We’ve caught up with recently promoted Pathway 3 colleagues to hear about their approaches to scholarship of teaching and learning and what advice they would give to others planning on applying for promotion.
BILT: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Ros: I am a Pathway 3 academic in the School of Geographical Sciences, and currently one of the School Education Directors, with my focus being the Undergraduate programmes.
BILT: From your successful application for promotion, can you give an example of using educational scholarship or evidence to transform your teaching or assessment practice, and what impact this had?
Ros: From my time as the School Disability Officer and then the Senior Tutor in the school I strengthened my interest in promoting inclusivity in my teaching practices and understanding the barriers for students in their learning and assessments.
These experiences led me to lead a BILT-funded research project, which focused on understanding students’ relationships with deadlines and the use of extensions. The research involved collaboration with the School of Psychology and BILT to investigate the intrinsic/extrinsic factors that drive student attitudes to their work and examine the reasons that students struggle with deadlines and the use of extension culture. The results from this study found that the students who were using extensions were struggling to start the work and therefore to help students with their assignments, greater scaffolding around getting students started with the assessment can help them complete their work on time. There have been additional changes in the way extensions have been granted which makes it difficult to quantitatively evaluate the changes we have made but the better understanding of why students end up wanting extensions have helped the school address the use of extensions.
The work was shared internally within the school and through BILT activities, with a journal article being written for external dissemination. This was used to support E4, with grant-funding being awarded and demonstrating engaging in scholarly activity.
BILT: What innovative approach to teaching, learning, or curriculum design have you developed, evaluated, and shared with others?
Ros: I am passionate about Community Engaged Learning, both for the enhanced skills that it gives our students, but also for the importance of connecting the university to the community in which it exists. I am the lead academic for the Avon Projects (a year 2 unit that is taken by our students learning Field and laboratory research skills) which involves coordinating 15 community organisations ranging in scale from Friends of Troopers Hill (local resident organisation) to Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (substantial environmental organisation with paid employees). A key innovation has been the co-creation of the peer review assessment, where I introduced a workshop in which students collaboratively develop the assessment criteria used for peer review, increasing their understanding of assessment standards while promoting ownership of the feedback process. This mode of teaching provides students the opportunity to develop a range of employability skills, including teamwork, communication skills, organisation and time management.
I have shared this approach in BILT sessions, and I have co-written with a student a Vignette, on “Science for community empowerment: student-led research for authentic assessment” as well as currently writing a paper on skills development, recognition and articulation from research conducted across the last year with my colleague Dr. Becky Collins. We presented this at the Horizons in STEM conference, 2026.
I have used different elements of this example for EI-1, E3 and E4 of the promotion criteria.
BILT: Can you describe a time when you contributed to or led an educational initiative that enhanced teaching practice within or beyond your School?
Ros: A key element for our School’s accreditation with the Royal Geographical Society is fieldwork. For some of our student’s fieldwork can be particularly challenging both in terms of the physical demands but additionally in terms of the social and emotional dynamic.
As School Disability coordinator I instigated and led the development of a framework to support staff assessing the needs of students attending fieldtrips. By working closely with Disability Services and the Health and Safety team we ensured that this protocol is suitable for all schools that conduct field work, and it has now been rolled out successfully to both Geography and Earth Sciences, allowing students to access field courses who couldn’t before. This work has encouraged me to work with other universities to understand how they make fieldwork more accessible to students with disabilities, and to bring some of those practices back to Bristol.
As a result, the initiative has enhanced teaching practice by embedding inclusion more systematically into field-based education, improving both the student experience and staff capability in delivering accessible field teaching.
This example was useful in providing evidence for LC1.
BILT: How have you built and demonstrated sustained impact through your scholarship of teaching and learning activities?
This has required me to learn to evidence the practices that I am using every day. As a pathway 3 member of staff, we are often embedding our scholarship in our practice as we develop our units and activities.
To build and demonstrate sustained impact, I have become better at documenting and evaluating the changes I am making. This has been both through funded projects, but also where funding has not been available I have been thoughtful about how I introduce new ideas to make sure that I can trace their impact.
To demonstrate sustained impact it is important to share your practice, and for me I have found a variety of different approaches, through sharing within my school and faculty, through seminars/ talks to the wider university, through BILT talks and the BILT conference, and beyond through conferences and papers (these are still in preparation!).
The other area that I can demonstrate impact is through working with colleagues both within the university and beyond. Within the school, my previous role of Pathway 3 education group lead has meant that I have been able to support colleagues with their pedagogic projects and support their work being disseminated to the School and the wider university. I was also involved in the establishment of the Faculty of Science and Engineering Education Research Group, and through that network have connected with pedagogic research groups with the faculty.
These examples helped me support E4 and LC-2 criteria in the promotions documentation.
BILT: What advice would you give to colleagues who are planning to apply for promotion and wish to meet the E4 criteria?
Ros: It is important to spend time building networks across the university and beyond. There are opportunities within the faculties to be involved in Education Research Groups which allow you to meet with other pedagogic researchers and collaborate on projects. This both widens your knowledge from what other people are doing but means that you have clear ways of sharing your practices and increasing your impact.
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