School’s first Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

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Alan Boyle teaching
Alan Boyle teaching field mapping on Isle of Skye, April 2014 (photo © John Kavanagh)

In December 2014, Dr Alan Boyle successfully applied for Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) through the University of Liverpool’s Teaching Recognition and Accreditation (ULTRA) process (http://www.liv.ac.uk/eddev/ultra-cpd/). This category of Fellowship is awarded to staff that can demonstrate a thorough understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning support as a key contribution to high quality student learning, and can provide evidence of sustained and successful leadership and/or mentoring of staff to support learning and teaching. The recognition panel commented: “This is a strong application and it is clear from the evidence matrix and presentation that you meet the criteria for Senior Fellowship of the HEA. There is evidence of outstanding scholarship, as well as critical and informed reflection.”

Since 1993, Alan’s pedagogical research has involved being Principal Investigator on 14 pedagogical research grants worth £374K and Co-investigator on other pedagogical grants worth £3.2M. He has over 40 pedagogical research outputs covering diverse areas such as computer-based learning and assessment, the role of fieldwork in geoscience degree programmes, using constructive alignment to improve course delivery and outcomes, the role of the affective domain and outreach.

Alan is currently Director of Geology Programmes and the department lead for the award-winning Central Teaching Laboratories, which opened in September 2012, where he applied outcomes of his pedagogical research to ensure the new laboratories provide an excellent learning environment for students. He is also currently a member of numerous School, Faculty and University committees. Previous roles have included being in charge of departmental examinations and admissions as well as being Chair of the Board of Studies.

It is hoped more SoES staff will apply for fellowship of the HEA. Alan is happy to provide help where possible.