This study explores an EFL practitioner’s teaching life story, with a focus on the development of personal and professional identities, and on the rationale for teaching principles and practices within a Japanese socio-educational context. The study is grounded firmly in the belief that “in understanding something so intensely personal as teaching, it is critical we know about the person the teacher is” (Goodson, 1992, p. 234). As a single participant study this thesis places particular emphasis on the importance of subjective and interpretive insights and understandings as opposed to the generalizability and objectivity of knowledge claims embodied in more traditional approaches to research in the field of TESOL. To elicit the participant’s teaching life story I used a taped monologue technique, whereby the speaker, without the presence of an interviewer, is in complete control of topic selection and has the freedom to determine the temporal and sequential course of their narrative. The resulting two-hour monologue is the primary data for the study, and working within a narrative research framework I analyzed the story for critical incidents and teaching perspectives that can be interpreted as having informed the participant’s practicing professional identity, which can be defined as a set of values, principles and practices which guide an individual’s present teaching philosophy and future directions. Through the lens of the Japanese socio-educational context I focus on the unifying themes of teacher development and education, critical cultural knowledge, humanism, and second language (L2) only classroom policy. Furthermore, I explore the narrative thread that runs through the participant’s story, connecting past and present experiences with future teaching life directions and goals as the narrator takes the opportunity to articulate the rationale behind her main principles and practices, and in so doing underscores her practicing professional identity in a way that demonstrates a strong sense of the narrator’s purpose, values, efficacy and self-worth. As such, this process engages the narrator not only in a meaningful and coherent narrative account of professional development, but also in the process itself of professional development as it demonstrates potentialities for self-revelation, affirmation, and even transformation. This thesis offers a distinctive contribution to the field of TESOL educational research in three particular ways. First, in exploring the sources of a teacher’s beliefs and practicing professional identity, it offers an exemplar of how to undertake interpretive research as reflective practice and professional development. Secondly, it widens our understanding of conducting single participant case studies in TESOL education. This thesis also points the way forward to possible research using an innovative taped monologue technique with other individual teacher case studies that can then contribute to building a body of knowledge in the field.

No description available.

The research presented in this dissertation explores the interaction between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and the classroom materials they develop. It aims to illuminate the potential value of this creative process for teachers’ development of critically reflective practice (CRP). For many EFL teachers, materials are an essential part of their pedagogy. Despite the widespread availability of publications for this compulsory subject in Dutch secondary education, many teachers choose to supplement the coursebook with their own materials. A premise of this research is that the materials teachers develop embody their personal theories of action regarding EFL teaching and learning. These theories, consisting of espoused principles and principles-in-use, are conceptualised as the teachers’ pedagogic principles. Critical reflection may help teachers uncover their espoused and tacit principles with the aim to align them, and improve their teaching practice. The central question is: In what ways does classroom materials development offer teachers of English a tool for CRP? The research questions are addressed through a qualitative, exploratory, embedded multiple-case study approach. Four Dutch EFL teachers are considered as individual cases. The components of each case are analysed to present an encompassing view of the materials development process: reflective logs (creation), the materials themselves (product), and lesson observations (use) are supplemented with pre- and post-lesson interviews to complete data collection. Data are analysed through deductive and inductive within-case analysis and cross-case synthesis. Findings suggest that teachers’ pedagogic principles are multifarious, informed by practical and pragmatic considerations, and revealed at several points and in a variety of ways during the materials development process. Yet it is only when teachers engage in dialogue about them that increased awareness of these principles ensues. CRP may thus be stimulated by a critical friend, and the materials development process can provide an impetus for discussion and dialogue.

The current study is focussed on teachers' beliefs in inclusion and dyslexia and how these are linked to their professional practice when working with dyslexic learners in their primary classrooms in two cultural contexts; in Cyprus and in North West England. The study is guided by the theoretical framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) which was used as the descriptive and analytical tool to explore teachers' personal interpretations and inclusive practice. A qualitative research design is used and includes semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and follow-up discussions with ten teachers in total, five Greek-Cypriot and five British teachers. The findings indicate that the teachers presented both similarities and differences on the way the concepts of inclusion and dyslexia are perceived and understood. For example, teachers interpret 'inclusion' as a shared objective to work collectively towards, making reference to shared values such as 'human rights' and 'equal participation'. One difference identified in some of the Cypriot teachers was that that they appeared more critical about teaching disabled students (e.g. students with more complex needs) in relation to their counterparts. In terms of dyslexia, most of the Cypriot and British teachers conceptualised it as a disorder with a biological basis but, at the same time, they refer to the mediating role played by the environment in contributing further to students' difficulties with literacy. Teachers who engage in practices in their classrooms in order to be more inclusive were identified as those who propose innovation in their activities. On the other hand, there are teachers who seem less inclusive, by creating learning opportunities which are not sufficiently made available for everyone and can allow dyslexic students to access the curriculum. The study enriches the international literature on teachers' beliefs and how they are can influence teachers' professional practice. Cultural Historical Activity Theory, contributed into understanding the factors that can influence teachers' practice for inclusion and their between interactive relationship in an activity system. This is an important area of investigation since changing teachers' beliefs about students' ability can reflect changes in their professional practice.

