Peer Mentoring

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Steering Group Member
ALDinHE Treasurer
JLDHE Editorial Team Member

Carina joined the Steering Group in 2012 and was Co-Chair 2015 – 2021. She came into learning development almost by accident after gaining a PhD in Archaeology in 2006, and is currently Instructional Design Manager at Solent University, responsible for leading on the development of the VLE as a student-centred learning space. Her research interests focus on collaboration and community in LD, and how these impact and are impacted by our professional identities, particularly in terms of emotion and imposter syndrome. She is an Advance HE Principal Fellow and a Certified Leading Practitioner in Learning Development.

Jane is a learning developer at Glasgow Caledonian University, where she has worked with health and life sciences students since 2008. She is an Advance HE Senior Fellow, an ALDinHE Certified Leading Practitioner and an accredited sport psychologist. She enjoys supporting individuals to reach their potential and has mentored colleagues and contributed to the development of mentoring schemes for learning developers. She joined the ALDinHE Peer Mentoring Group in 2020. In addition to teaching academic literacies, Jane uses her psychology background to embed psychological skills, self-understanding and positive mindset in practice. She has a particular interest in how individual characteristics, most notably perfectionism, influence learning and student wellbeing and she is undertaking research in this area.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Steering Group Member
Co-chair of Learn Higher

Jennie joined the LearnHigher Working Group in December 2017 and became the Co-chair in 2021. She is also a Co-chair of the Neurodiversity/Inclusion Community of Practice. Her interests include technology enhanced learning and accessible teaching practices. She is a qualified dyslexia tutor, a Certified Leading Practitioner of LD, a Senior Fellow of HEA and has an MA in Education (SEND and Inclusion). Outside of ALDinHE she is Co-chair of ALT East England and one of the regional co-ordinators in London, South-East & Anglia for the Association of Dyslexia Specialists in Higher Education. She has over twenty years of teaching experience and currently works as an Academic Skills Tutor at the University of Hertfordshire for the School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science.

Jodie joined the LHWG in early 2020, with an interest in supporting the WG and wider community with access to high-standard resources, and a commitment to the ALDinHE values. Jodie’s career has taken her from FE teaching to HE engagement roles and now academic development, currently in the role of Learning Development Manager at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has a great interest in harnessing technology in teaching and has recently developed a new open-access platform for her institution, offering engaging asynchronous modules on academic skills and information literacy, targeted by level and faculty. She is a qualified teacher, holds a Masters in Sociology of Education and is currently studying for a PhD Sociology. Jodie is also a Certified Practitioner of Learning Development and Fellow of HEA.

Bio coming soon.

Steering Group Member
Co-chair of the Peer Mentoring Group

Sandra Sinfield SFHEA and CeLP, is Senior Lecturer and University Teaching Fellow in the Centre for Professional and Educational Development at London Metropolitan University, a co-author of Teaching, Learning and Study Skills: a guide for tutors and Essential Study Skills: the complete guide to success at university (4th Edition), and one of the co-founders of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDHE). Sandra has worked as a laboratory technician, a freelance copywriter, and an Executive Editor (Medicine Digest, circulation 80,000 doctors). With Tom Burns, she has developed theatre and film in unusual places – their Take Control video won the IVCA gold award for education – and is interested in creativity as emancipatory practice in Higher Education.

Bio coming soon.

Silvina Bishopp-Martin has been a Learning Developer at Canterbury Christ Church University since joining the institution in 2012. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an ALDinHE Certified Leading Practitioner. She has worked on the development of online learning materials, peer-mentoring schemes and embedding academic literacies in academic programmes. She has research experience on academic literacies, critical EAP and Learning Development professionalism and identity.

Tom Burns, always been interested in theatre and the arts and their role in teaching and learning, led the Hainault Action Group setting up adventure playgrounds and devising Community Events and Festivals for the local community. Whilst still a student Tom set up and ran the first International Dario Fo Festival – with symposium, theatre workshops for students and local people and full dramatic performances by the Fo-Rame theatre troupe of The Tiger’s Tale and The Boss’s Funeral. Currently senior lecturer, University Teaching Fellow and CATE – and co-lead of the (Re)ImaginingHE research project.

Steering Group Member
Co-Chair of ALDinHE

Paul joined the conference committee in 2017, the Steering Group in 2020 and became ALDinHE Co-Chair in 2021 and is based in the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Bath. Paul is a Certified Leading Practitioner in Learning Development and a Principle Fellow of the HEA. His main research interest is peer learning, having completed his PhD in online peer learning and assessment. Paul also has an active interest in developing graduate attributes, promoting employability skills and learning technology – as well as occasionally dabbling in other areas of learning development . As an Associate Member of CIPD Paul is also a keen advocate of promoting personal and professional development.

Steering Group Member
Chair of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education Editorial Board

Alicja has been an editor at the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education since 2018 and a Co-Lead Editor since early 2019. She is a Learning Development Advisor at the University of Plymouth where she also teaches in History. Alicja is an Advance HE Senior Fellow and an ALDinHE Certified Leading Practitioner. She works closely with Arts and Humanities students and uses her hybrid role to promote effective embedding of learning development in subjects. She is particularly interested in the impact of learning development on student understanding and experience of writing within their disciplines.

As a Learning Developer Ursula Canton works with STEM students, arts students and education students at different universities and under different titles (Senior Lecturer / Glasgow Caledonian University; Effective Learning Tutor /Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Associate Tutor / University of Glasgow). In all of these roles she draws on her experiences from her first academic life (MA Language and Literature; PhD in Theatre Studies) and current research interests in evaluating writing interventions, writing process(es) and academic and professional literacies. She is keen on contributing to the development of Learning Development through formal and informal routes, including taking a leading role in developing ALDinHE’s mentoring programme, co-chairing of ScotHELD (Scottish Higher Education Developers) and sharing her insights through informal chats and mentoring, as well as publications.