Emma Medland (maternity leave: February 2012 - January 2013)
Lecturer in Higher Education
Contact
Franklin-Wilkins Building,
Waterloo Road,
London, SE1 9NN
Biography
Dr Emma Medland joined the King’s Learning Institute in January 2007 as a Lecturer in Higher Education. She has been the Programme Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) since 2010 and was the Deputy Programme Director prior to this. Emma has also been the Deputy Programme Leader of the Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (GCAP) that will be integrated into the redesigned PGCAP in Higher Education from the 2011/12 academic year.
Emma holds a first degree in Education Studies and Psychology and a Masters in Research Methods in Psychology, which has shaped her research and view of the relationship between learning and teaching. Jarvis’ (2007) belief that a theory of learning is incomplete unless it includes a consideration of the experiences of the person is reflected in her doctoral research, which considered the relationship between emotion and learning in Higher Education and the influence of this relationship on receptivity to feedback and vulnerability to dropping out. Her PhD research informed Emma’s interest in assessment and feedback in Higher Education, which is increasingly defining her role both within and beyond King’s College London.
Emma teaches on the Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (GCAP), and Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) as well as various bespoke continued professional development sessions offered both internally and external to King’s College London. She is the current Chair of the GCAP Programme Examination Board, as well as an internal examiner for the PGCAP and Masters in Clinical Pedagogy.
Teaching Approach
With the increasing numbers and diversity of the student population and the imminent rise in tuition fees, the task of the lecturer is a challenging one and, for new lecturers, the learning curve is particularly steep. I am in the privileged position of being able to deliver and observe teaching across the College, which allows me to work with colleagues from rich and varied backgrounds. These experiences serve not only to inform my own teaching and development but also my research, my service to the College and to the wider academic community.
In Higher Education, whilst we are experts at researching phenomena external to the institutions in which we work, we are often less adept at investigating ourselves and our behaviour. Supporting colleagues to share, reflect upon and question their own academic practice is a fundamental aspect of developing greater levels of self-awareness and a proactive attitude towards personal and professional development, which is fundamental to my approach to teaching. In attempting to learn from each teaching experience, the role of the taught and the teacher are subsumed into a broader understanding of the learner as conceptualised by Bowden and Marton (2004) in their ‘University of Learning: beyond quality and competence’. The University of Learning amalgamates teaching and research, both of which are concerned with ‘knowledge formation’, where learning is the central component of the university:
‘...we can see research as resulting in learning on the collective level as compared to what students are doing, where the focus is on widening their own knowledge or learning on the individual level’ (p.4).
Research - Kings Research Profile
Emma’s research has become increasingly characterised by a focus on assessment and feedback in Higher Education (HE), which is shaping her role within the King’s Learning Institute and King’s College London more broadly. Her current research interests lie in the subjectivity that underpins assessment and feedback practices, the messages conveyed and received through written feedback, peer assessment and assessment in curriculum change. This research has served to inform her own professional development and has provided her with an insight into her teaching and assessment/feedback practices.
Emma is a member of KCL’s Higher Education Research Network (HERN) in her capacity as the leader of the Assessment and Feedback Significant Interest Group (SIG), and has coordinated a cross-institutional initiative focusing on the review and enhancement of assessment and feedback across KCL (further details of this initiative may be located here: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/learningteaching/kli/assess/). Emma is also currently involved in writing assessment/feedback related articles with colleagues from the Department of Pharmacy, School of Law, and Dental Institute.
Emma’s research interest has, furthermore, resulted in a number of roles in service to the wider academic community. She acts as a reviewer for Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education; the International Journal of Learning; the European Journal of Psychology of Education, and has been asked to review abstract submissions for the British Educational Research Association’s Annual Conference. For the purposes of disseminating her research findings Emma was, with a colleague, recently awarded a grant from the Higher Education Academy to run a seminar to engage with academic staff both within and beyond the College. She is also currently acting as an external consultant on a research project at the University of Surrey and has recently worked with Ruskin College Oxford. In addition, Emma is a member of the Higher Education Academy’s Benchmarking Feedback Significant Interest Group, which aims to review and develop principles for effective feedback in higher education. She also recently contributed to a report focusing on Assessment in curriculum change for a joint Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded research project, entitled the King’s-Warwick Project (KWP).
The intended outcome of this research project being a 'blueprint' for research-led teaching to inform policy in other HE institutions.
Publications - Full publications (pdf, 91KB)
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Meland E. (2010) Subjectivity as a Tool for Clarifying Mismatches between Markers, The International Journal of Learning, 17 (7), 399 - 412.
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Kingston, E. (2008) Emotional Competence and Dropout Rates in Higher Education. Education and Training, 50(2), 128-139.
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Kingston, E. & Forland, H. (2008) Bridging the Gap in Expectations between International Students and Academic Staff, Journal of Studies in International Education, 12 (2), 204-221. http://jsi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/204
Presentations - Full presentations (pdf, 10KB)
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Weller, S., & Medland, E. (2011) Constructing academic (developer) identities: analysis of written feedback on summative portfolio assessment of new lecturers, Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Conference, 7-9 December 2011, Celtic Manor, Newport.
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Medland, E. (2011) Reconceptualising Subjectivity in Assessment, Assessment in Higher Education Conference, 6 July 2011, University of Cumbria, Carlisle.
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Medland, E. (2010) Reconceptualising Subjectivity in Assessment, Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Conference, 14-16 December, Celtic Manor, Newport.