Dave Smalley, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and winner of a 2023 ‘Inclusive Sussex’ Education Award, explains his approach to encouraging reflection and building a sense of community and supported collaboration in the classroom.
What I do
My approach to teaching and learning is, wherever possible, to make my teaching as interactive and engaging as possible. I also try to take my students in a learning journey, through which they are encouraged to draw on their own experiences to develop insights into the relevance and applications of psychological models and approaches.
How I do it
My final year module, Educational Psychology, is taught primarily through large workshops with half the cohort at a time (so I do have to double teach) and includes what I like to refer to as ‘pseudo-experiential learning’ although it’s probably better described as retrospective reflections. Students are encouraged to reflect on their experiences of education, family and mental health as children. The idea is that they apply an understanding of psychology theory and research attained through the prep activities/readings and tutor-led delivery of content workshops to make sense of their childhood experiences. For example, we can apply an understanding of self-presentational awareness to understand why being in a lower set for maths is demotivating. Eventually, they will learn to apply their understanding of psychology research and theory by applying professional frameworks (much as an educational psychologist would) so pedagogically, we are using student reflections to develop important employability skills for those wishing to become applied psychologists.
So how does this create community and collaboration? Firstly, the process of reflecting and sharing one’s experiences with others acts as a form of disclosure which develops intimacy and connectedness among students. Every student’s experiences are listened to and valued without judgement, and students are reminded that this is about considering a range of different perspectives, not about arriving at the ‘right answer’. The approach is particularly influential when working with students from a range of nationalities. Secondly, students are encouraged to reflect on what they valued in teachers and learning experiences in the past and to consider why they valued said teaching/learning experiences. Typically, students come to the same conclusions as the evidence supports – learning is most effective when the learners are treated like individuals and as collaborative learners, which of course is exactly what the teaching approach emphasises, so the students really get on board with it. Thirdly, the whole experience feels very relatable and relevant for students and gives them a shared goal which is key for collaboration. I often see a group of students highly motivated to ‘fix education’ as a team! An ambitious goal, but an excellent learning mindset nevertheless!
Preparing students for assessment
The reflective tasks during teaching sessions model the approach that I want students to take in their reflective portfolios. They are to identify something relevant to the topic covered in each week that is especially important to them, then seek some evidence to support/refute their position (thus promoting independent reading). This portfolio encourages continuous engagement throughout the module and scaffolds students in working at the intersection of research/theory and professional practice, something that is then assessed in the end of year exam. At the end of the module, I can guarantee that every student will have something meaningful and personal to say about every topic covered which is a fantastic outcome.
As well as the in-class activities, I provide prompts for reflection on the Canvas pages dedicated to each workshop. I also ask students to maintain their portfolios on One Note which means that I can dip in, identify some great examples of reflections and share them with the class.
Student feedback
I have been incredibly fortunate to receive a number of Education Award nominations from students over the years which suggests I’m doing something right! Nominations for my 2023 Inclusive Sussex award included:
“Dave’s Educational Psychology module stood out from the rest of my lectures as there was a real sense of community and collaboration in these lessons. Not only were we learning content but we were able to put what we learning into practice and see first-hand how others were able to tackle the same task. “
“an engaging and friendly lecturer, connecting with his students so that they feel heard and recognised. His teaching style is fun and informative, always opening up the lecture hall to ask questions and interact with the content. Im never bored or tired of his teaching, its a real pleasure learning from him and feeling like a worthy student in his class.”
Top tips
If you want to do something similar:
Consider what encourages you to work effectively in small groups and try to bring those features to your group working activities. Relatedness, relevance, and the absence of a ‘correct answer’ work really well for me.
Prioritise ‘interesting to students’ over ‘important academically’. The academic understanding will soon follow!
Portfolios are an amazingly effective way to integrate group working activities into assessment and to scaffold students learning as the module progresses. They are a great example of assessment for learning so I strongly recommend you consider bringing them into your assessment if you want to apply a similar approach in your class.
Dr Rona Hart is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Positive Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex and is the Course Leader for The Psychology of Kindness and Wellbeing at Work.
What I Did
In January 2023, I began integrating AI tools into student assignments in my Level 6 and Level 7 modules at the School of Psychology, University of Sussex. The initiative aimed to expose students to AI technologies in a structured, educational context. My goal was to enable students to explore these tools, providing them with the guidance needed to use AI both effectively and responsibly.
Why I Did It
The primary motivation for allowing students to use AI tools in their assignments was to provide them with the opportunity to engage with these technologies in a structured and supportive academic environment. As AI continues to develop, I believe it is essential for students to gain direct experience with these tools, while also receiving the necessary guidance and training to maximise their benefits and mitigate potential risks. My goal is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and understanding required to navigate AI technology effectively. By encouraging a critical and informed approach to AI, I aim to enrich students’ learning experiences and prepare them for a future where AI will likely play an increasingly prominent role. Furthermore, the University had set guidelines permitting module leaders to decide on AI use in assignments, therefore offering module leaders a reliable, well-considered framework to introduce these tools responsibly.
How It Works
The process started with a review of the University’s policies regarding AI usage. Although no formal policy existed at the time, I made sure our approach adhered to emerging guidelines. The next step was to assess the suitability of assignments for AI integration. This included testing various AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, to ensure that assignments couldn’t be easily completed by merely inputting the questions into the AI.
For example, in my Level 6 module, students are tasked with writing a book review of a relevant book of their choice. To ensure the assignment’s integrity, I imposed several restrictions on this choice:
The book must be an academic work authored by academic professionals.
The publication date should fall within the last five years (2019 to 2024), ensuring the selected books are less likely to be included in AI tool databases.
Students are required to discuss content that is unlikely to be found in existing book reviews or automatically generated by AI tools.
The assignment requires students to include specific sections that require students to break the task down, and use different prompts for each section to generate meaningful responses from the AI tool.
Additionally, students are required to include a reflection on their use of AI as part of their submission. This segment is graded but does not contribute to the overall word limit.
Clear guidelines were established, including the mandatory AI statement for assignments, guidance on how to use AI tools, and instructions how to reflect on their use of AI tools in their work (the text for these can be found in the Resources section of this post). To complement this, I also created a short AI training video covering the following elements:
An overview of AI tools and guidelines on how students are permitted to use them.
A demonstration of using ChatGPT with various prompts, including some that produced low-quality results. In the video, I showcased these problematic prompts and the resulting text from ChatGPT, followed by a review of the output to highlight its weaknesses and errors. For instance, I used examples to raise awareness of AI hallucinations and fictitious references by showing prompts that might lead to such issues.
A demonstration of how to generate higher-quality responses, while emphasising that even improved outputs still contained inaccuracies that needed to be checked, scrutinised, and used carefully.
An introduction to additional techniques, such as idea generation, creating essay outlines, shortening sections, and rephrasing contents.
Alongside the use of video, during the assessment guidance session, students were encouraged to experiment with an AI tool of their choice in small groups. They discussed the advantages and limitations of using AI tools and shared ideas on how to effectively engage with these tools in relation to the specific assignment.
Impact and Student Feedback
The initial implementation of AI in assignments produced mixed yet insightful outcomes. Approximately 72% of students utilised AI tools, with ChatGPT being the most widely used. Many students noted that AI enhanced the structure, coherence, and overall quality of their work. ESL (English as a Second Language) students, in particular, found AI helpful in improving their written English. However, a small proportion of students became overly reliant on AI, resulting in repetitive or superficial arguments, and in some cases, the inclusion of fictitious references.
Student feedback also indicated some apprehension, as certain students opted not to use AI due to concerns about its accuracy, potential bias, and the risk of it overshadowing their original work. Despite these concerns, many students valued the opportunity to experiment with AI, acknowledging that it enhanced their understanding of how to use these tools effectively.
Top Tips
Evaluate different AI tools to ensure that assignments can’t be easily completed by simply inputting the questions.
To maintain the integrity of the assignment, set clear limitations, such as restricting the selection of materials or topics. This ensures students engage thoughtfully with the task.
Develop clear and structured guidelines outlining how students are permitted to use AI tools. A mandatory AI statement in assignments, coupled with explicit instructions on appropriate usage, can help guide students and align expectations.
Create opportunities for students to experiment with AI tools in a supervised setting. Offer demonstrations highlighting both the strengths and limitations of AI-generated content.
Include a reflective component in assignments where students are invited to evaluate their use of AI. This encourages responsible usage and helps students think critically about how AI impacts their work.
Resources
AI statement
As required by the guidelines, an AI statement was included on the assignment pages in Canvas:
“In this assignment, you are permitted to use AI tools. You are encouraged to experiment with different AI tools while completing this assignment.
While AI tools offer multiple advantages and can help in terms of efficiency, it is critical to approach them with a discerning eye.
Students should therefore:
Verify the accuracy of information generated by AI, as these tools can sometimes produce incorrect information, incomplete coverage, and repetitive content.
Be aware of potential algorithmic biases and experiment with different prompts to better understand how the tools function.
Use AI tools to complement and enhance your work, rather than allowing them to dominate your work.
Avoid relying too heavily on AI for analysis, depth, coverage, opinion, or critical thinking, as these are known limitations of AI tools.”
The statement permits the use of AI tools but also emphasises their known limitations. Additionally, this statement, along with a more detailed discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of AI tools, was presented during the essay guidance session.
AI reflections
Students were provided with the following guidance regarding their reflection on the use of AI tools:
“Describe which AI tool you used, why you selected it, and the prompts you experimented with.
If you chose not to use AI tools, explain your reasoning.
Reflect on the advantages and challenges you encountered while using the tool.”
