DSpace Collection:http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/672024-02-04T06:16:21Z2024-02-04T06:16:21ZUnderstanding Student Discontinuation in Online Language Courses in Corporate TrainingCacheiro Quintas, Noeliahttp://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/60342024-01-30T12:01:31Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Understanding Student Discontinuation in Online Language Courses in Corporate Training
Authors: Cacheiro Quintas, Noelia
Abstract: Attrition in education has been a subject of interest for decades, gaining importance
with the introduction of online learning. This change shifted language learning from the
physical classroom to an online environment as a way to reach a wider audience, and lower
financial costs – particularly with adult learners and their professional development. However,
this increase in numbers also raised new concerns over student attrition and retention.
This study – written in the context of lifelong learning (Weise, 2020; Sanchez, 2017)
and adult theories (Bélanger and Chen, 2014; Trotter, 2006) and grounded online language
learning (Pujolà, 2001; Weasenforth et al., 2002. Bailey et al., 2021), is conducted within the
context of current policy to understand the English language courses examined in light of the
courses characteristics and offer (Royal Decree 789/2015, September 4). Considering this,
understanding the specific context in which this research happens is paramount.
The identified theoretical gap stems from the understanding of student behaviour
within retention and attrition offered by early theorists such as Spady’s (1970) or Tinto’s
(1975, 1993), and later contributionsfrom Rovai (2003) or Park’s (2007). This gap warrantsthe
need to reconceptualise the retention and attrition issue – including its terminology. In
response, this study proposes discontinuers as a new category of student, and aims at
understanding the causes leading to discontinuation in online language learning.
This case study uses a mixed methods approach with data collected from secondary
sources (e.g., attendance records); and primary sources (two questionnaires completed by 50
students; and 15 interviews with stakeholders involved in the course provision), offering a
holistic approach of the issue. SPSS and NVivo were used for data analysis.
Obtained findings provide an insight of the different parameters that influence student
discontinuation, and contribute to the debate of persistence and attrition. The study
concludes by means of a model, that it is rarely one factor alone, but rather a combination of
causes that lead to students’ decision to discontinue in online educational contexts
understood as a system. It determines that student behaviour begins to shape even before
they start training, and that factors identified at that pre-course stage develop and trigger
others as students go through the course and complete it.
The study culminates by offering recommendations for policy and practice to reduce
discontinuation rates in online training provision (e.g. student support, or understanding of
students’ needs to adjust the content provided); and, specific recommendations for online
language courses (e.g. practicing all language skills or a certificate of attainment).
Description: PhD Thesis2023-01-01T00:00:00ZEnabling Translanguaging in the Saudi EFL Classroom : affordances and reflections of collaborative translanguaging tasks during reading lessonsBin Ghali, Nada Nasserhttp://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/60052024-01-12T16:30:46Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Enabling Translanguaging in the Saudi EFL Classroom : affordances and reflections of collaborative translanguaging tasks during reading lessons
Authors: Bin Ghali, Nada Nasser
Abstract: Translanguaging advocates a new approach to the teaching and learning of
multilinguals based on the idea that multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire,
rather than moving between two or more language codes (García and Li, 2014). In the
EFL classroom, however, the tendency to use the target language only is still
advocated as a pedagogy in education policy. In observations before this study and as
a teacher in the context of Saudi Arabia, learners still used Arabic during group
discussions in the EFL classroom. This study attempts to allow learners to draw on
their full linguistic repertoire in a safe space to reconstitute their languaging processes
for learning English during collaborative reading lessons. This study positions
translanguaging as collaborative and agentive, viewing learning through a sociocultural
framework (Vygotsky, 1978; Mercer, 1995; 2002)
In this qualitative study, group observations were conducted to observe
translanguaging affordances of learning in two cases of different proficiency level
groups of students. Students collectively reflected on their weekly learning and were
interviewed and provided a structured written reflection at the end of the seven weeks
of translanguaging as allowed in the classroom. The study found that students
reflected particularly on awareness of their metalinguistic development as they showed
creative ways to mediate their learning in the bilingual ZPD (Moll, 2014). Ultimately,
students made their translanguaging purposeful through the active processes of
interthinking, thus suggesting new mechanisms for how interthinking functions through
translanguaging in the collaborative learning classroom. This research has extended
the scope of applying sociocultural and translanguaging theory together to provide
empirical evidence for translanguaging pedagogy in the EFL Saudi context. Finally,
this study provides recommendations for policy and practice in enabling a collaborative
translanguaging pedagogy approach in the EFL classroom.
