This thesis investigates an area which is not commonly examined: the language learning strategies which Japanese high school teachers of English as a Foreign Language report using to improve their own English and those they report teaching their students. Learning strategies are ways in which learners deal with aspects of learning. In the case of language learning strategies, these focus specifically on the learning of target languages. Revised versions on Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning 5.1 and 7.0 were combined and sent to 272 Japanese teachers of English. The data was examined to determine to what degree teachers use and teach various strategies and whether these varied according to gender, number of years teaching EFL, which subject their degree was in, and correlations between these. In addition, 24 teachers later took part in unstructured interviews which were subsequently analysed according to interpretative methodology (Erickson 1986). Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) differentiates language learning strategies into various groups. The findings showed that teachers report using and teaching compensation strategies mostly. However, the findings from the semi-structured interviews are somewhat different in that this data showed that while teachers use compensation strategies themselves, they do not appear to teach these to students. Further, while questionnaire answers indicate that they report using social strategies as the second least used strategy group, in the interviews they report using social strategies extensively, but they do not appear to teach them to students. The fact that teachers often teach their students different strategies to the ones they use themselves is also examined, as well as the fact that some teachers tend to teach different strategies according to the academic level of the school. Again, these findings are examined in the light of social, educational contexts at different levels in Japan. Based on the findings in this thesis, suggestions are given for language learning strategy guidance for teachers and learners.

A model using peer support in mentoring as a way of professional development was produced from an extensive literature search. It set out to suggest strategies to optimise the peer mentoring process between two experienced primary teachers in science teaching. The two year study subsequently collected data from 24 teachers, 12 of whom were participating in an in-service science programme. After one team five mentor pairs were selected as a research cohort for more detailed monitoring. Biographical and demographic information, views and beliefs about teaching and learning in science, and data about the research cohort teachers' understandings of mentoring, was collected. The data from the research cohort teachers' understandings of mentoring was compared with questionnaires from a sample of over 100 different primary and secondary teachers. The strategies and activities carried out by the research cohort teacher pairs was monitored through questionnaires, interviews, regular individual researcher/tutor-teacher mentoring meetings, periodic collective group meetings, teachers' logs and completed proformas and tape and video recordings.;Following the data collection and analysis the Framework used in the Project was reviewed and moderated. It was also found that access to a mentor increased the research cohort teachers' sense of well being and confidence to teach science. The implications of the study are that mentoring can be a manageable activity for some, self-selected teachers.

A comparison of mentor and coach approaches across disciplines Confusion surrounds the role of the mentor and coach, given the broad and sometimes conflicting definitions attributed to mentoring and coaching. This prohibits practitioners communicating clearly about their role and whether it is suitable to the needs of the client. Furthermore, it presents difficulties with purchasers or potential clients understanding what they might get out of being mentored or coached. This study examined the shared and distinctive approaches of mentors and coaches, by exploring the work of practitioners within six disciplines: mentors of young people, mentors of leaders, mentors of newly qualified teachers, executive coaches, coaching psychologists and sports coaches. A review of the literature was carried out in relation to these six areas which suggested that shared practitioner approaches were evident, particularly where client needs were similar. The literature also intimated some differences in approach when the specific discipline was taken into account. However, no research was found which asked mentors and coaches to identify any unique aspects of their role that might set them apart from other types of practitioners. A qualitative study using comparative case studies explored the approaches of practitioners from each of the six identified disciplines to address this gap. Findings suggest that mentor or coach approaches might be viewed as discipline-specific where practitioners want to specialise in a particular type of mentoring or coaching which requires specific knowledge and/or skills. However, for the field of mentoring and coaching to further develop, mentors and coaches could expand their capacity and scope of work by adopting interdisciplinary approaches and reapplying their skills across a range of disciplines, where appropriate. This would also encourage the sharing of good practice across the mentoring and coaching disciplines. Further research is needed which takes into consideration the approaches and needs in other disciplines not featured in this study.

No description available.

