Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemSpace to act: Conceptual framework analysis of student agency within innovative learning environments( 2021)The substantial societal shifts of the 21st century have supported the development and implementation of innovative learning environments (ILEs) and the endorsement of student agency within the field of education. There exists, however, a resonant gap in knowledge regarding the presence and properties of this learner quality within these teaching and learning spaces. This thesis addresses this gap by encapsulating the nature of student agency within ILEs through the qualitative methodological approach of conceptual framework analysis (Jabareen, 2009). Though limited by its theoretical focus and exploration of secondary data, the resultant framework offers a complex conceptualisation of the phenomenon of student agency within ILEs; its psychological antecedents, the environmental features that may support it, its characteristic actions, and its potential constructive contributions. Beyond establishing a foundational platform for future research, these findings also provide educators with the valuable knowledge and tools that allow them to more effectively understand, identify, and nurture this lauded learner quality within modern educational spaces.
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ItemUnderstanding Teacher Competence in Multiple-Choice Test Item Writing for English Reading and Listening Skill Tests: A Case of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teachers in Vietnamese Higher Education Settings( 2020)This study investigated Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ judgements of their competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests. The current study sought to construct and empirically calibrate a developmental framework that operationalises Vietnamese teacher competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests. The framework defines this competence as a continuum of competencies in terms of major tasks performed by Vietnamese EFL teacher item writers and delineates typical observable behaviours indicating their competencies at varying levels along a developmental progression. It also sought to examine to what extent teacher engagement in professional learning, their educational and professional background characteristics predicted their judgements of their competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests. For each of the three constructs explored, a scale was developed or adapted for the teachers to self-assess their level of competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests and to self-report their engagement in self-regulated professional learning and access to formal induction and training. One hundred and fifty EFL teachers from various tertiary institutions in Vietnam responded to self-reported measures of their competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests and their engagement in professional learning through an online survey. The results of both the classical test and item response theory analyses demonstrated that each of the scales had satisfactory measurement properties. The teachers’ self-reported responses were further explored using multiple regression analysis procedures. Four factors were determined to be the most significant predictors of Vietnamese teachers’ judgements of their competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests (i.e., teachers’ engagement in self-regulated professional learning, teachers’ access to institutional induction and training, their pre-service training in TESOL and their English language proficiency). Teachers’ self-regulated and deliberate professional learning and institutional induction and training were confirmed to be the most powerful mechanisms for predicting Vietnamese EFL teachers’ judgements of their competence in multiple-choice test item writing. Pre-service training in TESOL degree retained a moderate influence on the variance of the teacher competence while no evidence of a relationship between length of work-related experience and the competence was detected. It was also revealed that English language proficiency was a significantly positive factor associated with Vietnamese teachers’ self-perceived competence in multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests. The findings had direct implications for theoretical models of multiple-choice test item writing for English reading and listening skill tests, policy-related issues for developing teachers’ capability in multiple-choice test item writing, training and practice of EFL teacher item writers in Vietnamese higher education settings.