Dear colleagues,
We’re seeking offers to undertake double blind peer-review of the following submissions to the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (JLDHE).
If you would like to complete a review of one of the submissions, please email the designated editorial contact below.
If you haven’t reviewed for us before, please include a brief description of your interest in the topic, your relevant qualifications, expertise and/or experience in relation to the submission (up to 200 words). This might include your knowledge of the subject and/or your experience acting as a peer reviewer for academic papers or as an author or researcher in the field.
Please also join our register of reviewers and list your interests via http://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/user/register.
New reviewers are very welcome! We provide a developmental environment for those interested in this important community service. Why not try something new today?
| No. | Type | Title and abstract | Editorial contact |
| 2071 | Case study | Co-designing the Australian Mateship Program (AMP): an experience-based approach guided by Bridges’ Transitions Framework to support international Nursing students International Nursing students face psychosocial, cultural and academic demands when they move to a new country and education system. This paper reports the co-design and early implementation of the Australian Mateship Program (AMP), a peer-mentoring intervention developed at one regional university. The AMP was created through experience-based co-design with students, academic staff and international office staff, and was guided by Bridges’ Transitions Framework. Fifty-seven students enrolled and 19 mentors were trained. Interviews with seven participants and routine attendance records were used for early formative evaluation, with interview data analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Participants described gains in confidence, social connection and engagement. The findings are preliminary, but they suggest that pairing co-design with an explicit transition framework offers a workable approach to supporting international students, and one that may transfer beyond Nursing. | Paula Villegas Verdu: pvv1@st-andrews.ac.uk |
| 2128 | Paper | Evaluating the impact of self-selecting Learning Development interventions on the attainment of Level 6 students: a quantitative study This research paper adopts quantitative approaches to explore the relationship between level 6 students’ attainment and their usage of Learning Development (LD) self-selecting provision. Bivariate analysis found that engagement with LD support had a statistically significant impact on students’ attainment, in line with existing studies. The most significant impact was for students with a declared disability, demonstrating the value of LD support for students ‘at risk’. Other predictor variables including attendance, prior attainment as measured by UCAS points, and demographic factors, were found to have significant associations with support use as well as with degree outcome. A key contribution of this paper is a multivariate analysis, which showed a statistically significant effect of LD support on degree outcome, even after controlling for these other variables. | Michael Ma: zm344@cantab.ac.uk |
| 2161 | Paper | Be really careful with how you use it: five tensions students experience when using generative artificial intelligence Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) can help student learning when the strengths of machines and humans are combined. However, GAI harms student learning when machine capabilities replace human strengths. Both scenarios depend on how students shape the tensions they experience when using GAI. This empirical study discusses how tensions can shape how GAI helps/harms student learning. Using a qualitative dataset of 25 interviews with students across four UK universities, we observed the tensions of perceived efficiency-effectiveness, over-reliance-avoidance, clarity-confusion, empowerment-anxiety and accessible-restricted. They are contradictory, yet interrelated, dualities that students face. While virtuous cycles between dualities in the form of both/and (actively embracing both) sometimes occur, vicious cycles in the form of either/or (focusing on just one side) are more common. Paradox theory was used to interpret the tensions and likely outcomes, to contribute to understanding the complex role of GAI in higher education (HE), and to advance debates on human-AI collaboration. | Mohamed Maher: mohamed.maher@liverpool.ac.uk |
| 2165 | Case study | Investing in Learning Development: a practitioner case study of in-house versus outsourced Learning Development provision in a UK Business School This practitioner case study compares in-house and outsourced Learning Development provision on two MSc Management programmes (on-campus and online). Written as three interconnected reflective accounts, it asks what students gain or lose under different approaches to academic skills provision, showing that the essential factor is a holistic, comprehensive model, which in this case was delivered in-house, offering a stronger experience than the outsourced alternative. Drawing on institutional data, a Learning Developer-led practitioner survey, and our own practice, we find the in-house provision demonstrates clear value to students and staff alike, including markedly higher academic integrity engagement (94.4% against 38%) than the outsourced comparator. We close with transferable steps for institutions and practitioners building or protecting embedded provision. | Amy Sampson: a.sampson@greenwich.ac.uk |