Due to fast-paced technological disruptions and diversifying users, user experience (UX) professionals are experiencing a flood of new UX methods and a need for continuous learning. Literature has shown that with a lack of understanding, UX practice research has designed too abstract UX methods making them hard to understand and to apply. With a thematic analysis of an interview with 13 UX professionals, this study presents results on how UX professionals choose UX methods and insights into their lifelong learning. The results from the thematic analysis agree that UX methods are hard to integrate into Agile, too complicated, take too much time to learn, and colleagues have shown to be an essential component for learning. These findings indicate that UX methods might work better if they are designed less complicated and deliver results quicker following the design of Scrum. Also, companies could use novel ideas to ease the access to users and to learn, e.g., lunch lectures.

The purpose of the study is to examine, in relation to the curriculum for the Swedish preschool demands of assessment, evaluation and documentation what kind of knowledge that becomes possible through the use of pedagogical documentation, and how this knowledge answers to expectations of development of content, form and organisation of the early childhood educational context. Another purpose is to examine what a post-pragmatic perspective and an immanent idea of evaluation can imply for the two-folded task of the preschool: the societal reproduction of knowledge and the staging of possibilities for children’s own production of knowledge. Three theoretical perspectives have been used: curriculum theory, post-structural theory and an immanent philosophical perspective. Curriculum theory points out that it is essential to use and develop perspectives and methods of evaluation that relates to the goals of the preschool as tools for evaluation govern and shape both questions and analysis. The main study here is directed towards examining pedagogical documentation through an empirical study of one preschool’s use of pedagogical documentation during one year. When dealing with the empirical material my intention has been to make visible both kind of learning processes that this study interprets that the curriculum prescribes. Therefore one method used where curriculum theory and descriptions and categorisations as a part of a discursive analysis of how teachers use pedagogical documentation together with the children and in their planning-sessions. The second method consists of an immanent following up of the rhizomatic web of threads that appear and transform through the practice and where pedagogical documentation is part of the relational field of potentiality.

No description available.

Sulla scorta degli studi sull’apprendimento continuo e sull’analisi del lavoro, e avendo come elemento cardine la prospettiva della professionalizzazione degli insegnanti, il lavoro affronta il tema della formazione in servizio intesa come processo privilegiato che, adeguatamente progettato e realizzato, è in grado di diventare laboratorio per la trasformazione dell’insegnante da preparato a esperto. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, il lavoro di ricerca si è concretizzato nella progettazione e valutazione di un’attività di sviluppo professionale che ponesse i docenti nella condizione di prendere criticamente le distanze dal proprio agire quotidiano al fine di analizzare la propria pratica educativa e didattica per padroneggiarla con maggiore consapevolezza. E’ stata pertanto progettata una ricerca a partire dal costrutto della riflessività come competenza professionale da favorire per far acquisire meta-competenze in un percorso che rispettasse l’aderenza alla pratica in classe e favorisse il confronto tra colleghi, attraverso il ricorso alla metodologia dell’analisi del lavoro congiuntamente all’utilizzo del video come supporto e come stimolo. / Based on lifelong learning and practice analisys studies, and adopting a professionalization of teaching perspective, this work take on in service teacher training as a mean that, if properly designed and realized, can become the leverage for transforming an experienced teacher into an expert teacher. In order to do this, the researcher has designed and evaluated a professional development activity able to distance teachers from their daily duty to analyze their own educative and didactic practice and master it in a more conscious way. Following a practice analisys methodology and video-recording as support and stimulus, the research has revolved around the reflexivity concept as a professional competence to foster in order to get meta-competences in a way that could respect both context specific peculiarities and encouraged discussion between colleagues.