The following resources were co-created by colleagues from Educational Enhancement and ten non-EU international students at the University of Sussex.
The University of Sussex students who collaborated on the project
Familiarising your students with the University
The students we worked with spoke about the value of having key University information highlighted by their lecturers in the first few weeks of term. They stated that students are often unaware of these services, even if they have been introduced to them during welcome week. We know that students are most likely to listen to the academics who are teaching them, which is why it is important that this information also comes from you. One student stated:
It is important to remind students of the services available at the beginning of the semester as it enables them to get the right information they need to excel academically and break any form of confusion in blending into the UK education system.
Student quote, from the focus group: Supporting the International Student Experience at Sussex and beyond 2024
These slides highlight some key services and tools related to living and studying at Sussex. We recommend that you share the slide in class so that students are reminded of the support available.
Here is a breakdown of some of the key the information on the slide. We have highlighted this information as we realise you may wish to signpost to certain services and tools, rather than sharing the slide as a whole.
Canvas
The students continually praised the University’s use of Canvas. They appreciated that it stored all course and module information in one place and that it was often used as a space for class cohorts to come together and connect. However, many students commented that at the start of their course, they didn’t know how to navigate Canvas and weren’t aware of the excellent content it contained. One student commented:
I think Canvas is really helpful. It has everything from – well I think it’s going a little overboard if I say everything, but it has, I think, a lot of things that a student needs to navigate throughout the course. But there’s this one thing that I feel is lacking, that’s making students acquainted with what Canvas really has. It took me some time to navigate throughout it and to understand all the resources that it has got, and it has plenty. But I think many people find it difficult. In fact, most of them don’t even know the resources that they have access to and what the privileges that they are getting through Canvas.
Student quote, from the focus group: Supporting the International Student Experience at Sussex and beyond 2024
To help students become more familiar with Canvas, this video highlights the tool’s key features, and introduces students to Sussex Direct too. You can share this with students by linking the video on your Canvas site, or simply by playing the video to students in one of your classes. We hope you find it useful.
ELAS
If students have English as an additional language, English Language for Academic Study (ELAS) provides free workshops, tutorials, drop-ins and time to write sessions to develop knowledge and understanding of academic language, skills and culture. Learn more about ELAS through this student video and students can enrol via the ELAS webpage. ELAS is based in the Department of Language Studies in Arts A. Find Arts A circled in red on the campus map.
The Student Centre
The Student Centre unites all the student support services at the University. Students can contact the Centre if they have questions or concerns about living and studying at Sussex. Find out more about the excellent services that sit within the Student Centre via this student video. Find the location of the Student Centre circled in red on the campus map. The welcome desk is open 8.30am-5pm, Monday-Friday or call 01273 075700, 9am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday.
Skills Hub
The Skills Hub is an online resource that helps students to develop the academic skills that are essential for studying at Sussex. Learn more about the benefits of the Skills Hub in this student video.
My Sussex
My Sussex is an online tool that offers personal and academic support. Find out more about the services contained in My Sussex in this student video.
Health Centre
The University has an on-campus NHS health centre. Find out why it is important to register with the health centre in this student video. Students and staff can register as a new patient online and can find the location of the health centre circled in red on the campus map.
The Students’ Union
The University of Sussex Students’ Union exists to make student life better. Find out the different ways the Union can support life and studies while at Sussex in this student video. The Union is located in Falmer House, which you can find on the campus map.
The importance of getting to know one another
We recognize the challenge of fitting all key content into modules and courses. However, the value of staggering your introductions in seminars and creating space for students to get to know both you and their peers cannot be underestimated from both an academic and a wellbeing perspective. Getting to know your students’ backgrounds can shed light on factors that may impact their learning, such as living situations, learning differences, cultural backgrounds, finances, relationships, independence, and work. While you can’t amend your teaching to best suit everyone’s circumstances, having an understanding of the multitude of backgrounds that comprise your cohort can help build an empathetic, inclusive, and diverse learning environment. Spending time getting to know one another will also facilitate socializing among students. Despite a desire to integrate, it can be challenging for students to mix with others, especially those from different backgrounds. One student commented:
There’s the whole culture clash between different kinds of international students, as well as the home students, as well as between the different ethnic groups of one country. So, yeah, sometimes socialization is in a bubble … your social life is often limited to either international students within your country or something even a specific ethnic group within your country as well. So yeah, socialization is a huge challenge.
Student quote, from the focus group: Supporting the International Student Experience at Sussex and beyond 2024
Here are some suggestions for getting to know one another
Introductory slides. You can make a shared folder on OneDrive for seminar groups, and encourage students to create a few introductory slides about themselves. You could upload your own as an example. The slides could contain images or short videos representing students’ backgrounds and interests. For example, flags of countries they have lived in.
Knowing, and pronouncing, one another’s names. An important part of getting to know one another is taking the time to learn how to pronounce each student’s name. This practice serves as a great equalizer! When taking the register, read out each student’s name and ask them to repeat it back to you. Explain that this helps you ensure correct pronunciation. If needed, repeat their name back to them with the correct pronunciation. This approach demonstrates to the class that it’s okay not to pronounce every name correctly on the first try, and with practice, everyone will be able to pronounce each other’s names accurately. For more guidance, see our resource on pronouncing Chinese names.
Get students working in groups. Getting students working together is a great way to build academic and social connections in class. See our guidance on facilitating inclusive group work.
In-class polling. The initial teaching sessions hold significant importance for both you and your students. It provides an opportunity to share expectations and clarify any doubts that your students may have about the course/module. If possible, get to know your students in class. While this is challenging in large lectures, it can be achieved through in-class polling. You can ask students to share something about themselves, their interests, concerns or questions about the course or module.
This resource was generated from an Education and Innovation Funded project aimed at closing the international awarding gap. To help understand why this gap exists, ten international students participated in a focus group to discuss their experiences at the University. A key theme from the focus group was the importance of feeling welcomed into the institution, particularly through getting to know lecturers and peers in teaching spaces, and understanding key University support systems. Drawing on the focus group discussions, the students then worked hard to develop resources aimed at helping you welcome your students to Sussex. They hope you find these resources useful.
In this Case Study, Doran explains how he combined his interests in neuroscience, contemplative practices, and science communication to design and run a final-year outreach project for Life Science students, and what he learnt from the process. A fuller account of Doran’s pedagogic rationale and approach can be found in his June 2024 paper published in the JUICE (Journal of Useful Investigations in Creative Education) special issue on contemplative pedagogy.
For their final year projects, Life Science students can choose between an experimental, data analysis, literature, or outreach project. I designed and supervised a final-year outreach project during which I guided six students to plan and prepare for a two-day outreach event in collaboration with the University’s Wellbeing team. The event was themed around mental health — specifically, how breathwork techniques, such as resonance breathing (a type of slow, regular breathing), can affect heart rate variability (HRV) and reduce stress.
At the start of term, the project students were each given a wearable heart rate monitor and invited to try out a couple of breathwork techniques at home in the weeks before the event. They installed the free app EliteHRV, which guided them through the techniques and gave them live feedback on their HRV during the breathwork.
After much planning and poster printing, the event was held at the Student Centre on campus in Autumn term 2023 with the aims of:
Educating participants about the science of stress, including the role of the autonomic nervous system in stress and HRV as a physiological correlate of stress;
Engaging participants by inviting them to participate in a “citizen science” experiment to compare how two breathwork techniques affect HRV and stress levels;
Introducing participants to practical tools to support their breathwork practice in the future, such as breathwork/HRV apps and a wearable heart rate monitoring device for HRV biofeedback.
During the event, the students were actively engaged in guiding participants through the breathwork techniques with the help of the app, building on their own first-hand experiences in the weeks before. The students collected both experimental “citizen science” data about the impact of breathwork, as well as questionnaire feedback from participants about their experiences of the event, which both contributed to their assessed project work.
Why I did it
I designed this project to make good use of my expertise in neuroscience, contemplative practices, and science communication. I offered it as a way for students to learn not just about the theoretical science of stress, but to have the opportunity to explore the effects of the breathwork techniques experientially. I wanted to find out whether supporting students to make connections between their lived experience and theoretical learning could deepen their motivation and engagement, depth of understanding, and invite fresh thinking and new perspectives. I also hoped that it would help them to benefit the mental health of the wider student community and foster a space for compassionate discussion around these issues.
The project provided a creative container for exploring broader themes of interest to me, such as mind–body interactions and novel approaches to stress and mental health. It was a “light touch” first try at incorporating first-person, experiential modes of enquiry into my teaching, which are typically de-emphasised in university-level science education. In the future, I hope to develop on what I have learnt, perhaps by inviting students to write a reflective journal on their bodily sensations before and after the breathwork techniques and linking this to theoretical knowledge about the autonomic nervous system in group meetings.
Impact and student feedback
Following the project, I collected feedback from the project students, which demonstrated how the experiential learning opportunities of the project helped students to develop their confidence, communication skills, team-work and creativity, along with enabling them to experience directly how their personal and scientific understanding can benefit the wider community.
For example, a prominent theme discussed by students was confidence, as well as the perhaps related themes of communication and a compassionate motivation to help others:
“I am truly grateful for being given this opportunity to use my neuroscience background knowledge to help others to benefit their well-being. Not only has this event boosted my confidence in speaking to strangers, it has also taught me the importance in bringing awareness to topics such as mental health and overall well-being.”
