Pedagogic Research Conference 2025
The Centre for Innovation in Higher Education is pleased to announce a national Pedagogic Research Conference, on the theme of Developing Pedagogic Research Communities, which will take place on ARU’s Cambridge campus on Friday 4 July 2025.
Our keynote
Our keynote is Dr Charlie Davis, Associate Professor in Higher Education, University of Nottingham. The title is (Re)imagining Academic Pathways: Navigating Careers, Community, and Belonging in Higher Education.
Abstract: Idealised notions of being and becoming an academic are often characterized as progress along a mythical pipeline, starting at undergraduate level, transitioning through postgraduate studies and then on to career in research. However, such representations belie the complex career pathways many people travel, and how these impact their sense of fit in academia. In this presentation, Charlie reflects on his experiences working across job families in different disciplinary contexts to consider what it might mean to be part of a community in HE contexts. He draws on his work using co-production of knowledge approaches to illustrate how working with participants can foster generative opportunities to create spaces of belonging.
Biography: Dr Charlie Davis is an Associate Professor in Higher Education and joined the University of Nottingham in January 2020. He is the current course leader on the Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education (PGCHE). He started his HE career as a Learning Technologist at University of Derby in 2009. In 2015, he moved to Nottingham Trent University where he was Senior Digital Practice Advisor, and then an Academic Developer. Prior to working in Higher Education, Charlie spent eight years as a teacher, teacher educator and deputy director of studies in various EFL/ESOL roles in the Republic of Ireland, Barcelona and England. Charlie’s research focuses on inclusion and epistemic access in HE contexts, particularly by under-represented social groups. Charlie uses a range of creative narrative methods in co-production contexts to generate knowledge which can be accessed by audiences within, and beyond HE contexts. His most recent work used storytelling methods to create a series of composite web-based comics representing transitions into and through academia by academics from working-class backgrounds. He is currently co-authoring a book based on research carried out to understand the affective dimensions of becoming a new teacher in HE contexts. Future work will focus on using educational fiction approaches to understand the complexities of navigating HE cultures as a second-career academic. Charlie is a co-convenor of the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) Newer Researcher Network and a committee member of the Alliance for Working-Class Academics (AWCA).
If you have any queries, please email Centre for Innovation in Higher Education: [email protected].
Outline programme
See the outline programme below, or download the programme.
9:30 – 10:00 Coffee and Arrival
10:00 – 10:30 Welcome and PVC Address: Simon Pratt-Adams and Claire Pike (ARU)
10:30 – 11:30 Keynote: (Re)imagining Academic Pathways: Navigating Careers, Community, and Belonging in Higher Education, Charlie Davis (University of Nottingham)
11:30 – 11:45 Break
11:45 – 12:45 Parallel Session 1:
Papers 1a Creating 'Module Citizens': A Manifesto, Lucy Barnes (University of East Anglia)
and 1b Decolonizing Pedagogic Partnerships: Reimagining student-as-partners in higher education reform, Sarah Sarfraz (ARU)
and 1c Rethinking Co-creation: A new paradigm, Austin Brown (ARU)
Papers 2a A Team Based Learning Model of Nursing Education to develop Nursing Practice, Anice Kavathekar (ARU)
and 2b Sustainable Supply Chain Teaching: Measuring experiences of Sustainable Food Apps, Expos and Seminars, Shawkat Salim Rahman (ARU)
and 2c The Final Word: How students reflect on collaborative experimentation in creative education, Chris Mitchell (Royal College of Art)
Papers 3a Exploring the Impact of Generative AI use by Lecturers and Students in Undergraduate Teaching and Learning for the Development of ‘critical being/s’, in UK Higher Education, Callum Perry (University of East Anglia)
and 3b Upping our Game: Why the advance of AI is a help not a hindrance in the world of learning and teaching, Daniel Berger (ARU)
and 3c Gamification in Lesson Delivery: A tool for enhancing engagement among mature students or a pedagogical challenge? Ayosola Odunlami (ARU)
Papers 4a Emotional Intelligence as a Catalyst for Entrepreneurial Resilience: Mitigating leadership-driven failure in UK startups, Amir Sharghi (ARU)
and 4b Enhancing Metacognitive Skills in Primary-Age Learners: The role of university-third sector partnership in strengthening educational interventions and pedagogic research, Emily Magrath and Bilal Hazzouri (ARU)
and 4c Enhancing Staff Participation in Pedagogic Research: Paths to Sustainability, Vienne Lin and Paul Lam (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Workshop 5 Designing for the Expert Learner, Caroline Keenan and Joskaudė Pakalkaitė (Yoshi) (University of Exeter)
