Before working with the Department, Laura taught French and German in state secondary schools in Oxfordshire. She became interested in teacher education whilst mentoring beginning Languages teachers during their school placements.
Laura now specialises in modern languages teacher education. She works with beginning teachers on the PGCE in Modern Languages course and also supervises higher degrees in the fields of instructed second language acquisition, applied linguistics and language teacher education at all career stages.
Laura’s Masters research focussed on language learning strategies and student motivation. Her doctoral research, completed in 2020, centred on understanding the professional learning needs and experiences of languages teachers in state secondary schools. As part of this research project, Laura became interested in formative language teacher evaluation via self-assessment, student perception surveys and observation protocols.