Students also highlighted the theme of community or collaboration, recognising the value of learning both as a team of project students and also in relationship with the wider community of participants at the event:
“We conducted a research project focused on scientific outreach, hosting an event on campus to educate students about heart rate variability (HRV) and introduce scientifically proven breathing techniques for HRV improvement … This experience not only fostered collective learning within our team, but also enabled us to take the participating university students and staff on the journey of learning together with us.”
Top tips
Start simple – doing the outreach activity on campus can make it a lot easier to arrange.
Consider organising the project for a team of students if possible — this allows them to support and motivate each other, whilst providing opportunities for each to contribute their unique talents to the project.
Give the students a week-by-week plan to follow — this is especially important if you need ethical approval, as this needs to be in place well before the event.
Don’t shy away from a project design that needs ethical approval — the ethics application can be an effective focus early on in the project for the students to concretely plan what the event will be about and how and when it will run.
Make sure you plan time for a pilot event — this will allow the students to practice their roles and get valuable feedback from the guinea pigs (normally their friends)!
Think carefully about which kinds of lived experience you ask or encourage students to draw on (e.g. by keeping the focus on common, everyday experiences such as stress) — avoid topics that are likely to be overwhelming or triggering for some.
Doran Amos has been a Lecturer in Neuroscience (Education & Scholarship) at the University of Sussex since 2022. Prior to becoming a teaching-focussed lecturer, he pursued a career in academic research, beginning with a PhD, which he completed in 2011 at University College London under the supervision of Prof. John O’Keefe. His doctoral work focused on how spatial navigation and memory are supported by specialised “place cells” in the rodent brain. Following this, he continued with post-doctoral research on these topics in humans, before joining the University of Sussex in 2016 to investigate navigation in ants with Prof Paul Graham and Prof Andy Philippides.
In addition to his interests in neuroscience, Doran has a long-standing passion for contemplative practices such as mindfulness, which he has engaged with primarily through the Plum Village lineage of Zen Buddhism. He lived for 15 months in Plum Village monastery in France before moving to Brighton in 2016. He also loves writing and has worked freelance as a scientific writer since 2016, creating scientific blog articles and social media posts for a variety of audiences.
Mirela Barbu is a Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management, who joined the Business School in 2019 following the completion of her PhD in Economic Geography at the University of Sussex in 2013. Transitioning from teaching geography to engaging with a diverse and international student cohort in a business school has been a stimulating and enriching experience. This new environment has provided Mirela with the opportunity to innovate her teaching methods, fostering collaboration and promoting cultural exchange among her students. One of the most rewarding aspects of her role has been the unexpected challenge of teaching management consulting, leveraging her decade-long experience as a consultant at the institutional level.
What I Did
This unique and innovative teaching approach leverages collaboration with areas of our university which are not usually involved in education. Instead of the usual research-heavy approach, I developed a consultancy assessment for the module Business Analysis and Consulting, a masters level module in the Business School which provides students with hands-on experience in management consulting. Over the years, I’ve collaborated closely with the university’s Estates and Facilities Division, particularly with Helen Power-Hosking, to create a real-world consulting environment for students.
Why I Did It
The idea behind this assessment came about somewhat serendipitously when Helen Power-Hosking, Head of Commercial Services, knocked on my office door by mistake. This chance encounter led to a conversation about my work, and soon after, the consultancy report was born. The primary motivation was to offer students a practical, hands-on learning experience that would prepare them for the real challenges of management consulting. I wanted to create an environment where students could apply their academic knowledge to solve real problems, thereby enhancing their employability and soft skills, which are often not fully developed in a traditional classroom setting.
How It Works
The consultancy report is a group-based assessment where students work with a real client, in this case the Estates and Facilities Division. Each year, the client provides a brief on a particular issue, such as improving campus services or understanding student energy consumption patterns. Students are divided into teams and tasked with collecting data, analysing it, and presenting their findings to the client. The process is designed to mirror a real consulting environment, complete with client interactions, data collection, and final presentations to senior management. The top-performing teams even get the opportunity to present their work to the division’s management as a reward.
Impact and Student Feedback
The impact of this assessment has been profound, both for the students and for the university. Students often describe it as the most challenging yet rewarding experience of their academic careers. They appreciate the real-world application of their skills and the opportunity to work on something that feels genuinely important. The assessment pushes them to develop critical skills like teamwork, communication, and time management. For the Estates and Facilities Division the report provides valuable insights and data that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to gather, making it a mutually beneficial endeavour.
Future Developments
Looking ahead, I plan to continue refining and developing this module. Each year brings new challenges and opportunities and I’m always looking for ways to improve my students’ experience. The assessment’s success relies heavily on the enthusiasm and cooperation of our client, particularly Helen Power-Hosking. As long as we can maintain these strong relationships, I believe the consultancy report will continue to thrive. We are already discussing potential briefs for the next academic year and I’m excited to see where this journey takes us.
Top Tips
Embrace challenges When faced with a new or unfamiliar task, like redesigning a module, consider it an opportunity to innovate. This mindset can lead to unexpected and rewarding outcomes.
Build strong partnerships The success of this assessment hinges on strong, collaborative relationships, engaging with an enthusiastic stakeholder, and seeing the mutual benefits of working with students.
Focus on real-world application Designing a project that mirrors real-world scenarios can significantly enhance students’ learning experiences and better prepare them for their future careers.
Be flexible and supportive Allow students some degree of freedom in how they approach the assessment. This flexibility helps them feel more invested and encourages them to take ownership of their work.
Prepare students gradually Building the necessary skills for such a demanding assessment should start early. Integrate skill-building exercises into your module from the outset to ensure students are ready when the time comes.
Alex Stuart-Kelly is an Education and Scholarship (E&S) lecturer in the department of Neuroscience at Sussex (since 2022). Prior to this, his PhD and short post-doctoral research focussed on understanding the role of the major Alzheimer’s risk gene variant APOE4 on hippocampal function and rapid ‘everyday’ place memory. Additionally Alex has worked on understanding how APOE4 influences the network state and properties of neuronal ensembles following naturalistic behaviours.
Alex’s teaching focus is on core neuroscience on the undergraduate and postgraduate programme, alongside human physiology, and neuroscience research techniques. His scholarship interests include supporting widening participation and outreach for HE science programmes and student engagement in large group teaching settings.
Oliver Steele completed his BSc (Hons.) in Medical Sciences with PTY at the University of Exeter Medical School, before simultaneously undertaking an MPhil in Biomedicine and Research Associate position at Cardiff School of Biosciences during which his research interests in neurodegeneration and applied electrophysiological techniques were developed. Oliver then moved to Sussex to undertake his PhD in Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr Andrew Penn and Dr Ruth Murrell Lagnado, functionally assessing the electrophysiological impact of APOE isoforms in the murine hippocampus. Oliver has since joined BSMS as a lecturer in Physiology teaching across Phase 1 of the BM BS Course. Oliver is a Member of the British Neuroscience Association and a Member of the Physiological Society.
Oliver is a Member of the British Neuroscience Association, Society Representative for the Physiological Society and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
The project team also includes Dr Elaney Youseff, Dr Nicola Schmidt Renfree and Shalini Ram.
What we did
Through this project we have sought to understand what makes large group teaching more engaging and effective for students studying Life Sciences and Medicine. We collaborated on a student-led initiative, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The goal was to identify teaching methods that genuinely resonate with students and enhance their learning experiences. For this we are using a variety of tools, including surveys, focus groups, and teaching evaluations, to gather insights from students about what works best in large group settings.
The project will include participation from a fourth-year medical student as part of their Individual Research Project (IRP). This project is a significant component of their penultimate year of study, where they undertake a research project that is roughly equivalent to a dissertation in other undergraduate courses. This student will be taking the lead on the research, collecting and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data, and contributing to the overall goals of the project.
Why we did it
The motivation behind this project stemmed from both existing pedagogical literature and student feedback indicating that students were more engaged and performed better when specific active teaching methods were employed. However, these methods were not universally applied across all teaching sessions. We wanted to explore this further, to not only confirm the effectiveness of these methods but also to provide evidence that could encourage furthering best practice among science educators. This project was born out of a desire to make large group teaching more effective and enjoyable, responding directly to student needs and improving overall educational outcomes. Moreover, active co-creation with students is a central to both gaining informative feedback on teaching and providing opportunities for students to build valuable project leadership skills.
How it works
We began by collecting preliminary data from Life Sciences students through surveys that measured different aspects of student engagement. This included their study habits, participation in class, and their responses to various active teaching techniques. Surprisingly, we found that while students reported that active techniques such as break out discussions, problem solving, and example primary data improved their engagement, they rated their own participation behaviours lower compared to other engagement metrics. This suggested a need for more consistent integration of interactive and structured approaches in large group settings, but also more opportunities to promote student confidence in active learning.
We also analysed student feedback on what they valued most in lectures. Predictably, students favoured lectures with a clear structure, embedded interactive elements, and those with elements that mimicked exam formats, supporting their preparation.
Future developments
Looking ahead, the project will continue with a more in-depth analysis of student engagement and learning outcomes. This will include a detailed examination of course analytics and more focused qualitative research through student-led focus groups, further dissecting the themes emerging from initial survey data. The ultimate goal is to use these findings to inform curriculum development and teaching practices across the Life Sciences and Medicine disciplines. We also plan to disseminate our findings through various channels, including conferences, internal review processes, and eventually, a co-authored publication with the student who will be leading the next phase of this research.
Top tips
Ask the students Don’t shy away from directly asking students what works for them. Their feedback is invaluable in shaping effective teaching methods.
Encourage student leadership Providing students with leadership opportunities in research and curriculum development can lead to more engaged learning and valuable insights.
Make it multi-disciplinary Make good use of opportunities for collaboration. Initiatives don’t just have to be departmental, they can be institutional and cross-institutional.
