Globalization and technological advancement in recent decades have led to a re- conceptualization of literacy as well as calls for the development of new literacy pedagogies. Concerns over whether school literacy instruction and practices best prepare learners for the 21st century have resulted to a growing body of research on academic efficacy (Mills 2010), although the issue might have been examined more in theory than in practice (Miller and McVee 2012). Grounded in socio-cultural theories and literature on research-informed pedagogic approaches, this dissertation examines how technology-mediated learning in a multimodal workshop setting influences junior secondary students’ multiliteracies development in Hong Kong. The study is aimed to address the research gap of examining new literacy pedagogies from a teacher’s perspective, and seeks to examine the challenges of promoting multiliteracies while developing new literacy pedagogies. This study took the form of ten after-school multimodal workshops with twenty-one Year-Six students in a bilingual school in Hong Kong. Multiple data including the student participants’ multimodal texts, field notes, workshop journals, and post-workshop interviews were collected. Textual and semiotic analyses were conducted on the students’ multimodal texts to provide a nuanced understanding of their multiliteracies. A thematic analysis was conducted on the rest of the data for an identification of the influences that might have affected literacy development during the workshops. The findings suggest that workshop tasks, socio-semiotic mediation, learner subjectivity, as well as challenges of technology-mediated learning, helped shape the context, process, and outcomes of learning. Insights gained from this study suggest that a critical re-framing of technology-mediated learning founded upon students’ prior learning, foregrounding multimodality, connecting school-based learning to learners’ lifeworld, and addressing tensions between school practices and multiliteracies development might help facilitate coherent, sustainable multiliteracies development in schools.

The ability to write comprehensible and well-structured text is extremely important in academic and professional contexts. Identifying the factors that affect the effectiveness of academic writing is also an important first step in improving the efficiency of teaching writing, particularly in foreign language contexts. Drawing upon cognitive writing process theory and research, this study set out to investigate some of the factors accounting for differences in the writing performance of 77 undergraduate Omani writers studying an English Language Teaching Program. In particular, the study aimed to explore the influence of proficiency in English as a foreign language, gender and writing beliefs on the first language (Arabic) and foreign Language (English) writing processes and text quality of undergraduate Omani writers. The study also attempted to test whether variation in text quality could be explained in relation to writing processes. In order to achieve these aims, the participants were asked to produce two argumentative texts, one in Arabic and one in English. Language of writing and writing topics were counterbalanced. The participants' English Language proficiency was assessed using the Oxford Placement Test. Keystroke logging was used as the main instrument to record, observe and analyse the participants' writing processes. This was complemented by the participants' responses to an immediate recall questionnaire administered immediately after completion of the writing tasks. The Writing Beliefs Survey was used to identify writers' writing beliefs about the writing process. The quality of their written texts was assessed by two independent assessors. The results showed that writers produced better text quality when writing in Arabic in comparison to English. When writing in Arabic, writers also wrote more fluently, revised and paused less, and required less time to complete the writing task. A key feature of this difference was that when writing in Arabic, writers were able to produce language in larger bursts than in English. Writers with greater English language proficiency were also able to produce relatively larger bursts when writing in English. Generally, English language proficiency played an important role in writers' English writing process and product. High English language proficiency was associated with better text quality, and more importantly, influenced writing processes, (including planning, revision, and writer's awareness towards their audiences). Low English language proficiency reduced the extent to which initial planning focused on text organization and the audience and disrupted writers' ability to carry out more global revisions. Interestingly, the results also indicated that English language proficiency was associated with Arabic writing as well. This suggests that performance on the English language test may reflect general language ability and motivation as well as English language knowledge itself. The study also found that females were linguistically more competent than males in English language and more motivated towards writing than males in both languages. This enabled them to produce better text quality and to cope with the writing process demands more successfully than males. Effects of writing beliefs were less clear cut. Although the study suggested that Omani writers' writing beliefs were consistent with those found in previous research, there was little evidence that these were associated with text quality and writing process in Arabic, contrary to previous research. However, there was evidence that writers' beliefs about audience and writing as a recursive process in English were related to both writing process and text quality. The thesis concluded by providing teachers of English as a foreign language with some implications about how to deal with their students' writing issues resulted from their less well developed proficiency in English as a foreign language and lack of motivation. Besides pedagogical implications, the study also offered theoretical and methodological implications and suggested a number of recommendations for future research.

