Two case studies – Psychology and Sports Health and Exercise Science (SHES), investigated the influence of personal epistemology on teaching and learning in a higher education context. The investigation used the concept of a socialised habitus of academic personal epistemologies (SHAPE) on which to base the studies contained within the thesis. The theoretical underpinnings of SHAPE can be found in the work conducted on social practice theory (SPT), which includes Bourdieu (2000), Foucault (1984), Reckwitz (2002); and which draws on situated learning theory, activity systems theory, actor network theory, social learning theory (e.g. Bandura, 1977; Lave, 1988; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978) as discussed in Trowler (2012). In addition, SHAPE draws on the work of Bourdieu (1977) and his theory of habitus; and the burgeoning research into personal epistemology (epistemological beliefs is also used in the literature before this term, so they will be used interchangeably). This branch of research began with the seminal work of William Perry culminating in his text entitled ‘Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme’ (1970). The research was underpinned by an instrumentalist ethos (Dewey, 1930) and adopted a mixed methods research design. Phase One of the research process began with the confirmation of the reliability and validity of a quantitative measure of personal epistemology – The Discipline-focused Epistemological Belief Questionnaire (DEBQ, Hofer, 2000). In Phase One and Two, a shortened, more robust revised version of the DEBQ was then used to test for differences between participants at the group level in different modules of study, and for changes in personal epistemology over the duration of a semester of study. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (Trigwell & Prosser, 2004) was used in both case studies, as was the DEBQ. The Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, Tait & McCune, 2000) was used in the Psychology Case Study, which also included qualitative data captured via a series of interviews with fourteen students and two teachers from two psychology undergraduate year two modules; and a focus group involving three of the students who had participated in the interview phase. The different phases and methods of data collection allowed the author to make comparisons between the perceptions of, and approaches to, teaching and learning in the two case studies. 3 The analyses in Phase One resulted in a revised, abbreviated version of the DEBQ. The results from all four phases of the investigation suggest the utility of SHAPE as a concept on which to base future research. The findings from this series of studies suggest the personal epistemology of the teacher has the most profound effect on their students’ personal epistemologies as a group over a semester of study, whilst also recognising the contribution other elements of the teaching and learning context make. Variation within groups of students was also evident for dimensions of personal epistemology, and this influenced their perceptions of teaching, learning, and assessment; and how they approached their studies. The conclusions to be drawn are: SHAPE is a useful addition to the ‘tribes and territories’ (Trowler & Becher, 2001) discipline level of analysis and is a more nuanced, contextual unit of analysis as recognised and recommended in the text entitled ‘Tribes and Territories in the 21st Century: Rethinking the significance of disciplines in higher education’ (Trowler, Saunders & Bamber, 2012). The strength of SHAPE lies in its recognition of the epistemological, ontological, and axiological influences on the processes of teaching, learning, and assessment within a higher education context. As such, SHAPE has the potential to make a useful contribution in the changing horizon of higher education manifest in the modular, semester based curriculum, and the burgeoning of ‘interdisciplinarity’ and its challenge to the established academic disciplinary fields.

This thesis assesses the link between marketing and Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in two higher education institutions. The study comprises a survey and case studies of all the ITT staff in the two universities. The case studies were carried out by semi-structured interviews with key members in the faculty of education and the marketing department of each of the HEIs. The link between marketing and ITT is examined through the application of strategic marketing theory and a theoretical framework for the link is presented. The study showed that the link between marketing and education is dependent upon the stage of development of each institution in terms of marketing. There was no one simple model of marketing but it was found that both universities were well orientated in linking marketing strategy to ITT. The responsiveness of both HEIs to customer needs was found to be appropriate to their organisational structure and their existing culture. The study showed that there were several conflicting pressures faced by senior managers, many of which are similar to those experienced by other university faculties. The main tensions and conflicts faced by managers were to do with managing resources in a difficult economic climate ensuring high quality student recruitment and retention enhancing institutional image addressing issues of competition and developing partnerships. The need for the faculty of education to work closely with the marketing department was considered to be important. The main difficulty which the ITT staff and the marketing staff experience is the lack of communication between them generated by work overload. This presents a challenge by all parties to consider the priority given to the link between marketing and education. A number of initiatives for linking marketing and ITT are identified. These include fostering partnerships with schools and business partners developing closer links with the marketing department and being more proactive in involving students in the development and organisation of ITT provision.

