This thesis has grown out of interest in teaching practice at the university level in Libya. It aims to investigate writing teachers’ cognition about teaching writing in English language. These issues are investigated in this thesis and are preceded by explanation of the learning and teaching context in Libya, and a theoretical framework drawing on definitions of cognition, teachers’ knowledge and approaches to teaching writing that might help to understand the connection between the participants’ theoretical knowledge and their teaching practice. Educational, cultural, and personal views of teaching emerge as essential areas of investigation for understanding the teaching practice as well as the vision of teaching that teachers have developed over years of teaching experience. The findings are generated from a mixture of interviews, classroom observation, and workshops. The findings show that although the participants share many background features of the teaching contexts, they have different views about the actual practice of teaching writing. These views can be categorised into three broad groups. The first group focuses on form and micro skills of writing. The second group balances form with content. The third group focuses more on fluency and writing extended pieces of writing. In addition, the findings show that the writing teachers in the three selected Libyan universities largely depend on their own self development and informal learning to deal with challenges such as inconsistent syllabus, students’ mixed level and large class sizes. Furthermore, the findings of the study make a contribution in relation to exploring the ways in which professional development can be introduced by a trial of two workshops. Most importantly, the workshops show that teachers’ willingness to broaden their knowledge of teaching motivates them to seek opportunities for shared professional development.

The context of the work of universities, in Cameroon is one of high levels of poverty, scarcities and uncertain and fragile economies. Yet, the actual and potential role of universities in such a context, in relation to its civic responsibilities, remains unclear. The research offers a case study of one particular university, in a predominantly rural area of the country; and using qualitative enquiry methods, it engaged, dialogically, with diverse samples of people living in the area, and those working in the university. The aim was to build a systematic understanding of how people construct the existing and potential role of the university, and what might be required to meet their aspirations and desires in more developed and dialogical ways. Based on interviews, focus groups, observations and documents reviewed, specific methodologies by which the university’s contribution to community development can be enhanced, with particular emphasis on community-based service learning, but also community-based research and community-based adult education was to be articulated. This research found that although the community has priority needs, and the university’s engagement can fundamentally be a force for community transformation, it seldom consist of objectives and processes aimed at addressing these needs due to lack of interconnections within the university and between the university and the local community. This thesis therefore argues that by complementing the university’s engagement activities in the community with interconnections with the community but also within the university, uneven power relations and communication gaps existing within the university and between the university and different segments of the local community which had hitherto limited the university’s engagement from addressing local needs can be mitigated. It also maintains that through commitment to engagement and embracing a collaborative form; broadening participation; adopting relevant channels to ascertain community ideas and needs; operating accessible community centres; researching local concerns such as water supply, agricultural systems and electricity generation and customising educational programmes to demonstrate local and global relevance, the interconnected university can be epitomised. Furthermore, through interconnections within its community, as well as with the wider community and its concerns, the university can be seen not only as an agent of community development but also fostering mutually beneficial engagement.

Since the onset of Welsh devolution, the higher education (HE) sector in Wales has experienced a number of policy-led developments. One of these developments includes the strategic expansion of HE-level, Welsh-medium provision across Wales’ HE institutions. This development is being spearheaded by a new language promotion and planning agency, Y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (the Coleg). If the Coleg implements this development successfully, then this development can play an important role in ensuring the lasting vibrancy of the Welsh language and the long-term success of the Welsh Government’s Welsh language and Welsh-medium education strategies. This thesis presents the results of an investigation into the Coleg and its language planning role. Because of the Coleg’s age, it is too early to evaluate whether it can successfully implement its language planning aims in toto. Instead, this investigation has evaluated the ways in which the Coleg’s leadership approach the challenges associated with Welsh language provision planning at the HE-level, and whether these collective patterns of response are conducive to effective language planning. The result of the investigation appears to be the first known organisational and leadership analysis of the Coleg. The Coleg is comprised primarily of university-based academics who have taken on a number of different leadership roles both within the Coleg and within the universities in order to ensure that Welsh-medium higher education can be developed. This thesis provides an analysis of these academic leaders’ organisational structure and their collective response to the challenges associated with the development of Welsh-medium higher education. This analysis can be used as a basis for future research into the Coleg, Welsh-medium higher education, and Welsh Government language planning. In addition, the thesis concludes with a list of recommendations that are intended to enhance these academics’ leadership by highlighting areas of strength and identifying opportunities for growth.