Dr Louise Newnham, a teaching focussed Senior Lecturer in Genome Stability in the School of Life Sciences, shares insights from her experience of using, since 2018/19, an oral exam (viva) as part of the assessment for a 30 credit masters module.
What I did
In 2018 I changed the assessment of one of my 30 credit masters modules from a heavily weighted exam, which asked students to write two essays from a choice of topics, to a greater emphasis on coursework (65% weighting) plus a 15-minute oral assessment (35%).
Why I did it
The module in question, Advanced Methods in Molecular Research, has a very practical focus and typically attracts a diverse student cohort, which includes a lot of international students.
My fellow tutors and I were prompted to move away from using written exams because it was clear they weren’t enabling our students to demonstrate knowledge we had clearly seen them demonstrate in the lab.
How it works
The oral assessment, which takes place in the assessment period, comprises four questions. The first is a short and simple ‘starter’ question with a straightforward right/wrong answer, followed by two ‘intermediate’ questions in which students may have to explain how something works. The final question is more advanced and asks students to discuss a particular method, its advantages/limitations and the broader context (e.g. examples of applications). The questions, drawn randomly from a question bank, are quite broad, to allow for discussion and elaboration. In fact, we try to keep it relatively conversational and will prompt students to elaborate if need be (the marking criteria allow us to factor in whether or not prompts were necessary). We’re also very happy for students to draw diagrams to support their explanation and to make notes before verbalising their answers. In fact, we encourage it.
Of course, some students may find this daunting. Therefore, from the start of the semester we emphasise that it provides excellent training for job interviews and for those considering a PhD which is assessed with a 3 hour+ viva. We also provide, in Canvas, an overview of the format and marking criteria and feedback from students on the value of participating in an oral assessment. We also run two workshops during term to help build students’ confidence and support them to do well in the exam in which students practice in pairs with example questions and students who feel they need more practice can request mock interviews. This supportive approach is possibly why all of our students have participated and the only reasonable adjustment requested, other than additional time, was for a student who wanted to write their answers down rather than verbalise them. This worked well as we were still able to give them prompts as we would have done if a verbal conversation. We’ve also run online orals for students who are overseas.
We allow 20 minutes for each viva: 15 minutes for the assessment and 5 minutes for the two markers to agree on their mark and write the feedback, guided by the model answers and mark scheme which contains specific criteria for each question type.
With breaks, this means we can get through 16 in a day so, for a cohort of 50 to 70 students, this requires three days of vivas, scheduled around exams. Overall, though, we find the workload generally equivalent to marking essays, with the distinct advantage that they are moderated in the moment.
Student feedback
Feedback from students is generally very positive. They are clearly appreciated by students who don’t thrive in written exams as it gives them an opportunity to showcase their knowledge in a different way. Students also liked fact the assessment was more ‘real world’ in that it felt more like a conversation one might have with colleagues in the workplace, and that assessment helped them develop skills they thought would be useful in interviews.
The negative feedback we receive on the oral assessment generally relates to specific questions or topics covered, e.g. when a topic a student had hoped for didn’t come up, or they were asked about a topic they were less keen on.
Top tips
In the first year, be prepared to invest lots of time up front developing your question banks (but once developed you need only tweak them from time to time, e.g. to refine them based on student performance and feedback).
Streamline the viva meeting, and save your voice, by giving students printed instructions in advance.
Empathy and understanding are crucial, as students may be nervous, as is flexibility and the recognition that students may have different ways of expressing their knowledge.
Schedule regular breaks, both to avoid fatigue and ensure quality feedback.
Please note
Since sharing her approach with Learning Matters, in August 2024, Louise has left The University of Sussex to pursue some new adventures. So, if you have any questions, please contact the new module convenor, Professor Neil Crickmore.
The Learning Matters Podcast captures insights into, experiences of, and conversations around education at the University of Sussex. The podcast is hotsed by Prof Wendy Garnham and Dr Heather Taylor. It runs monthly, and each month is centred around a particular theme. The theme of our second episode is ‘writing for scholarship, and we will hear from Dr Verona Ní Drisceoil, Reader in Legal Education (Law) in the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, and Dr James Williams, Senior Lecturer in Science Education and Communication in the School of Education and Social Work.
Recording our second podcast in the University of Sussex library
Recording
Listen to the recording of Episode 2.
Transcript
Wendy Garnham
Welcome to the Learning Matters podcast from the University of Sussex, where we capture insights, experiences, and conversations around education at our institution and beyond. Our theme for this episode is writing for scholarship, and our guests are Dr Verona Ní Drisceoil, Reader in Legal Education Law in the School of Law, Politics, and Sociology, and Dr James Williams, Senior Lecturer in Science Education and Communication in the School of Education and Social Work. My name is Wendy Garnham, Professor of Psychology.
Heather Taylor
And my name is Heather Taylor, Lecturer in Psychology, and we will be your presenters today. So, welcome everyone.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you’ve published in terms of your scholarship?
(1:03) Verona Ní Drisceoil
Yes. Sure. I suppose to start with, one of the kind of bigger projects that I’ve been working on recently was a piece around transitions and well-being in in law schools, particularly. And in that piece, it was very much about kind of questioning the complexity of some of those concepts of confidence, of belonging, and, yeah, really trying to get into the teeth of that, I suppose, and how it’s different maybe for law students. So that’s one area of work that I’ve been working on.
In terms of other publications and scholarship, I guess, I’ve published lots of little bits on various teaching initiatives or various projects that I’ve been involved in in the law school. So by way of some examples, I wrote an article, for The Law Teacher on a land law teaching initiative that I know Wendy might remember some of that. So it was about embedding videos into the land law module, and the idea was bringing students on a virtual kind of land law field trip. So that was a really nice piece of scholarship as well, and I suppose maybe something that we might talk about later as well, is that kind of idea of where you can grow as a teacher or a scholar as well. So that was a really nice piece to write about.
Some other areas, I guess, that I’ve been working on broadly and some of the current pieces that I can maybe share with you as well is, assessment. So thinking about formative assessment. So wrote a piece asking us to think about how we approach formative assessment in higher education. And I guess I would say, generally, that we don’t maybe approach formative assessment in a very positive way that would maybe we can learn a lot from primary schools in that respect, secondary schools, and that that idea of kind of deliberate practice, so embedding deliberate practice into our teaching.
At the moment, if I may, I’ll just share what I’m kind of working on currently. So currently writing a book about authentic assessment in law, with some colleagues from the Law School, and also another piece on community and belonging. So there’s a wide range there, and I guess maybe that’s something that we can maybe talk about if you like. But, thinking about that kind of identity of my scholarship, I’m not sure that I’ve kind of quite found my identity in terms of scholarship. But I think broadly, I would say my scholarship, looks a lot or in kind of in engages with questions around skills and assessment for law students, but then secondly, tries to look at kind of inequality in legal education more widely.
(3:43) Heather Taylor
I think people, you know, also on the, Education and Scholarship track will probably be interested in where you’re publishing these things. So there’s quite a diverse range of different topics that you’ve written about. So where do you tend to publish?
Verona Ní Drisceoil
Yeah. Interesting. And I guess this is something that I’ve kind of been reflecting on myself as I’ve progressed through. Am I publishing in the right places?
I published a lot of short pieces in blog posts, and obviously, the Learning Matters blog has been excellent in that respect. I’ve also published in legal education related journals and publications and book editions as well. The book that I’m working on right now on authentic assessment is for Edward Elgar Publishing.
So I guess there’s a range there, and I suppose it is something, for us on Education and Scholarship tracks to think about and how we, you know, target publications or where we publish and so on and so forth. So, yep, there’s a range there.
(4:48) Heather Taylor
Same question to you then, James. Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve published in terms of your scholarship work?
James Williams
Yes. Of course. I mean my writing actually goes back a very long way. I started life as a secondary school teacher in terms of education. And after doing that for 12 years, I then moved into training science teachers.
Now, at that point, I was actually writing textbooks for children. So along with, two teaching colleagues, we wrote a series of textbooks that were, well, they were actually very successful. They were used in about 40% of all secondary schools. This is in the early 2000 and sold well over a million copies of the textbook. So that’s, you know, 1 element of, of scholarship if you like. And that’s I wrote the biology and my two colleagues, one wrote the physics, one wrote the chemistry. But when it comes to university and publishing, I’ve done a variety of things. So I’ve written, books for, teachers. For example, in, I wrote a book on leadership skills for teachers in schools. I then wrote a book on what’s called how science works. In other words, about the nature of science, which is actually an area of research that I’ve been undertaking for a number of years. And it was the subject also of my PhD. I also then published another book, which interestingly came out of the PhD, which was how to read and understand education research. And I’m currently working on a on a second edition of that. But in terms of other forms of writing, oh, all over the place, newspaper articles. I write a regular article every Thursday for the local Argus, called “Making Sense of It”. And that’s really an opportunity for me to engage with the local community, and to investigate things that I find interesting that I hope that they would find interesting. I’ve written, chapters of books, for publishers.
And a particular area of interest of mine is the history of evolution, the work of Charles Darwin and the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution. So I’ve written papers on Wallace, which have appeared in international peer review journals. I’ve written articles for professional magazines about Wallace, and also about Darwin. I did a chapter for a book which was about how Darwin saw science and how he built up his theories from the observations that he made on his travels. And I regularly write articles for professional associations. There’s one for science teachers called the Association For Science Education.And I regularly write articles for them. And that’s aimed obviously at an audience of secondary science teachers mainly. But I also dip into the primary area as well. So I think, you know, the question is what do we deem to be scholarship? You know, that’s the big question I think that everybody wants to be answered. And I think it is so many different things. And writing is not just writing an article for a journal. It can be lots of things. It can be blogs. It can be, articles for newspapers, professional magazines. It can be your own blog on your own site. So I think what I’d encourage people to do in terms of writing for scholarship is, you know, write about what you’re really passionate about, what you really know, and what you really understand. And that will shine through in your writing. And you’ll have far more chance, I think, of being published.
