1st Edition
How to Be a Learning Developer in Higher Education Critical Perspectives, Community and Practice
Filled with practical guidance for those working in and interested in the emergent field of Learning Development, this must-read book encapsulates what it means to be a Learning Developer and how to thrive in this role.
With carefully constructed contributions which explore different aspects of the role, this edited collection is comprehensive in its approach. Alongside practical advice, it is underpinned by theoretical and epistemological insights to provide a bridge between theory and practice.
Organised into five key parts, it is arranged in a way that reflects the journey that practitioners take into and through Learning Development, from their initiation into the field, through professional development, to becoming an established expert. It covers key topics such as:
- the basic principles of working in Learning Development
- the theoretical and practical foundations of the field
- how to engage more critically with the role
- how to become an active contributor to the field through research and publication
- the as-yet unrealised possibilities of Learning Development
Capturing a diverse array of voices, experiences, and perspectives, this book is an essential guide for both new and established practitioners concerned with student Learning and Development.
Chapters 15 and 21 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.
Introduction, Alicja Syska and Carina Buckley
PART I: BECOMING A LEARNING DEVELOPER: IDEAS AND IDENTITY
1 Theory in LD: We are All Players, Tracy Slawson and Jason Eyre
2 Conceptual Foundations in Learning Development, Ian Johnson and Silvina Bishopp-Martin
3 The Mess We’re In: LD Pedagogies and the Question of Student Agency, Steve Rooney
4 The Development of Expertise and Identity within a Community of Practice: A Networking Model, Carina Buckley and Louise Frith
5 Hybrid Learning Developers: Between the Discipline and the Third Space, Nicola Grayson and Alicja Syska
PART II: BEING A LEARNING DEVELOPER: PRAXIS
6 A Day in the Life: What the Learning Developer Does, Tom Burns, Kevin Brazant, Emma Davenport, Nahid Huda, Sandra Sinfield, and Jarelle Smith
7 Diversity in our Expertise: Empowering Neurodivergent Students within Learning Development , Jennie Dettmer and Karen Welton
8 Teaching Writing in Learning Development, Ursula Canton
9 Empowering and Enabling: Leveraging Technology for a Student-Centred Future, Debbie Holley and David Biggins
10 Transformative Social Learning Spaces, Christie Pritchard
11 The View From Over Here: What the students think about Learning Development, Tom Burns, Kevin Brazant, Emma Davenport, Nahid Huda, Sandra Sinfield, and Jarelle Smith, with Aaron Kuskopf, Chandrika McDonald, Shelene Macintosh, Oliver Selic, Kirstie Tucker, and Maura Burns Zaragoza
PART III: REFLECTING IN LEARNING DEVELOPMENT: CULTIVATING CRITICALITY
12 Critical Self-Reflection in Learning Development, Sunny Dhillon
13 Practice Versus Policy: Learning Development’s Role in Supporting, Developing, and Challenging Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Higher Education Sector, Anne-Marie Langford and Emma Kimberley
14 Closing the Gap: Learning Development and Race, Ryan Arthur
15 Decolonisation in Learning Development, Georgia Koromila and Edward Powell
16 Learning Development In, Against, and Beyond the Neoliberal University: Critical Learning Development and Critical Academic Literacies, Gordon Asher
PART IV: KNOWLEDGE MAKING: LEARNING DEVELOPERS AS RESEARCHERS
17 Research and Scholarship in Learning Development, Silvina Bishopp-Martin and Ian Johnson
18 Methodologies for Research in Learning Development, Lee Fallin
19 Learning Developers as Writers: The Four Tendencies Framework to Get Writing, Alicja Syska and Carina Buckley
20 Publishing in Learning Development: A Primer for New(ish) Authors, Alicja Syska and Carina Buckley
PART V: BECOMING ESTABLISHED IN LEARNING DEVELOPMENT: THE POTENTIAL IN AND FOR LD
21 Succeeding at Learning Development, Sonia Hood
22 The Impact of Learning Development, Kate Coulson
23 Leadership in Learning Development: A Networked Approach, Carina Buckley
24 Professional Development and Recognition in LD, Steve Briggs
25 Raising the Profile of Learning Development in Higher Education: Institutional and Sector Perspectives, Helen Webster
26 The Future of Learning Development: Two Visions, Ed Bickle, Steph Allen, and Marian Mayer. Opening, Carina Buckley and Alicja Syska
Biography
Alicja Syska is a hybrid academic at the University of Plymouth, UK. She is a Learning Developer for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business alongside teaching and research roles in Education and History.
Carina Buckley is the Instructional Design Manager at Solent University, UK. She is an AdvanceHE Principal Fellow and a researcher in the field of Learning Development.
