title: Factors affecting the teaching and learning of English in a blended learning environment in a Vietnamese university

authors: Tran, Le Thu Ha

subjects: EFL blended learning

abstract: The adoption of blended learning solutions in higher education has increased significantly over some years in many developing countries, including Vietnam. While blended learning has been well-researched in Western countries such as the USA, the UK and Australia, little has been known about blended learning in Vietnamese contexts. Previous research has indicated that the adoption of blended learning in higher education can be affected by numerous factors. Thus, my study aims to add to this research, by exploring factors that affect the teaching and learning of English in a blended learning approach in a Vietnamese university.
I used a mixed methods design approach for gathering data. Quantitative data were collected from an online survey to 339 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) second-year students at the university. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 7 students, 3 programme leaders (PLs) and 5 teachers at the university. The collected data were then analysed and interpreted using Engeström’s (1987) Activity Theory as a framework. 
Key findings indicated that the PLs’ design activity, teachers’ works and students’ learning in their English blended courses were mediated by the Learning Management System (LMS) structure, the institutional regulations and their roles and responsibilities. The PLs and the teachers viewed the LMS as having affordances including helping deliver learning content materials and monitor students’ online task completion. However, the constraints of the LMS such as a lack of communicational tools within the LMS and its behaviouristic features hindered students’ blended learning experience. These constraints also prompted the teachers to use communicational tools external to the LMS to interact with students. The institutional requirements were also found to influence blended learning design decisions and teaching activities. Several online learning challenges inhibited students’ blended learning experience including students’ limited self-regulated learning skills, teachers’ inadequate online facilitation; online assessment issues; and technical problems. 
This study has several implications and recommendations for Vietnamese higher education institutions who wish to implement EFL blended learning. These include raising institutional awareness of developing blended learning programmes to fit intended educational outcomes, considering students’ knowledge and skills needed for blended courses, and providing ongoing professional development and support for both designing and teaching staff. Moreover, addressing technical issues and improving the LMS will make learning and teaching experiences of blended courses more rewarding

text: Factors affecting the teaching and learning of English in a blended learning environment in a Vietnamese university The adoption of blended learning solutions in higher education has increased significantly over some years in many developing countries, including Vietnam. While blended learning has been well-researched in Western countries such as the USA, the UK and Australia, little has been known about blended learning in Vietnamese contexts. Previous research has indicated that the adoption of blended learning in higher education can be affected by numerous factors. Thus, my study aims to add to this research, by exploring factors that affect the teaching and learning of English in a blended learning approach in a Vietnamese university.
I used a mixed methods design approach for gathering data. Quantitative data were collected from an online survey to 339 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) second-year students at the university. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 7 students, 3 programme leaders (PLs) and 5 teachers at the university. The collected data were then analysed and interpreted using Engeström’s (1987) Activity Theory as a framework. 
Key findings indicated that the PLs’ design activity, teachers’ works and students’ learning in their English blended courses were mediated by the Learning Management System (LMS) structure, the institutional regulations and their roles and responsibilities. The PLs and the teachers viewed the LMS as having affordances including helping deliver learning content materials and monitor students’ online task completion. However, the constraints of the LMS such as a lack of communicational tools within the LMS and its behaviouristic features hindered students’ blended learning experience. These constraints also prompted the teachers to use communicational tools external to the LMS to interact with students. The institutional requirements were also found to influence blended learning design decisions and teaching activities. Several online learning challenges inhibited students’ blended learning experience including students’ limited self-regulated learning skills, teachers’ inadequate online facilitation; online assessment issues; and technical problems. 
This study has several implications and recommendations for Vietnamese higher education institutions who wish to implement EFL blended learning. These include raising institutional awareness of developing blended learning programmes to fit intended educational outcomes, considering students’ knowledge and skills needed for blended courses, and providing ongoing professional development and support for both designing and teaching staff. Moreover, addressing technical issues and improving the LMS will make learning and teaching experiences of blended courses more rewarding

year: 2020

title: Who laughs? A moment of laughter in Shortbus

authors: Yeatman, Bevin

subjects: Film

abstract: In his essay On Laughter, first published in France in 1900, Henri Bergson suggested that “our laughter is always the laughter of the group” (2003:5). With this observation in mind, I have to ask: who laughs when we watch a movie? Who is it that we hear when laughter fills the theatre even if momentarily?

text: Who laughs? A moment of laughter in Shortbus In his essay On Laughter, first published in France in 1900, Henri Bergson suggested that “our laughter is always the laughter of the group” (2003:5). With this observation in mind, I have to ask: who laughs when we watch a movie? Who is it that we hear when laughter fills the theatre even if momentarily?

year: 2008

title: Relational Responsive Pedagogy, Teachers and Māori students Listening and Learning from each other

authors: Joyce, Chrisandra Itirana

subjects: Relational Pedagogy

abstract: This thesis examines the culturally responsive and relational pedagogical practices of a group of teachers in one Phase four Te Kotahitanga school. It then considers the influences of these pedagogies on four Māori students.
The thesis begins by seeking to understand the two different worldviews in Aotearoa/New Zealand (a Western worldview and a Māori worldview) and some of the discourses that have emerged in the shared Māori and colonial history of this country. It examines kaupapa Māori as both a movement of resistance to the dominant Western worldview that came with colonisation; and a movement of revitalisation to Māori ways of knowing and understanding the world that began to be lost at the same time. It focuses on Te Kotahitanga as a kaupapa Māori response in secondary schools.
The collaborative storying of teachers and Māori students in a Te Kotahitanga school alongside their data of practice and achievement are discussed and examined. Shifts across three levels of the school are identified and understood alongside the Te Kotahitanga professional development cycle. These understandings are discussed in relation to Māori metaphors.  The overall implications of Māori metaphors in relation to the research questions are then considered.
This thesis concludes with considerations and implications for others in addressing the on-going educational disparities of Māori students in mainstream educational settings in New Zealand.

text: Relational Responsive Pedagogy, Teachers and Māori students Listening and Learning from each other This thesis examines the culturally responsive and relational pedagogical practices of a group of teachers in one Phase four Te Kotahitanga school. It then considers the influences of these pedagogies on four Māori students.
The thesis begins by seeking to understand the two different worldviews in Aotearoa/New Zealand (a Western worldview and a Māori worldview) and some of the discourses that have emerged in the shared Māori and colonial history of this country. It examines kaupapa Māori as both a movement of resistance to the dominant Western worldview that came with colonisation; and a movement of revitalisation to Māori ways of knowing and understanding the world that began to be lost at the same time. It focuses on Te Kotahitanga as a kaupapa Māori response in secondary schools.
The collaborative storying of teachers and Māori students in a Te Kotahitanga school alongside their data of practice and achievement are discussed and examined. Shifts across three levels of the school are identified and understood alongside the Te Kotahitanga professional development cycle. These understandings are discussed in relation to Māori metaphors.  The overall implications of Māori metaphors in relation to the research questions are then considered.
This thesis concludes with considerations and implications for others in addressing the on-going educational disparities of Māori students in mainstream educational settings in New Zealand.

year: 2012