Jennifer Hill

University of Gloucestershire · Academic Development Unit

This paper reflects on what we learnt about teaching geography during the COVID-19 pandemic. We interrogate how we, as geography educators working in different contexts, navigated the novel teaching spaces created during the pandemic using two key registers; courageous and compassionate pedagogies. Our premise is that understanding in more nuanced...

The coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented circumstances, providing insights into how systems (people, institutions and societies) cope during a disruption. This paper reports research undertaken at one university in the South West of England, which adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate how students responded to and coped with the imp...

The Covid-19 pandemic led to significant changes in higher educa-tion institutions, with a rapid pivot from on-campus to online teaching and learning. The move to predominantly online teaching resulted in a very different learning experience for many campus- based students, offering new opportunities and challenges. This Directions article is co-wr...

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound disruption to geography higher education. A pivot to online teaching required staff to rapidly adapt their practices to novel digital spaces. Whilst many studies have reported the different pedagogic approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant student learning experience. In this study, we aimed...

The online pivot caused by the COVID-19 pandemic required many staff to adapt their practices to digital learning environments. Whilst studies have reported the different approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant learning experience. In this study, we aimed to create an evidence base regarding online learning during the pandemic. Using...

Understanding the emotions experienced by higher education instructors related to assessment feedback, how instructors understand student emotions, and how instructors might manage these emotions positively, can help to secure the educational benefits of feedback. In this research, we aimed to explore the emotional responses that instructors experi...

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound disruption to geography higher education. A pivot to online teaching required staff to rapidly adapt their practices to novel learning environments and digital spaces. Whilst many studies have reported the different pedagogic approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant student learning experienc...

Receiving assessment feedback is inherently emotional for students. As such, instructors need to consider how to manage students’ responses to feedback so that they feel capable of improving their work and maintaining their wellbeing. In this presentation, we examine the emotional responses of undergraduate geography students to written assessment...

A key debate in higher education is how assessment and feedback can be constructed to maximize opportunities for meaningful student learning. In this paper, we explore how a learning-focused model of feedback, teacher-student dialogic feed-forward, is enacted in practice, exposing many affordances but also some challenges. Adopting a small-scale in...

In 2019 the Higher Education Research Group (HERG) formally became the Geography and Education Research Group (GeogEd). What may appear as a simple change in name masks a renewed understanding of the synergies between geography education (at all levels) and the geographies of education. In this paper we contextualise that change through the relatio...

The opening paper in our special section sets the scene for the discussions that follow by evidencing and reflecting upon the history of the Higher Education Research Group. We report on the purpose of the Group when it was established in the late 1970s as the Higher Education Learning Working Party, and trace its development to late 2019 when its...

Assessment feedback should be an integral part of learning in higher education, but students can find this process emotionally and cognitively challenging. Instructors need to consider how to manage students’ responses to feedback so that students feel capable of improving their work and maintaining their wellbeing. In this paper, we examine the ro...

Capstone experiences (CEs) serve a variety of purposes in higher education as opportunities to apply academic skills, explore post-graduate life and employment, and achieve a meaningful undergraduate event. This study investigated the purposes of CEs through a content analysis of institutional course syllabi/course outlines/module outlines and cata...

This paper sets the scene for the discussions that follow by evidencing and reflecting upon the history of the Higher Education Research Group. We report on the purpose of the Group when it was established in the late 1970s as the Higher Education Learning Working Party, and trace its development to late 2019 when its members voted to change the na...

In 2019, the Higher Education Research Group (HERG) formally became the Geography and Education Research Group (GeogEd). What may appear as a simple change in name masks a renewed understanding of the synergies between geography education (at all levels) and the geographies of education. In this paper we contextualise that change through the relati...

A key debate in higher education is how assessment and feedback can be constructed to maximize opportunities for meaningful student learning. In this paper, we explore how a learning-focused model of feedback, teacher-student dialogic feed-forward, is enacted in practice, exposing many affordances but also some tensions. Adopting a small-scale inte...

Summative assessments tend to be viewed as high-stakes episodes by students, directly exposing their capabilities as learners. As such, receiving feedback is likely to evoke a variety of emotions that may interact with cognitive engagement and hence the ability to learn. Our research investigated the emotions experienced by undergraduate students i...

Summative assessments tend to be viewed as high-stakes episodes by students, directly exposing their capabilities as learners. As such, receiving feedback is likely to evoke a variety of emotions that may interact with cognitive engagement and hence the ability to learn. Our research investigated the emotions experienced by undergraduate students i...

