The National Student Survey (NSS) reveals that in the UK Higher Education students are generally dissatisfied with course assessment and feedback processes. This thesis investigates and evaluates a range of assessment and feedback strategies used during Initial Teacher Training (ITT) teaching practice. The views of trainee teachers, school based tutors and university based tutors with regard to the effectiveness of these strategies are also evaluated. A cross sectional research design employing questionnaires, interviews and a focus group interview was used to obtain and analyse data. The findings show that overall, the stakeholders in this study are satisfied with the assessment processes used to assess trainee teachers on teaching practice. These research findings are contrary to the NSS data. Insights gained contribute to the knowedge of the assessment of ITT trainees. This thesis indicates why the assessment strategies used on teaching practice are effective. The lesson observation and subsequent discursive feedback and action point setting is regarded as the most effective assessment strategy. Analysis of the research data suggests that lesson observation and feedback is effective because it provides an authentic assessment experience. The thesis argues that authentic assessment strategies have a positive impact on student experience.

This thesis reports on a longitudinal qualitative study of the L2 motivational systems of a group of South Korean university students. The study adopts a complex dynamics system approach to the collection and analysis of data, and develops an original three-level model of context to investigate the interaction of elements within the learners’ motivational systems and to track how these interactions led to perceptible changes in these systems over the course of the research. The study highlights the complex, dynamic nature of L2 motivation and the necessity of including context as a key part of the L2 motivational system. It further calls into question traditional conceptions of autonomy in the field and the general applicability of some current concepts in L2 motivation. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of non-quantitative approaches in illuminating the motivational processes at work within individuals. On the basis of these findings, the thesis calls for the general incorporation of complexity perspectives in L2 motivation research and for language pedagogy to incorporate the insights gained from such studies to enhance the classroom environments and learners’ investment in language learning.

The purpose of this research is to explore CSCL as an instructional model for developing the skills and competencies required in the „knowledge society‟ and to suggest under what conditions CSCL might be effective. To this end, an in-depth investigation of students‟ collaborative interaction patterns, their perceptions of their learning and the variables impacting on their interaction was conducted. The four contexts of study looked at alternative communication tools, collaborative task types and distance versus campus modes in South Korea and the UK. Data collection from these diverse contexts adopted a mixed methodology. Data analysis initially focused on the first two case studies and was then extended across the remaining contexts which explored alternative tasks and media. Students‟ collaboration patterns indicated that students input more effort on doing the work for which they were individually accountable rather than toward a group effort. The process of negotiating meaning was found to be weak in asynchronous online discussion and the most difficult aspect of group project tasks for students. Students‟ socio-emotional aspects also influenced collaboration patterns. Nevertheless, students‟ perceptual data indicated that they believed CSCL had diverse learning merits. In conclusion, some conditions for effective CSCL design were suggested.

Data-Driven Learning (DDL), an approach developed by Tim Johns, is an exploratory learning methodology which enables students to analyze the lexical and grammatical patterns of key words in various authentic contexts, organized into a series of concordance lines. It is a learner-centered approach that encourages students to work autonomously, engaging in what Johns calls ‘discovery learning’. DDL has proven itself to be an effective tool for advanced students to further improve the depth of their linguistic knowledge, but the wider possibilities to which DDL might be applied have been sparsely researched. In this study, I investigate the efficacy of DDL as a core component of two communication-oriented English language learning courses at a Japanese university. The courses couple traditional concordance line analysis with communicative activities. I call this novel teaching methodology ‘Communicative Data-Driven Learning’. This study is a form of action research, which involves actively reflecting upon and revising approaches at every stage, from planning, through execution, to observing results. The data was collected in two years: in 2014 and 2015. The results demonstrate that Communicative DDL has immense potential for developing students’ language competencies, especially with respect to their fluency and confidence when communicating in English.

This study explores the dynamics of leadership of Asian, Black and Minority Ethnic (ABME) principals in England’s Further Education colleges. It identifies and describes the motivations and characteristics of their leadership which propel and sustain it. The research outcomes suggest that their leadership is learner and community focused. It is aimed at improving fairness, equality and social justice. The principals are driven by their deeply rooted principles, passions and values flowing from their direct experiences of disadvantage, disparities and racial discrimination. Their personal up-bringing, socialisation and heritage have not only inspired and encouraged them to come into education, but have also energised them in their journeys as leaders. The ABME principals’ trajectories, however, have been mediated by a persistent tendency within the establishment to marginalise and underestimate their capabilities, compounded by FE bureaucracies and organisational impediments. They have taken these obstacles as challenges and seized opportunities for further formalising their passions and principles into leadership strategies for transforming their colleges and influencing the FE environment. This thesis is based on empirical evidence, collected from interviews with the first generation ABME principals: the class of 1998/9 – 2008/9, offering an historic snapshot of their experiences, within the conceptual framework provided by the review of literature on educational leadership, FE management, race and ethnicity.