It is important that teachers are open to look at evidence of how their teaching impacts on students classroom engagement and therefore are better able to meet the educational needs of students. The education sector is nationally and globally recognised as being committed to advancing teaching into a profession of the highest calibre teachers. Institutions and their teaching staff have an obligation to provide the necessary conditions, opportunities and expectations for engagement to prevail. Key among effective teaching practices is teacher-student interaction or the degree to which the teacher is able to engage the students. Calls are made for coherence across the education sectors as to the importance of transition between post-primary (PP) and higher education (HE) and the implementation of quality teaching initiatives that are equally effective between the levels. The phenomenographic method and incumbent techniques of focus groups and one-to-one semi-structured interviews at both PP and HE levels yield valuable insights into how quality teaching can be achieved across the education levels. The benefits of letting students have a voice are evident from the current study and the literature. It appears that educational stakeholders must share a fundamental commitment to improving outcomes for students and there is an emerging recognition that, to make a difference, change must be meaningfully situated and sustained in the classroom. The Refined Quality Teaching Initiatives Framework devised from this study’s findings outlines how successful transition of students between education levels can happen, with the quality teaching initiatives recommended being equally effective across education levels. Active listening by the teacher and the student is a precursor to dual interaction modelling dialogue. Collaboration and reflection between the teacher and student leads to dual engagement where students and teachers become co-constructors of knowledge at the classroom level. Students can transition with ease between PP and HE because similar constructs exist at both levels. The outcomes of this research study propose to establish stronger links between quality teaching initiatives at PP and HE, suggest an approach for putting these initiatives into practice and provide proposals for improvements in policy to make these changes happen.

Language teaching still maintains its strong position in the way it contributes to empowering individuals on a personal, economic, cultural and global level. Since the 1980s the Communicative Approach has shaped the way languages are taught. It has emphasised identifying learners' needs and catering for these needs, meaningful learning and individual differences. Studies on language acquisition and classroom language learning are helping in the constant search for ways in which successful learning can be fostered in foreign language classrooms. This study investigated foreign language classrooms in two mainstream secondary school settings -English and Turkish, to understand the ongoing practice in schools and explore the ways in which students get the opportunities for spoken practice of the target language. The data, collected through structured observations, audio recording of lessons, field notes and teacher interviews, suggested that teachers dominate classroom talk, the opportunities for pair and group work are limited compared to the proportion of teacher-fronted lessons. In the English context, it was found that students' language is highly restricted in terms of the content and linguistic form they are expected to produce. In the Turkish context, students were found to engage in more extended talk and display creative use of the language. This study identified certain features of teacher talk as contributing factors to the quality and quantity of students' language production. It is suggested that for the English context, the limitations of students' language production may be a result of the way the modern languages curriculum and schemes of work are designed, and that if the government is sincere about achieving its agenda to ensure economic success in international trade, access to global citizenship and for mutual understanding among cultures, the language curriculum and schemes of work may need to be revised, and learners and parents need to be informed about the empowering aspects of language learning. For the Turkish context, newly qualified teachers were found to face difficulties in facilitating student participation and creative use of the target language. Therefore, it was suggested that more research is necessary to identify the challenges they face, the type of departmental or external training support they may be needing, how much support is already provided or other teachers may be willing to provide. The implications of such a study point towards ensuring a certain quality of teaching in a consistent manner in schools.

No description available.

This thesis conducts cross-country analyses using data from all inhabited continents to examine the support of common expectations based on either Neo-classical Economics or popular beliefs. The first two chapters use SACMEQ data from sub-Saharan Africa. The first chapter argues that changes in class size trigger a number of mechanisms affecting how the pupils’ household, school leaders, teachers and peers behave. These behaviours are highly context-specific and may counterbalance or exacerbate one another. It finds that the main threat to a pupil’s achievement is sharing the teacher with more peers, but that household behaviours can mitigate or even outweigh this threat. The second chapter examines the conditional correlation of observable teacher characteristics and pupil achievement. It argues and demonstrates that previous research using the same data does not sufficiently address the teacher-pupil matching problem and that lacking to do so leads to very different conclusions. The chapter categorises the available observable teacher characteristics as proxies for either subject-matter or pedagogic competency and examines their complementarity by adding interactions between the individual proxies of these two competencies. The evidence suggests these two competencies are substitutes in six of ten countries. The third chapter uses OECD TALIS 2013 data to explore the connection between teachers’ workload and their job satisfaction. It applies a production function approach that combines both Top-down and Bottom-up approaches. It finds that the effect of teachers’ workload measured in hours is negligible. But evidence of the effect of teachers’ perceptions of their workplace from the English sub-sample provides clear evidence that the workplace matters.

