Five minutes with… Dr Louise Taylor

Dr Louise Taylor (previously Bunce), Principal Lecturer Student Experience (Oxford Brookes University), has been awarded a 2022 National Teaching Fellowship from Advance HE – a recognition of excellence in higher-education teaching. Ella Rhodes spoke to Louise about her research and the award.

Can you tell me about why you have been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship?

The concept of identities and their impact on learning and teaching became prominent for me when I took the unusual opportunity to move from teaching psychology students at the University of Winchester to teaching social work students at Brookes. I understood from research how important a students' sense of learner identity was for academic success, but I was also aware of strategic issues relating to marketisation and racial inequalities that were having a negative impact on learner identities. I saw an opportunity to combine my psychological knowledge and interdisciplinary insights to create two programmes of research and educational development to bring these issues to the fore and create practical tools to support student learning.

My research on students as consumers provided the first data to show that identifying as a consumer was negatively related to academic performance, and undermined intrinsic motivation for learning. This research featured in The Psychologist Guide to University Life, distributed to undergraduates around the country, reminding them to be 'scholars', not 'shoppers'. I created a workshop (materials available here) for educators and students, grounded in Social Identity Theory, that enables students to assess, discuss, and strengthen their identities as learners, not consumers. Student feedback revealed how powerful the workshop was: 'It helps you understand yourself better, your motivations and perhaps even help explain why you do well or not that well in your course'.

I feel incredibly honoured to be awarded a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. I'm excited by the opportunities that it will bring to further enhance student learning.

My second programme of research and development related to understanding the experiences of racially minoritised students and reducing the degree awarding gap. I led research, informed by Self-determination theory, to provide a framework to understand and support these student's needs, which led to the development of our student advisory group. This was initially funded by a Brookes learning and teaching grant and is now funded on an ongoing basis by the department. Student feedback from this group has been integral to our department's work to decolonise our curriculum, drawing on African principles such as 'Ubuntu' (a person is a person through others). The student leader of this group said that it has 'opened a dialogue to create an anti-racist university experience. As a Black student I've seen an implementation of many issues we reported'.

Can you tell me about the application process?

This was the toughest piece of writing that I've produced, and I've written a lot of different types of applications for jobs/grants/research papers etc in my career. The application is in three 1,500 word sections and requires you to demonstrate: 1) how you have transformed student outcomes, 2) how you have supported colleagues to transform student outcomes, and 3) how you continue to develop your own practice. According to Professor Sally Brown, who set up the scheme in 2000 and provides ongoing training to applicants, it boils down to three questions: Can you hack it with your students? Can you hack it with your colleagues? and Can you hack it with yourself? On top of this, throughout your application you need to demonstrate the reach of your work, your added value, and your impact. Every word on the application counts, so writing concisely and with evidence of impact is critical. 

What does this Fellowship mean to you and your career?

I feel incredibly honoured to be awarded a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. I'm excited by the opportunities that it will bring to further enhance student learning within my institution and across the sector. For example, I will automatically become a member of the Association of National Teaching Fellows, an international network designed to support and inspire outstanding teachers and to disseminate and promote best practice. This award will help me to showcase the specific work I have led with my students and colleagues to increase our understanding of how to create an outstanding student experience. By winning this Fellowship I have demonstrated that teaching is powerful when it is evidence-based: psychology in particular has so much to offer in terms of understanding and enhancing how we teach and how students learn. I want to role model how this can be achieved, including in my position as the new Chair of the Education Section of the BPS.

My natural curiosity as a researcher inspired me to conduct research with my students into issues that were affecting them.

What is your advice for other psychologists who have a keen interest in teaching?

It is very easy for academics to consider themselves either as a researcher or as a teacher/practitioner, but for me the two are very much intertwined. My natural curiosity as a researcher inspired me to conduct research with my students into issues that were affecting them, and this has resulted in some of my most impactful research. So, whether you have a keen interest in teaching or not, I would encourage you to pay attention to what your students are saying, and work in partnership with them to make your experiences of teaching and their experiences of learning mutually more rewarding. Then disseminate what you did by publishing it and sharing resources with others to make a difference beyond your own classroom.

What are your plans for the future?

I'm currently working with Advance HE to create a teaching toolkit featuring my workshop on student identities, to enable educators and students to benefit from it more widely. I also have a programme of research underway to continue to explore the impacts of student identities on learner behaviours, e.g. those relating to assessment and feedback, to see if we can further unpick why this continues to be an area of dissatisfaction among students.

In terms of racial inequalities, I am leading a project in collaboration with Hope Africa University, Burundi, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund in which we are buddying our students together to develop intercultural awareness. The project is being researched through a decolonising lens, drawing on the principle of 'Ubuntu' to measure its impact on student experience. Through the project we hope to provide an example of how non-Western concepts can be successfully applied to teaching interventions and evaluations to increase a sense of belonging among racially minoritised students.

Dr Louise Taylor can be found on Twitter @L_Psychol and contacted via [email protected]
More information on her Fellowship here. 

Two other psychologists were successful:

Dr Adam Danquah, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at The University of Manchester. Adam's work focuses on helping university staff and healthcare practitioners to deal with the emotional and relational challenges of the work, to improve student outcomes. This approach is exemplified in his Higher Education Anti-Racism Training (HEART), which asks university teachers to commit to a transformative programme of group-work and action.

Dr Hilary McDermott is a Senior Teaching Fellow, a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and Programme Leader for Psychology at Loughborough University. She is passionate about teaching qualitative research methods and her work draws on the implementation of innovative technology-based initiatives to support and enhance student learning.