Postgraduate research

Education and Applied Linguistics

Education

Dr Fay Baldry

Research areas

  •  Mathematics Education
  • Classroom based video studies
  • Observation frameworks
  • Variation theory (including the role of examples)
  • The role of errors
  • Grouping by attainment (setting)
  • Task design (including the role of multiple representations)
  • Classroom norms
  • Teacher education
  • Teacher knowledge
  • Pre-service (Initial Teacher) education 
  • Lesson Study
  • Primary and secondary school mathematics lessons
  • The role of Lesson Study in Initial Teacher Education

Potential topics/projects

Mathematics Education: Understanding and use of observation frameworks.
Understanding teacher learning.
Lesson study as a vehicle for professional development 


Dr Pal Edirisingha

  • Use of digital technologies for formal and informal learning
  • Digital literacy and digital divide
  • Open and distance learning in international contexts
  • Conceptualisation of current and emerging approaches to using technologies in formal and informal learning contexts (OERs, MOOCs, flipped classrooms, blended learning)
  • Learning Design  

Professor Rose Griffiths

  • Mathematics Education
  • Children’s difficulties in mathematics
  •  Literacy and numeracy support for families
  • Use of manipulatives to teach arithmetic
  • Educational achievement of vulnerable children (including children in care) 

Dr Jonathan Heywood

Research areas

  • Technology and pedagogy
  • Science education

Potential topics/projects

  • Pedagogical affordance of technology
  • Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
  • Teaching and learning in Science

Potential topics/projects

  • Mathematics education
  • Identity construction in a mathematics classroom
  • Experiences of women and BAME learners
  • Narrative researchEducation policy analysis - 'education for all' goals in developing countries
 

Dr David Wharton

Research areas

  • English teaching in media and film education
  • Intersections between education and the media
  • Pedagogy of creative writing

Potential topics/projects

  •  English teaching in the UK secondary system
  • The teaching of literature or creative writing
  • Studies about media education and/or film education
  • The impact on education of socio-economic disadvantage, or other inequalities

Research areas

  • Policy issues in initial teacher education and teacher professional development
  • The regulation and inspection of teachers’ work
  • School-university partnerships in teacher education
  • Social justice and citizenship issues in teacher education
  • Transnational knowledge transfer in teacher education
  • Teachers’ professional learning and school improvement
  • Impact of school leadership approaches on teachers’ identity
  • Socio-cultural issues in teachers’ lives and careers
  • Pedagogic development in higher education

Potential topics/projects

  • Diversity of models of initial teacher education in a school-led system
  • Teacher development in international partnerships; cultural aspects of teacher identity
  • The student teacher experience of professional learning in ‘school-led’ models of teacher education
  • Career-changers in the teaching profession: their contribution to school culture, career trajectories and factors impacting on their success or failure in initial teacher education
  • Impact of the accreditation of teaching quality in higher education
Research areas
  • Teachers’ lives and careers
  • Women teachers’ lives and careers
  • The impact of caring and domestic responsibilities on women’s careers in Education
  • Experiences of women in HE
Potential topic/projects
  •  Life histories of female secondary head teachers
  • Early career teachers’ experiences of combining work and parenting responsibilities
  • HE students’ experiences of combining study with parenthood
  • Women students’ experiences of HE
  • Career experiences of women working in HE (e.g part-time lecturers)
     

Dr Haiyan Xu

Research areas

  • Teacher professional learning and development
  • Collaborative teacher learning
  • Language mediation of learning
  • Teacher knowledge
  • Teacher leadership and instructional leadership
  • Lesson study


Potential topics/projects

  • Teacher professional learning and career stages
  • Teacher talk and group learning
  • Teacher learning through lesson study
  • Practice development and innovation through lesson study
  • Leadership development through lesson study
  • Curriculum development through lesson study
  • Lesson study-based learning communities

  • School leadership development
  • Cross-cultural investigations of schooling and school leadership
  • The impact of educational policies on children, families and schools
  • Understanding and evaluating school university partnership
  • Teaching and learning research methods
  • Understanding locally contextualised educational practice and policies in China
     

 

 

Applied Linguistics and TESOL

Dr Jim Askham

Research areas

  • Second language teacher education
  • Second language learner autonomy/teacher autonomy
  • Classroom-based assessment in TESOL
  • Programme evaluation in TESOL

Potential topics/projects

  • Promoting second language learner autonomy in and beyond the classroom in TESOL contexts
  • Teacher learning in novice/early-years TESOL professionals
  • Investigations of experienced TESOL teachers' pedagogical knowledge
  • Investigations of formative assessment practices in TESOL contexts
  • Investigations of teacher learning through Lesson Study in TESOL contexts
  • Teacher-led programme evaluation in TESOL context

Dr Mohammed Ateek

Research areas

  •  Multilingualism
  • Language and migration

Potential topics/projects

  • Multilingual interactions in the classroom
  • Translanguaging in educational and non-educational settings
  • Language analysis and determination of origin
  • Refugee language educationMigrants' family language policy
  • Linguistic issues affecting migrants and refugees
  • Language and identities on social media
  • Language and social cohesion/justice

Jenny Kemp

Research areas

  • English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for specific academic purposes (ESAP);
  • Vocabulary: academic and discipline-specific vocabulary; lexico-grammatical patterns; multiword units;
  • Legal English / English for Law / English for academic legal purposes (EALP); Law vocabulary; intratextuality and intertextuality in Law texts;
  • Reading skills, particularly developing reading skills through knowledge of vocabulary and register;
  • Corpus linguistics: corpus linguistic methodologies; evaluating and reporting representativeness through use of a representativeness argument; using corpora and concordances in the classroom (data-driven learning – DDL).


Potential topics/projects

  • Projects using corpus linguistics methodologies – (in conjunction with another topic area listed);
  • Vocabulary, particularly discipline-specific vocabulary and professional (ESP) vocabulary;
  • Legal English / English for Law / English for academic legal purposes (EALP);
  • Data-driven learning (DDL); using corpora and concordances to plan lessons, for L2 teacher CPD and/or in the classroom; the possibilities for DDL in mainstream primary and secondary teacher education;
  • EAP, ESP, ESAP – (in conjunction with another topic area listed);
  • Reading skills development, particularly the relationship between vocabulary and reading, and lower-level and higher-level processing skills for reading;
  • EAP listening skills development;
  • TEAP teacher education / CPD; the TEAP teacher’s role in the university; in-sessional provision in higher education; ESAP teacher needs and knowledge;
    Interdisciplinary research into the language of a discipline (I am open to co-supervision with faculty in other schools / departments).

Dr Jim King 

  •  Psychological aspects of instructed language learning, including the following sub-topics:
  • Silence in second language (L2) or general education contexts
  • Language anxiety in L2 and higher education
  • Language learner engagement
  • Teacher emotions and well-being
  • Emotional labour in language teaching
  • Language teacher emotion regulation
  • Group dynamics in language classrooms

Dr Julie Norton

Research areas

  • Materials development in language teaching
  • Lesson study and teacher professional development
  • Methodology in TESOL (particularly developing speaking and listening skills)
  • Potential topics/projects
  • Exploring expertise in materials design; evaluating materials; research-informed learning materials; local versus global materials
  • Lesson study in initial teacher education
  • Lesson study and teacher professional development 

Professor Pam Rogerson Revell

Research areas

  •  Phonology and pronunciation teaching
  • Computer assisted language learning
  • English as a  business lingua franca (BELF)
  • Online and distance language learning
  • Potential topics/projects
  • Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT)
  • Pronunciation and intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca contexts
  • The use of technologies to enhance (distance) language learning

Dr Nick Smith

Research areas

  • Corpus linguistics: e.g. corpus design and compilation, annotation, collocation, keywords analysis and other methodological aspects
  • English grammar, lexis and lexicogrammar
  • Variation and change in contemporary English: particularly grammatical and lexical change in recent centuries and decades
  • Register analysis and corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), e.g. on media discourse, conversation
  • Regional and social variation in English, including British and American English, World Englishes, and regional English varieties
  • Using corpora for language learning/teaching

Potential topics/projects

  • Corpus linguistics
  • English grammar and lexicogrammar
  • Variation and change in contemporary English
  • Register analysis and and corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS)
  • Regional and social variation in English, including British and American English, World Englishes, and regional English varieties
  • Using corpora for language learning/teaching

Dr Agneta Svalberg

Research areas

  •  Language learning
  • English grammar
  • Grammar teaching and learning
  • Academic writing
  • Teacher grammar awareness

Potential topics/projects

  • Online and face-to-face engagement with language
  • Complex dynamic processes in language teaching and learning (e.g. in collaborative group work)
  • Language awareness approaches to language teaching
  • Teachers' language awareness
  • Teaching/learning of tense aspect

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