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    Secondary school English language teacher agency in the aftermath of COVID-19 crises : a study from a West Sumatran Region, Indonesia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-11-26) Yuliandri, Yuliandri
    The COVID-19 pandemic saw the prompt shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT), which was challenging for both learners and educators worldwide. This study explores the experiences of secondary school English language teachers working within a resource-limited setting of Lima Puluh Kota Region, West Sumatra, Indonesia. It focuses not only on the ERT period but also on the re-transition to face-to-face teaching post-pandemic. It seeks to answer two research questions: 1) What adjustments did English language teachers make to their practice during and after the pandemic lockdown period, and how did they perceive and articulate these experiences? 2) How did the teachers exercise their agency, negotiate their professional identities, and manage their emotions in response to these experiences? This study adopts a qualitative dominant mixed-methods design. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis are employed to analyse data which was collected from teachers from July to November 2022 through a survey (n=63), two rounds of interviews (n=10), and classroom observations (n=10). The findings indicated that while the teachers were emotionally affected by the abrupt shift to ERT, which was intensified by Digital Divide issues, they tried to negotiate the availability of resources and use their agency to find ways to continue teaching. Some were able to discover benefits beyond the difficulties as ERT exposed them to digital technologies, a wide range of learning modes, and opportunities to pursue professional development (PD). Throughout and after the pandemic, teachers actively negotiated their professional identities, which contributed to their professional growth and increased reflexivity on their current and future practices. This shifted their perspectives about teaching and learning and the role of technology, which proved useful when they encountered challenges re-transitioning to face-to-face classrooms. This study contributes to the literature by 1) adding evidence of how English language teachers exercised their agency during and after the pandemic and illustrating the temporal and contextual aspects involved in the process, 2) revealing different pathways of professional identity negotiation, and 3) breaking down the interplay between agency, identity, and emotions, and outlining the significant role of emotions in both enactment of agency and professional identity negotiation. In addition to these theoretical contributions, practical implications, which focus on the need for school technology infrastructure in the region, and tailored teacher professional development at both school and MoE levels to foster student teachers’ and experienced teachers’ awareness of the intersection of agency, identity and emotion in the teacher education curriculum and training programmes, are discussed.
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    Teacher agency in synchronous one-to-one Chinese online language teaching : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Dai, Chujie
    This study explores the teacher agency of four Chinese language teachers who teach in one-to-one videoconferencing settings. Since these teachers only had limited teaching experience in such a context, four preparatory workshops were designed for the teacher participants before they began teaching. The study seeks to answer three questions: 1) What kinds of competencies did teachers identify as required in their teaching via one-to-one videoconferencing? 2) What kinds of affordances and constraints did teachers perceive in teaching, and how was their agency influenced by these factors? 3) What was the main value of the preparatory workshops from the teachers’ perspective? The study is informed by ecological perspectives and employs a qualitative longitudinal case study approach. The data collected through teaching recordings, stimulated recall interviews, semi-structured interviews and group discussions formed the main data set. The data collected through a teacher questionnaire, written reflection sheets, opinion frames, and text chat on a social media platform formed the supporting data set. The main part of the study, spanning about eight months, comprised three stages. At the first stage, there were four teacher preparatory workshops, each including a lecture and a group discussion. At the second stage, each teacher conducted a series of Chinese learning sessions with a single learner, which were recorded and analysed. At the third stage, semi-structured interviews with individual teachers were conducted. The findings suggest that the teachers identified four important competencies required for online teaching: pedagogical competency, multimedia competency, social-affective competency and the competency of being reflective and reflexive. Different beliefs about teacher roles, perceived social hierarchy, and their relationships with peer teachers and the learners were the factors that enabled or constrained teachers’ actions. The perceived value of the teacher preparatory workshops was in providing opportunities for the teachers to bridge the gap between theories and teaching practice and to explore the pedagogical possibilities. They collectively formed an idealised notion of online teaching as a result of their discussions and this notion influenced their identity and teaching practice. The study concludes with implications for research methodology and a theoretical frame, shedding light on how the factors from the outer world, and teachers’ experience and aspirations could impact the enactment of agency. It is hoped that this study will be valuable for future online language teacher training and research.