Classroom assessment is a permanent activity for teachers to motivate students to learn and to enhance the quality of instruction. Therefore, this study seeks to explore mathematics teachers' knowledge of classroom assessment and their practices in Saudi Arabian primary schools. The present study also considers the relationship between teachers' assessment knowledge and their practices by investigating whether their practices are consistent with their assessment knowledge. Moreover, the present study aims to identify factors that influence teachers' knowledge and practices of classroom assessment. The study is based on the pragmatic paradigm as both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to achieve the aims of the study. A questionnaire survey was developed and employed to collect data from 109 participants while the classroom observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 primary mathematics teachers. The findings of this study reveal that primary mathematics teachers have different levels of assessment knowledge according to the ways they understand the purposes of applying assessment in their classes. The findings also indicate teachers' lack of awareness regarding what they should assess in mathematics classes. The study indicates a gap between teachers' assessment knowledge and their practices of classroom assessment since teachers' knowledge is not always reflected in their practices of assessment. In addition, the findings show that primary mathematics teachers are implementing various assessment techniques; however, teachers seem to give more importance to traditional assessments than alternative assessments. Moreover, the findings of the study indicate the role of context on teachers' current understandings of assessment and their practice of classroom assessment. These findings are discussed in relation to the evidence from previous research. The study provides the contribution to the literature, the recommendations for a number of stakeholders and suggestions for future research.

Acceleration is essential intervention for gifted students, as it allows them to reduce the time and effort required by learning at a faster pace than typical. Saudi Arabia has recently implemented a grade skipping policy for gifted students as part of the gifted provision options offered by the Ministry of Education. The Saudi policy allows gifted students in fourth grade (age ten) to move to the sixth grade (age twelve), and from the seventh grade (age thirteen) to the ninth grade (age fifteen). However, a clear policy for acceleration at tertiary level education was not included, so the fate of those accelerated students after school is still ambiguous. Currently, these measures do not meet global criteria or the Saudi Vision 2030 plan, which aims to provide educational opportunities no matter what the students' level, and improve the learning environment to stimulate creativity and innovation. In order to meet global criteria and the needs of accelerated students in transition to university, this study aimed to explore the educational components of one successful American school for gifted students that has applied a university-based programme for accelerated students. This study questioned: What are the key educational components of a highly acclaimed American school specialising in accelerated programmes for gifted students? In addition, from the perspective of educational experts in Saudi Arabia, to what extent could these components be transferred and applied within the Saudi educational system? This qualitative study was divided into two stages: Stage One was a case study conducted at a successful school in the USA, and Stage Two was conducted in Saudi Arabia. The study utilised three approaches to data collection: in the US, document analysis, semi-structured interviews with the seven US school staff, and observations; and in Saudi Arabia, semi-structured interviews with ten Saudi experts in the field of gifted education. The findings revealed six main components required to establish an appropriate intervention for accelerated students, namely, educational setting, leadership and personnel, identification process, programmes, counselling services, and curriculum. Two of these components are transferable to the Saudi context and four are subject to conditions such as enhancing the policy of acceleration in Saudi Arabia. However, language, culture and competition between organisations are challenges that may affect the transferability of these components from one context to a totally different context. However, this study provided a model and recommendations that can fit with the Saudi educational system.

This thesis presents professional practice research into Action Learning (AL) facilitation. Motivated by a combination of my formative years of cultural transmission and my enduring interest in learning and how it is facilitated, I have explored the professional practice of the AL facilitator. This was achieved through a process of critical inquiry, self-reflection and evaluation of action learning practice within a Higher Education Post Graduate Programme, commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust. I adopted action research as my overarching research approach which I built into the one-year post graduate programme for the purpose of my research. This enabled planning, fact-finding, taking actions and analysing actions with my co-facilitators as an iterative process to explore the practice of action learning facilitation. Thematic analysis, which involves a 5-step process, was used to collate and investigate the research data. Results from this research reinforce the significance of the role of the AL facilitator in the learning process and offer a model of pedagogy of AL facilitation presented here as the art, craft and apparatus of AL facilitation practice. The 'art' of AL facilitation relates to the underpinning commitment and values of the facilitator which inform responses to participants in the sets. The 'craft' of AL facilitation encompasses facilitator knowledge, skills and experience and the 'apparatus' is the structures and systems that support the facilitation processes. This work contributes to the current literature on action learning and the practice of AL facilitation by offering a framework which visualises the pedagogy of action learning facilitation as a holistic point of reference for the learning and practice of AL facilitation. Key words: Action learning, action learning facilitation, facilitation pedagogy and frameworks.