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of a cohort of first year undergraduate students embarking on their undergraduate degree in Applied Education Studies in order to identify any strategies that might be seen to support them in learning mathematics. The research stemmed from an initial tracking of first year undergraduate students over a period of four years prior to the start of this research, whereby the mathematics education units were identified as the ones that they were most anxious about. As the majority of the students on the degree course worked with children as unqualified teachers or teaching assistants, and many planned to go on and train as teachers, I wanted to explore the possibility that there may be strategies to support them in becoming more confident in learning mathematics. Concerns linked to adults passing on their anxieties to children they work with was an issue that I was aware of (Hembree 1990; Haylock, 2010) and I wanted to support the students with the aim of avoiding this outcome. The study tracked a cohort of 75 first year undergraduate students through their first year of study and data was collected via audits, questionnaires and focus group discussions. Students identified that there were three key themes affecting them in learning mathematics: the role of the teacher, their personal perceptions and working with others. However, the overriding factors that were identified by the students in affecting their ability to learn mathematics were the effect of the teacher and the teaching strategies used. As a result of this, seven strategies for supporting adults in learning mathematics have been identified for further consideration.

The aim of this thesis has been to explore the implementations, impacts and experiences of Personal Development Planning at a single UK university. Combining an illuminative evaluation mixed methodology (Partlett & Hamilton 1972) with a Sartrean existential model of identity formation, the study has sought to examine both the systematization of PDP within a range of disciplinary cases and the ways in which student beliefs, attitudes and motivations have impacted on the ability of those systems to drive personal development as a product of each particular learning context. Traditionally, PDP research has focused on the systems into which the innovation has been integrated, the individual student often a secondary concern to the motivations and practices underpinning the creation of the system in question. Research that locates the individual student at the centre of the PDP process has therefore been scarce, and the application of a Sartrean philosophical ground in this instance may therefore be seen as a response to this particular viewpoint, focusing as it does on individuals as fundamental drivers of their own personal development. Here, identity is formed within a political, and often paradoxical, negotiation between ‘self’ and ‘other’, with each party, or parties, demanding different responses from the other, or others. Where these demands of each other exist in conflict so development is framed within the ability to resist or comply with external pressures to develop in particular directions; be those socio‐economic, professional or personal. Drawing on Sartre’s position of student‐as‐motivated‐individual, an idiographic focus subsequently highlighted the role of congruence within student and lecturer attitudes and actions. For lecturers, decisions on how they would engage with PDP often appeared dependant on how they saw the discipline they were working in and their role within it. Consequently, what lecturers often expected from their students could be seen as a mirror of how they viewed themselves. In contradiction to authors such as Bernstein (1996) and Clegg & Bradley (2006a) staff attitudes to PDP were not constrained by discipline or professional category in a generalized sense, but were determined by individual perceptions of those categories by their members. With each variation in understanding came different attitudes to assessment, practice and tutorial support, where significantly PDP was most commonly located. Each member of staff could on some level be seen to be defending their own perceptions and identities, projecting their own image out to their group as an exemplar. This was a position that was also commonly reflected in the attitudes of staff members to the motivations of government, and the sector, to impose PDP on pedagogic practice. For the student, entering university with a particular identity based on a milieu of past experiences and expectations, and working towards particular personal ambitions, their willingness to adapt appeared equally reliant on the levels of congruence that existed between ‘self’ as learner and members of staff as exemplars. Where contact between the two parties was minimal then students in this study often appeared to be working around the system in a way that offered them the least challenge. Inevitably, the levels of compliance appeared linked to the degrees of congruence between the many parties involved, both educationally and socially, and the allowance within the PDP system to either comply or ignore the preferred states being offered them. As with staff members, students within this study appeared prone to act defensively in order to maintain their existing sense of ‘self’.

