This thesis is about teacher-student relationship in higher education. Set against the background of marketization, when the higher education sector is seen as a market, education institutions act like business enterprises, and students are seen as customers, teacher-student relationship is commonly perceived as having transformed itself to resemble a customer-seller relationship. On a conceptual level, this transformation is doing a disservice to the sector, as revealed in the many obvious differences between a customer-seller relationship and that between teachers and students. Academics, in particular, vehemently resist such conceptualizations, blaming such transformations as the main culprit of the prevalence of students’ disengagement and incivility in higher education nowadays. While much of what has been said about the negative influence of student consumerism on teacher-student relationship has been anecdotal in nature, this thesis attempts to offer some empirical evidence to fill the gap in the literature. Because of its quantitative nature, this study focused on only one of the many possible dimensions of examining teacher-student relationship, the power relations, measured by the level of teachers’ influence on students. Using the Interpersonal Power Interaction Model (IPIM) as the conceptual framework, this thesis assesses the relationship between student consumerism and teacher power by (1) examining the association between the students’ consumerist attitude and teachers’ hard and soft power bases and (2) establishing the moderation effect of students’ consumerist attitude on the relationship between students’ personality variables and teachers’ soft and hard power bases. The study was conducted in the HKUSPACE Community College, the leading community college of the sector which has been operating on a fully self-financing status since its establishment in 2000. Data was collected by way of a questionnaire survey covering the key variables including students’ consumerist attitude, compliance with teachers’ power, as well as four personality variables: motivation orientation, desire for control, concern for appropriateness and self-esteem. Statistical analysis of the findings from the research confirmed only some of the hypotheses. In terms of correlation, while students’ consumerist attitude was found to be positively associated with soft power base as hypothesized, its correlation with hard power base was also found to be positive, which was contradictory to the hypothesis. In terms of moderation, consumerist attitude was found to moderate only three out of ten relationships between personality factors and teacher power bases. Specifically, students’ consumerist attitude was found to moderate the relationship between intrinsic motivation and compliance with both hard and soft power bases, as well as that between concern for appropriateness and soft power base. Results have been analyzed in light of the literature on instructional communication and teaching effectiveness with implications offered to warn educators against the potential abuse of soft power as well as on the proper use of both power bases to exercise positive influence on students. Implications were also drawn on further research in the area of teacher-student relationship in the context of a marketized education sector.

This study explores what we can learn about the interactions between teachers and students during small-group collaborative Mathematics tasks, nested with in a classroom setting from the study of multiple audio-visual streams synchronised with each other and with a detailed transcript. The ability to capture and study large quantities of detailed data using new digital temporal analysis tools presents both a great challenge and a great opportunity for researchers. This study explores quantitative means of triaging this data, looking for salient features in teacher-student interactions. Patterns of association found to be present in the data were then qualitatively examined in detail using the tool. This examination highlighted the potential for new forms of synchronous temporal analysis to develop our understanding of important facet s of teacher-student interaction in small group collaborative Mathematics activities which were previously shown to be significant in past research but which were not developed in greater detail in large part because the data capture and analysis technology was not present. The study looks in detail at the Engle & Conant teacher interaction coding framework (2002), focusing on the specific use of problematization utterances in the tasks. The functions which these in relation to the success of a group of students is explored. The varied granularity of the data available in the temporal analysis also highlighted the importance of a teacher orchestration artifice which, though familiar to teaching practitioners, is overlooked in the research literature. The mini-plenary, a brief transition orchestrated by the teacher between group and whole-class interaction then back again was explored and the possible reasons why this was instigated were discussed. The practice is then discussed in relation to the existing literature on the orchestration of classroom interaction. , .It is part of the SynergyNet project which looked at developing tools and pedagogies to meet the challenges of technology rich classrooms, specifically focusing on multi-touch tables. Ninety-six 11 year-old students participated in the study from six different schools. Their grouping was varied by school, room orientation, gender and teacher.