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    Profile transformation in mobile technology based educational systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2005) Chen, Jueming
    In order to meet the learning needs from various types of students, computer aided education systems try to include new methods to provide personalized education to every student. From the early 1970s, a lot of adaptive educational systems have been created to provide training on a variety of subjects. Combined with the Internet, the adaptive educational systems have become web-based and even more popular. Recently, the development of mobile technology has made the web-based adaptive educational systems accessible through mobile phones. It is necessary that the students can also receive adaptive educational contents on mobile phones. This research project investigated the possible student's preference differences between Personal Computer (PC) and mobile phone, and then proposed a student profile transformation framework to address such differences. This research project conducted two surveys on the student profile transformation between PC and mobile phone. A demo web-based educational system that could be accessed from both PC and mobile phone was also developed for participants of the surveys to give more real and precise responses. Based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Theory (Felder, 1993; Felder & Silverman, 1988) and the results of the surveys, this thesis proposes a student profile template and a student profile transformation framework, which both fully considered the influences of device capabilities and locations on students' preferences on mobile phones. Furthermore, the proposed framework integrates a solution for unsupported preferences and preference conflicts. By implementing the proposed template and framework, the students' preference changes between PC and mobile phone are automatically updated according to various device capabilities and locations, and then the students can receive adaptive educational contents that meet their updated preferences.
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    The impact of an aesthetic online course design template on the learner user experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Jacoby, Jean Margaret
    Online learning is becoming ubiquitous, and increasing numbers of higher education providers use online delivery, usually managed through learning management systems, as part of their core business of education. A substantial body of literature exists in areas of online learning such as theoretical approaches or general principles of course design. However, there is little research that explores the user experience of online learners accessing their learning through learning management systems, and in particular, how the presentation or layout of the online courses impacts the learner user experience. As a result, online courses are often designed according to the preferences of the individuals responsible for their delivery, rather than as the end result of an evidence-based approach. This mixed-methods study sought to evaluate the impact of a course template, designed to create an aesthetic learning experience, on the learner user experience. The study was conducted in one college of a New Zealand university. Data was collected, using an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, from staff facilitating and students enrolled in first-year courses. Findings indicate that the use of a template that incorporated evidence-based design principles had a significant positive effect on learner user experience. Narrative was shown to be an important aesthetic construct, and the use of the aesthetic template was found to reduce the extraneous cognitive load of courses, increasing learners’ sense of engagement and, motivation, and self-efficacy.
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    Web-based asynchronous synchronous environment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Yang, Ang
    In the face of the coming of new information technology era of 21st century, web-based learning has become the major trend of future teaching and learning model. The web-based learning systems are created to simulate the real teaching-learning environment in the classroom using computer software and web-based tools. Learner can study web-based teaching materials according to their individual needs and instructional schedule. Although web-based learning has a lot of advantages over traditional face-to-face learning, the lack of the explanations and interpretation of teaching materials from human teacher in most existing web-based learning system is critical. This project proposed an innovative solution to the problem by combining the benefits of classroom learning in the web-based education. In this project, a prototype Web-based Asynchronous Synchronous Environment (WASE) is developed that not only combines the benefits of tools such as WebCT and AudioGraph, but also integrates lectures given by the human teacher within the system. WASE provides simultaneous low-bandwidth streaming of lecture video and presentation, while facilitating students with presentation annotation facilities, and peer discussion on particular issues related to the topic. The prototype system is built using a three-tier, client-server architecture. The client tier is a set of HTML frames embedded with RealPlayer running in the students' web browsers to provide course contents and navigation guide. The middle tier is an application server which consists of Java Sevlet, JSP engine, and application programs to receive the students' request and send the corresponding course contents and navigation guide information to the client side. The third tier is the relational database for storing the course structure and contents, and for recording the interaction between students and teachers. This project provides a solution where the off-campus students are able to enjoy the explanations and interpretation of course materials from human teacher just as normal on-campus students do in the traditional face-to-face learning environment, while still reaping the benefits of web-based learning.