Dear colleagues,
We’re seeking offers to undertake 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 (not the whole list).
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 |
| 2054 | Opinion piece | Inoculation theory and Learning Development in higher education This essay considers what inoculation theory can offer learning development in higher education. Inoculation theory, a theory of resistance to influence, has usually been applied to contexts such as misinformation, propaganda, risky behaviours, politics, health, and marketing. Here, I suggest that inoculation theory can also help learning developers think differently about resistance: when it appears as a barrier, when it functions as a goal, and when it sits somewhere in between. Drawing on recent work in the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, I consider resistance to graduate-attribute requirements, visual literacy initiatives, AI-efficiency pressures, and the neoliberal academy. Across these examples, inoculation theory offers a way to ask what kind of resistance is being built or fostered, against what influence, by what means, and toward what educational value. The essay also considers practical applications for syllabi, public speaking anxiety, and metaliteracy. | Laura Barnett: l.barnett@surrey.ac.uk |
| 2055 | Case study | Designing equitable access to academic skills resources This case study focuses on the institutional redesign and planned migration of Learning Development (LD) resources within a post-1992 university. It documents a strategic review of LD resources and the development of a more coherent digital infrastructure intended to strengthen the reach, value, and conditions for impact of LD resources. The case study draws on a systematic audit of LD resources which included mapping platforms, identifying resource formats, examining duplication, and recognising disciplinary variation. It outlines the consultation and governance processes that informed decision-making which led to the establishment of a cross-faculty editorial board. This paper focuses on an ongoing project nearing completion of its first phase. It outlines procedural and organisation work, and the ways in which impact will be measured following implementation. It offers a practical account of how fragmented academic skills resources can be addressed through coordinated decisions about infrastructure, design, and governance. | Vic Boyd: victoria.boyd@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk |
| 2056 | Opinion piece | Rethinking reflective learning and challenging dominance: the RIHLA Reflective Framework The use of reflection in environments across higher education (HE) has seen reflective learning become common practice. In some cases, the compulsory nature of reflection, alongside models which may be unrelatable or lacking cultural nuance, risk reflections becoming performative, limited, and lacking in meaning. This paper considers the epistemic dominance of Western thought in reflective practices in HE and challenges the limitations of Western models. The paper examines these limitations considering decolonial perspectives and the need to consider reflective traditions and practices from other cultures. The RIHLA Reflective Framework is introduced as a conceptual departure from such epistemic confines. RIHLA reimagines reflection as an identity-centred, value-based process seeking socially just outcomes and action to provide an alternative way to consider reflection. The paper suggests that through RIHLA more authentic and transformative reflective learning experiences may be seen. | Craig Morley: c.morley@mmu.ac.uk |
| 2106 | Case study | LEGO® Serious Play® as a reflective pedagogical tool for MPH dissertation preparation This case study describes the use of LEGO® Serious Play® as a pedagogical approach within dissertation preparation for Master of Public Health students at a UK university. LEGO® Serious Play® is a facilitated method that uses model building and storytelling to support reflection, discussion, and idea development. Two structured workshops were delivered to help students identify public health interests, develop research ideas, and refine dissertation questions. Through guided activities, students created LEGO® models to represent public health issues, discuss research interests, and consider key aspects of dissertation planning, including research questions, methodological approaches, and feasibility. Facilitated discussion enabled students to share perspectives and explain the meaning of their models. The case study outlines the workshop design and implementation and contributes to literature on LEGO® Serious Play® in higher education. | Lee Fallin: Lee.Fallin@hull.ac.uk |
| 2139 | Paper | Listening to digital fatigue: neurodivergent students’ narratives of embodiment, belonging and online learning after the pandemic Online learning has become a permanent feature of higher education since the pandemic, yet how neurodivergent students experience digital fatigue in these environments remains underexplored, and institutional responses often treat fatigue as an individual deficit rather than a structural problem. Addressing this gap, this study explores how neurodivergent university students experience and make sense of digital fatigue in post-pandemic online learning. Using a qualitative, experience-centred narrative design, it applies the Voice-Centred Relational Method (VCRM) alongside Theory of Practice Architectures (TPA) to examine how cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political structures shape students’ embodied and relational experiences of fatigue. Findings show digital fatigue as cyclical, structurally produced, and closely tied to sensory load, institutional pacing, interface design, and relational isolation, while highlighting the protective role of assistive technologies, flexible pacing, humour, and supportive tutor relationships. The study’s originality lies in combining narrative voice, embodiment, and structural analysis to frame digital fatigue as a systemic phenomenon rather than an individual limitation. Its insights have implications for higher education designers, digital learning developers, disability support teams, and educators seeking more accessible, relational, and neurodivergent-inclusive online learning environments. | Laura Dyer: L.V.Dyer@Leeds.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