My research interests meet at the crossroads of psychology of (language) teaching (esp. teacher emotions), and game-based learning and teaching.I investigate the optimal ways of incorporating games (digital or analogue) in (language) learning and whether this contributes to the wellbeing and (academic) success of teachers and students. I also investigate teacher emotions in different educational contexts, i.e. (foreign) language education, general education, higher education. Epistemologically, I align with post-structuralism and methodologically with qualitative research (albeit very interested into expanding my methodological repertoire).
Some of my research projects below; click on the arrows to find out more : )
Lecturer emotions in HE
This is an ongoing project;
Are you a lecturer in HE in the UK? Should you like to participate, here’s the link for our 3-minute survey! Thank you.
and here’s our poster : )
PhD Thesis in Teacher Emotions in Game-Informed teaching
My PhD was a longitudinal Action Research study, which trained EFL teachers on game-based learning and gamification, and investigated the impact of their designed gameful lessons on teachers’ emotions.
Core findings:
Game design and game-informed teaching makes teachers happy, highlighting a sense of ownership, and high satisfaction with their teaching. Seeing students engaged during gameplay is what accelerates even more positive emotions!
You can also find my entry to the National 3MT (3-Minute Thesis Competition) here!
You can read my Thesis here.
TL;DR ? See poster attached for an overview : )
Redesigning Games for ELT
Playing games can increase student motivation and engagement. Creating games, on the other hand, addresses higher order thinking skills of learners and has even more benefits. In the paper below I describe a participatory approach that involves both English language teachers (or other educators) and learners in Game Design for educational purposes.
Examples of games redesigned or adapted for the EFL classroom can be found in these two papers here:
MA Dissertation in Teacher Attitudes in the Digital School
I was glad to be supervised by Dr Chris Alexander at the University of Nicosia for my MA Thesis, titled: English Language Teacher Attitudes and Effective Management of Change in the Greek Digital School. The topic of the Thesis revolved around the Digital School initiative in Greece which follows the European policies for digital integration in public schools.
I investigated teachers’ familiarity and attitudes towards the online platforms of the Digital School as well as their training on them. Data was collected with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It was found that digital integration is rather uneven or slow in the Greek state schools. For this reason, suggestions for management of change were made to further improve the situation and benefit from digital tools and resources.