Reflection is frequently cited in the literature as integral to the type of learning in which professionals engage. However, throughout the literature the concept of reflection has been ill-defined and shown to be difficult to operationalize in studies. Beginning with a comprehensive review of the literature, this study sought to develop a…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore whether the rite of passage is still a useful model with which to conceptualise the MBA in the era of the boundaryless career. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines the formative experiences of full-time MBA students at an elite business school, using in-depth qualitative interviews. Through a…

This article examines how an ethnically diverse group of youth critically debriefs their facilitation of diversity workshops for other youth. Using naturally occurring tape-recorded conversations and a critical ethnographic and discourse analysis perspective, the article examines youth's contributions towards a participatory process of learning,…

The Systemic Textual Analysis (STA) is a text-based approach to teaching writing based on a combination of the genre-based theory and systemic functional linguistics. Central to this approach is the teacher-learner collaborative analysis of various text types in terms of structure and texture through the use of genre analysis and systemic…

Using critical discourse analysis to analyse the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that "both" creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite the prevalence of these often used terms, assessment practices and feedback were found to unwittingly encourage…

The present study is a corpus-based analysis of a selection of polysemous lexical verbs used to express modality in student argumentative writing. Twenty-three lexical verbs were searched for in three 100,000-word corpora of argumentative essays written in English by American, Filipino and Spanish university students. Concordance lines were…

Writing in English is often a problem for EFL learners in part because students may translate literally from their L1, and also because they may organise their writing by focusing on the grammatical structure at the level of clause or sentence. However, many studies argue that language is meaningful at a unit larger than a clause or sentence…

The cultural dimension of foreign and second language use and teaching has risen in prominence since the 1980s. More recently there has been much interest in and debate concerning the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF). However, there has been little empirical investigation into what communication through ELF might mean for an understanding…

The aim of this study was, first, to investigate any pattern between students' quantitative contribution to argumentation and their science understanding, and second, to analyze any relationship between students' qualitative contribution to argumentation and their scientific knowledge. Participants of the study were four tenth-grade students. The…

This qualitative case study analyzes literacy events that were co-constructed by one bilingual, Mexican student and his English-only peers. The article examines the linguistic resources and literacy practices that Juan used as he created a picture book during writer's workshop. Data included video-taped interactions, artifacts, and interviews. The…

One of the main objectives of many science educators is to enroll students into science majors and careers. Researchers have investigated students' views of science in terms of factors and influences that guide students to choose science as a career. However, few investigations exist that have studied the forms of language culture makes available…

This article presents the argument that combining visual methods with other qualitative research methods enhances the inherent strengths of each methodology and allows new understandings to emerge. These would otherwise remain hidden if only one method were used in isolation. In a qualitative inquiry of an elementary teacher's constructivist…

Children's rights have become a significant field of study during the past decades, largely due to the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. Today, scholarly work on children's rights is almost inconceivable without considering the Convention as the bearer of the children's rights debate. The goal of…

This article explores morality as situated activity and approaches the discursive practice of accountability in Italian family dinner conversations as an avenue for understanding the construction of moral behaviour in everyday interpersonal interaction. The article focuses in particular on "vicarious" accounts, namely accounts, or…

In order to fill in the research gap related to the theory and practice of critical literacy in Taiwan, this article describes an English Conversation activity offered during the 2005 spring semester at a university in southern Taiwan. The article uses a critical instructional model to analyze students' team dialogues as responses to a…