Headteacher supply is of critical concern to policy makers and Governing Bodies in England as many schools continue to experience difficulties in recruiting school leaders despite succession planning and school organisation strategies at national and local level. Church of England schools appear to experience greater difficulties in recruitment and a lack of focus on leaders of Anglican schools in the empirical literature has resulted in little being known about the nature of Anglican school headship and why headteachers of this category of schools leave. This study focused on the scale and nature of headteacher departure of headteachers leaving Church of England primary schools in England during one academic year, examining the influences leading to headteachers' decisions to leave a post and exploring what might have persuaded headteachers to remain in post as Anglican school headteachers. In employing a sequential explanatory qualitative dominant mixed methods design, the study utilised data from two postal surveys and a number of semi-structured interviews with headteachers and Chairs of Governors in a complementary and negotiated manner. An inductive thematic analytical approach allowed a focus on the experiences and voices of headteachers which are heard through the conceptual framework of Wenger's theory of communities of practice. The haemorrhage of headteachers leaving Anglican school headship includes a group of headteachers not currently recognised in the discourse about headteacher supply: headteachers choosing to leave headship altogether and Anglican school headship in particular. Many headteachers leaving headship altogether are leaving with few or no plans and with no intention to return to headship at a later date. Of those headteachers leaving for a substantive headship many are electing to move to a non-Anglican school. Some of these are leaving with no intention of returning to headship of an Anglican school in a future career move. Headteachers experience dis-identification with members and/or the practice of four communities of practice (Professional, Nurture, Family, and Spiritual) as they negotiate meaning for themselves through relationships, mutuality of engagement, imagination, alignment and participation. This thesis argues that there are substantive issues associated with Anglican headship which influence headteacher departure. Anglican headship has a historical dimension which intersects with public and personal dimensions of headship in particular ways which reflect historical aspects of Christianity and Anglicanism, the history of Anglican schools in England and individuals' own faith perspectives. Five expectations coalesce in the experiences of headteachers as members of the spiritual community of practice which present challenges as headteachers negotiate meaning for themselves in their own identity work. The expectations can lead to 'dis-ease' and dis-identification with members and/or the practice of the spiritual community. It is this 'lack of fit' which can lead to a decision to leave an Anglican school, headship per se and Anglican school headship in particular. Personal faith can be a powerful influence in the lives of some headteachers and this study also concludes that experiencing a calling from God can influence headteacher departure. The thesis concludes with implications for policy and practice which would enable schools to reduce the haemorrhage of experience and expertise from Church of England schools.

This study describes a survey which was conducted with 193 students and related particularly to their experience in a physical chemistry laboratory which did not involve pre-laboratory exercises. Pre-laboratory exercises were then developed for this laboratory and a second survey was conducted the following year, with a sample of 211. After the second survey, 60 students were also interviewed in groups in order to gain more information about their perceptions of the pre-laboratory exercises. A third survey was conducted with 229 first year chemistry students at the outset of their university chemistry course to explore their perceptions as they looked back on their school experience. Surveys were then carried out in Pakistan with three different groups: first year BSc. students (229), second year BSc. students (150), and BEd. Trainee Secondary Teachers (118), all these groups being drawn from Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. The aim was to explore student perception in a situation where laboratory work was not well established. In the surveys of Scottish students' views about their school and university laboratory experiences, it is clear that, at both levels, the students have positive attitudes towards their experiences. At school level, this reflects the well organised laboratory work which is strongly integrated with other teaching. At university level, the long established place of laboratory work has led to a well organised system. The overall importance from the results of this survey was that students saw the importance of laboratory work and wished it to be a successful and satisfying experience. In the Pakistan surveys, attitudes towards laboratory work are also positive. However, as there is little laboratory work at school, this can be seen as an indication that more is wanted while, at university, the laboratory work is much less well developed compared to Scotland and there is clear evidence that student views are becoming increasingly polarised with experience, a matter of some concern. Rigorous comparisons between Scotland and Pakistan were not considered appropriate in that the social, educational and professional structures are so very different.

