Understanding Japanese students' intercultural learning before, during, and after studying abroad: Using reflective writing as a pedagogic tool

This qualitative study aims to understand what Japanese study abroad students learn about self and others through their intercultural communication and intercultural socialising experiences, and how their intercultural learning is supported pedagogically through the use of reflective writing, conducted before, during, and after studying in the US for two months. As opposed to the dichotomous approach of categorising and understanding culture between Japanese and Others, the study draws on Holliday's (2011, 2013, 2016c) grammar of culture as an interpretative tool to explore how students develop understanding of culturally diverse selves and others. The findings illustrated that students' intercultural learning opportunities were not necessarily confined to intercultural encounters and interactions with non-Japanese, but also appeared possible and meaningful within the group of Japanese students. Recognising and deconstructing stereotypically or ideologically constructed image of a culture and the people was critical for students in this regard. Likewise, encountering alternative realities within and across groups of Japanese peers and other students prompted them to realise and construct a stronger sense of agency. They began to express their own realities, and to explore others' realities, more openly, confidently, and flexibly. The findings also indicated the benefits and challenges of the reflective writing tasks incorporated into the study abroad programme. Guiding students' intentional and analytical approach to reflection was important at the respective phases of the programme in enhancing students' learning from their intercultural communication experiences. In particular, (re)reading their own written entries and others' elicited students' further learning in recognising and examining alternative and multiple interpretations and realities of selves and others. The need to address students' subjective nature of learning (i.e., students' intention to learn, and approach to the task etc.) is also discussed. The study contributes to research and practice in the endeavours of globalising educational initiatives in Japanese higher education contexts

A framework to design and evaluate building integrated transpired solar collectors

The present thesis develops a design and evaluation framework to integrate Transpired Solar Collectors (TSCs) into buildings and assess their performance. The aim is for the design to respond to heat and ventilation demand in conjunction with other traditional and novel systems. The aim for the evaluation is to be able to quantify the performance of real-life systems and their contribution to heat and ventilation demand. The work sets the scene by exploring the heating and ventilation demand for different building typologies and by studying the TSC technology parameters and developments. To this purpose, existing published case studies and design guides were reviewed. This revealed fragmented and abstract decision-making design and evaluation processes. The lack of a coherent design and evaluation framework was identified as a gap. After literature data had been gathered, the framework was developed from findings analysed during 10 new experimental case studies in Wales, UK and supplemented with findings from a test rig. Data collection and monitoring techniques were utilised to provide high integrity information in both the design and evaluation sections. Modelling techniques were developed to enable feasibility studies and optimised design. Whereas monitoring using appropriate instrumentation ensured high data integrity for performance evaluation, which iteratively supported development of the design components of the framework. Communications with stakeholders and end users assisted in forming a framework that was tailored to occupant and market needs. The framework was applied to the experimental case studies to demonstrate its pertinence and flexibility. The results from applying the framework to experimental case studies revealed challenges and opportunities when incorporating TSCs to innovative systems such as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery or exhaust heat pumps. This work is of benefit to anyone looking to integrate TSC systems in buildings, such as architects, engineers, designers and housing associations among others. Furthermore, the findings, methods and tools of this study can be extrapolated for other solar thermal systems, so it could provide additional benefits to designers and other disciplines