July 24 - I am delighted to announce the publication of Enhancing Working in Groups and Teams in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. A Report for the Centre for Education Teaching Innovation (CETI), University of Westminster, UK. It will be formally launched in September when CETI’s new website goes online.

 This extensive 33,000-word guide and review draws on almost 200 references. It aims to provide a practical, evidence-based review and guide for staff in higher education about facilitating students to collaborate effectively in groups to enhance learning in all disciplines.

 The target audience is staff using group work with their students, academic developers supporting staff and students to make the most of teamwork as an effective pedagogy, and senior managers and programme leaders developing institutional, departmental and programme-level strategies to promote effective and fulfilling group work learning.

• “Collaborative and connecting pedagogies that enable relational and social learning are absolutely essential in higher education. They have been for decades, but shifting attendance modes, the crisis of loneliness, attention to well-being, and GenAI rightly spotlight social learning. This resource for group work in higher education is timely, scholarly, and practical. It is a gift!”. (Kelly Matthews, Acting Pro-VC (Teaching and Learning), University of Queensland, Australia)

•  “This timely and comprehensive report synthesizes key scholarship on group work, resulting in an essential guide for supporting students working in teams in higher education. The report provides staff and academic developers with a nuanced analysis of both the benefits and challenges of group work, as well as strategies for teaching group work skills and integrating teamwork pedagogies across the disciplines. It’s an invaluable resource.” (Jessie L. Moore, Elon University Center for Engaged Learning, United States)

June 2024 - Ruth was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SFSEDA).

• “The submission was a joy to read” Assessor

May 2024 - Almost 200 people registered for Ruth’s inaugural; 130 were online including friends and colleagues from Canada, South Africa and the United States. If you missed the fun you can see the recording.

Healey, Ruth L. (2024). Seeking social justice through student-staff partnerships. Professorial Inaugural, University of Chester, 23 May, 2024. https://vimeo.com/949858825/94b006f01b?share=copy  

May 2024 - Ruth and I presented our recently published IJAD paper on “The role of academic developers in initiating, developing, and supporting student-staff partnerships” at the SEDA Spring Conference in Liverpool, May 16-17th

November 2023 - Mick found it very pleasurable to join Kelly Matthews and Earle Abrahamson in coversation about our experiences of leading International Collaborative Writing Groups as part of the ISSOTL 2023 Podcast Series.

15 November 2023 - Almost 200 people registered for the launch of Ruth’s ‘A Guide to Working with Students as Partners’.  You can find the recording here. 

 The links to the guide and accompanying case studies are here: 

• A Guide to Working with Students as Partners

• University of Chester Case Studies of Working with Students as Partners

13 October 2023 - Our first time running our new workshop on ‘Searching and reviewing the literature on SoTL’ - Great to be virtually back at Strathclyde as we work with colleagues through their Strathclyde Scholar Programme journey. We were delighted that Suzanne Faulkner took another sketchnote and shared it with us:

“Thank you both for a fantastic afternoon exploring searching and reviewing the SoTL literature. It was a brilliant really helpful session. … You are both most fantabulous people!

9 June 2023 - We are delighted to be working with the University of Strathclyde over the next two years in support of their Strathclyde Scholar Programme. We began on Friday running an introductory workshop on SoTL. Suzanne Faulkner, a participant, sent us this comment afterwards:

“Thank you both for a fantastic session on SoLT today! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m excited to see where it takes us as a University and me personally. I hope you like the sketchnote I created on the brilliant session today.”

• 9 February 23 - Mick has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster.

• 16 January 23 - Delighted that two related papers on “Searching and reviewing the literature on SoTL: An academic literacies perspective” have been published in Teaching & Learning Inquiry. See ISSoTL Blog.

  • “I can’t tell you how much I love this article! What a wonderful combination of pragmatic guidance and thoughtful argumentation about the SoTL lit review/search.” Nancy Chick, 20 March 2022, past editor of TLI about an early draft.  

  • “Both the papers are excellent. They will be most useful for understanding what a literature search involves and for conducting a literature review, in general, and not just in the area of SoTL. Your endeavour is a massive contribution to the entire academic community in higher education.” Shailey Minocha, 24 February 2023, Professor of Learning Technologies and Social Computing, The Open University.

  • “I am sure they will become seminal articles as they make a huge contribution.”   Joelle Fanghanel, 24 February 2023, Previous Chair of SoTL International Conferences, London.

  • “I just wanted to send you a quick word of appreciation for your recent two articles in Teaching & Learning Inquiry. I am an early-career librarian and I have been asked to do a workshop on SoTL lit searching and I came across your articles, which have been so useful in preparation. Many thanks for writing them!.” Joel Blechinger, 28 April 2023, Mount Royal University Library, Canada.

• 15 December 22 - Senate confirmed that Ruth has been promoted to Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education at the University of Chester from January 23.

• 12 August 21 - Our website goes public. Over 1000 page views in first 24 hours. Lots of nice comments, including these:

“Snazzy new website from @MickHealey3 and @healey_r packed with resources, great for #AberPGCTHE and others to use as a first port of call for #StudentAsPartners #ActiveLearning #ResearchLedTeaching and more” @MaryJacobTEL1 (Aberystwyth)

“… the new website looks great and I loved the story about Tess, Sam, Megan and Mollie.” Nancy Hensell (California)

Here it is! Writing About Learning and Teaching in Higher Education by Mick Healey, Kelly E. Matthews & Alison Cook-Sather is published (September 2020). It is free to download!.  

• We were privileged to be interviewed by Peter Gossman for SEDA’s Educational Developments magazine in July 2020. A transcript of the interview is available in Issue 21.3. 

• We are delighted that our Student engagement through partnership: A guide to the Advance HE framework (04) has been published. It focuses on developments and resources which have become available since the framework was published in 2015.

 “I think you’ve performed a minor miracle in condensing so much excellent material into such a clear and accessible guide. … It will be read for years to come.” Dr Wendy Green (Tasmania)

• For examples of us giving keynotes at RAISE SIG on Students as Partners meetings, please see: ‘The importance of context in students a partners’ and ‘Promoting pandemic partnerships’ (from 8.07min to 55.25 mins) . The updated handout from the latter is available here.

• To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the National Teaching Fellowship awards, Mick wrote a blog entitled ’20 years an NTF’: Some reflections in which he stated “With the benefit of hindsight, I think becoming a National Teaching Fellow was one of the most significant events in my professional career.” Two kind colleagues tweeted: 

“A truly inspirational blog. An amazing career trajectory”. Prof David Owens OBE (Greenwich)
 “Great reflection from a true scholar and someone whose advice and insight I learnt hugely from back in the days of FDTL and GEES.” Dr Sarah Floyd (Ulster)

• In May 2019, Ruth was made one of nine inaugural Fellows of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.