Postgraduate research
Education and Applied Linguistics
Education
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
- 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
- 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)
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
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)
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
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
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
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).
- 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