A key component of school improvement initiatives has been the professional development of teachers. However, relatively little work has been undertaken to explore the contribution made by programmes in higher education in the professional development of teachers and their institutions. This is despite some considerable doubt raised by some writers and official policies. This research focuses upon the evidence for impact, the conditions that contribute to that impact and an analysis of the role of HE in the professional development of teachers in the context of school improvement. The research is a case study of one institution. A naturalistic and interpretative approach is adopted, portraying the views of participants on the APU programme. Data is collected through semi structured interviews and supported by observation, documentary analysis and Ofsted reports. The research concludes that impact is widespread and ubiquitous, and that conditions are found in individual motivations, within schools and within the HEI provider. This leads to a conclusion that care for the whole system of education, including the university sector is essential for developing continuous improvement. In particular, the way the profession values academic awards, and the inherent qualities of critical reflection, research, and analysis that the awards represent are shown to be an important factor or condition in assessing 'impact'.

This study examined the current practice of a formal mentoring programme at the Hong Kong Baptist University with special emphasis on (a) the mentor and mentees' perspectives on mentoring, (b) the desirable characteristics of mentors, (c) preferences of gender in mentoring and (d) problems in mentoring. Surveys of mentors and mentees were undertaken to provide the basic sources of data. 447 and 79 valid responses were received from mentees and mentors respectively. Ten of the mentors were also interviewed. From the quantitative data collected through the survey, the findings revealed that a large proportion of mentors were male so there was a high incidence of male mentor-female mentee relationships. Apparent discrepancies between mentors and mentees' views were observed in the desirable characteristics of mentors. The analysis of quantitative data yielded a slight significance between gender expectations on the desirable characteristics of mentors, yet the differences among faculties were significant. There was no gender preference in choosing mentors or mentees but, when given an option, faculty and students would choose a mentor or mentee of the same sex. From the qualitative analysis of mentors' interviews, the problems such as lack of time for both mentors and mentees, the lack of training for mentors and the lack of support from senior management for mentoring were identified. Recommendations include suggestions on how to improve the current mentoring programme, development of a model for mentoring and the need for further research in matching mentors and mentees.

Integrated marketing has become relatively widespread in higher education. Nevertheless, only few formal studies have been carried out on integrated marketing in institutions of higher education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine integrated marketing as a means of achieving responsiveness in an institution of higher education in Israel during a period of change. This change resulted from the creation of several one-year programs, intended increase student enrollment, which were planned to give students a professional diploma with accreditation in academic courses. However, to implement these programs created a need for marketing to permeate all areas of the organization, i.e. for integrated marketing. This enabled research on integrated marketing to be undertaken as a case study using the research tools of interviews, questionnaires and documents. The main findings were that the institution had a low level of responsiveness, the extent of integrated marketing was low with almost no commitment by senior management, systematic market research was not carried out, no strategic orientation took place, implementation failed, and even the university's performance was low with a decrease in enrolment and dissatisfied students. However, these failures were not negative for this thesis, since they were instrumental in developing a theoretical model for the implementation of integrated marketing. This model, built as a chronological clock, emphasizes that implementing integrated marketing is a circular ongoing process, since marketing is a dynamic activity. It puts a committed top management at its centre because without top managers' true commitment to integrated marketing throughout its implementation, integrated marketing will ultimately fail. The model also suggests that senior management must be committed to continuous research, including not only external market research such as potential students' needs, but also internal research such as satisfaction of current enrolled students and employees' understandings of the importance of integrated marketing.

This thesis reviews management practices from a practitioners perspective in relation to the provision of key skills teaching in FEFC funded post-16 colleges in the period 1992-1999. In particular it focuses on issues associated with practitioners experience of managing change in response to changing educational policy. Data was obtained via a survey of 38 colleges in the West Midlands region followed by case study work in four colleges. The findings reinforce concerns raised in the literature that colleges have had difficulty in managing the teaching of key skills and have been influenced by policy prescriptions from NCVQ (QCA from 1998) and the FEFC regarding 'best practice'. It is concluded that colleges have adopted a variety of pragmatic approaches that have been applied inconsistently and compete with other college services. To be effective colleges need to focus more clearly upon the needs of the individual learner through the development and application of tools that clearly identify key skill support needs. Consideration needs to be given to redefining 'learner support' in order that a set of coherent services can be provided so that all aspects of learner support and student progress can be tracked and effective intervention and support can be provided. A model is proposed which seeks to illustrate the relationship between the management of key skills teaching and related services, and is designed to promote the provision of a range of flexible learner support services.