Despite emotion being recognized as fundamental to learning, the affective aspects of learning have often been side-lined in higher education. In the context of rising student wellbeing challenges, exploring ways of supporting students and their emotions in learning is increasingly significant. Pedagogic partnerships have the potential to help stud...

Capstone Experiences (CE) are meant to integrate and culminate the student experience. The most common CE in the Canadian and American engineering curriculums is the final year design course, but other disciplines also have capstone experiences. This paper presents initial results from a multi-institutional, multi-national survey of faculty and stu...

Eleven snow-avalanche boulder fans were dated from two high-alpine sites in Jotunheimen using Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) and lichenometry. Average exposure ages of the surface boulders ranged from 2285 ± 725 to 7445 ± 1020 years and demonstrate the potential of SHD for dating active landforms and diachronous surfaces. Application of G...

Measurements with an electronic Schmidt-hammer (RockSchmidt) were conducted on 23 sites of sorted stripes (periglacial patterned ground) on Juvflye, Jotunheimen (central South Norway). All were located above the current lower limit of alpine permafrost. Performing Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) based on application of a new local age-cali...

Assessment feedback from teachers gains consistently low satisfaction scores in national surveys of student satisfaction, with concern surrounding its timeliness, quality and effectiveness. Equally, there has been heightened interest in the responsibility of learners in engaging with feedback and how student assessment literacy might be increased....

We present results from a three-year qualitative enquiry, exploring changing student emotions and learning behaviours linked to a student-teacher dialogic assessment approach implemented in a second year undergraduate course at a large teaching-oriented British university. The approach uncovered the inherently emotional experience for students of r...

Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) of boulders on cryoplanation terrace treads and associated bedrock cliff faces revealed Holocene ages ranging from 0 ± 825 to 8890 ± 1185 yr. The cliffs were significantly younger than the inner treads, which tended to be younger than the outer treads. Radiocarbon dates from the regolith of 3854 to 4821 cal...

In the context of rising student wellbeing challenges, supporting students and their emotions in learning is increasingly significant. Pedagogic partnerships have the potential to help students work with their emotions in their learning in a positive manner. As such, they offer opportunities to develop resilience and enhance wellbeing. Using two ca...

In the context of increasing wellbeing challenges for students in higher education, we argue that pedagogic partnership has the potential to help students recognise and work positively with their emotions. We present a case study exploring changing student emotions and learning behaviours linked to a student-faculty dialogic assessment approach imp...

In this short intervention we report on work in progress by Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) in collaboration with professional bodies such as the RGS‐IBG, which seeks to respond to public concerns about “grade inflation” in relation to degree outcomes. We present an updated analysis of degree outcomes in UK geography for 2010–201...

In this workshop we present results from a longitudinal mixed methods study which evidences that dialogic feed-forward assessment asserts a positive influence on the undergraduate student experience in a number of inter-related cognitive and affective ways (Hill & West, 2019). Staff-student dialogue impacts positively upon learning, uncovering emot...

Specific tests of autosuccession (equivalent to non-replacement change in species composition) are made, in which pioneer communities on roadside verges and areas of patterned ground disturbed by cryoturbation are compared with mature communities on a bioclimatic gradient from sub-alpine woodland (850 m a.s.l) to high-alpine fjellfield (2200 m a.s....

In this paper we draw attention to the attributes and values which equip geographers to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning. We begin by summarising key characteristics of geographers in higher education, synthesized from academic literature. We support our summary with comments from past editors of the Journal of Geography in Higher...

Assessment and feedback are fundamental to student learning and achievement and are arguably more influential to learning behaviour and learners’ experience than teaching. However, assessment feedback gains consistently low scores in national surveys of student satisfaction, with most concern surrounding its timeliness, quality and effectiveness. W...

This paper explores the opportunities for student-staff partnership in the research process, before progressing to examine the benefits and challenges of such engagement. Using the model of Healey (2005), opportunities for student partnership in research will be mapped across the undergraduate learning journey. The authors will demonstrate how rese...

Assessment feedback gains consistently low satisfaction scores in national surveys of student satisfaction, with most concern surrounding its timeliness, quality and effectiveness. We present the results of a two year qualitative study, thematically analysing semi-structured interviews with students who have undertaken dialogic feed-forward coursew...

In this paper we will encourage you to reimagine assessment and feedback, supported by the latest research and evidence-informed practice, enabling you to deliver assessment that helps your students to learn, improves their performance, enhances their satisfaction, motivates them in their studies and improves their self-confidence. We will work thr...

