Ph.D., M.Ed., M.Phil., B.A (Hons), SFHEA

University of Glasgow Teaching Excellence Award 2012

SRC Student Teaching Award for 'Most Innovative Teaching' 2016

My research and scholarship interests are in learning and teaching in higher education, particularly within the areas of service-learning, assessment and feedback, collaborative learning, and technology enhanced active learning. I also have a deep interest in the philosophy of pedagogy in higher education.

Aspects of my research include critical perspectives on service-learning; the enhancement of graduate attributes through work-based learning; community voice in student learning; staff-student partnership in summative co-assessment; and the use of technology in assessment and feedback. My research also concerns developing a philosophy of pedgagogy in higher education.

My social and public policy research has been on sexuality and adults with learning disabilities; sex education for adults with learning disabilities; and children and young people as carers.

List by: Type | Date

• University of Glasgow LTDF 2017
• College of Social Sciences 2016
• Advancing Graduate Attributes through Service-Learning
  Careers Service Grant Award 
  University of Glasgow 
  2015
• Effects of new and innovative assessment methods
  College of Social Sciences Employability Award
  University of Glasgow
  2011
• Identification and assessment of employability skills in service-learning
  Faculty of Law, Business and  throuSocial Sciences Employability Award
  University of Glasgow
  2010
• A comparative study of international service-learning (Scotland and Jamaica)
  International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership/ Ford Foundation, USA
  2004

I have supervised PhD students through to completion:

Linda Murdoch 'An analysis of the practitioner response to student mental health and wellbeing in Higher Education, through a case study of university careers advisers' (2024)

Shivali Fifield 'The urban politics of greenspace: exploring community empowerment for greenspace aspirations, justice and resiliences. A participatory action research project in Glasgow' (2020)

Anastacia Ryan 'The Sanctions of Justice: A Comparative Study of Sex Workers and Access to Justice in Scotland and New Zealand' (2019)

Ellie Conway 'Family Secrets and Social Silence: women with insecure immigration status and domestic abuse policy in Scotland' (2012)

I have been the External Examiner for the following PhDs:

Leslie Palson 'Communities of Youth-Led Dialogue: Promoting Empowerment and Advancing Changemaking Engagement through Reflective Practices' (2026) University of Lancaster

Alharahsheh, H.H.A. 'Assessment for employability within the discipline of business management in the higher education context of the satellite campus' (2025) University of Greenwich

Coleman-Chan, A. 'Making the Third Mission possible: Investigating academic staff experiences of community-engaged learning' (2023) University of Edinburgh

Walker, A. 'Through others we become ourselves. A qualitative evaluation of the opportunities and challenges of participating in a service-learning module in a Welsh HEI' (2019) Cardiff Metropolitan University

I have been the Internal PhD Examiner for:

Victoria Williams 'Talking about food: exploring attitudes towards food, health and obesity with adults with learning disabilities' (2011) University of Glasgow

Sam Smith 'Living with risk: exploring the concept of risk with adults with learning difficulties' (2010) University of Glasgow

My undergraduate and postgraduate supervision topic areas have included:

• equality
• domestic abuse
• lone parenthoiod
• mental health
• community engagement
• education
• disability and sexuality

Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbF7pMVIcsU

I taught and co-ordinated the following courses:

Social and Public Policy 1A  'Foundations of Welfare' 

My lectures were on:

• The Origins and Development of the British Welfare State
• Education Policy

Social and Public Policy 2A 'Perspectives on Public Policy: Conflicting Ideas and Changing Agendas' 

My lectures were on:

• The Mixed Economy of Welfare
• The Voluntary Sector
• The Informal Sector
• The Role of the State
• The Role of Ideology
• Ideological Perspectives

I designed and taught several Social and Public Policy Honours courses:

• Education for Citizenship (Service-Learning)
• Active Citizenship (Service-Learning)
• Ideological Concepts and Values
• Utopias: Welfare Theory and Social Policies for a 'Good Society'
• Service in the Community (Service-Learning for international visiting students)

I designed the reflective element within, and have taught on, the postgraduate programme:

• Professional Development and Reflective Practice (MA Housing Studies)

Conference Keynote Addresses

• Friend or Foe? Configuring the Role of Assessment as an Opportunity to Transform the Quality of Higher Education, City, University of London, 2022
• The Importance of Staff-Student Partnerships in Relation to Learning and Assessment, Re-imagining Assessment Community of Practice: Interactive Resource Launch, Dublin City University and University of Limerick, Ireland, 2021
• Engaging Students in Partnership: 'Revising' and Navigating the Map of Assessment, Taylor's University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2019
• Student Engagement in Assessment and Feedback, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, 2019
• Service-Learning and the Future Quality of Education in our Universities, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2018

Invited Speaker

• Service-Learning: Students' active learning and community engagement, Inaugural Seminar, University of the West of Scotland, 2018
• Co-Design of Assessment: Crossing a threshold and navigating foreign territory, University College Dublin, 2018 
• Co-Design of Assessment, University of Edinburgh, 2018
• Student Engagement in Assessment, University of Glasgow, 2018
• Course Design for Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL), University of Glasgow, 2017
• Partnership in Practice, Leading Enhancements in Assessment and Feedback (LEAF) Symposium, University of Glasgow, 2017
• Staff-Student Partnership in Assessment, LEAF Symposium, University of Glasgow, 2016
• Using a TEAL Space, University of Glasgow, 2016
• Staff-Student Partnership in Assessment, ASPEN Network, University of Glasgow, 2015

Invited Mentor

• Peer and Self-Assessment, Assessment Hackathon, Dublin City University, 2021

International Conference Presentations

• A Faculty-Student Partnership approach to assessment in service-learning. Singapore, 2019
• Extending Partnership Activities in Service-Learning from Community Service to a Learning Community in the Classroom. Surabaya, Indonesia, 2017
• Enhancing Assessment and Feedback in Service-Learning. Taipei,Taiwan, 2015
• Staff-Student Partnership in Assessment. Hong Kong, 2015
• Co-assessment in service-learning. Hong Kong, 2013
• Employability skills within service-learning. Indiana, USA,2010
• Service-learning as postgraduate study. South Dakota, USA,2006
• The service-learning Scotland programme. New York, USA, 2005
• The impact of students within welfare agencies in Scotland and Jamaica/ conducting research in service-learning. Chiang Mai,Thailand, 2004
• The impact of service-learning students within welfare agencies. Utah, USA, 2003
• Meeting welfare needs. Prague, Czech Republic, 2002

Learning and Teaching Conference Presentations, University of Glasgow:

• Staff-student co-design of assessment criteria for reflective experiential learning (2019)
• Enhancing the student learning experiences in TEAL spaces (2018) co-presented with students
• Active Student Participation in Assessment of and for Learning, with co-presented with students (2017)
• Using technology to enhance student learning in assessment and feedback processes (2016)
• Developing graduate attributes and improving student employability through work-based learning: Opportunities, successes and challenges (2015) - co-presented with colleagues
• Staff-Student Partnership in Assessment (2015) - co-presented with Ruth Brown, PG student
• Co-assessment: a democratic approach to deep learning (2012)
• Identifying and assessing employability skills within service-learning (2011)
• Effects of service-learning on students in higher education (2007)