This is a case study of EFL education in a Chinese independent college, which is a newly-established type of institution of higher education in China. The study focuses on how the College English curriculum meets the English learning needs expressed by the learners, as a basis for improving the curriculum. The empirical findings show that: 1) the English learning needs expressed by the learners can be identified as two types: their expressed target needs (their expressions of their desired learning outcomes) and their expressed learning needs (their expressions of what they think are the factors in the learning situation that affect their English learning). 2) The learners’ expressed needs – both target and learning – are generally insufficiently addressed in the CE curriculum by the curriculum designers, teachers, institution and other parties involved. This lack of accommodation of the learners’ expressed needs can, to a large extent, be related to over-emphasis on a product-oriented perspective, and particularly on testing, and neglect of a process-oriented perspective in the CE curriculum. 3) There are three relevant features in the learning environment that impact on the CE curriculum, and thus on the possibility of accommodating the learners’ expressed needs: the national curriculum, the physical environment, and cultural factors. The findings give valuable insights and have practical implications for EFL education at tertiary level, especially in the context of Chinese independent colleges.

In the field of Education there appears to be a gap in the literature examining policy implementation process from the viewpoint of educational stakeholders. This thesis attempts to address that gap by examining the impact on site based policy actors of the implementation of a policy in the form of a new mathematics curriculum. This dissertation endeavours to answer the question of how the interactions and engagement of policy actors with policy implementation processes are impacted by and impact such processes. The research approach adopted is that of a case study using a Classic Grounded Theory Methodology. This approach permits the data to be approached from a conceptually neutral position, allowing theoretical understanding to be built from the concepts that emerge from the analysis. The theoretical model developed from this grounded theory analysis is then filtered through two conceptual lenses, social cognition and affect/emotion, to determine an understanding of their theoretical relevance to the interactions and engagement of policy actors with policy processes. This study adds to the understanding of how policy processes unfold in a site based setting. In particular, it gives recognition to the affective responses of policy actors as they engage and interact with policy processes and how those responses may impinge on those processes.

The original aim of this research was to determine whether or not a new approach to learning the basic processes of arithmetic, based on the use of dedicated manipulatives, would produce statistically significant improvements in automaticity – the instant and accurate recall without any conscious mental effort of previously memorised number facts. However, it was found that memorising number facts was no longer being emphasised in the participating schools of Co. Durham or Edinburgh. The reasons identified were: • A strongly established preference for teaching analogous procedures to calculate number facts, based on understandings of first principles. • A general conviction that good literacy confers greater long-term benefit than good numeracy does. • A general lack of appreciation of the potential contribution of good automaticity in improving number attainments. • Insufficient time for memory work in overloaded curricula. However, the new approach to learning arithmetic, using physical manipulatives, produced highly significant gains (at the 99% level) in Mental Arithmetic and General Maths, as measured using the InCAS computer adaptive programme for five to 11 years old pupils over their early years of formal number learning. Five schools in Co. Durham and seven in Edinburgh were involved at some stage with 545 children being assessed initially, while 299 started in the Empirical Study. They attended six schools, being three each in Co. Durham and Edinburgh. Comparisons by location and also by gender were made as secondary questions. Two Swiss schools, with a total of 23 children, were similarly assessed. Their results were not included in the Study, but they were used in terms of contextualising understandings. The case for automaticity was made throughout the Study in the participating schools. The need for more research into the effectiveness of manipulatives in improving number attainments was identified in the literature.