(8:32) Wendy Garnham
James, coming back to you. How did you get started with all of this writing?
James Williams
There’s a very simple answer to that question, which is when I was training to be a teacher. So I’d done a degree in geology, and I had specialized in evolutionary paleontology. And I didn’t want to become a geologist in the North Sea or do all of that sort of thing. I thought, what can I do? And I thought, oh, I know. I’ll go into teaching. And I had a tutor. His name was, Doctor. Bob Farebrother, retired now, but a wonderful man. And when I wrote an assessment for him, the feedback on my assessment in pencil sort of said, I think you’ve got a little bit of a gift for writing here. Have you ever thought about writing for a magazine? And, of course, I hadn’t. So I talked to him about that and he put me on to the Association For Science Education. They had journals. They had a journal for teachers called Education in Science and they had another journal, which is called School Science Review. So I started off by writing just one of these sort of magazine type articles, and it grew from there. And his advice was always write about what you know, you know, because then the passion comes through. Said if you artificially say, oh, I want to write about this because it’s popular at the moment, but I don’t really know anything about it. You’re not going to succeed. So write about what you know. That’s where it began. And as a result of that, I started publishing in educational newspapers. I’ve got a regular column in the newspaper. I was an agony uncle. So I was, helping students out with, issues, through questions and answers in the newspapers. I then had a science column which was called “Science Now and Then” where I looked at the history and present-day science, which was fantastic. And I did that for a good, oh, 10 years or more for the Times Educational Supplement. That then led to an offer to write textbooks for children.
Somebody had seen my articles and said, you know, would you like to write textbooks for children? And we teamed up, three of us. And as I said, we were incredibly successful. I’ve written two textbook series actually in in my career. And that then leads to lots of other types of writing. So I feel as if I’ve covered many different types of genre when it comes to writing. And that’s also then led to a lot of other opportunities for scholarship which are outside of writing. Things like, I did a television series for Channel 4, where I was a 1950s teacher of biology. And we had to teach the children 1950’s style, and everything was 1950s. It was it’s the hardest I think I’ve ever worked in my life because we did it genuinely, you know, 7 days a week. And it was a, 14-hour day when you were being filmed, you know, with these with these children. I’ve also then, done a lot of, radio stuff, certainly with the BBC, ITV, BBC Sussex. I’m regularly contacted to be the science, sorry, the education expert on that. And I go on and talk about, you know, what happens to be in the news this week about education that everybody’s up in arms about.
So you never know where your scholarship will take you. And the thing is, you know, not to try and narrow things down, but to be as broad as possible, and try and think of different audiences, different opportunities, and different places where you can publish because you never know who might spot what you’ve read.
(12:12) Wendy Garnham
So would you say then that really sort of illustrates the power of networking? It’s who you know that really sort of can help you.
James Williams
Yes, absolutely, Wendy. To a large extent, you know, opportunity leads to opportunity, and people put you in touch with other people. I mean, the book proposal that I’m preparing at the moment, I’ve got some study leave coming up. And I understand that that’s quite a rare thing on the scholarship track, but I’ve got it. So I’ve got a book proposal. Now the person who is interested in my book proposal was actually one of the editors of the textbooks I did 20 years ago. So, you know, you never know things come back around.
(12:53) Wendy Garnham
So over to Verona, same question. Just how did you get started with your scholarship writing?
Verona Ní Drisceoil
I guess just by way of some context, I think James picked up on this as well, kind of trajectory into higher education as well, and maybe that’s relevant to my story of scholarship. So I started off on a research and teaching track or education and research or whatever they’re called right now. So my, I guess, research area initially was on language rights. So that was my PhD area. Came to Sussex, and but I always, I guess, felt that maybe wasn’t my calling, and I was kind of very involved in education-related initiatives and so on and so forth in the department, and I suppose linked to what you said earlier, James, about something that you’re passionate about. Right? So I think there was just that natural sense that I was being drawn to this work, and then I requested to go on an Education and Scholarship track and found my tribe in that. And then it became much easier to write as well. And whilst I’m obviously very passionate and interested in language rights debates and so on, it maybe just wasn’t exactly what I wanted to pursue in my career trajectory. So I suppose that’s relevant to how I got started writing about scholarship.
And so for me, there’s an important maybe point as well, linking to what you were saying, James, about kind of if you’re on an Education and Scholarship track and you’re carving out your career trajectory and so on. I think there’s also potentially an important link between what roles you might be doing in the department or what you’re responsible for in the department or, you know, because that can inevitably open up other opportunities for you, and you, you know, you’re kind of passionate about something, so, for many years I was involved in the widening participation work in the Law School, and I think that brought me into literature around challenging structures and inequalities, and that’s always that’s coming through in my writing now as well. So I suppose, yeah, that’s how I got started. I’m not going to say that I found it really easy to make kind of the shift over, and I suppose something that James picked up on earlier, you know, what is scholarship or what you’re expected to do. So that was quite there was a different expectation when I moved over. And definitely, I would say that I had, some imposter syndrome around that as well. I was kind of starting over with my new research and so I did feel that was definitely a challenge, and we can definitely talk more about that if it’s of interest. So yeah, that’s how I guess I got started.
I would say there’s an important link to be made between kind of admin roles and other work that you’re doing in the department because, again, you might not be allocated lots of time for your scholarship in writing. So if you’re writing policies on feedback or you’re writing policies on x for your department, you know, you should really think about how you can think about creating that into something that might, you know, qualify as scholarship as well and in the many forms that that James has outlined.
(16:12) Wendy Garnham
It sounds as though for both of you, it’s about following your interests that really sort of sparked this sort of interest in writing the scholarship. Is that would you say that’s right?
James Williams
Yes. Because let me put it like this. If you’re not interested in it, why should anybody else be interested? You know, you’ve got to think quite carefully about the audience that you are writing for. And I came from obviously the science background and there is this terrible thing in science where they say, oh, you mustn’t bring yourself into your work. You know, you must stand outside and look in. You have to be on the outside. You mustn’t interfere or you can’t use pronouns like I and me or we. I mean, that’s oh, that’s terrible in science. But actually, you know, people don’t want to read that sort of prose. They want to feel invested and engaged in what it is that you’re writing about. So you have to make that connection and you can’t do it. I don’t think unless you have sparked a bit of interest in yourself in what you’re writing about.
And you know that that’s that for me is the key thing. I’d also say that Verona is absolutely spot on when it comes to the roles that you take on within a department. I’ve been at Sussex now for 21 plus years. And I’ve probably done nearly all of the roles apart from the two roles that I really didn’t want, which were Head of Department and Head of School. But those are for particular thoughts. I would it was the same reason why I came out of schools and went into university. Yeah. I was asked, you know, do you want be a deputy head or a head teacher? No. I don’t want to be that. I want to stay with my subject and my passions. I don’t want to be led off into admin. But I, you know, I’ve been a Director of Student Experience. I’ve led the team in terms of, initial teacher training. I’ve led the team in terms of, science education.
I’ve been an academic misconduct investigator. And I think people should also think about taking opportunities in the wider university as well. So for example, I work on the student discipline team. So I investigate cases from other areas. I sit on academic misconduct panels. And that gets you known across the University, but you’re also giving something very positive to the University. You’re helping the university to maintain its standards, to maintain its integrity. And those are really important things.
(18:55) Wendy Garnham
I guess that sort of speaks to the sort of broad nature of what scholarship is. Which brings us to, our next question, which I’m going to direct to you, Verona, which is about the impact that your writing has had for you, personally. Just what sort of impact has your scholarship writing had for you?
Verona Ní Drisceoil
Yeah. Absolutely. I think it links maybe to some of what I was saying earlier about that shift in my identity and also my value system, I guess, and my passions and feeling very aligned in that. So for me, you know, being involved in Education and Scholarship, writing about teaching, pedagogy, legal education, all of that, and all of the wonderful people that I’ve met because of that, is has been wonderful for me. And I feel, I guess, much happier. So not to sound all self-help like, but, I think that is important. You know? And I think we’ve that point about passion, your values, what you’re involved in, and what you’re contributing to is really important for us as academics. So it’s been a really positive impact for me, meeting people like all of you. I feel that it’s a really warm and wholesome space. Wendy, I remember hearing you speak before about making those external connections and networking and so on, and I did throw myself into that in terms of Twitter and social media and there’s been so many beautiful things that have come from that in terms of networking with legal education academics across the UK and Ireland. So has had a really positive impact? Not saying it’s always easy, right, but, generally, I would say, a really positive impact.
Wendy Garnham
I think sometimes it’s about just being prepared to move out of your comfort zone, isn’t it? And then these things can sort of really take off.
(20:58) Heather Taylor
So, Verona, you talked about this a little bit before, where you were saying about transitioning from being on an Education and Research track onto an Education and Scholarship track, and saying you had some challenges around sort of making that transition, a little bit of imposter syndrome. So I was just wondering, have there been any other sort of challenges you faced around doing your writing for your scholarship?
