The concept of uncertainty plays a significant role in higher education in the 21st century. However; the pedagogy of uncertainty tends to focus on ontology and the feelings of uncertainty experienced by teachers and students, as opposed to treating it as an epistemological concept. This research considers the epistemology of uncertainty in the context of climate change and investigates how it is conceptualised and taught by academics working in the subject area. The theoretical frameworks of troublesome knowledge and threshold concepts are employed to aid the characterisation of uncertainty as a concept in higher education. Following a methodology based on grounded theory, interviews were undertaken with 10 academics involved in teaching climate change. The interview data was analysed and categorised according to the interview participants' conceptions of uncertainty and the implications for teaching uncertainty. The research found that uncertainty in the context of climate change is a complex and multivariate concept and this was reflected in the interview data, with many of the participants holding several different conceptions of uncertainty simultaneously. In terms of teaching uncertainty, the concept also aligns with the theoretical frameworks, in that it is troublesome knowledge and a threshold concept in the context of climate change, with broader implications as an interdisciplinary threshold concept arising from the difficulty encountered when attempting to integrate diverse conceptions of uncertainty. Maturity and personal development were also found to play a role in teaching uncertainty. Several strategies and approaches to teaching uncertainty are discussed, and a critical reflection on the pedagogy of uncertainty is offered. The critical reflection proposes a pedagogy for teaching uncertainty whereby the concept is situated centrally in the higher education curriculum and taught explicitly through student-centred approaches that take into account issues of personal development and variation.

Considering the crucial role played by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) in China’s economic reform, and the growing number and importance of Chinese overseas educated graduates, this thesis explores the early career-development of returnee graduates. The research draws on theoretical perspectives relating to human, social and cultural capital, along with theories of motivation, adaptation and job satisfaction in the course of career development, applied in the Chinese context. Two qualitative case studies were carried out in the banking sector: one in an SOE and the other in an MNC. This involved interviewing returnees, local graduates and managers on their perceptions of the integration of returnees into the organisations. At the individual level, it considered the value of overseas education and the capital possessed by returnees, observing how human capital was produced through graduates’ early stages of career development, and how this contributed to their place of work. At the organisational level, by making use the perceptions of HR managers as well as self-evaluation from returnees, the advantages and disadvantages of returnees were explored, together with their actual utilisation, the rationales behind the HR strategies adopted by the two organisations. This led to an understanding of how the integration of returnees is affected by different social and corporate settings.

Background Virtual patients (VPs) are computerised online representations of realistic clinical cases. Recent technology and software advances position VPs as a standardised, accessible, collaborative teaching tool. We do not know how they should be designed. My research question is: how do different VP design principles influence student experiences when completing VPs? The aim of this study is to provide qualitative and quantitative research evidence to support VP design and development. Methods This research project uses qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate how VP design influences medical student learning, based on groups of students from three UK medical schools (Warwick, Birmingham, Keele). The initial qualitative research component is a grounded theory (GT) focus group study evaluating VP design properties. The literature review and qualitative research identified the two most important VP properties to research were: (1) branching within the cases; and (2) structured clinical reasoning instruction (SR) intended to promote good clinical decision making in the VPs. The quantitative research component is a multi-centre randomised experimental 2x2 factorial study of undergraduate students at three UK medical schools, conducted to a published protocol. I investigate two most important independent VP design variables: (1) branching, present or absent; (2) SR, present or absent. Outcomes including: (a) VP scores; (b) VP student evaluations; (c) metrics collected from the VP environment; (d) student self-reported case preferences and (e) summative assessment results. The study has institution ethics approval. Results In the qualitative study of six focus groups (n=46), I produced a model describing how VP design influences learning. In the quantitative research, 572 students completed 1773 VPs, and 1223 evaluations, with 296 (50.1%) students completing all four VPs (1184). Key findings were: student expressed preferred SR when present (70.5% of student, P<0.001); there were no significant differences in adjusted global VP scores or evaluation scores (all p>0.3 for the independent variables); institution factors played an important role with higher scores at one centre (p<0.001); and there were significant improvements in Bayesian reasoning with SR present (7% improvement, p<0.001). Discussion This original research is the first GT study into VPs. The quantitative component is the largest study to date in the literature exploring VP design variables. It provides practical lessons for authors and institutions for design and delivery of VPs. All VPs used are available as open education resources.

This case study used a mixed method approach to explore the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language through the medium of a new online synchronous programme (CentrEM) at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Information was collected using questionnaires (240 students) personal interviews (8 students and 4 teachers) and observations (30 online classes). A case was identified in which technology supported a restricted approach to online English language learning based mainly on grammar, listening, reading, and writing. Female learners were disadvantaged because they were not encouraged to speak in English. The Internet was used mainly as a platform for instruction and to provide access to limited learning materials (mainly the online course book). Most participants expressed optimism for the potential opportunities of e-learning; however, student attendance was relatively low and active participation was limited. Encouraging student participation was a major issue. The teachers used numerous affective strategies to persuade the students to participate; however, technological difficulties intruded at regular intervals, disrupting the flow of communication and preventing the teachers from knowing who was present. Some students were less skilled in computing and English language than others, further disrupting the classes. A traditional teacher-centred face-to-face classroom strategy was adapted for online instruction. The flow of information was mainly from the teacher to the student, with emphasis on low level recall, encouraged by prompts. The students did not engage in deep learning. There were few opportunities for the students to enter into extensive dialogues with the teachers or to be reflective. The teachers did not use feedback adaptively to plan a differentiated approach. The curriculum was not flexible enough take into account the different abilities, learning styles, and preferences of each individual student. Recommendations are provided for learners, teachers, and the institution to help develop the online programme in the future.