In this thesis, I answer the question how is the mathematical child produced within the becoming of primary school student-teachers in England, and how does this include and exclude people within the mathematics classroom. This question arises out of the problematic discourses that student-teachers are exposed to when embarking on their journey to become a teacher. In particular, I focus on discourses that arise from the domains of educational policy and mathematics education research. Educational policy is chosen as this study is set within the New Labour (1997-2010) neoliberal era of marketization, accountability and performativity. Mathematics education research is chosen as this knowledge often circulates unproblematically and with taken-for-granted ‘truths’. In addition, in my role as a university teaching fellow, I had noticed that these discourses were dominant and offered conflict. To explore my research question, I carried out a case study of six student-teachers over the period of their three year degree course. I analysed their talk in relation to dominant discourses of mathematics education from within educational policy and mathematics education research. In order to unpack the truths that circulate, I stepped outside ‘enlightened’ epistemologies and instead, use a poststructural Foucauldian approach. This questions language and contends that meaning is produced within discourses. Furthermore, using Foucault, I contend that subjects become products of normalisation through governance rather than authoritarianism. Overall, I argue that the mathematical child in much of mathematics education research and educational policy is absent yet present. This position of the mathematical child covertly underlies much of the discussions concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics. However, although the mathematical child is rarely spoken about, they are produced through discourses as a normalised cognitive performance of the mathematics classroom. Specifically, in New Labour’s educational policy the mathematical child is produced as functional, and often indistinguishable from a mechanical automaton. Whilst in much of mathematics education research the mathematical child is naturally mathematically curious; what I call ‘romantic’. This is produced through simplistic interpretations of discourses such as understanding, confidence and progress, which (inadvertently) normalise a discourse of ‘natural ability’. Within this, the student-teachers take on various aspects of discourses – such as ‘natural ability’ and normative progress - and ignore others, such as mathematics for all. This happens as the children the student-teachers meet, are neither functional, naturally curious, nor normative in their behaviour. It is this mismatch of expectation and experience that includes some, such as the naturally able, within mathematics and excludes others.

This convergent parallel mixed methods study investigated pre-service teachers’ motivation and self-regulation learning and its impact on their academic achievement during their professional training in colleges of education. In addition, the contributory factors of beliefs and values that lay behind some pre-service teachers’ motivational orientations were examined through episodic narratives. The multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting 500 teacher trainees from 40 residential colleges of education in Ghana and data sources included surveys, archival and interview data. The results from the study indicated that taken as a set, the motivation component of pre-service teachers’ self-regulation learning construct mediated the relationship between prior performances (entry aggregates) and academic achievement (GPA). The learning strategies component intervened significantly in the influence of prior performance on academic achievement. In the final model, prior performance showed a moderately large indirect effect on academic achievement through ten out of the fifteen variables of the self-regulation learning construct. The research findings indicated that desirable attributes such as critical thinking, metacognitive strategy use, and students’ value for task on the courses on the teacher training programme were non-existing and did not predict pre-service teachers’ academic performance in college. The pre-service teachers’ narratives suggested that family members and friends, instead of candidates themselves, played a significant role in their choice of colleges of education for training and accordingly the teaching profession; motivation was principally external and teaching was mainly perceived as a means of imparting knowledge to young ones. However, participants held some positive values such as recognizing diversity among children, collaborating with parents to achieve optimal learning for children and holding high the ethical principles of the teaching profession. This study provides an ecological and empirical foundation for the specification and explanation of the theoretical connections between pre-service teachers’ prior attainment, motivational orientations and self-regulation learning strategy use and their academic achievement in professional training context.

The study aimed to explore Primary School Native-speaking English Teachers’ (NETs’) cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction in Hong Kong. The relationship between NETs’ cross-cultural adjustment, stress and job satisfaction was investigated in a sample of 150 NETs by the quantitative analysis of a survey. A self-administered questionnaire comprised a biographical questionnaire and six measuring instruments. The differences in cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction between NETs who reported with high job satisfaction and those who reported with low job satisfaction were then examined in a sample of the 10 selected NETs, 5 from the high satisfaction group and 5 from the low satisfaction group, by the qualitative interpretations of the face-to-face semi-structured interviews which were designed on the basis of the survey. A survey of 150 NETs indicated that all factors in the conceptual framework were significantly related to NETs’ cross-cultural adjustment, stress and job satisfaction. Selection mechanism and criteria, neuroticism and role ambiguity were the predictors of work adjustment. Extraversion was positively related to and conscientiousness was negatively related to interaction adjustment. Previous overseas living experience, extraversion and culture novelty were positively related to general adjustment. Neuroticism and culture novelty were the predictors of cultural stress. Previous overseas teaching experience, role ambiguity and role conflict were significantly related to organisational stress. Work adjustment, general adjustment and organisational stress were the key predictors of job satisfaction. The interviews of the NETs confirmed the survey results and revealed that the NETs who were highly satisfied and those who were not satisfied with their jobs experienced considerable difference in terms of job characteristics, job content and work context. This study provided an important reference for all stakeholders to better prepare the NETs and to maximise the effectiveness of the NET Scheme in Hong Kong.