Behavior-driven development (BDD) is a development practice focusing on behaviors and requirements from users and stakeholders. It is designed to develop behaviors which contribute directly to system outcomes. BDD encourages multiple stakeholders to collaborate by minimizing communication gaps and create a shared understanding of the project between technical and non-technical speakers. As a result, the development process becomes faster and the cost lower. Although BDD has many benefits, there are teams who feel inertia towards using it as their main development practice.This thesis work took place at a company with a strong agile foundation. It had the goal to investigate reasons why teams feel inertia against BDD, and thus contribute to BDD research and assist the company. The assumption that positive motivation would help in dispelling inertia was the idea behind this thesis work, and that a stronger motivation for a practice can be achieved by assessing a team’s suitability for it. To reach the goal of the thesis a qualitative research methodology was used, with a focus on obtaining a better understanding of opinions and behaviors that exist, with rounds of interviews and forms as the main method of data collection. Interviews were also consistently used throughout the thesis work to validate that it followed the right track.The inertia which teams at the company have experienced was clustered into different dimensions. These dimensions were used to develop a self-assessment tool intended to help people starting a project to assess how well BDD might fit their context. It allows people to assess their inertia in the different dimensions identified, and as well as attempting to give an overall guide to readiness, also giving some recommendations where gaps could be identified.The deliverable of the thesis work is the tool for managing inertia against BDD. It was developed in a spreadsheet-format for quick development and easy access for multiple users. However, it is important to highlight that this tool focuses on agile autonomous teams. The tool is not about forcing the development practice on someone but rather acts as an aid in giving insight into how well BDD could work for a specific project and team. Finally, to grasp the validity of the tool teams who had previous success developing projects using BDD at the company were able to try it out to see how well it reflected their project reality. The tool also got tested on teams who felt strong inertia towards BDD, to verify whether it helped them manage it or not. / Beteendedriven utveckling (BDD), är ett arbetssätt som fokuserar på beteenden och krav från både användare och intressenter. Det är utvecklat för att främja och skapa beteenen som bidrar till det önskade målet. Några av BDDs fördelar är att arbetssättet uppmuntrar intressenterna till tätt samarbete, att minska luckor i kommunikation och information samt att det skapar en delad förståelse för projektet mellan teknisktoch icke-tekniskt kunniga intressenter. En positiv konsekvens av detta är att utvecklingen tenderar att bli snabbare och kostnaderna lägre. BDD ser till att alla inblandade är eniga om vilket resultat man kan förvänta sig från ett utvecklingsprojekt, redan innan utvecklingen börjar. Detta gör att de missförstånd som är vanligt förekommande mellan intressenter och utvecklingsteam reduceras. Trots att BDD, som nämnts, har flera fördelar finns det team som känner motstånd mot att använda BDD som sitt huvudsakliga arbetssätt.Antagandet att motivation kan bidra till att minska motståndet och att motivationen kan skapas genom att påvisa för team hur lämpligt BDD skulle vara för just dem var ideén bakom detta arbete. Det utfördes på ett företag med stark agil bas. Målet var att identifiera och utreda orsakerna till att team känner motstånd mot BDD, och på så sätt bidra till forskningen och samtidigt hjälpa företaget med en ökad insikt i detta. Syftet med arbetet var att utveckla ett verktyg för att hjälpa team förstå sitt motstånd mot BDD och guida dem till hur de kan hantera det. För att nå målet användes en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med fokus på att få en bättre förståelse för åsikter och beteenden som finns angående BDD. Olika rundor av intervjuer utgjorde den huvudsakliga datainsamlingen. Intervjuer användes också kontinuerligt för att validera att arbetet höll rätt kurs.Det motstånd mot BDD som påträffades på företaget grupperades i olika dimensioner. Dessa användes för att utveckla slutprodukten av kandidatexamensarbetet, ett självskattningsverktyg. För att underlätta utvecklingen valdes ett spreadsheet-format på verktyget, detta även för att enkelt kunna dela det mellan flertalet intressenter.Det är viktigt att understryka att verktyget fokuserar på autonoma team. Det har inte som mål att tvinga någon att använda BDD, utan att agera som hjälp för att visa hur arbetssättet skulle kunna fungera för ett specifikt projekt och team. Slutligen, för att kunna verifiera kvaliteten på verktyget, utvärderades det i samarbete med team som tidigare på ett framgångsrikt sätt utvecklat ett projekt med BDD. Detta för att se om självskattningsverktygets utsägelse motsvarade teamets helhetsupplevelse. Verktyget testades också av andra team för att se om det var till hjälp för dem eller inte.