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Alison Twiner

Alison Twiner

Research Associate

Qualifications

PhD (ESRC Studentship at The Open University, 2008-2011):

Sociocultural understandings of technology-mediated educational practices: Improvable objects and meaning-making trajectories in the ICT-literate classroom

Undergraduate degree (at Loughborough University, 1999-2002):

Dissertation: Impression formation and development of communication in asynchronous computer-mediated dyads

BSc (Hons) Psychology: First

Memberships/Professional Bodies

AFHEA

Member of European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction

Member of British Educational Research Association

Personal profile

Alison is a researcher working in the Faculty, with a focus on how we use and allow for different ways of communicating to support meaning making and learning; alongside supporting professional development that is meaningful and impactful locally and at scale. Her work explores how we use and engage in dialogue, and particularly multimodal dialogue, in offering different ways for learners to develop and express their understandings, and for teachers to support this. This includes teaching and learning interactions in formal classroom settings, and in a wider frame of informal settings and interactions where learning may occur. Currently, this includes partnership with colleagues in University museums to consider how learning is and can be supported in such object-rich spaces and places.

Alison is also a Senior Research Associate with Camtree: Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, based at Hughes Hall.

 

Academic Groups/Areas/Links

Co-lead of the multimodal dialogue strand of the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research Group (CEDiR)

Currently not involved in courses.

Informally co-supervise three PhD students

Currently working on the project ‘Talking Objects – Deepening understanding about informal, multimodal, dialogic learning in arts and cultural heritage spaces’, with Dr Kate Noble at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Dr Emma Cooper of the Faculty of Education.

Educational dialogue, multimodal dialogue, teacher professional development, teacher research and inquiry

Fensham-Smith, A., Twiner, A. & Govaerts, F. (2026). Publish, perish, or build community? Towards alternative ethical publication and dissemination practices. In A. Fox, A. Quickfall, N. Tegama, N. Brown & M. Courtney (Eds), Ethical Dilemmas in Educational Research: BERA Case Studies for Researchers by Researchers. Bloomsbury.

Twiner, A. (2025). Exploratory talk and conversational ground rules. In H. de Boer & D. Merklinger (Eds.) Dialog als interaktive Praxis: Grundschüler*innen im kollektiven Fachgespräch, pp. 53-68. Wiesbaden: VS-Springer.

Twiner, A., Carmichael, P., Dudley, P., Hennessy, S. & Ji, Y. (2025). Unpacking and Underpinning the Ethical Conduct and Sharing of Practitioner Research. In K. Mawson, C. Haresnape Tyson, T. Perry & J. I-Hui Chen (Eds), The BERA Guide to Practitioner Research: Developing professional knowledge in educational research and practice (pp. 155-162). Emerald Publishing.

Twiner, A., Lucassen, M. & Tatlow-Golden, M. (2022). Supporting children’s understanding of different emotions through creative, dance-based movement: A pilot study. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 37, 100659. 

Twiner, A., Major, L. & Wegerif, R. (2022). School-based Simulated Internships to support dialogic collaboration and authentic links with the world of work: A design-based research study. Irish Educational Studies, 41(1), 51–69.

Twiner, A., Littleton, K., Whitelock, D. & Coffin, C. (2021). Combining sociocultural discourse analysis and multimodal analysis to explore teachers’ and pupils’ meaning making. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 30 (Part A), 100520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2021.100520