Research

Theme lead and contact: Chiara.Horlin@glasgow.ac.uk

Core members: Ashley Robertson, David Simmons, Gaby Mahrholz, Heather Cleland Woods, Jaimie Torrance, Jude Stevenson, Katie McArthur, Leanne Mckay, Steven McNair, Wilhelmiina Toivo

Our aims inform two streams of action. The first targets culture and process in scholarship, and the second identifies specific strategic directions for scholarship to enhance learning experiences within and outwith the School.

Culture & Process

The intent of this objective is to centre lived experience and foster a culture of real and active participation that maximises relevance and return on investment whilst simultaneously minimising burden to underrepresented communities.

This will be achieved by

• Insisting on participatory research design and prioritising lived experience as a core element of all student- and staff-driven research.
• Adopting inclusive and community-preferred language as well as avoiding deficit/limitation focused
• Endorsing inclusive and trauma-informed frameworks (e.g. Universal Design for Learning) within curriculum design and delivery.
• Streamlining research and scholarship enquiries to minimise repetitious/redundant burden to underrepresented groups.
• Facilitating awareness, advocacy, and empowerment of staff and students from underrepresented groups to benefit School and wider Campus climate.

Strategic Priorities of Scholarship

The intent of this objective is to prioritise knowledge exchange, dissemination and application of scholarship that will support the learning experience of underrepresented groups.

This will be achieved by

• Using scholarship to develop and evaluate inclusive assessment and curriculum design and delivery.
• Dissemination of scholarship outwith the School community to inform and shape practice in other education contexts.
• Encouraging archiving of scholarship data for the purposes of secondary analyses to minimise burden to underrepresented groups.
• Using scholarship research to better support transitions to and from HE for students from underrepresented groups.

Theme lead and contact: Carolina.Kuepper-Tetzel@glasgow.ac.uk

Core members: Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, Alexia Revueltas Roux, Emily Nordmann, Eugene Dawydiak, Helena Paterson, Maxine Swingler, Phil McAleer, Steven McNair, Lorna Morrow, Jamie Murray

Research conducted under the “Applied Cognition in Learning and Teaching” theme aims to improve the overall quality of the student learning experience, student performance, academic outcomes, engagement, and retention through three strategic goals: assessment and feedback, active learning in the classroom, and effective learning strategies and self-regulation in students.

Assessment and Feedback

Designing authentic forms of assessments that foster skill development in students is key for student understanding and learning. Core skills (e.g., data skills, writing skills, group work skills, etc.) can be developed in different ways and the assessments used in the curriculum are essential to this. In relation to this, the provision of effective feedback is a crucial part of this strategic goal as well as effective student engagement with feedback. Examples of projects within this strategic goal include enhancing feedback literacy in students, students and staff perceptions of feedback, peer review as feedback tool, effects of feedback content and timing on feedback uptake in students, enhancing reflective skills through assessment.

Active Learning in the Classroom

Engaging students during taught classes through practices that foster active learning and understanding is vital to enhancing student performance. Supporting students to take in and understand learning materials increases not only their performance, but also their motivation for the subject. Examples of projects within this strategic goal include investigations of note-taking strategies during lectures, the role of lecture recordings for student learning and engagement, the use of comics in learning and teaching to foster understanding, embedding spaced retrieval in the curriculum.

Effective Learning Strategies and Student Self-Regulation

Fostering effective study strategies and enhancing self-regulated learning in students are important aspects in higher education. Helping students manage their time, introducing them to learning strategies that work, and creating mechanisms to support independent and self-regulated learning are essential to student success. Examples of projects within this strategic goal include understanding and reducing procrastination in students, adopting effective study strategies, using lecture capture to foster self-regulation in students, supporting time management through trackers and instruction.

Theme lead and contact: Helena.Paterson@glasgow.ac.uk

Core members: Helena Paterson, James Bartlett, Kate Reid, Phil McAleer, Emily Nordmann

Scholarship conducted under the “Open Science and Pedagogy” theme is focused on investigating best practices for integrating open science principles into psychology curricula and the impact on skills development and outcomes for students and staff both. We work closely with the centre for Methods and Metascience to co-lead on the Open Research working group to integrate open science principles in both our research methods curriculum and beyond.

One example of our scholarship in this theme is informed by our research methods curriculum and promoting students’ independence in their research practice by emphasizing traditionally overlooked computational skills, including data wrangling and visualisation in quantitative methods. Furthermore, students are supported to develop open science practices in qualitative research where data is as open as possible, but as private as necessary. We have developed open-access textbooks for teaching data skills, as well as tools and assessment processes made freely available as open educational resources.

Scholarship in this theme has four broad strategic aims:

• To develop and document core pedagogical principles for teaching within an open science framework.
• To research and establish best practice in teaching research methods and analysis centred upon open science and open educational principles in both quantitative and qualitative methods.
• To promote, demonstrate, and facilitate the inclusion of open science principles within our wider scholarship and teaching.
• To create and disseminate open educational resources for the use and benefit to all that wish to adopt this approach.