This is an ethnographic study of a group of Chinese students in a UK university and their emotional experiences while they adjust to the host academic and sociocultural environment. The study focuses on these students’ understanding of and responses to emotions in their intercultural encounters in this context. The empirical findings show that: 1) Chinese students’ constructions of emotions: seek connections with people in the host environment; value approval in interactions with people in the host environment; pursue competence when performing academic and social tasks; promote positive self-presentation in classroom discussions; seek intimacy in intercultural friendships; and value sincerity in intercultural relationships. These constructions are centred on three aspects: encountering and engaging with the host environment; performing academic and social tasks; and developing interpersonal relationships. 2) Chinese students’ ways of responding to emotions involve: changing oneself; changing the environment; and other responses (including emotion-focused coping and the avoidance of emotion eliciting events or situations). 3) There are a variety of sociocultural and historical factors that influence the development of Chinese students’ constructions of or responses to emotions in their intercultural adjustment processes: emotional contagion, emotional coincidence, empathy, close proximity, the presence of other Chinese students, a perceived low level of host receptivity, conformity pressure from the Chinese group, being in a disadvantageous position in power imbalanced encounters, habituation with the existing Chinese network, and previous learning experiences. The findings give valuable insights into Chinese students’ affective intercultural adjustment journey, and have practical implications for prospective Chinese international students and intercultural education in higher education, especially in the context of the UK.

The current study was conducted with three primary objectives in mind. The first was to investigate students’ achievements in immediate and delayed post tests in CALL multimedia and traditional classrooms as well as their attitudes towards using CALL for vocabulary learning. The second objective was to assess the frequencies of use of word solving strategies by learners in the two learning environments. The third objective was to explore the students' perceptions of the word solving strategies’ helpfulness in these two different learning classrooms. The participants of the current study consisted of 67 male Saudi students who were enrolled in the first year at the English department at Majmaah University, KSA. A quasi-experimental method was used as the researcher has chosen two classes from two Colleges without assigning the learners into groups randomly. The participants were 31 students from a Community College (treatment group) and 36 students from the Administrative Sciences and Humanities College (control group). Both Colleges were based in Majmaah City in Saudi Arabia. A Pretest/Posttest Control Group Design was adopted. Therefore, both groups were pre-tested to ensure that their language level with regards to the target L2 words were equivalent. In addition to this, their previous background and use of the word solving strategies were evaluated to ensure that all participants were aware of the word solving strategies use. Those reported to have used these strategies and showed that they were not introduced into any training or teaching on vocabulary learning strategies use in their previous educational stages. The study utilised both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. Pre-tests, as well as immediate and delayed post tests were used to investigate the students' vocabulary achievements. Questionnaires were used to examine the students' frequencies of word solving strategies use and its helpfulness perceptions. A questionnaire was also used to examine the treatment group's attitudes, (CALL group), towards learning vocabulary with CALL. With regard to the qualitative method, an oral interview was conducted with five students from CALL group in order to thoroughly investigate their attitudes towards their experience of studying vocabulary in a CALL multimedia classroom and how they utilised the most frequently used strategy. The findings of the study showed that both groups had learned a significant number of the target words after the teaching sessions, but the CALL group outperformed the other group and the difference between the two groups’ achievements in the immediate and delayed post tests were statistically significant whilst the effect size calculations showed that the CALL multimedia, (the intervention), had a positive impact on the treatment group. In addition, the learners' frequencies of the word solving strategies use, in both learning classrooms, were improved after the study, but the CALL group used these strategies more frequently than the traditional group, with the difference between them proving statistically significant. This was similar to the results for the helpfulness perceptions. The CALL group's overall perceptions regarding the helpfulness of the used strategies was greater than the traditional group's and the difference between them was statistically significant. With this said, the findings showed that there was no discrepancy between the two groups with regard to the most and least frequently used strategies. The most commonly used strategy was the dictionary consultations whilst the least commonly used one was the skipping unknown word strategy. In addition, both groups perceived the dictionary use strategy as an extremely helpful strategy. The skipping new words strategy was perceived as the least helpful strategy by the two groups. The traditional group also perceived the ask classmate strategy as not helpful. Positive attitudes towards CALL were also found by the CALL group. They confirmed that the existence of the computers in schools was very important. They reported that CALL was very effective for vocabulary learning. However, a few of the participants preferred using traditional methods to the CALL method as they were not very experienced in computer usage.

