Personal statement

Before joining the University of Strathclyde’s Institute of Education, I was a technical class teacher, principal teacher of technical, then faculty head of Technologies in a Glasgow City Council secondary school.  I was also the lead principal teacher for Glasgow City Council where I responsible for the strategic direction of specific technical subjects at authority and national level.  I am a member of the Scottish Government’s national Technologies forum where I am involved in significant discussion and decision making that will drive the direction of Technologies nationally.

I am particularly interested in how young people learn and I always consider new pedagogical approaches and initiatives to benefit all learners in the care of professional teaching staff.  I have previously been involved in tracking and monitoring within Technologies Scottish Government benchmarks and I do believe that assessments through professional judgement and learner evidence will absolutely result in making the best judgements in achievement of a level across the Technologies benchmarks.

My work with primary schools sees me liaise with the FABLAB team to welcome local primary schools to the university to raise the profile of STEM and inspire young people to consider discreet STEM subjects as they continue their post-primary education. 

I am currently involved in working with North Lanarkshire’s St Maurice’s primary cluster schools. I am part of a research team working to better understand and measure the impact of augmented reality software and hardware on attainment across STEM.  We are specifically focussing on future attainment tracking, DYW and Digital Pedagogy.