Verona Ní Drisceoil
Well, yes. I mean, I think you won’t be surprised by this answer. And listening to James, I’m like, how do you find all the time to do all this wonderful writing? You know? But I like everyone, I guess, we can often struggle with those differing demands in our roles, and if you have a heavy admin role, and there are things that you need to firefight and so on and so forth. So, I mean, I’ve had that challenge. The writing challenge. Finding space to write challenge.
I guess one other challenge that I found when thinking about the writing for scholarship, if we like, or writing in terms of legal education. For me, I didn’t have any specific training in in research methods, for example. So I came from a discipline where I wasn’t using kind of empirical work and research and so on.
So I suppose there was a part of that imposter syndrome because I think the kind of approach that you take is quite different to how I was approaching my work on language rights, which you might say was more desk based and so on. Whereas now, I’m thinking I want to do a lot more surveys with students. I want to do field work. I’m doing a project at the moment, experimenting with walking interviews, for example, but I didn’t have any of that type of training, let’s say, so I think that’s something that can be interesting for people that maybe are on an Education and Scholarship track, and maybe there’s that expectation that you’re going to do particular type of work, you’re going to use particular types of research methods and so on, and maybe you haven’t had any training in that.
And I think that can be a challenge for people on an Education and Scholarship track. It’s something I’ve had a conversation with Sarah about, and I think it’s something that might be rolled out at Sussex. So that was definitely a challenge for me.
Heather Taylor
What could be rolled out at Sussex with the training?
Verona Ní Drisceoil
I think more training for people that are on these tracks that maybe have come from various disciplines that may have not received training in that area. So I’d be interested in your thoughts on that.
Heather Taylor
I think as well, you know because obviously you’ve got really good knowledge about the topic. Finding somebody else who might have good knowledge about the methods, who wants to collaborate with you would be a really, really good idea as well.
Verona Ní Drisceoil
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that’s kind of where the networking comes in. But, again, I suppose it’s the support structures around this, which I know I know we’ve all probably talked about those things, but, I mean, there’s been really great strides have made in that area, so supporting people with the development of their scholarship. But I think still it needs to be kept on the agenda, let’s say.
(24:25) Wendy Garnham
James, for you, what impact does your scholarship writing have, and what would you say the challenges have been for you?
James Williams
Impact is a difficult one. Again, what do you mean by impact? From a personal perspective, it’s a sense of satisfaction that I can write about the things that I really love writing about and that actually they are then appreciated by other people. And, you know, occasionally I’ll get, from a newspaper column, I’ll get an email that says, oh, I really liked your column in the newspaper. Oh, yes. I thought, you know, I agreed with you. I also get the ones that say, I think you’re totally wrong, which is which is fine. I don’t mind if people disagree, just as long as I don’t start calling me names. You know, you attack problems, not people. So there’s been the immense sort of, it’s almost like leaving a legacy. You know, I’ve got now, some grandchildren and it’s good to know that actually my textbooks, my written books, my newspaper articles, there’s a little archive of things. And, you know, they’re not going to read my PhD thesis. I mean, come on. Whoever does read this? But there is that sense, which is, you know, about the impact. And you never know where you will affect people because I’ve had people from overseas contact me about things or inquire about, oh, I found this, you know, can you tell me anything about it? Because it’s to do with Darwin or it’s to do with Wallace and all of those sorts of, aspects.
I made a great friend at Charles University in in the US who is another expert on Alfred Russel Wallace. And he and I communicate regularly now and we write, you know, we write about Wallace and we publish on a blog that he runs. And that’s been great to have that sort of impact. In terms of challenges, well, the challenges are always when you put your heart and soul into something and it doesn’t work. You know, the publisher says no, I don’t think this would be interesting for our readers, etcetera, etcetera. And you’ve got to get over the oh, that’s it. It’s because I’m a bad writer. It literally just could be this is the wrong time for that piece of work. Don’t throw it away. Keep it because I’ve had things that have been rejected, that I’ve gone back and updated and it’s been published because I hit the right publisher at the right time, You know, it’s a bit like JK Rowling, how many times was she turned down for Harry Potter? And then, you know, look what happened there.
(27:37) Wendy Garnham
I guess that sort of leads into our top tips. So really if you could share a top tip with listeners about writing a scholarship, what would your top tip be James?
James Williams
My top tip is that your writing has to involve people. If you don’t involve people, people tend not to be interested. So even if you’re writing about something which is, I don’t know, interesting historically. I wrote a piece recently about private education and people are not interested in the structure of private schools and the fact that it was set up in this, you know, at this time and it was supposed to be for the poor, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Those are just facts and people go, yeah, so what? So what you need to do is you need to find interesting characters and talk about the characters. So my top tip is always involve people in whatever you’re writing because people like to read about people.
Wendy Garnham
Top that one, Verona.
Verona Ní Drisceoil
I don’t think I can. That was really powerful, James. I love that. I guess linked to that in the sense of involve people, but not in the same way that you spoke about, but in order to do well in anything, I think, in life, you have to surround yourself with good people and people that lift you up and so on, and so I think that’s very relevant to writing about scholarship. So whatever you’re writing about, you know, surround yourself with good people, and I think that links to some of the points that were made earlier about networking, connection. So I think we’re aligned there, James, in that point, or that power of connection, let’s say, more widely. I hope that’s useful.
Heather Taylor
I agree with you that sometimes, you know, if you think about all the scholarship activities you might have done, so much of it comes out of little conversations, not even deliberate ones. You know, you might just be having a coffee with a colleague or something. And so I think, yeah, keeping a really sort of, other people, like you were saying earlier on about how much you admire James being so enthusiastic. You need a lot of enthusiastic people around you, I think, to keep enthused and to generate ideas and sort of roll with them. So, yeah, I completely agree.
Verona Ní Drisceoil
Just that idea of support, you know, we all really need that kind of support and structure. I might come in with a less interesting kind of tip, but I think we picked up on it earlier. I do think there is that point about if you are on an Education and Scholarship track and the admin point that we made earlier. Think about where you’re writing all this work, let’s say, your Director of Teaching and Learning or you are Director of Student Experience, or you are whatever, and you’ve been asked tasked with writing loads of these policy type documents with your own internal department, but how can you then maybe push that into another piece? So whatever you’re working on as well, think about how can this be more than just 1 piece.
James Williams
And if I could just come in with a second little top tip, which is to keep a notebook and write down ideas because you never know when an idea will happen. So for example, you know, as I say, I’ve got to come up with an idea every single week for my column in the in the Argus. And nobody tells me what to write. And I’ve been given carte blanche by the editor to write about whatever I want provided it’s not illegal or defamatory or all the rest. And literally, you know, this I’d normally do it on a Sunday, and I file it on a Monday or a Tuesday. And my wife said to me this week, she said what are you writing about this week? And I said, I haven’t got a clue. I don’t know yet, but I’ll find something. And then I read Twitter and Andrew Neil put out a tweet that said, of course, you know, this whole thing about, wind farms is rubbish. He said, think of how many days there are when there’s absolutely no wind whatsoever in Great Britain.
And I thought, well, that’s scientifically illiterate. That’s what I’m going write about. So this week, tomorrow’s Argus is going to be about solar farms, wind farms, and bioenergy and it’s all about alternative energy and it just came from one tweet. One thing that was said wrote it down and from there, that’s where it came from.
So keep a little notebook and when you’re having conversations with people and you think, well, that’s a good idea. Write it down because I can guarantee you that if you say, oh, I must remember that you will forget it?
Wendy Garnham
I have difficulty remembering where I put the notebook. That’s a different story. So I’ve only really got one thing to add, which is just I’ll take this opportunity to remind you, Heather, that we have a plan to write our next foundation year textbook. So, this is a good point where I can just, remind you that.
Heather Taylor
I would like to thank our guests Dr Verona Ní Drisceoil and Dr James Williams. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you for listening. Goodbye.
Wendy Garnham
This has been the Learning Matters Podcast from the University of Sussex created by Sarah Watson, Wendy Garnham, and Heather Taylor, and produced by Simon Overton.
The University of Sussex’s Annual Course Review (ACR) process provides an opportunity for review, reflection and evaluation of the delivery of our teaching and is a key part of the University’s quality assurance and enhancement framework. However, the ACR isn’t just about compliance, it’s also about continuous enhancement. Here we have pulled out just a few of the enhancement initiatives that Schools reported having put in place in 2022/23 to ensure that our courses remain student-centred, engaging and inclusive.
Inclusivity
In the School of Education and Social Work (ESW), the MA/PGDip in Social Work has created an excellent mentoring scheme through which international and global majority home students can access independent mentoring from an experienced Black Social-work educator. The School has also been diversifying reading lists and strengthening inputs on anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist issues in teaching and learning. ESW has created virtual learning and practice-development workshops on these themes and updated module learning outcomes to make this focus more explicit in assessment.
In the Science cluster, the School of Engineering and Informatics have sought to increase female representation at applicant visit days and other external engagement activities as part of the School’s strategy to recruit more female students. Also, staff recruitment panels are now gender-balanced with an aim to enhance equal opportunities. These adaptations are intended to increase the female/male ratio in both the student and staff population, something which remains low across the sector. Additionally, the School of Life Sciences have created a BAMESci society which aims to provide support to all BAME students with as a focus on social, education, development, leadership, and communication themes.
Feedback
All of our schools reported a strong focus on improving feedback processes. The School of Psychology began running bespoke in-person training sessions on marking and feedback for doctoral tutors, while LPS have produced a document titled ‘Sussex Law School Marking Criteria Guidance’to help students better understand what is expected with respect to knowledge and understanding, engagement with sources, analysis and application, structure and presentation, and referencing.