This research explores how educational psychologists' (EPs) professional identities are communicated and constructed through discourses. As such, discourses at both a macro and micro level, including texts and talk are of interest. Discourse analysis drawing on a critical framework was used in an attempt to illuminate tensions amongst discourses, which shape EPs' professional identities. The analysis grapples with how the wider discourses made available to EPs resist or affirm those at an individual level. Interviews were carried out to explore how EPs' professional identities are communicated through their talk about professional practice experiences. Furthermore, the research is interested in how professional values are reflected in the EPs' talk about complex casework. The analysis suggests multiple discursive constructions contribute to the shaping of EPs' professional identity and that these relate to the wider discourses. Five wider discourses were identified as a result of the analysis. These include, 'EP as relational worker', 'EP as research practitioner', 'EP as scientist practitioner ', 'EP as LA officer' and 'EP as advocate for the child'. The research contributes to critical conversations in the field of educational psychology and emphasises the importance of exploring the relationship between professional identity and practice when considering future directions for the profession.

The disparate ways in which dyslexia can be constructed in discourse in the higher education context have implications for the students who have been given the dyslexia label and for those in the wider learning community. The current study is an in-depth, two-level discourse analysis of two focus group conversations between university students with an identification of dyslexia. The study aimed to identify the discourses of dyslexia constructed during the focus groups; to explore the related subject positions students took up, offered or resisted (after Davies & Harre, 2001) and to consider some of the implications of such positionings; and finally to identify the wider discourses and ideologies reproduced in the texts (Willig, 2008; Gee, 2005). The researcher identified (co-constructed) the following key discourses of dyslexia in the texts: dyslexia as desirable, as innate deficit, as an excuse for stupidity or laziness, as difference, as disability, as social construction, and as identity. The researcher identified the following key subject positions taken up, offered or resisted in the texts: being intelligent/ able, being a survivor, being ‘just who I am’, being a hard-worker, being worthy/ deserving, being disabled, being a fraud, and being deficient. The researcher named four ideological threads active within the conversations: education and literacy; neoliberalism, meritocracy and the individual; health, morality and medicine; and positivism, cognitivism and biological determinism. The analysis suggested that particular subject positions encouraged or denied participants certain ways-of-being as learners. Analysis also suggested that these subject positions were tied to particular discourses of dyslexia, and to particular ideological positions. This thesis considers the implications of the identified discourses and ideologies in full and suggests how this knowledge can be used within higher education and within critical psychology to raise awareness of how and why talk which constructs psycho-educational types of learner matters.

The shift toward learner-centred approaches in language teaching and learning has resulted in greater interest in the role of the learner. The trend towards learner autonomy in this regard has occupied a wide space in the literature. One of the issues that has been hotly debated in the field of learner autonomy is its appropriateness/inappropriateness to certain cultures; more specifically, autonomy has sometimes been referred to as alien and inappropriate to non-Western cultures. This study aims to investigate the Libyan context which is categorised as one of the contexts in which autonomy is claimed to be inappropriate. However, education policy in Libya encourages learners to take responsibility for their learning and autonomy can take various manifestations and degrees. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to see how autonomy is manifested and what impinges on it through investigating how the participants perceive and practise their roles in the teaching-learning process, and how the concept of learners being allowed to take active roles is conceived in the context of this study. The means through which I approached the context were ethnographic methods to the collection and analysis of data. These are interviews and observations. This is because the investigation requires 'living the experience and seeing a truth' - in order to abstain from claiming that there is only one truth. Findings derived from investigating the context related to the participants' general appreciation of the modes of collaboration and negotiation in learning. Teachers mostly held positive attitudes about allowing learners opportunities to be active, responsible learners, and learners themselves generally perceived themselves as adopting such roles. One of the significant modes that was particularly preferred for most of the teachers and learners was teachers providing help and encouragement and scaffolding learners to take more autonomous stances in their learning. The participants, particularly teachers, head-teachers and inspectors, emphasised the centralisation of education policy through which they were sometimes deprived of chances to turn ideas or initiative into practical work. There were other factors that impinged on the participants' practices, such as constraints placed by the materials, the exams and length of lessons. However, autonomy was seen to be realised in a contextually relevant form. Participants exhibited psychological readiness for being autonomous: for learners, they were active and showed enthusiasm for working collaboratively, while teachers demonstrated awareness of their roles as helpers for learners. On a technical level, participants complained about the layout of classes and the shortage of technology based aids such as computers that they suggested have a considerable effect on their teaching and learning. Also there was a degree of teachers controlling lessons, and learners recognising this control and their roles as active agents in learning. Sometimes teachers showed almost complete control of lessons with learners' reactions ranging from succumbing to this control to challenging it and negotiating active roles in their learning. Socio-culturally, the study gained insightful findings in terms of appreciation by the participants of collaborative and collective work, both learners with learners and learners with teachers. In this, teachers worked to bridge the gaps between learners' current situation where help and guidance are needed to stages where learners become gradually more autonomous in their learning. This study is hoped to provide insights into understanding the power relations between teachers and learners in Libya for a more effective implementation of education policy, and also to provide a theoretical contribution to the field of learner autonomy.