This research investigates Further Education (FE) governance and governors’ role(s) in college improvement and related issues. Empirical data is derived from semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis of governors’ meeting minutes. A total of 14 Standards committee (SC) governors and 6 principals from 6 FE colleges in the Midlands region of England agreed to be interviewed. Data from these individual interviews were supplemented by an analysis of SC governors’ meeting minutes from each of the 6 colleges in order to obtain rich data on the role of governors in college improvement. Findings suggest that ‘good’ governors with a good skill base can contribute to college improvement through their monitoring and challenging role; their role in appointing the principal and senior management; setting the strategic direction of the college and by acting as a ‘critical friend’ to the principal. It emerged from this study that governors are a group of individuals with different family, educational and professional backgrounds who are seeking a new identity and they need help in their ‘identity transformation’. This study, therefore, suggests the need for an induction and training programme for new governors, which includes ‘coaching and mentoring’ so that governors are continually supported in their ‘governorship’ journey.

The aim of the study was to investigate linguistic interaction in a vocational classroom based in a Further Education college in the UK. The course was designed for adults wishing to become qualified primary teaching assistants. The study was ethnographically grounded and, in keeping with a Linguistic Ethnography approach, it also incorporated close linguistic and narrative-in-interaction analysis. This enabled me to show how educational discourses shape local interactions and how, in particular types of classroom interaction, participants appropriate wider discourses creatively for their own goals. Through detailed analysis of whole class discursive interactions, I show how the tutor appropriated and mediated the curriculum content and discourses for and with her class. She did this by constantly shifting identities and relationships along clines of power, social solidarity and social distance, by drawing on funds of knowledge from her own lived experience and those of her class, and by creating spaces to talk about the different domains of social life: further education, primary school and local life worlds. In their turn, the learners drew on their previous experiences of education, their work experience and their own local life worlds, to make sense of the content with the tutor and their classmates.

This thesis explores students’ experiences in higher education in England in the early 21st century. It uses a longitudinal perspective, drawing upon data from semi structured interviews with undergraduates as they progressed from transition to graduation. The thesis argues that students enrol at university with learner identities shaped by different educational and social backgrounds. Once at university, students move through a process of acclimatisation during which they build upon particular capacities that enable them to succeed in higher education. These capacities help students to build robust undergraduate identities which allow them to exercise agency in their learning. However, as they do so, they carry with them varying degrees of risk and have to negotiate the disjuncture between expectation and reality in their undergraduate experiences. An understanding of the impact of risk and disjuncture has important implications in the rapidly changing world of higher education and these, alongside concepts of field, habitus, capital, and academic and social integration, help to explain undergraduate experiences in the rapidly changing political economy of higher education. Focusing on the particulars of individual experiences highlighted the significant investments individuals make in their studies and for whom the world of higher education can be an uncomfortable place.

This research investigates the writing of EFL university students at the English department of a major university in Syria. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics as an analytical framework, the study applies Thematic analysis to students’ exam essays across two disciplines: language and literature, with the aim of exploring the differences in the language choices that students make in meeting the relevant disciplinary requirements. Another aspect of the study is to analyse student writing across different academic level with a view to identifying the nature of students’ developing writing maturity. Based on the assumption of an existing strong connection between the text and the broader context, the research investigates the possible influence of other contextual factors including the essay questions, model essays from the textbooks, and teacher’s views and perceptions. The findings from Thematic analysis point to the importance of interpersonal meaning in understanding this across-disciplinary variation in terms of building the argument and answering the essay question. The research shows potential pedagogical benefits in raising students’ awareness to the important function of different linguistic choices, particularly those with Thematic positions, in achieving the purpose of the text.

Short-term international study tours are increasingly available as an elective academic credit course at Canadian universities and seminaries. My research examined the pedagogy of such study tours to ascertain whether a study tour that encourages critical reflection assists students to synthesise learning to the extent that their pre-existing conceptual framework is modified or transformed. Since all the tours had a spiritual or religious theme, I also investigated the extent to which these study tours encouraged transcendent experiences and spiritual learning. I investigated four study tours, two of which went to Spain and included a pilgrimage along El Camino de Santiago, another to Israel/Palestine exploring both historical sites and contemporary issues, and the fourth to Cyprus, Malta, and Rome, exploring the history and legacy of Paul, the Christian apostle. In addition, I participated in a local Ontario, Canada, pilgrimage and a service learning trip to an orphanage in Mexico as comparatives to the study tours. Adopting an interpretivist methodology, data was gathered from students and professors through questionnaires and interviews, and from my observations as a participant researcher. The data were interpreted to map how learning is occurring using Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and Illeris’ three−dimensional learning model, and to identify what contributes to learning. The research discovered that the student’s localised conceptual framework associated with the home context can be modified or transformed by the experience on-the-ground at the tour destination, resulting in transformative learning or moving students toward transformative learning. To encourage student learning, pre-tour preparatory studies should address the potential gap in student’s background knowledge and their existing meaning schemes, and should prepare the students for experiential learning. Reflective time and space should be provided during the tour to allow students to process their experiences, including emotional responses. And, post-tour assignments should encourage critical reflection that integrates and consolidates learning. To encourage spiritual learning requires accommodating students’ diverse interpretations of spirituality, and allowing students similar space and time, particularly at sacred places, to process spiritual experiences.