The idea that teachers differ substantially in their ability to motivate and educate students has pervaded educational research for decades. While the education system, and teachers in particular, provide an enormously important service, many people hold teachers almost entirely responsible for differences between classes and for individual students’ performance. The belief that the ‘teacher effect’ is such that students would perform better or worse given a specific teacher remains unfounded, as true experimental design is difficult to apply. The present thesis, employing pseudo-experimental methods, investigated potential teacher/classroom effects on several educational outcomes. The five empirical chapters in this thesis explored whether students’ motivation, academic performance, and perception of learning environment were affected by their teachers and/or classmates, as reflected in average differences between classes. Investigations were conducted longitudinally and cross-culturally, in three different education systems using data from four samples. Two samples were secondary school students aged 10 to 12 years, in their first year of secondary education, from the UK and Russia, and two samples were large representative developmental twin studies, the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) from the UK, and the Quebec Newborn Twin Study (QNTS) from Quebec, Canada. Average differences were observed across classrooms and teacher groups, effect sizes ranging from 2% to 25%. The results suggested a weak influence of current subject teacher that was difficult to disentangle from several confounding factors, such as peer influences, selection processes, individual differences in ability and perceptions, teacher characteristics and evocative processes. The findings suggest that student outcomes, rather than being predominantly influenced by teacher effects, are under multiple influences. Overall, the results call for caution in considering ‘added value’ or ‘teacher effect’ measures as valid criteria for current education policies that affect teacher promotion and employment prospects.

The purpose of this enquiry is to investigate decentralisation in Nigeria and its implications for teacher leadership. In this study, teacher leadership is defined as the process through which classroom teachers in formal and informal leadership roles exercise leadership. Teachers do this by recognising and celebrating expertise, providing for the. needs of their' students, supporting colleagues, responding to the needs of their context and challenging the existing culture and structures. Extensive literature on the topic already exists, which shows that teacher leadership is an important focus of research. Most studies, however, are limited to Western contexts, with little attention to how school leadership is perceived and defined in Asian and African societies. Furthermore, as there are no published studies on teacher leadership in Nigeria, this PhD study makes an original and unique contribution to the literature. The investigation addresses five research questions: (1) Why and to what extent has educational policy in Nigeria become more decentralised and with what implications for teacher leadership? (2) What forms of teacher leadership are in evidence, and how are these shaped by context? (3) What are teachers' perceptions about why they engage in teacher leadership activities? (4) How is teacher leadership facilitated? (5) What are the barriers to teacher leadership and how might these be addressed? The framework of this study is therefore set within the context of research on leadership, professional learning and policy implementation . The empirical part of the study was conducted in four phases. The first phase involved the analysis of government policy on decentralisation. This provided insights into government expectations of teachers' involvement in school leadership. In the second phase, a pilot study was conducted in preparation for the main study. The third phase started with the distribution of a qualitative questionnaire; a total of 241 copies were distributed to all teachers in the three government senior secondary schools participating in the study in urban, semi-urban and semi-rural settings. Some of the teachers who responded to the questionnaire were selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and observations. The fourth phase involved a multisite case study in the same three government senior secondary schools in Abuja. The fourth phase involved a multi-site case study with the use of varied methods such as interviews, observations and document analysis. The participants were teachers from different management levels: principals, vice principals, senior mistresses and masters, heads of departments and classroom teachers. The findings reveal that in Nigerian schools, teacher leadership takes a particular form shaped by context, in some ways it is similar and in some ways different from previous findings on distributed leadership. The differences suggest a modification of Spillane et al.'s (2001) model on distributed leadership based on contextual factors. A model for understanding teacher leadership in three case study schools is developed, involving people and situations within and outside the school. These include school contextual factors such as structures, cultural practices, resources, and leadership of the SLMT and classroom teachers. The outside school factors include government policy context, the local community, and professional associations. This study contributes to knowledge by examining teachers' leadership in a context that has not been previously researched, providing a detailed description of teacher leadership practices in three different settings. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research findings and possible areas for future enquiries.