This thesis reports on two action research cycles conducted in the English Department of the Higher Language Institute at Tishreen University, Syria. With the problem of global coursebooks that are pre-determined for learners, the aim of this action research was to use supplementary internet materials that could better meet learners‘ personal needs and interests in the context. In the first cycle, the plan was to get learners live access internet materials within the Tishreen Higher Language Institute. However, technical problems were experienced. They necessitated developing appropriate internet methodology for using internet materials in the context. In the second cycle, the internet was accessed via outside computers to bring supplementary materials to the language classroom. Both the appropriateness and the effectiveness of using supplementary internet materials were investigated. Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. The action research process of developing context-appropriate methodology was found to be supportive of learners‘ engagement. Using internet materials appropriately created the conditions for learners‘ behavioural, cognitive, affective, and social engagement with internet materials.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of two methods of teaching written composition (i.e. traditional and process approach) on writing apprehension among ESL students, and also the effect of the process approach on the overall quality and length of their writing. Students enrolled in Written Communication 1 course at the National University of Malaysia were chosen as the subjects of this study. The students had been placed in three groups based on the results of previous courses and for the purpose of this study the top and the bottom groups were selected as the experimental groups and the middle one as the control. From the findings, it was concluded that both methods were successful in reducing writing apprehension, but that the process approach was considerably more effective in achieving this than the traditional approach. Moreover, the subjects in the process/experimental group were found to write better and longer essays than the subjects in the control group taught in the usual way.

This study centres on understanding teachers' curriculum decision making (CDM) and pupils' subject choice in physical education. The curriculum reform chosen to illustrate these two central issues is Higher Grade Physical Education (HGPE), a nationally available qualification in physical education that has been available to fifth and sixth year (16 to 18 year olds) Scottish secondary pupils from 1993. The focus on teacher CDM and pupil subject choice contributes more generally to our understanding of the social construction of physical education as a school subject. The framework used to investigate the social construction of knowledge, teacher CDM and pupil subject choice is Basil Bernstein's model of the social construction of pedagogic discourse. Bernstein's three fields of knowledge production and reproduction and his notion of pedagogic discourse allowed the framing of the examination of the development, mediation and reproduction of the HGPE course. The study illustrates how the dominant model for innovation in Scottish schools continues to be external leadership by the centre and how agents operating at this level constructed HGPE as a science-based, sport-performance-oriented discourse. The findings suggest that teachers' and pupils' interpretations of the HGPE discourse are not explicit reasons for the decision to offer or study the subject but are more likely to be embedded in the context in which individual teachers work and in pupils' enjoyment and future vocation. Emerging issues that are discussed include the process of managing HGPE by the SEB and the extent to which the SEB exercised power to mandate precisely the form HGPE should take as it was implemented in secondary schools. A lack of external support in delivering HGPE, teacher de-professionalisation and de-skilling and professional development support for teachers are all identified and discussed. The study concludes with suggestions for the future construction of knowledge within the Scottish education system and ideas regarding what can be done to promote HGPE.

The initial aim of this study was to explore the changes in the students’ perceptions of learning over their study years in the education colleges in the Sultanate of Oman. A number of years ago Perry developed a scheme to describe students’ perceptions of learning. Johnstone adapted this scheme. In both the original scheme and the adaptation, the development of students’ perceptions of learning was considered in four areas: the lecturers’ role, the student’s role, the nature of scientific knowledge, and assessment. The Johnstone’s adaptation was used in this study. The first stage was to carry out a survey with a sample of 889 students and 1165 pupils from education colleges (age 18-22) and secondary schools (age 15-18). The schools data provided a background against which the student data could be considered. A questionnaire was devised and distributed to three study years in secondary schools and four study years in the education colleges. The results show that although there is a growth in students’ perceptions of learning over their study years, this growth varied from area to area. In the areas of the lecturer’s role the growth was generally good. In the area of the nature of scientific knowledge the growth was very poor while in the assessment area the growth was good in some questions and poor in others. The results also revealed that students’ perceptions of learning correlated positively with their academic performance. It was also evident that females in general had better perceptions of learning than males. In secondary schools, it appeared that science stream students had better perceptions of learning science than arts stream students but this may merely reflect the contextual nature of Perry development.

This study reports on an investigation of the effectiveness of the Learning Resource Centres (LRCs) in the Colleges of Education in Oman. It considers the aims of the LRCs/libraries and explored the extent to which the LRCs achieve their aims and identified the defects which represent obstacles to improving the LRCs. The extent to which the LRCs support the Colleges of Education to achieve their aims is also explored. Accordingly, this thesis examines the effectiveness of the LRCs and leads to recommendations, which if implemented, will improve the LRCs for the users. In order to achieve the research purposes the study surveys the LRCs in the Colleges of Education in Oman. The survey includes observation of all six LRCs, responses to questionnaires from 140 academics and 436 students and interviews with 24 employees from the staff ofLRCs. In consideration of the fact that the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman (MOHE) tries to benefit from the Canadian experience in LRCs/libraries, interviews were conducted with nine employees working in LRCs/libraries at six Canadian Universities. The study indicates that, in general, the LRCs have satisfactory factors such as the provision of resources, accessibility, support from personnel to users, training of users to develop their skills and increase the utilisation of facilities. Consequently these enhance the possibility of achieving the aims of the LRCs as well as supporting the Colleges to attain their aims. The availability of the previous factors also indicates to the reasonable effectiveness of the LRCs. On the other hand, the findings of the study consider that the main obstacles to improving the LRCs are: centralisation of acquisition of human and material resources at the MOHE, space, policy, and the incomplete classification system and catalogue. Finally the study proposes recommendations which can overcome the identified obstacles and improve the effectiveness of the LRCs in the Colleges of Education in Oman.

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