Is there any such thing as ‘generic study skills’?

One of the fundamental implications of Academic Literacies theory is that writing is not monolithic. There is no such thing as ‘academic writing’; instead, there is a multiplicity of discourses, genres and conventions each shaped by the disciplinary context in which they are situated. But the implications of the Academic Literacies model go beyond 'academic …

Learning Development Learning Outcomes

I've been working more of late in an embedded mode (or rather, an integrated mode). Being more integrated within the architecture of learning and teaching, rather than embedding the odd isolated workshop session here or there within a module, I need to align with the kinds of processes typical of module design, which often sit …

Embedded or integrated?

This post was written as an article for ALDinHE's LoveLD magazine (Issue 3 July 2023), and is reposted here with permission. Go have a look at the magazine- there's lots more good stuff there! (many thanks to Katherine Jewitt who has done an amazing job of editing and typesetting the article, but I also wanted …

Running a Learning Development Deficit

The DEFICIT model. Ugh. This term is often used to describe the approach to learning development work that we don’t want to take, the opposite of what we do. It’s become definitive of how Learning Developers perceive Learning Development, a way to position our work against other (lesser…) approaches to demonstrate its value and articulate …

The 6th P of LD – Publication!

This week, I'm celebrating something that's been six years in the making - the publication of my article on the 5 Ps of LD. Voila! Webster, H. (2023). The five Ps of LD: Using formulation in Learning Development work for a student-centred approach to ‘study skills’. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 20 (4). https://doi.org/10.53761/1.20.4.07 The …

Working with Exemplars

Learning developers tend to end up working with samples of academic writing a lot, in one way or another. It's a result of our outcomes-based, writing-focussed assessment culture, and the focus on product rather than process can skew our practice towards a more 'study skills' model which prioritises writing as technical skill and is preoccupied …

The Scholastic Rat is Back!

Well it's been Quite A Year, hasn't it? My last posts here were a year ago, I realise - both a very long year, and also one in which so much has happened that the time has just slipped away. I've missed blogging hugely - it's such a useful way for me to reflect, work …

Ep 23: Unwrapping the Citizenship Test & 5Ps with Helen Webster

I'm being interviewed! it was great fun being a guest on the Education Burrito podcast - and joining so many other amazing interviewees in the series - check it out! Do you know the 5Ps in academic writing? Do you feel that sense of belonging at your institution? Join Dr Helen Webster as she unwraps …

An Emancipatory Approach to LD: Student options and choices

I've written before about emancipatory practice being the core, defining value of Learning Development, and about how this is at the same time a problematic concept, neither students nor learning developers having the power to overturn the cultural norms of academic discourse or disciplinary communities of practice. If, as Academic Literacies theory tells us, students …

Decolonising Study Skills and the role of Learning Development

At Newcastle this year, we've been beyond fortunate to have an incredible Student Union exec, a team of formidable and inspiring Sabs who have not only worked their hardest to support their fellow students through what they couldn't have known would be one of the hardest academic years ever due to the pandemic, but who …