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All Outputs (14)

The Changing Role of Chinese English-as-Foreign-Language Teachers in the Context of Curriculum Reform: Teachers’ Understanding of Their New Role (2022)
Journal Article
Lei, M., & Medwell, J. (2022). The Changing Role of Chinese English-as-Foreign-Language Teachers in the Context of Curriculum Reform: Teachers’ Understanding of Their New Role. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 904071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.904071

The New Curriculum Standards for teaching English introduced major changes in the culture of teaching and learning English in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Changes have been linked to changing goals for English instruction and a revision of Co... Read More about The Changing Role of Chinese English-as-Foreign-Language Teachers in the Context of Curriculum Reform: Teachers’ Understanding of Their New Role.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student teachers: how the shift to online collaborative learning affects student teachers’ learning and future teaching in a Chinese context (2021)
Journal Article
Lei, M., & Medwell, J. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student teachers: how the shift to online collaborative learning affects student teachers’ learning and future teaching in a Chinese context. Asia Pacific Education Review, 22(2), 169-179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09686-w

In March 2020, universities in China transitioned to online education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and intensified the focus on collaboration in online learning. However, little is known about the impact of undertaking online collaborative le... Read More about Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student teachers: how the shift to online collaborative learning affects student teachers’ learning and future teaching in a Chinese context.

Primary homework in England: the beliefs and practices of teachers in primary schools (2018)
Journal Article
Medwell, J. A., & Wray, D. J. (2019). Primary homework in England: the beliefs and practices of teachers in primary schools. Education 3-13, 47(2), 191-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2017.1421999

© 2018, © 2018 ASPE. This study examines teachers’ views about and practices in homework in primary schools, based on questionnaire data from 235 primary teachers and 19 in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that teachers prioritise contradictory goa... Read More about Primary homework in England: the beliefs and practices of teachers in primary schools.

Learners' and teachers' beliefs about learning tones and Pinyin (2017)
Book Chapter
Medwell, J., & Yang, J. (2017). Learners' and teachers' beliefs about learning tones and Pinyin. In I. Kecskes (Ed.), Explorations in Chinese as a second language (141-163). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54027-6_6

This paper reports a study of the perceptions of English-speaking learners and teachers about the challenges and difficulties of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learning in England. The study involved a Likert-scale questionnaire and follow-up int... Read More about Learners' and teachers' beliefs about learning tones and Pinyin.

Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills (2014)
Journal Article
Medwell, J., & Wray, D. (2014). Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2013.864018

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight preservice teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to ana... Read More about Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills.

Learning from each other: co-teaching Chinese to pre-service teachers (2014)
Book Chapter
Medwell, J., Richardson, K., & Li, L. (2014). Learning from each other: co-teaching Chinese to pre-service teachers. In S. Hsin (Ed.), Selected papers: 2nd International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research. CASLAR

This study presents a case study co-teaching of beginner level Chinese as part of initial teacher education in England. The study involved interviews with teachers and observations of planning and teaching. The teaching in this study aims to teach el... Read More about Learning from each other: co-teaching Chinese to pre-service teachers.

Exploring a national book-gifting scheme: parents' and children's reactions (2013)
Journal Article
Wray, D., & Medwell, J. (in press). Exploring a national book-gifting scheme: parents' and children's reactions. Education 3-13, 43(2),

Several early learning programmes have targeted children’s reading, particularly their relationships with books. One, Bookstart, provided free books to babies attending their 8-month health check at local clinics. Study of this programme suggested th... Read More about Exploring a national book-gifting scheme: parents' and children's reactions.

Handwriting automaticity: the search for performance thresholds (2013)
Journal Article
Medwell, J., & Wray, D. (2014). Handwriting automaticity: the search for performance thresholds. Language and Education, 28(1), 34-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2013.763819

Although handwriting has a fairly low status in literacy education, evidence is accumulating that it has an important role in written composition. In particular, handwriting automaticity appears to relate to success in composition. This relationship... Read More about Handwriting automaticity: the search for performance thresholds.

Designing Multimodal Composition Activities for Integrated K-5 Programming and Storytelling
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Whyte, R., Ainsworth, S. E., & Medwell, J. (2020, June). Designing Multimodal Composition Activities for Integrated K-5 Programming and Storytelling. Presented at ICLS 2020: The 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Nashville, Tennessee (online)

A broad interest in embedding computing into K-5 settings has resulted in a proliferation of research on integrated approaches to programming. Although much of these efforts focus on supporting learning in science, engineering, and mathematics (or ST... Read More about Designing Multimodal Composition Activities for Integrated K-5 Programming and Storytelling.

Designing for Integrated K-5 Computing and Literacy through Story-making Activities
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Whyte, R., Ainsworth, S., & Medwell, J. (2019, August). Designing for Integrated K-5 Computing and Literacy through Story-making Activities. Presented at ICER '19: International Computing Education Research Conference, Toronto ON Canada

Proponents of computing education have long stressed the value of computing for learning in other disciplines. Much of the research towards this end has focused on supporting learning in science, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM). However, a tre... Read More about Designing for Integrated K-5 Computing and Literacy through Story-making Activities.

Lessons from a Shanghai reading lesson
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Medwell, J., Lei, M., & Wray, D. (2021, November). Lessons from a Shanghai reading lesson. Presented at 14th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2021), Online

In recent years the influence of the “high performing” Asian cultures has been felt in UK education, particularly in mathematics teaching. However, China, and in paticular the region of Shanghai, also does exceptionally well in teaching the reading o... Read More about Lessons from a Shanghai reading lesson.