This thesis examines students' perspectives of Foundation Degrees, employment skills and work-based learning. It questions whether the primary remit of higher education should be the development of vocational skills for the workplace. It investigates: firstly, the perceived benefits to individuals undertaking a Foundation Degree in terms of developing appropriate employment related skills; secondly, whether the compulsory work based/related learning element, seen as the cornerstone of Foundation Degrees, provides students with the relevant skills for the workplace; thirdly, the assumption that the government's multiple-agendas of widening participation in education, as a means to improve social inclusion; upskilling the workforce; working collaboratively with employers and further education colleges, can be met through provision of shortened higher education degree programmes. Results from three research studies, indicate that students felt that undertaking a Foundation Degree would improve employment prospects; improve employment promotion prospects and develop employment skills. Students also felt the Foundation Degree prepared them for the third year of an honours degree programme. However, findings relating to whether the compulsory work-based learning element of the Foundation Degree provided students with the relevant skills for the workplace were inconclusive. The studies also found that, despite its compulsory nature, not all of the Foundation Degrees from which respondents were surveyed had a work-based learning element as part of the programme. The implications of this are that the work-based learning element is not being used to promote employer engagement in the manner that the government intended. The research also revealed that employers were not engaging in formal assessment of the Foundation Degree programme, neither were they providing mentoring for employees undertaking this form of study. This represented a missed opportunity for true engagement with employers in a manner that could help to bridge the divide between academic qualification and vocational relevance. A number of recommendations are made.

This study investigated the beliefs about teaching and learning English of nine non-native novice teachers at a private university in Northern Cyprus, and the extent to which these beliefs changed in their first year of teaching. Data was collected over an academic year of nine months by means of semi-structured interviews, credos, classroom observations, post-lesson reflection forms, stimulated-recall interviews, diaries and a metaphor-elicitation task. The study found that novice teachers’ prior learning experiences were influential in shaping their initial beliefs. By the end of the year, change in the content of the teachers’ beliefs was limited. However, the findings also showed that the majority of the teachers’ beliefs were re-structured and strengthened, suggesting that beliefs are dynamic. Analysis of the findings indicated that several factors stimulated change in beliefs; differences in individual experiences; contextual factors i.e. the syllabus, dissatisfaction with student behaviour, and students’ expectations; and becoming aware of their beliefs and practices. Moreover, the study found that novice teachers’ beliefs were not always reflected in their teaching. The analysis showed that inconsistency between beliefs and practices resulted mainly from differences in individual experiences and the restriction of the syllabus. Thus, teachers were not always able to do what they believed would be effective in their classes. Based on the findings, the study argues that novice teachers are involved in a learning period in their first year of teaching and that their beliefs are susceptible to change. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to teacher education programmes and recommendations are made for further research.

A Bakhtinian theoretical framework throws fresh light on higher education assessment, dialogue and classroom dynamics, demonstrating that assessed, student-led seminars can have a powerfully positive effect on student learning. The case study comprised of a well-established programme of seminars in a university history department. These seminars, which are regarded as innovative, have three distinctive features: they are assessed; they contain dialogic interaction; and they are student-led. This qualitative study investigating the effects of the seminars on student learning employed interviews with tutors and students, and observations of seminars. A holistic picture has been created which takes account of the socio-ideological context of the seminars, the socio-linguistic structures which constituted the actual interaction and the participants’ perspectives. A Bakhtinian analysis was applied to empirical data and revealed that it is when three conditions are in place that the potential for dialogic learning is enhanced. Firstly, assessment directs students’ activity amplifying their learning experience. Secondly, the use of different types of dialogue enables students to assimilate new ideas. Thirdly, through peer facilitation and leadership of the seminars, along with other structuring devices, the power dynamics of the classes remain open and fluid and the tutor is prevented from unwittingly suppressing active student involvement. In these conditions, it is argued, students are able to engage actively with the material in-hand resulting in a richer learning experience.