An online community of practice (OCoP) is a group of people, who are brought together by a shared interest and with the aim of deepening their understanding of an area of knowledge through regular interactions facilitated by computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. In response to critiques of current professional development (PD) approaches such as workshops and cascade training which are conducted in short periods of time allowing for only limited follow up and feedback opportunities, OCoPs can be beneficial and a viable alternative for teacher PD. This is because an OCoP potentially provides teachers with those elements of effective PD, cited in the literature, such as; collaboration, opportunities for mentoring, and sustainability over time. However, research on adopting an OCoP approach for teacher PD has been limited. Therefore, conducted within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching, the present study aimed to 1) investigate EFL teachers’ PD in learning how to integrate technology in their teaching and 2) identify what factors contribute towards creating successful OCoPs. The Webheads in Action (WiA) community has been chosen as a case for this study since WiA has previously been established to be an OCoP in which EFL teachers from different countries participate. A mixed methods research strategy was adopted which combined questionnaires and interviews. Initially, the questionnaire was administered to 69 members of the community. 24 of those members (4 core, 9 active, and 11 peripheral) participated in follow up interviews. Additionally, members’ interactions in the public group page were collated over a period of nine months in order to triangulate findings. The results suggested that member participation in the community led to perceived technology professional development (TPD) of EFL teachers and that the more a member participated and collaborated with other members, the higher their reported TPD was; a finding which underlined the importance of co-construction of knowledge in this process. Two major themes emerged in relation to factors affecting member participation in this long standing OCoP. The first one was identified as the creation of a sense of belonging to the community which was achieved through various means such as having an initiation process, providing an inclusive community environment, fostering trust through community norms, and meeting other members face-to-face. The second was dynamism inherent in the community which manifested itself as new topics that kept members interested and participating, and a flow of continuous member recruitment to the community. In conclusion, this study showed that OCoPs can be a viable alternative form of teacher PD and highlighted the importance of not only the professional but also the socio-affective dimension for designing and sustaining OCoPs.

In this thesis I document a study of first-year undergraduate students' uses of Facebook to negotiate their transition into their first year at a UK university. I did this through a mixed method two-phase approach of large-scale questionnaires and a longitudinal connective ethnography, which took place across Facebook and the university campus. The analysis was undertaken using a temporal framework. I explore literature from three differing research areas; the corpus of literature on student experience at university; literature on social media and technology use by Higher Education (HE) students, and literature on time and space in HE. The focus of my research was to explore the realities of social media use by undergraduates, specifically their use of Facebook in the first-year transition to university. The findings are presented as narratives of six Facebook Friends presented across the academic year. These narratives illustrate themes, which emerged from the data and include "making friends in the digital" to "disconnection (I don't want to be here anymore)". The multi-sited approach allowed for observation both on Facebook and faceto- face, so as to go beyond the online/offline dichotomy to explore the complex relationship of the embedded and ubiquitous nature of Facebook in my participants' lives.

This study was designed to explore how the use of computers can facilitate and make accessible word-mathematical problem solving for students with dyslexia in Cyprus, given their learning difficulties; that the available ICT resources in Cyprus are restricted; and that the IT skills of the majority of students and teachers are limited, in two different settings: the wholeclassrooms of students with dyslexia and on an individual level. Web-based learning environments (WBLEs) were designed in collaboration with participating teachers with the use of simple tools that do not demand specialized IT knowledge. Several word-based mathematical problems were chosen. The WBLEs guided the students following five steps. The guidance was facilitated by navigation buttons, audio instructions, pictures, and diagrams, etc. Six whole-classroom implementations were conducted where the students (including a student with dyslexia) collaborated in groups with the use of a computer. Also, eight individual implementations were conducted with two other students with dyslexia; four implementations respectively. Data were collected through observations, interviews, tests, and computer screen capturing, and these were analysed by following thematic analysis. It was found that the computer-assisted environment can support students with dyslexia in WMPS to a great extent. The facilities provided by the WBLEs, the benefits of collaborative and individualized learning support with the use of WBLEs, the continuous guidance and feedback provided by teachers, peers and WBLEs, can support students with dyslexia in such tasks. The short-lasting impact is an indication of the need for more frequent use of the computer for this purpose. Also, despite the limited available ICT resources in Cypriot mainstream classrooms, as well as a lack of suitable software for WMPS for students with dyslexia, and limited IT skills of students and even teachers, ICT can be embedded in the instruction with additional learning value for students, by creating simple WBLEs.

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Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 教育学博士 / 乙第1421号 / 論教博第10号 / 新制||教||12, 13(附属図書館) / 2211 / UT51-45-B533 / (主査)教授 重松 俊明, 教授 姫岡 勤, 教授 前田 博 / 学位規則第5条第2項該当