This interpretive research study explores how English-language teachers at a Saudi Arabian university viewed continuing professional development (CPD). The aims were to achieve a proper understanding of the CPD which these teachers currently received and a recognition of their views regarding their professional development (PD), to discover what forms of CPD they did and did not engage in and to give voice to these teachers by encouraging them to express their views about PD as a fundamental aspect of their work. The study also addresses issues related to the PD of teachers of English in Saudi Arabia such as the nature of the challenges that they and other teachers face in their attempts to engage in CPD, the selection and initiation of professional development activities, areas where PD is needed and the benefits of PD, based on the views and suggestions of the teachers. The exploratory design involves a qualitative research method, namely one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The participants, 23 male English-language teachers on the preparatory year programme (PYP) at a Saudi Arabian university, were found to value CPD as providing lifelong benefits. The findings also reveal that most of the teachers were aware of the importance of PD and the need for it. However, participants expressed general dissatisfaction that teachers’ voices were not listened to in connection with their CPD opportunities and that the planning of their own CPD did not adequately value their personal input, with inevitably negative consequences for their commitment and motivation. The study also identifies the existence of many barriers to satisfactory CPD provision for teachers, such as lack of autonomy, insufficient time after work to pursue CPD, workloads that are deemed to be excessive, unsupportive working conditions and inadequate provision of CPD activities that participants considered relevant. Teachers were found to experience CPD as being policed and top down within a wider culture of compliance at the university under study, leading them to feel professionally compromised and lacking in voice and autonomy. A major theme is the dominance of the needs of the university over those of individual teachers, reflected in the gap between the CPD provided and these individual needs as perceived by the teachers themselves. The study makes recommendations for improving the CPD experience of such teachers and concludes with the most significant implications for the context of study, at the institutional level, for the recruiting agencies, for the Ministry of Education and other governmental bodies, for the teachers themselves and for associations of teachers. A number of recommendations for CPD in general and within the Saudi setting are proposed, along with a number of steps to be taken by the PYP to help raise institutional awareness of successful CPD and to encourage teachers to engage with it more profitably.

Since the rise of positive psychology as a unique discipline, a plethora of school-based interventions have emerged. There is a growing need to understand how these interventions can be effectively evaluated and implemented within schools. This thesis aims to develop an improved system of evaluation for positive psychology school-based interventions. This thesis develops and examines a mixed method sequential four-step evaluation process (efficacy evaluation, effectiveness evaluation, evaluation of the student voice, and a case study). To gain the data to inform these evaluations, a positive psychology school-based intervention was implemented across two school years. In 2015 a total of 144 students in Grades 5 and 6 were drawn from 8 classes in 3 schools. In the 5 classes allocated to the intervention condition the intervention was implemented by a researcher. In 2016 a total of 299 students in Grades 5 and 6 were drawn from 13 classes in 4 schools. In the 7 classes allocated to the intervention condition the intervention was implemented by the existing class primary school teachers. Data was collected from student self-report scales and questionnaires, academic tests, teacher interviews, a parent questionnaire and class observations. The efficacy evaluation in Chapter 2 provides information on both the intervention outcomes that were linked, and those that were not linked to the intervention, when implemented by a researcher under controlled conditions. The effectiveness evaluation in Chapter 3 provides insight into the intervention outcomes linked to the intervention when implemented by primary school teachers in true to life conditions. The evaluation of the student voice in Chapter 4 provides additional information to help in the evaluation and development of the intervention. Synthesis of the results of these three evaluations also provides useful insights into the impact of the interventions and the potential measurement limitations. The case study reported in Chapter 5 identifies school-, teacher- and student-level factors that shaped how effectively the intervention was implemented in schools. Taken together these studies demonstrate the value of using a comprehensive process to evaluate new positive psychology interventions.

This study focuses its attention on language teachers’ professional development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It sets out to explore Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perspectives, attitudes and experiences with regards to their teacher professional development (TPD). It focuses primarily on how teachers perceive the concept of TPD, how they develop professionally to meet the demands of their profession, how they evaluate institutional training provisions, their engagement with self-direct forms of TPD, factors affecting their engagement with TPD opportunities, and how they think TPD could be enhanced in the Saudi context. The study was mainly guided by the following overarching question: What are Saudi EFL teachers’ perceptions, attitudes, and experiences with regards to their TPD? A qualitative approach to data collection was used to achieve the intended goals of the study. Data was collected from 25 practicing Saudi EFL teachers (males and females) via semi-structured interviews, semi-structured reflective essays, and WhatsApp correspondence. The data was thematically analysed. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) model provided a general framework and a sense of direction throughout the process of data analysis. The study highlighted how Saudi EFL teachers understand the concept of TPD. Participants provided a range of definitions for TPD with ‘growth,’ ‘development,’ and ‘adaptation to change’ emerging as key themes underpinning their definitions. Their conceptualisations were mostly functional, context-specific, and focused more on the content of learning and the type of expected effect rather than on the activity itself. Results showed that teachers have a high preference for self-directed TPD for its context specificity and relevance to their immediate needs. Although the study’s participants considered institutional training as one of the main channels of their development that aligns their practices to their employers’ agendas, data showed that they were highly critical of the way it was managed and delivered to them. Data showed that TPD is not a straightforward process. Rather, it is a complex undertaking that is subject to a range of facilitating and inhibiting factors. A number of recommendations were provided by participants on how they think TPD should be managed, how teachers’ missions could be facilitated, and how their motivation could be enhanced.

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