Workshop 6 The Pedagogy Action Card (PAC) Game: Collaborate to determine factors impacting student learning and develop actions to enhance your teaching practice Jane Bartholomew (Educational Consultant)
Workshop 7 Connecting Practitioners: How to cultivate a digital education community with a reading group, Anna Armstrong (University of London Worldwide)
12:45 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Parallel Session 2:
Papers 8a Exploring the Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in the Relationship Between Perfectionism and Academic Procrastination, May Haidar (ARU)
and 8b The Role of Executive Functioning and Motivation in Academic Procrastination among University Students, Kainat Khan (ARU)
and 8c When Scientists do Fiction: How to develop student competencies through writing speculative fiction, Neil Dixon and Phillipa Calver (ARU)
Papers 9a An Investigation into the Most Appropriate Methods of Improving Lecture Engagement for a First Year Veterinary Nursing cohort, Joanne Ashcroft
(Harper Adams University)
and 9b An interprofessional action research project to prepare healthcare professionals to respectfully challenge uncivil workplace behaviours, Jo Outteridge (ARU)
and 9c The effects of Artificial Intelligence on Higher Education Students’ Reading Comprehension, Grammatical Ability, and Vocabulary, Maite Moya Espinosa (Universidad Europea de Madrid)
Papers 10a Introducing the CARER–TAQDL Framework: A reflective model for responsive higher education pedagogy, Chandika Bhatta (Coventry University)
and 10b Professionalism as Going beyond the Givens: Exploring meta-methodological spaces beyond education research discourse, Phil Kirkman (ARU)
and 10c The Value of Residential Field Courses and Experiential Authentic Assessment in the Teaching of Professional Field Ecology Skills, Jim Littlemore and Toby Carter (ARU)
Papers 11a Developing Pedagogic Research Community Contributors from initially impassive ‘blame-the-student’ University Teacher Identities, Suki Ekaratne (Informatics Institute of Technology, Colombo, Sri Lanka)
and 11b Scholarship as Connection: Early Findings on the role of scholarly engagement in building EAP practitioner communities in UK HEIs, Gemma Peacock (University of Reading)
and 11c Spheres of influence: a pedagogical tool to explore trainee teachers' professional learning, Deborah Caws (ARU)
Workshop 12 Pedagogy with Purpose: Centring social class, collaboration and community in higher education, Stacey Mottershaw, Nadine Cavigioli and Rachael O'Connor (University of Leeds)
Workshop 13 Conversations about Advancing and Supporting Pedagogic Research: A more connected future? Mary Beth Benbenek (University of Cambridge), Cassie Lowe (University of Cambridge), Pui Ki Patricia Kwok (University of Cambridge), Dr Paul Chin (University of Bath) and Dr Karen Kenny (University of Exeter)
14:30 – 15:00 Book Launch – Introducing Interdisciplinary Modules in Higher Education
15:00 – 15:15 Break
15:15 – 16:00 Parallel Session 3:
Papers 14a Designing and Developing Innovative Authentic Assessments in Legal Education, Nichola McNulty (Bath Spa University)
and 14b Doctoral Vivas: Collegial exchange or inquisition? Gina Wisker (University of Bath)
and 14c Salutary Lessons and Punishing Pedagogies, John Gardner (ARU)
Papers 15a Enhancing Spiking Education: Developing a toolkit for university students, Kirsty Barron and Lata Gautam (ARU)
and 15b How the Wellbeing of Social Work Students can be Promoted during Personal Development Tutor (PDT) Sessions using a Brief Assessment Tool based on Theoretical Principles, Linda Homan and Haimanot Mengsha (ARU)
and 15c Investigating the Effect of ADHD on Academic Procrastination among Undergraduate Students, Aaliya Razzaq (ARU)
Papers 16a 'Keeping us Warm': Trainee teachers' perspectives on school to university transition activities, Jenny Fogarty and Leanne Gray (ARU)
and 16b (International) Life and Learning Journeys: stories to shape classroom practice, Linda Brown (ARU)
and 16c Student Mentoring in Higher Education: Creating a social learning space within sport coaching and physical education, Harley-Jean Simpson and David Stephens (ARU)
Papers 17a What are we talking about when we are talking about SoTL and Pedagogical Research? Helen Morley (University of Leeds)
and 17b Generating a Research Community, Marina Franchi (London School of Economics and Political Sciences)
and 17c Engaging Commuter Students through Pedagogic Research, Liz Thomas, Molly Blythe, Louis-Anton Green and Esther Wilson (University of York)
Workshop 18 Improving Reporting in Educational Intervention Research: A hands-on workshop with the new CLOSER and CIDER checklists, Rebecca Upsher (King's College London)
Workshop 19 Practical Approaches to Impact Evaluation in Higher Education: Using the ARU MEL Framework and Theory of Change, Bilal Hazzouri and Denise Hawkes (ARU)
16:15 – 16:30 Closing plenary Simon Pratt-Adams (ARU)
Take a look at the delegate pack for this year's conference:
