This book explores the role of context and its link to action in organization and management theory, illustrated by examples from health care research. It discusses how context, action, and process are interwoven and provides a methodological approach to study context in action.

First Published in 1987. This book provides an outline for a descriptive basis for the study of human communication by advocating a pragmatic approach to communication, based on the study of language use in context. It covers work on verbal communication in many disciplines, and represents a variety of underlying assumptions and methods of analysis. This book blends both European and North American scholarship for a broadly focused analysis in a form suitable for beginners and those looking to expand their established understanding.

The roots of pragmatics reach back to Antiquity, especially to rhetoric as one of the three liberal arts. However, until the end of the 18th century proto-pragmatic insights tended to be consigned to the pragmatic, that is rhetoric, wastepaper basket and thus excluded from serious philosophical consideration.It can be said that pragmatics was conceived between 1780 and 1830 in Britain, but also in Germany and in France in post-Lockian and post-Kantian philosophies of language. These early 'conceptions' of pragmatics are described in the first part of the book.The second part of the book looks at pragmatic insights made between 1830 and 1880, when they were once more relegated to the philosophical and linguistic underground. The main stage was then occupied by a fact-hunting historical comparative linguistics on the one hand and a newly spiritualised philosophy on the other.In the last part the period between 1880 and 1930 is presented, when pragmatic insights flourished and were sought after systematically. This was due in part to a new upsurge in empiricism, positivism and later behaviourism in philosophy, linguistics and psychology. Between 1780 and 1930 philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and linguists came to see that language could only be studied in the context of dialogue, in the context of human life and finally as being a kind of human action itself.

There is growing recognition that entrepreneurship can be better understood within its context(s). This carefully designed book invites readers to take a journey: from reflecting critically on where the discussion on context and entrepreneurship stands today towards identifying future research questions and themes that deserve the attention of entrepreneurship scholars. This collection draws attention to the research challenges the entrepreneurship field faces by reviewing the many facets of contexts and by reflecting on methods and theoretical approaches that are required in order to contextualize entrepreneurship research. Students and academics interested in context and entrepreneurship will benefit from this far-reaching and forward-thinking book.

This book delivers a state-of-the-art survey of the issues and approaches in contemporary English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education. It examines the professional development of the teachers who taught English as a foreign language and engaged in a teacher preparation programme of reflective teaching at a university in China. Situated in the context of the reforms of English language teaching and teacher education, this book focuses on the theme of how, if at all, reflective teaching contributes to Chinese university EFL teachers’ development in thinking about English language teaching and in their own classroom practice. To date, the study of English as a foreign language teacher education and professional development mainly focused on the teaching skills and pedagogical knowledge of teachers. However, this book approaches English language teacher education from a different perspective, through an empirical exploration of the teachers’ professional development in their thinking, beliefs, values, understandings of teaching, awareness of students, and their classroom practice while engaged with reflective teaching practice at the group level and the individual level respectively. Adopting an interpretivist and constructivist epistemological paradigm, and drawing on key aspects of reflective teaching theory, the book investigates how the novice, developing, and experienced teachers differed in their views about reflective practice; how the teachers’ thinking about English language teaching transformed; how the teachers’ performance in EFL classroom practice developed; and how the teachers dealt with the changes during the period of the teacher education programme. In addition, the book provides examples of research into the ways that individuals integrate multiple levels of reflection, accommodate different types of reflection, and make them interact with each other mutually and inseparably by using a more comprehensive and multidimensional reflective teaching model. Thus the book helps to better understand teachers’ trajectory of professional growth and is a new and unique resource for exploring effective ways of language teacher education for teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers alike.

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

A new theory of human behaviour, with three core ingredients: language, interaction, and social accountability.