Staff and Educational Development

I was an academic developer at the University of Canterbury for over 15 years, and staff and educational development is one of my core specialties. I have worked extensively with teaching staff on all matters teaching and learning, assessment, pedagogy, curriculum and assessment design. I also have experience setting up systems at organisational level to support continuing development of (teaching) staff. Areas where I can provide expert advice are:

  • Professional development needs analyses.

  • Strategy and implementation of professional development of staff

  • Capacity and capability development for professionals becoming teachers / communicators of that profession

  • Design, delivery, and evaluation of staff training and development programmes

  • Mentoring of teaching staff

  • Strategy and implementation of quality assurance processes of assessment of prior learning, non-formal teaching, micro-credentials and short courses

  • Curriculum design and restructure at course, programme, and qualification level, including academic quality assurance processes

  • Academic review of programmes of study

  • The provision of workshops around teaching, communication, curriculum and assessment practices

  • Teaching observations and evaluations and design of peer observation of teaching protocols

Organisational Development

For me, organisational development is a natural extension of educational development, just broader and not focused exclusively on teaching staff. In my studies of strategic leadership and industrial-organisational psychology it became clear that many concepts, techniques, and practices from educational development transfer across to leadership, change management, and generic staff development quite readily. Areas in organisational development where I can provide support are:

  • Strategy and implementation of

    • Educational change management

    • Organisational development, training and facilitation

    • Organisational policy regarding staff professional development and delivery

    • Diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace

    • Merits and drawbacks of generative artificial intelligence in the workplace

    • Institutional readiness for emergencies

  • Capacity and capability development to initiate, execute, and embed self-sustained organisational change

  • Development of staff to assume emergency management roles

Leadership Development

Without good leadership, organisations falter. Leaders in organisations, whether recruited internally or externally, face many but different challenges in their roles. However, many leaders are not well prepared or trained to take on these roles initially. I support the development of leaders and leadership in organisations. Areas I can provide support in are:

  • Development needs analyses of leadership knowledge, skills, attributes and other characteristics tailored to the organisation

  • Design of professional development pathways pathways to leadership and succession planning

  • Mentoring of early stage leaders or those aspiring to leadership

  • Leadership style development based on personal and organisational needs

Research and Research Support

I am a highly experienced researcher in education and social sciences. I have co-authored more than 75 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and research reports. A bibliography is available on my research profile at the University of Canterbury, where I am an Adjunct Associate Professor working closely with the Industrial and Organisational Psychology group. I have designed and led numerous interdisciplinary studies with a wide variety of stakeholders, and have mentored / supervised many people in doing research to high standards. I am available for contract research in my areas of expertise: education, educational psychology, industrial and organisational psychology, social sciences. In addition, I can provide research support to develop internal capacity and capability for research. Areas I can provide support in are:

  • Mentoring / supervising researchers and buiding a research culture

  • Research question formulation and quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods study design

  • Interview protocol and survey scale construction

  • Human ethics processes

  • Data analysis and dissemination of results

  • Action research and evaluation

  • Implications and translation of research results for practice, policy, strategy, and implementation