This is the second of two Directions articles, which together offer guidance to help you gain the maximum benefit from participating in institutional and national multi-disciplinary undergraduate research conferences. The article focuses on how to make the most of these excellent opportunities when you are participating. To do this, you need to und...

Red wood ant nest mounds were investigated on terrain deglaciated since the mid-18th century at three outlet glaciers of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap in southern Norway. Chronosequence methodology was combined with a geo-ecological approach in the context of autecology. Size and composition of 168 mounds, most of which belonged to Formica lugubris, w...

This is the first of two articles that offer guidance to help you maximize the benefits from participating in multi-disciplinary conferences. In this paper, we explain why you might wish to participate, identify the usual conference format and preparation process, and talk you through the steps you should take to prepare an effective verbal or post...

Assessment feedback gains consistently low satisfaction scores in national surveys of student satisfaction, with most concern surrounding its timeliness, quality and effectiveness. We present the results of a two year qualitative study, thematically analysing semi-structured interviews with students who have undertaken dialogic feed-forward coursew...

Assessment exercises a major influence on student learning and achievement (Boud 2007). Yet QAA subject reviews identify assessment practices as one of the weakest features of Higher Education (Rust et al. 2005). In terms of the student learning experience the feedback process following assessment is the least satisfactory element. This is exemplif...

This regional inventory and study of a globally uncommon landform type reveals similarities in form and process between craters produced by snow-avalanche and meteorite impacts. Fifty-two snow-avalanche impact craters (mean diameter 85 m, range 10–185 m) were investigated through field research, aerial photographic interpretation and analysis of to...

Assessment exercises a major influence on student learning and achievement (Boud 2007). Yet QAA reviews and pedagogic literature identify assessment practices as one of the weakest features of Higher Education (Rust et al. 2005). In terms of the student learning experience the feedback process following assessment is the least satisfactory element....

This Directions paper, written by two former Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Leaders, (West and Jenkins) and a PAL Tutor (Hill), will support any geographer considering a PAL role. It reflects our experiences of participating in a PAL scheme at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, UK, and research conducted with Geography PAL Leaders...

Environmental monitoring in middle- and low-income countries is hampered by many factors which include enactment and enforcement of legislations; deficiencies in environmental data reporting and documentation; inconsistent, incomplete and unverifiable data; a lack of access to data; and technical expertise. This paper describes the processes undert...

Assessment exercises a major influence on student learning and achievement (Boud 2007). Yet QAA subject reviews identify assessment practices as one of the weakest features of Higher Education (Rust et al. 2005). In terms of the student learning experience the feedback process following assessment is the least satisfactory element. This is exemplif...

Modelling of biological systems is discussed in terms of the primary producers of trophic levels of organisation of life. Richness of plant communities enables sustainability to be reached within subsequent trophic levels. Plant dimensions of life history strategy, primary metabolic type and life form are defined and discussed with respect to the w...

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the undergraduate research conference as its sphere of study and investigate the impact of significance of participation and socialisation in such activities on student attitudes and professional development. Using situated learning to theoretically position the undergraduate research conference as an authentic l...

An index of the degree of rock-surface microweathering based on Schmidt hammer R-values is developed for use in the field without laboratory testing. A series of indices - I2 to In, where n is the number of successive blows with the hammer - is first proposed based on the assumption that the R-values derived from successive impacts on the same spot...

There is no previous study of the benefits of attending a national multidisciplinary conference dedicated to undergraduate researchers, despite the growing number of such conferences internationally. This paper addresses the gap in knowledge of the learning gains from these conferences, and reveals a student driven learning process, a multidiscipli...

This paper will invite you to let go of the familiar and to consider how learning spaces in higher education might be used creatively for pedagogic practice as ‘borderlands’. The borderland concept allows a re-conceptualisation of pedagogic spaces, identities and practices for staff and students. These spaces are novel, challenging and messy, but t...

Graduate attributes are a framework of skills, attitudes, values and knowledge that graduates should develop by the end of their degree programmes. Adopting a largely qualitative approach and using semi-structured interviews, this paper outlines students’ experiences at a national undergraduate research conference over three years and evidences the...

This paper uses case studies and secondary literature to critically examine how learning spaces inhabited by geographers might be used productively as borderland spaces for learning partnership. Borderland spaces are novel, challenging, permissive and liminal, destabilizing traditional power hierarchies. In these spaces, students gain confidence in...