This is an empirical study that aims to gain a deep understanding of the ‘becoming’ processes of senior police commanders as strategic leaders, particularly the role of classroom-based leadership training/education in those processes. The context examined in this study is the Hong Kong Police Force (the Force), which has a working strength of around 33,000 staff including 28,000 sworn officers. The 18 participants were all commissioner rank officers, most of whom joined the Force in the 1960s-1970s. This study adopts a constructivist ontological assumption and an interpretive paradigm. Using an adapted grounded theory methodology, the research data collected through in-depth interviews were deconstructed, analysed and reconstructed to allow a sophisticated understanding of their strategic leadership development processes. The central theme, i.e., social learning is both a key feature of those processes and an important facet of classroom-based leadership training/education, is grounded in the lived experiences shared by the participants. The findings of this study show that while the participants learned to become leaders from many different sources, classroom-based leadership training/education played a significant role in their ‘becoming’ processes. More specifically, compared with other sources of learning, classroom-based training/education provided them a safe learning environment that facilitated co-creation of knowledge with other course participants, activating all three levels of learning, i.e., the single-loop learning involved in acquiring new knowledge, the double-loop learning involved in broadening one’s breadth of thinking, and the triple-loop learning (transformational learning) involved in acquiring a new self-identity. This study also identifies a number of important factors that might have affected their learning outcomes including the background of co-participants, mode of delivery, venue location and personal leadership experience of the teachers. Based on these findings, the author argues that strategic leadership development is a complex social learning process involving both cognitive and affective domains, and that the common practice of focusing primarily on the former by mainstream leadership researchers reflects questionable ontological and epistemological assumptions.

This thesis examines whether implications from research in the field of implicit cognition apply to achievement goals via firstly an extensive re-assessment of the literature (Chapters 2 and 3) and then via a series of experiments (Chapters 4-7). Chapter one introduces the work, and outlines the rationale, aims and research. Chapter two is a critical examination of how achievement goals are currently defined and operationalized, and highlights the underlying assumptions that achievement goals are conscious and accessible. Chapter three challenges these assumptions by examining the literature on implicit cognition and nonconscious goal pursuit. Chapter three argues that as cognitive representations, there is a potential for achievement goals to be activated and operate nonconsciously, and that a methodology predominantly based on self-report is limited in the access it may provide to achievement goals. Chapter four designs, tests, and compares two original achievement goal implicit methods, the Valence IAT and Self/Other Referent IAT, with the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (AGQ-R, Elliot & Murayama, 2008), and found good internal consistency for both IATs but no significant correlations between IATs and AGQ-R. Chapter five compares the Valence IAT and the AGQ-R with students’ persistence behavior on an achievement task, and found both methods to be equally consistent with behavior. Chapter six tests whether achievement goals can be primed to influence subsequent achievement behavior, and found that persistence behavior differed significantly by priming condition in line with theorized patterns for performance and mastery goals. In Chapter seven, achievement goals are primed and compared directly with the Valence IAT and the AGQ-R, and both methods were found to be equally consistent with the primed goal. Chapter eight summarizes and concludes that this thesis provides the first in-depth theoretical and methodological exploration of the potential for nonconscious achievement goals in what is a promising field for continued study.