Role
In Learning Development we all do a little bit of everything, one-to-one and group tutorials, collaborative workshops and teaching, evaluation, administration and publicity, hopefully with a little bit of time left over for our own projects. I enjoy all of these roles but have recently focussed more on large group work, workshops and teaching. This means liaising with schools and academics from across the University in putting together bespoke sessions on any academic issue, task or ‘skill’. We do around 100 of these a year, ranging from a handful of postgraduate students looking at writing their thesis to introducing critical thinking to 250 1st year students. Whilst the ‘real’ impact of these remains largely unknown they do act as an important ‘signpost’ to the other areas of our work such as the tutorials, drop-in zone and online support.
I have recently been involved in some very interesting and productive collaborative work with academic staff, such as integrating critical thinking into a PBL programme in Environmental Building, and developing a wiki to assist distance masters students in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. I find exploring these changes in practice, and the student’s experience of them incredibly interesting, particularly now as I am into the second year of my Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD.). This is an excellent programme that encourages the ‘unpicking’ of thorny issues in your practice and always in consideration of wider social and theoretical perspectives, which has already had a great impact on my own practice.
Qualifications & background
University of Southampton BSc. Marine Science (2000)
University of Plymouth MSc. Coastal and Ocean Policy (2001)
University of Plymouth (2006) PGCE
Research interests
Studying in HE
Critical thinking
The student experience
'Skills' for learning
Grants & contracts
2010 CEBE: innovative projects in teaching and learning.
Implementing and evaluating the integration of critical thinking into Project Based Learning (PBL) in Environmental Building.
£5,135, 1 December 2009 – 31 January 2011
Publications
Pan, W. & Allison, J. (2010) ‘Exploring project based and problem based learning in Environmental Building education by integrating critical thinking’. International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 26(3), pp 547-553
Allison, J. & Pan, W. (2012) 'Implementing and evaluating the integration of critical thinking into problem-based learning'. JEBE, 6(2), in print.
Other academic activities
Pan, W. and Allison, J. (2011) ‘Evaluating a Process Model of Integrating Critical Thinking into Project Based Learning in Sustainable Building’. International conference on Engineering Education, August
21st – 26th, 2011. Belfast.
Allison, J. and Dawson, J. (2011) The complexities of defining critical thinking. The Learning Development in Higher Education Symposium. April 18th – 20th, 2011, Queens University, Belfast.
Dawson, J. and Allison, J. (2010) ‘ Critical thinking resource: embedding and evaluation’. Celebrating Partnerships: The Learning Development in Higher Education Symposium. 29-30 March 2010, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
Allison, J. and Gentle, C. (2010) ‘From Memorisation to Critical Analysis: the international learner’s journey through educational cultures’ [Poster]. Exhibited at, University of Plymouth VC’s Conference: internationalisation. 30 June 2010
Allison, J. and Gentle, C. (2010) ‘Email feedback on student writing: reading between the lines’ [Poster]. Exhibited at, 29-31 March 2010,
The Learning Development in Higher Education Network Symposium