The School of Global Studies are ensuring that all departments are embedding marking criteria within Canvas, as well as explained the criteria in class. Similarly, the School of Life Sciences are ensuring that students are accessing their feedback and are properly aware of all the feedback opportunities that are provided to them and how to best make use of this information to further their development. ESW saw a great improvement in the consistency and clarity of feedback, by ensuring that the feedback provided to students focuses both on strengths and areas for improvement.
As well as enhancing assessment feedback, we also saw improvements in collecting and acting on feedback from students. The University of Sussex Business School (USBS) created a School-wide feedback series which provided opportunities for staff and students to engage in conversations in an informal setting, supporting a sense of belonging and ensuring that student voices are heard in teaching related matters. Meanwhile the School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) have made the decision to switch to early-term questionnaires, rather than mid-term, to allow for feedback to be addressed quickly and in a way that is visible to students.
Embedding skills
The School of Engineering and Informatics have been working closely with the Careers and Employability team to continue embedding employability in the curriculum. Within the School, Product Design have created a fantastic independent Canvas site where they engage students and staff with employability matters. MPS run a mandatory careers component which consists of weekly seminars and coursework as part of a Year 2 module. This helps improve the employability of students and the School is considering extending this initiative into Year 1 to enhance the exposure of the students to these skills.
In addition, Global Studies trialled offering PGT students a dedicated series of academic core skills workshops, led by Director for Postgraduate Taught Programmes, Dr Lyndsay McLean, which were well attended. This has been formalised into a zero-credit module and will be included in students’ timetables in the upcoming academic year.
In the School of Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH) students have been offered a number of experiential learning events. Each event was designed for a particular subject area in order to foster a wider sense of community and included intensive writing groups and workshops, research celebration days, employability sessions, social events, field trips to the theatre, art galleries, performances, and archives, visits to campus by artists, choreographers, writers, performers, and people from industry, and collaborative projects such as filmmaking. Many of the events that were run had a widening participation and/or employability related aspect, and in certain cases involved students working with community, third sector and voluntary organisations.
Curriculum changes and diversification of assessment
Regular reviews of and enhancements to courses has been a central theme. Psychology have implemented several changes to the curriculum this past academic year, including module changes to make courses more coherent and attractive and several new optional Year 3 modules to reflect the growth in faculty numbers. USBS have strengthened the rigour of the internal course review process and are continuing to work towards a completely integrated Assurance of Learning process.
Central Foundation Year have made a range of changes to modules which have had a positive impact on experience and performance. An example of this is the introduction of a problem-solving activity into weekly workshops that allows students to address challenges that have arisen during that week’s practical work.
And last, but certainly not least, a number of Schools have sought to diversify the types of assessments that students experience during their studies. In the School of Global Studies, International Development have introduced blogs and podcasts as forms of assessment, while Geography have been using learning portfolios, policy briefings, lab reports, field reports, concept notes and presentations to support learners to develop transferable skills. USBS have been increasing the use of innovative assessment modes that enable students to evidence learning in various ways, this includes the use of podcasts and business reports. Finally, in LPS, Sociology and Criminology ran a series of alternative assessment workshops for staff in the department which inspired a number of changes to module assessments.
The Learning Matters Podcast captures insights into, experiences of, and conversations around education at the University of Sussex. The podcast is hotsed by Prof Wendy Garnham and Dr Heather Taylor. It runs monthly, and each month is centred around a particular theme. The theme of our first episode is ‘scholarship leave’, and we will hear from Sue Robbins (Senior Lecturer in English Language) and Dr René Moolenaar (Senior Lecturer in Strategy) as they discuss the experiences and outputs of their recent scholarship leave.
Sue Robbins
Sue Robbins is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Director of Continuing Professional Development in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities.
René Moolenaar
René Moolenaar is Senior Lecturer in Strategy at the University of Sussex Business School and Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.
Recording
Listen to the recording of Episode 1.
Transcript
Wendy Garnham
Welcome to the Learning Matters podcast from the University of Sussex, where we capture insights, experiences and conversations around education at our institution and beyond. Our theme for this episode is scholarship leave, and our guests are René Moolenaar
Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Sue Robbins, Senior Lecturer in English Language. My name is Wendy Garnham. I’m professor of psychology and director of student experience for the Central Foundation Year Programmes, and I’m your presenter today. Welcome, everyone.
Okay, so my first question, which I’m going to direct to you, Sue, is what is scholarship leave and what prompted you to apply?
Sue Robbins
Thanks, Wendy, and thanks for inviting me. So at Sussex, colleagues on the Education and Scholarship track who are undertaking scholarship can request a semester of scholarship leave every three years. And I was awarded a period of leave from August last year to January this year, and I used it to complete the manuscript of an e-textbook, and to simultaneously prepare it for publication. So over the last couple of years, I’ve been using some of the time allocated to me for scholarship. We have a 20% allowance built into our contracts to write a textbook for learners of English as an international language, and I used the period to complete the manuscript and it was published in January this year, and it’s called Develop Your English with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or Develop Your English for short.
So it’s an e text book for upper intermediate to advanced level English language learners pitched at approximately IELTS 6 to 7.5, if that’s something you’re familiar with, so it’s appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate students. And I published it, with Open Press at University of Sussex, so it’s published under a Creative Commons licence and is free to access and use. The book integrates scholarship and professional practice in that it combines the application of second language acquisition theory to practice with the affordances offered by digital technology. I could say loads more about it but I probably won’t.
René Moolenaar
Thank you and thank you for inviting me. So for me, what prompted me to apply was, I’ve been with the School [University of Sussex Buisness School], for about 11 years at the time. So I did my scholarship leave in the autumn of 2022. So I’ve been 11 years there. I’ve also just finished the role of director of student experience, which is a rather challenging role. And I’d also just finished my doctorate in business administration and I thought this is the time to actually apply for scholarship leave and to continue my scholarship, based on the thesis that I wrote for my for my doctorate.
I thought it would be nice to do the scholarship leave at another institution, to get experience of another University. Of course I could have stayed in England with the University, but decided to go to the other side of the world and managed to get a place at the University Australian Centre For Water and Environmental Biotechnology, which is a bit of a mouthful. And a strange home for somebody who has worked in the Business School, since 2011. So yeah, this was kind of interesting.
Wendy Garnham
Really sort of quite diverse experiences, I think, during the notion of scholarship leap period. Could you give us an idea of what you sort of feel you achieved during that period of scholarship leave?
René Moolenaar
Yeah, so I took the topic of my thesis, which is all about how placements can support the development of a broader university-industry relationship, which is also how I pitched it to the center at UQ. For them that particular topic was really important, they do a lot of work together with industry. The framework I had developed to the local situation, and then to present my original findings and the findings from the study that I did there, to the Centre. Which they very much appreciated. They liked it a lot, given their interest in this particular field and they are actually in the process of applying the framework that I have developed.
Wendy Garnham
It sounds as though it was a very beneficial period of leave but to both of you, I just want to pose the question. Were there any unexpected outcomes from your period of scholarship leave? It was extremely beneficial,
Sue Robbins
Unlike Renee, I wasn’t in the other side of the world, I was sitting at home in my second bedroom working away at my computer. There were many, many different aspects to the management of this project, but what was really great was to have a single focus because a lot of our working lives, we manage so many different things on a daily basis that being allowed to just think about one thing for six months was a huge benefit, and I think it would have been difficult to complete the project without the scholarship leave. An unexpected outcome, is that I made an early decision to turn all of the written tasks that I’d made into interactive ones because I was working on a digital platform that allowed for interactivity, And not exactly inadvertently because it had been at the back of my mind, but I did give myself a substantial amount of extra work making that decision.
Wendy Garnham
It’s definitely a gold star for my active learning interest.
Sue Robbins
Yeah. The book is fully interactive. I used the content creation tool H5P, so all of the tasks are interactive and all of them have instant feedback so that students can self-assess at every stage how well they’ve done with every task. So it was definitely worth doing, but it hadn’t formed part of the original plan.
Wendy Garnham
How easy was it to use H5P?
Sue Robbins
It’s fairly straightforward. I’ve used it before, so I was very familiar with it. I’d created a short course for the Department of Language Studies a couple of years ago, a short online course in which I’d used it. I think of all the content creation tools, HP5 is the easiest to get to grips with. There is a learning curve, but it doesn’t stress you too much to understand how the tool works.
The only thing really is that the back end of the tool looks absolutely different to the front end. So you have to get used to that. Yeah. But I’ve tried a range of content authoring tools and for me this one is the easiest to get to grips with.
Wendy Garnham
René. How about you? Any unexpected outcomes?
René Moolenaar
Yeah. The very pleasant and unexpected outcome was that I was offered an adjunct associate professorship of University of Queensland (UQ), which was very nice. I had not anticipated that clearly, but on the penultimate day of my stay there, I had a meeting with the director of the Centre and they suggested that I should become an adjunct. Which after some discussion and sort of trying to understand a bit more what that would actually mean, how much work do I need to do and such things, we agreed that I should do that, went through the formal process and was offered that, I think about a couple of months later.
Wendy Garnham
Thinking ahead in terms of the impact of your scholarship leave, what impact has your scholarship leave had on the academic community or what impact do you hope it will have?
Sue Robbins
Yes, so publishing with Open Press here at University of Sussex, rather than with one of
the big English language teaching publishers, which I’ve done in the past, it gave me much more freedom in the design of the material. And Develop Your English is innovative in the field of English language teaching in that the content incorporates global perspectives into the into the language learning process, because it focuses on international themes which I’ve organised around each of the, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
It gave me an opportunity to think about how language education can play an essential role in sustainability literacy because potentially the market for the book is enormous, potentially, and sustainability literacy can be developed through the use of the textbook. So that’s something that could potentially shape the field in a way that it hasn’t been shaped before. And in terms of international impact, it’s also the case that English language textbooks, the cost of them is prohibitive in many low-income parts of the world, which leaves very many learners without access to good quality material.