Description: PhD Thesis2023-01-01T00:00:00ZUsing a video tagging application to support professional development and reflection: a case study of pre-service and in-service teachersTasdemir, Saziyehttp://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/59872024-01-10T11:11:36Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Using a video tagging application to support professional development and reflection: a case study of pre-service and in-service teachers
Authors: Tasdemir, Saziye
Abstract: Reflection is widely accepted as a vital element of professional development in numerous
fields, including teacher education. Advancements in technology have allowed teachers’
reflections to move from memory-based practices to evidence-based practices
incorporating the use of audio and video recordings. Despite the value placed on reflection
and the current prevalence of video-based observation practices, the use of video for
reflection and professional development and its impact on teaching practices remains
insufficiently researched.
This case study investigates the use of a recently developed video tagging application (VEO)
for the development of teachers’ reflective and teaching practices in pre-service and inservice contexts. Data sources include video observation recordings, video tagging
information, video-based feedback meetings, reflective essays, and interviews. Qualitative
content and thematic analysis are used to uncover how teachers reflect, what they focus on
and the affordances and drawbacks of using the video tagging application for reflection.
The findings show that VEO is able to act as a catalyst for dialogic reflection and
understanding of pedagogy through a) the use of a subject-specific tag set, b) the supervisor
observing and tagging lessons using VEO, c) VEO being incorporated into the postobservation meeting with tags shaping the dialogue and d) tags providing further guidance
and scaffolding for individual reflection. Additionally, the findings highlight the analytical
affordances of VEO as the pre-service teachers were able to focus on a range of subjects in
their reflections, reflect in a dialogic manner using the tags and show improvement in their
practice. For the in-service teachers, VEO was found to facilitate reflective dialogue by
shifting the dynamics of the post-lesson meeting through the affordances of video and the
structuring of the tags.
This study offers a theoretical contribution to reflection literature with the creation of a
reflective framework to analyse video-based written reflections. Expanding the descriptive
levels of reflection, analysis with the framework shows that reflection is impactful even
when the writing does not show linear improvement and is mainly descriptive. Uncovering
this link between reflection and the development of teaching practice has implications for
reflective practice, suggesting that analysis of written reflection solely does not offer a full
picture of the impact of reflection, and greater emphasis needs to be given to classroom
data
Description: Ph. D. Thesis.2023-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Dampened Curriculum? An Enquiry Into Teachers’ Practices and the Role of Technology Within the Performing Arts CurriculumNicholson, Rebecca Sarah Ealeshttp://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/59842024-01-10T10:11:57Z2022-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: The Dampened Curriculum? An Enquiry Into Teachers’ Practices and the Role of Technology Within the Performing Arts Curriculum
Authors: Nicholson, Rebecca Sarah Eales
Abstract: This thesis explores the intersection of English secondary curriculum policy, teachers’
practices and beliefs, and educational technology within the performing arts. It was
motivated by the changes in curriculum policy in England, including the EBacc and
Progress 8 measures, the renewed focus on the curriculum in the Ofsted guidance, and
the subsequent impact on the Performing Arts in English Secondary Schools.
As such, it has two specific purposes. First, the thesis develops an in-depth understanding
of how the curriculum entangles teachers’ practices, beliefs and values within the
Performing Arts. Second, the thesis examines the potential role of technology in
facilitating teachers’ enactment of the Performing Arts curriculum.
Fifteen performing arts teachers (11 music and four drama) were recruited for the first
stage of the thesis. A critical realist methodology guided the analysis, which sought to
understand teachers’ practices and beliefs relating to the Performing Arts Secondary
Curriculum within three domains of understanding: the empirical (teachers’ experiences
and observations), the real (the school-level practices that impact teachers’ practices) and
the actual (the wider policy environment). Exploring these three domains revealed that
teachers’ practices are impacted by school-level interpretations of wider educational
policy, resulting in a ‘dampened curriculum’, where teachers are enacting practices that
are not congruent with their disciplinary understandings of what teaching and learning
should be. It also found that Performing Arts teachers’ current uses of technology, while
commonplace, are impacted by disciplinary challenges, with mobile technologies often
being leveraged against school policy to compensate for specific limitations with space
and place in performing arts classrooms.
The second stage of the thesis reports a longitudinal co-design process with the Head of
Performing Arts in a school in the North East of England. Over 18 months, three different
orchestration tools were designed and used in the classroom before being evaluated for
their potential role in facilitating teachers’ enactment of the curriculum as conceived by the teacher. The findings show that orchestration with and of technology offers the
potential to support teachers’ enactment of complex socio-cultural pedagogies in the
performing arts classroom, where they are congruent with their epistemic beliefs.
This thesis contributes to the current understanding of the impact of English curriculum
policy on Performing Arts Teachers’ practices, expounding the theory of the ‘dampened
curriculum’. It also extends the current conceptualisation of orchestration, suggesting
that it offers a way of supporting the enactment of teachers’ pedagogies within complex
policy environments.
Description: PhD Thesis2022-01-01T00:00:00Z