The rapid expansion of university places in Hong Kong between the late 1980s and the middle of 1990s has brought about a number of changes to the local higher education scene. Primary among these changes is the increased choice of university education for students. Along with the widened choice, new consumer groups and a more competitive market environment are created. Consequently higher educational institutions have to place more emphasis on promoting and marketing their own programmes and courses. It appears that a wide array of student recruitment activities take place without a systematic analysis of the factors affecting student university choice. The lack of local research on university choice suggests that researching into this area to examine students' decision-making process would be worthwhile. This study presents the findings of a questionnaire survey of 1,684 first-year undergraduate entrants to a university in Hong Kong. Two sets of data were collected: first, the importance of twenty-eight identified factors in affecting student university choice; second, the students' rating of the University on these factors. The study aims to identify the influential factors in student university choice, and measure the strengths and weaknesses of the surveyed University against these factors.

This case study is an evaluation of an innovative ESP intervention curriculum designed to improve the job-interview program in the ESP syllabus in an English medium university. The intervention curriculum was a pedagogic process tailored to the situated small culture of the Lebanese ESP class. Five ESP students attending a business communication course participated. The case study arrived at four general conclusions. First it was found that the participants actively engaged in different structures of learning across the stages of the intervention curriculum, which included an enriched ESP learning session, simulation in the classroom context, the group interview, and simulation in the job-interview context. Second, it was found that the participants' job-interview performance improved when comparing their audio-visually recorded simulation in the classroom context to that held in the authentic job-interview context. Third, the participants perceived that their job-interview performance improved because they were better able to address the job-interview context and content. Fourth, the practitioner-researcher drawing on triangulated sources and methods of investigations posited that the intervention curriculum was a relatively effective pedagogic process since the three pedagogic tools of informal cooperative learning, simulating, and the impact of audiovisual recording seem to have been positively perceived and were integrated into the participants' effort towards professional improvement. In implementing the intervention curriculum as pedagogy, shortcomings were found. Participants did not interact freely amongst each other, their classmates, and their lecturer. In addition, some students exhibited weaknesses in communicative skills. Recommendations were made to amend the intervention curriculum and change the research design.

Mechanics' institutes were the first systematic attempt to provide adult education for the skilled working classes, with emphasis on science and mechanics at a time when the quest for knowledge was a concern of the labour aristocracy. Traditionally associated with the northern and industrial areas, recent scholarship has revealed thriving and multifarious institute activity in the south. Although part of the national movement, each institution was a unique creation of its own environment, with local and regional networks. Thomas Kelly's pioneering work identified where institutes existed. This study of Sussex and Hampshire draws together a range of sources to indicate the presence of many more mechanics' institutes. While some survived only a short time, others endured for seventy years or more, charting their own history of change, continuity and progress. Religious issues were prohibited at the institutes, but Unitarian influence was crucial in their development. Management structures varied and affected the success of individual institutes, combining with influential patrons and charismatic leaders to direct their public image and relationship with the media. By the 1830s, mechanics' institutes had also begun to attract the middle classes and the original strict scientific curriculum had been modified to include more general subjects. Scientific dominance however persisted in some institutions such as those at Lewes and Portsmouth. Music featured prominently as a cultural focus, whilst a spirit of civic pride was fostered through the institutions' buildings and social events. Women's roles changed from noninclusion to significant participation, encouraged by Unitarian/Quaker influences and pioneering female lecturers. By 1875, mechanics' institutes had initiated vital developments in adult educational progress and above all, cultivated a desire for learning.

The importance of international students to British universities has received increasing recognition over the last decade. Their integration and, to a certain degree, their satisfaction as paying customers have become essential for universities. To understand their experiences, scholars have researched international students, for instance from a literacy perspective. Extensive research into various areas of second language acquisition and social aspects of language learning has furthered our understanding in this area. Here, academic literacy in general and academic writing in particular have become a noted focus. However, the multitudes of factors of "Academic Culture" that influence students' success in a university programme abroad have not been researched extensively. The focus of this study is the acquisition of a "Second Academic Culture". This encompasses the practices and norms of various student activities including group work, awareness of authority and power distances. This study analyses the different elements of academic culture and the acquisition of a second academic culture empirically by examining international students who came to the UK for postgraduate studies at the Park Royal College (PRC). Prior to their arrival in the UK they had acquired the academic culture of their home university through an undergraduate degree. The theoretical frameworks applied in this study are Communities of Practice and Activity Theory. Communities of Practice, as a learning theory, provides insight into the learning situation for students within their learning community. Activity Theory emphasises the object-orientedness, mediation and contradictions within the students' activity systems and between them. By analysing the students' experiences, this study brings forth the multi-faceted composition of academic culture. Through its empirically grounded and theoretically reflective insights, this research contributes to our understanding of the international student experience at the PRC in particular and of second academic culture acquisition in general.