| 2172 | Paper | Experiences and perceptions of a soft skills workshop focused on self-reflection to enhance self-awareness in higher education students: a qualitative study Soft skills are critical for higher education (HE) students’ wellbeing, success and employability. This study examined HE students’ experiences and perceptions of a soft skills workshop addressing self-reflection on: (1) self-regulation, (2) values clarification and goal setting, (3) cognitive flexibility, (4) emotion regulation, (5) communication, (6) problem solving and decision making, (7) planning, and (8) adaptability. Five themes emerged through inductive thematic analysis of two group interviews and a focus group. Students perceived the workshop as an opportunity to grow, experienced feelings of cohesion, connection and safety, realized individual learning achievements, had individual learning preferences that fit and did not fit with the workshop format, and discussed soft skills development in the future. Altogether, this study revealed that HE students perceived to achieve personal growth, but experienced individual needs, preferences, and conditions for learning during the soft skills workshop, which should be considered when integrating soft skills development in HE. | Mohamed Maher: mohamed.maher@liverpool.ac.uk |
| 2191 | Paper | Integrating case-based learning and role-play simulation: learning mechanisms in simulated work-integrated higher education Higher education increasingly seeks learning designs that connect academic knowledge with the ambiguity and relational demands of professional practice. This qualitative study examines how an integrated case-based and role-play simulation design supports students’ experiences of theory–practice integration and professional learning. Data comprised reflective submissions from master’s students in Human Resource Management who worked collaboratively with an authentic organisational case, participated in a role-play simulation, and observed peer performances. Thematic analysis identified four interrelated learning mechanisms: productive ambiguity, enacted and emotionally salient learning, collaborative meaning-making, and comparative meta-learning through peer observation. Students described these mechanisms as supporting deeper theoretical engagement, professional communication, relational judgement, and emerging professional identity. The findings suggest that combining authentic cases, collaborative inquiry, simulation, observation, and structured reflection can provide a valuable approximation of work-integrated learning and offer transferable principles for designing practice-oriented learning in higher education. | Anabela Da Silva Filipe Soares: Anabela.Soares@uwe.ac.uk |
| 2217 | Paper | AI-assisted feedback for Learning Development: student engagement, assessment literacy and human-AI judgement across STEM assessments Learning Development depends on feedback that enables students to understand standards, judge quality, and act on guidance. This mixed-methods study examines AI-generated assessment feedback through educator-AI comparisons across 171 STEM assessments and a student feedback questionnaire (n = 24). Educator-AI agreement ranged from moderate to near-perfect and was strongest with explicit rubrics. Student responses showed that 96% found the feedback helpful for understanding how to improve their work, 79% said it helped identify areas for improvement, and 67% reported improved self-assessment. However, only 13% preferred AI feedback alone, while 50% preferred teacher feedback and 38% expressed no preference. Open-text responses valued specificity, structure, and actionable guidance but emphasised teacher expertise, dialogue, and human judgement. The findings position AI feedback as a Learning Development resource that can support feedback literacy and evaluative judgement when embedded within educator-mediated, student-active processes rather than used as a replacement for teacher feedback. | Mohamed Maher: mohamed.maher@liverpool.ac.uk |
| 2222 | Paper | Talking a field into existence: podcasting as knowledge mobilisation in Learning Development This paper examines podcasting as a form of knowledge mobilisation in Learning Development (LD), a practice-based field whose scholarship is often overlooked by conventional impact metrics. Drawing on a framework analysis of fourteen episodes of the Anonymised podcast, we explore how practitioners become scholars and contribute to the development of the field. Three themes emerged: scholarship begins in practice; professional and scholarly identities develop together; and podcast conversations create opportunities for reflection, knowledge production, and intellectual experimentation that formal publications rarely capture. We argue that the podcast functions as a knowledge broker, making visible the relational and collaborative processes through which LD knowledge is produced, shared, and sustained. In doing so, it not only disseminates scholarship but actively contributes to the formation of LD as a scholarly field. | Steve Briggs: steve.briggs@beds.ac.uk |
| 2259 | Paper | Supporting international students’ transition into UK higher education: towards an inclusive student-centred learning environment This practitioner-informed critical inquiry revisits a 2020 action-research project concerned with creating an effective student-centred learning environment for international students in UK higher education. The original inquiry identified learning, interaction and engagement as interconnected concerns and drew on pedagogical literature, routine practitioner observations, peer observations and existing module feedback; it did not involve direct student interviews, questionnaires or focus groups. Reconsidered alongside continuing practitioner reflection and contemporary scholarship, the article reframes transition as a shared pedagogical responsibility rather than a one-way requirement for students to adapt. It proposes five principles: scaffold transition, embed academic literacies, create safe and varied opportunities for participation, design for learner diversity, and use technology purposefully while progressively developing independence. International students remain the central focus, while the framework’s potential transferability to other students unfamiliar with higher education conventions is considered cautiously and without treating diverse student groups as equivalent. | Anabela Da Silva Filipe Soares: Anabela.Soares@uwe.ac.uk |
N.B. it is essential to be respectful of the writers of submissions to our journal, especially when they are at the draft stages. Please do not comment publicly on the list or elsewhere on any aspect of the paper titles or abstracts above.
We look forward to hearing from you!
With warm wishes on behalf of the Editorial Board,
Chad
Dr Chad McDonald
Managing Editor, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education