So using this digital platform offered via, Open Press, there’s the potential of reaching those learners that isn’t there currently, and in order to make that more possible the book can now be offered in a range of formats, so it is essentially an e-textbook, but it can also be accessed in e-Pub format which means it can be used offline, and this is important because many learners in many parts of the world, if we think about, digital poverty, don’t have access either to a good internet connection or to, hardware. So it can be used as an e-textbook, it can be used offline as an e-Pub, and it can also be downloaded as a PDF which means places where, where people really don’t have good access to the things they need. Assuming one time access to a printer, it can be downloaded and printed out and used as a hard copy. Obviously, that loses the interactivity, but there’s a full answer key in that version. So thinking about sustainability literacy, which is important, and thinking about, access and equity, it has the potential to address both of those things. Yeah, I mean it ticks so many boxes I think that are real sort of hot topics within scholarship at the moment, so I’m sure it’s going to have a really big impact on the community.
The difficulty will be, promoting it. Open Press is a small press and it’s very new, So it’s how we get people to know that it’s there will be the next challenge to try and overcome.
Wendy Garnham
Looking at impact, René, how about you? What impact?
René Moolenaar
Yeah. It’s a good question. So the original framework I developed was based on the study I did at Sussex. And whereas I thought it was already fairly complete, going over to a different university on a different continent, different parts of the world, it was interesting through the data collection process and reflecting and challenging my own framework to find out that it wasn’t Although good parts sort of survived of it, clearly there were elements of it that needed updating. Partly specific to the local environment but also clearly with a much broader application, as well.
So I ended up with an improved version of the of the framework, that is now being applied, which is kind of interesting. It’s interesting to pick something up that you developed in one situation to then take it to another situation. In this case we went from a Business School situation to, in fact, a center that was in the Information Technology and Chemistry department. It’s an entirely different situation.
And data and then to see how well your your framework can be applied to a very different situation. So that was an interesting process and it led to an improved version of the of the framework.
Wendy Garnham
I mean it sounds from both of your perspectives as diverse as your experience was that you’ve really gained a lot from it academically and professionally. How about personally? Would you like to sort of say something like what was the experience of being on scholarship leave?
Sue Robbins
It’s difficult to separate the professional from the personal to be honest. Yeah. Because they interact so strongly, don’t they. In terms of scholarship. But it was really rewarding to have that time to just I think I said early on to just focus on one thing. Yeah. Which isn’t something it’s not something we normally have space to do. So I was able to complete something that I’d been working on for several years already and I think without the leave it would have taken me several more to be honest. So it was it was rewarding, I mean, and it was really interesting. And also having access to Open Press and to the Open Press team was a joy because they share a lot of my, I’m going to say passion, it’s an awful word isn’t it, but they share a lot of my passion for open practices generally, and so it was really nice to spend time talking through what we were doing with people who had a similar outlook.
Wendy Garnham
Did you find it difficult managing your time?
Sue Robbins
No. Well, I say no in the sense that I I tended to overwork during that period because I knew it was a finite amount of time and I knew I wanted to get the project done, I did go at it. Yeah. And, and so managing it in the sense of, you know, don’t wear yourself out, was perhaps the challenge. Yeah.
Wendy Garnham
How did you find that, René?
René Moolenaar
I agree with Sue that the two interact very much, the personal and the professional if you like. But from a time perspective, given that I was at UQ for eleven weeks, I had to (and early on they had already said, René you’re going to present in the penultimate week), that gave a real deadline by which I need to have completed all the additional research, reflection and evaluate the impact on my framework and then of course to present. So, there was not really an option to do it a week later or something, this had to be done. It was actually quite, I’m sort of part time, it’s important to say that I’m part time here at the University, so I’m still in industry.
And given that I sort of went from industry into academia fairly late compared to younger colleagues, my experience of other Universities was limited. So to actually spend time for eleven weeks long at another University’s properly embedded in is just, it’s just very interesting to learn how they work, the challenges they have compared to the challenges that we have, the successes etc. Of course you’re extending your network of contacts which is amazing. But I think almost above all, being awarded, applying for scholarship leave is not easy because there are limitations of course, the number of people in a department that can go on scholarship leave. So to be awarded it is kind of special.
And it gave me a feeling of an element of reward. I’m being appreciated by being awarded the scholarship leave. Because at the end of the day, you know, we’re able to focus on a particular topic, scholarship topic, with continuing sort of pay and that’s clearly very nice. So yeah, this it was it was kind of amazing, it lifted my spirits, I came back almost rejuvenated and there’s renewed energy to take on, you know, the role that we have, which is a challenging role to combine often a significant teaching workload with a scholarship workload.
Often the scholarship piece gets compromised because of the teaching element that we need to do and to be given time to focus on the scholarship element I think is fantastic. I think it’s needed. I think it’s absolutely needed and fundamental to our own development and the development of our colleagues because we’re clearly spreading, if like, the word, what we are doing. But I think it’s also very nice to for this idea of there’s an element of rewards here.
Wendy Garnham
I guess that sort of links into our next question, which is about advice that you would give to anybody contemplating taking a period of scholarship leave.
Sue Robbins
I think at any given moment most of us could come up with a range of scholarship projects that we’re either already tackling or are really interested in or would like to pursue, and I suppose given that as René said, this scholarship leave is a gift, and it’s one that, you know, is precious and it might not come round very often, it’s worth thinking about is there something that actually you really need that time to complete, or you’d really like to be able to complete or carry something out in that time that you might not be able to do without it. Because we do have, and it isn’t enough, but we do have that twenty percent built into our contracts where we can keep chugging along with lots of stuff. So is there something that you really want and that you really need that time for, and can you really do it in that amount of time? How much can you achieve in 6 months is a big question to ask yourself. But do it because undertaking and undertaking and sharing scholarship is really important work.
René Moolenaar
Adding definitely to what Sue was saying, for me the piece of advice would be to prepare for it. It took me something like a year from thinking I’m going to apply to actually go on scholarship leave. And of course perhaps in my case it was maybe slightly different because I wanted to go to another university. I was absolutely set on that, and that that’s not easy. And I thought it would be easy. I thought I’ll just talk to some colleagues from around the world and I’m sure they can find me a desk somewhere. And absolutely not. Colleagues that really have very good relationships with other universities. I’ve tried but no, I think it would have been different if I was a professor with a long list of publications under my belt and a name in a certain field. It probably would have been different. But that was not me. And so to find an open door somebody, somewhere was hard, was difficult. Took me quite a few months to find it. So yeah, definitely about prepare prepare prepare. So you may not even get it with your first application, because of maybe a limited number of colleagues that can go in that particular term or that particular year on scholarship leave. So it may you may need to apply twice to get it.
Wendy Garnham
As we all know, the importance of feed-forward is forever at the front of our minds as good good, scholarship individuals. So I guess 1 thing it would be good to leave our listeners with is some suggestion for further reading or a resource that might be of use. So if you could name one resource or article or any sort of further study, what would you suggest?
Sue Robbins
So in terms of educational for sustainable development or, sustainable literacy if you like, Christiane Lütge has written a lot in this area in terms of relating that to language teaching, and she’s really worth following up and having a look at. But I can’t not say, please do have a look at my book. Yeah. So do Develop your English with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. You might want to share it with your international students. You might want to see how the goals can be integrated into the learning process, not necessarily just in language but in any discipline. You might be interested to see how H5P works in practice, or you might just be interested in having a look at our own Open Press site which includes lots of, other books including some edited by Wendy. So I’ll just leave it there.
René Moolenaar
I think on the topic of scholarship leave or study leave or sabbatical, there are a number of journal articles published, I even found one that went into the history of it. And it going back to explaining the name sabbatical and when Harvard in, I think it was 1880 or something started this, that after six years of work you could then have one year of sabbatical. Anyway, so a number of articles on the topic. The book that at least one found two books on the topic, I haven’t read either of them, but one struck me with an interesting title. It says The Academic Sabbatical A Voyage of Discovery.
It was published in 2022 and I thought it is very much a voyage of discovery. It gives you an opportunity to go on a journey and to discover and to continue with scholarship or to discover another university or to discover certain interests that you may have that you want to develop going forwards in the field of scholarship. So I think that that’s an interesting book that I actually might well buy and or suggest a library to acquire, that might be an interesting read.
Wendy Garnham
All of these including a link I believe to Sue’s book will be in the episode description for anybody who would like to follow-up on those. That brings us to the end of our podcast on scholarship leave. So I would like to thank our guests, René Moolenaar, Senior Lecturer in Strategy. Thank you. And Sue Robbins, Senior Lecturer in English Language. Thank you.
And thank you for listening. This has been the Learning Matters podcast from the University of Sussex, created by Sarah Watson and Wendy Garnham and produced by Simon Overton. For more episodes as well as articles, blogs, case studies and infographics, please visit Learning Matters
Gardner, S.K. (2021) ‘Faculty learning and professional growth in the sabbatical leave’, Innovative Higher Education, 47(3), pp. 435–451. doi:10.1007/s10755-021-09584-4.
Macfarlane, B. (2022) ‘The academic sabbatical as a symbol of change in higher education: From rest and recuperation to hyper-performativity’, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 45(3), pp. 335–348. doi:10.1080/1360080x.2022.2140888 .