In this paper academic staff and undergraduate students will encourage you to consider the relevance of undergraduate research within and beyond the curriculum.We will showcase UWE participation in the British Conference of Undergraduate Research and highlight the disciplinary understanding/skills and generic graduate attributes that such participa...

Graduate attributes are a framework of skills, attitudes, values and knowledge that graduates should develop by the end of their degree programmes. Such attributes can be integrated into both curricular and extra-curricular activities. Adopting a largely qualitative approach and using semi-structured interviews, we outline the experiences of Geogra...

Drawing on the experiences of two undergraduate students and an academic staff member based in the discipline of geography, this paper will explore the opportunities for student-student and student-staff partnership in research before progressing to examine the benefits and challenges of such engagement. Using the model of Griffiths (2004) opportun...

An assessment of the reliability of the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) satellite sensor measurements to interpolate tropospheric concentrations of carbon monoxide considering the low-latitude climate of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria was conducted. Monthly SCIAMACHY carbon monoxide (CO) column me...

This work was carried out as a collaboration between all authors. Author AD led the design of the study, planned the data collection, led the workshop discussion on co-creation of research and led the writing of the manuscript. Author DM provided guidance on methods of qualitative analyses, supported coordination of the data collection and assisted...

This paper presents a thematic framework that simplifies and explains the complexity of tourist encounters with nature. The research combines qualitative data, derived from questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, field journals and personal observations, of wildlife encounters in Spain and Mexico and encounters with tropical forest in Australia...

Adaptive fuzzy neural inference systems are used to illustrate the primary nodal number of plant life-forms. Categorization of two candidate areas is carried out using the water-energy dynamic (for Ecuador, South America) and Macedonia, Southern Europe), within which the life-form spectra are distributed. Genetic optimization methods are used to ex...

In order to differentiate the photosynthetic processes of plant species in a variable dynamic, a hybrid genetic-fuzzy system for Cuba is designed in this paper. The proposed fuzzy control algorithm and consequent genetic optimization, process species numbers and characteristics of metabolism, in order to overcome non-linearity in the water energy d...

Plant characterisation is key to the study of biodiversity. It is multidisciplinary and includes historical, biogeographical, scientific and mathematic elements. Modelling of plant species has been carried out with qualitative use of the water-energy dynamic. Quantitative measurements of plant characterisation are essential to biodiversity, sustain...

Scholars in higher education increasingly recognize the transformative potential of student-faculty partnerships focused on inquiry into teaching and learning. However, some students tend to be privileged in SoTL initiatives while others are discouraged, implicitly or explicitly, from engaging in this work. In this paper, we consider why certain st...

Scholars in higher education increasingly recognize the transformative potential of student-faculty partnerships focused on inquiry into teaching and learning. However, some students tend to be privileged in SoTL initiatives while others are discouraged, implicitly or explicitly, from engaging in this work. In this paper, we consider why certain st...

Fuzzy control algorithms are used to give structure to the spatial categorisation of plant species by integrating digital elevation model data at increased resolution with data of selected climatic variables (mean precipitation, temperature, ground frost frequency and elevation). In previous studies, the climatic variables are obtained by minimisin...

Mathematical approaches to plant characterisation are explained, there being a range of tools available to categorise and describe biological and environmental systems. Genetic algorithms (GAs) and fuzzy-logic are techniques used for multiple criteria-based decision-making. Data from a previously described algorithm are shown across an ecological c...

This paper describes the methods applied to construct a GIS-based emission inventory infrastructure for specific air pollutants and greenhouse gases released from domestic cooking and lighting in the Niger Delta using publicly accessible data. The purpose is to identify and enhance knowledge of existing data gaps in order to progress the developmen...

The two key variables in estimating the water-energy dynamic, which determines proportions of plant strategy components on a macro basis, are temperature and precipitation. Additionally, use of high-resolution elevation data facilitates formation of the fuzzy rule base for ordination of the strategical nodes. Application of adaptive neural fuzzy in...

Satellite sensor technology are important tools in the assessment of national and regional air pollution. However, optical satellite sensor observation of atmospheric trace gases within the lower latitudes is limited due to climatic conditions. The lack of ground monitoring stations within the tropical belt further hinders verification and calibrat...

Plant species, primary producers are in a constant process of evolution due to biotic and abiotic pressures. Climate and topographical variables are principal, large-scale factors dictating plant d istribution over space and time. In this study, fuzzy algorith ms were used to show the relationship between plant species presence, topology and the wa...