, and documents its overwhelming success in influencing readings of the Commedia. It then explores three competing narrative models that resist and counter its monopoly, which are enacted by (i) paradoxes, (ii) alternative endings and parallel lives; and (iii) the future. Paradoxes are used to neutralise the teleological hierarchy and thus allow Dante to represent contradictory ideas and experiences in the temporal medium of language. Through counterfactuals and twin episodes, Dante establishes in his poem a number of storylines that detour from and run parallel to the main narrative; this allows him to make room for an affective space within the text, which suspends narrative necessity and moral normativity. The future tense poses a problem case for the masterplot in that it indefinitely postpones the endpoint on which teleology relies, and thus exposes the poem, and its author’s, vulnerability to time and circumstance. By focusing on non-linear modes of storytelling, the thesis questions interpretations of the Commedia that favour one normative master-truth, and highlights instead the manifold poetic, theological and ethical tensions which, due to the masterplot’s influence, are often overlooked. The thesis concludes with a proposal that, alongside the traditional notions of Dante’s characteristic plurality of linguistic registers and styles, Dante’s narrative pluralism can and should come to play a key role in contemporary and future readings of the Commedia.

Keywords: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 -- Criticism and interpretation
Narrative Theory
Advisor: Lombardi, E
Gragnolati, M