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).
These submissions include our first requests for reviewers for our forthcoming special issue on the reach, value, and impact of Learning Development. Submissions associated with the special issue are indicated below. We warmly welcome—indeed encourage!—reviewers from across the community to contribute.
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 |
| 2004 | Paper | Learning Development in action: practitioner dialogue and the pedagogy of academic communication This article repositions English for Academic Purposes (EAP) within Learning Development as a form of practice-based academic communication support grounded in dialogue and student-centred pedagogy. While EAP has long been characterised by debates around identity and disciplinary legitimacy, this study asks whether such concerns risk obscuring its central purpose: supporting students in navigating the linguistic and epistemological demands of higher education. Drawing on practitioner inquiry within a collegial professional space in a British university, the study analyses how practitioners make sense of their work through everyday pedagogical dialogue, using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Framed through Critical EAP perspectives and Communities of Practice, the findings highlight how practitioners prioritise approaches that support students’ engagement with disciplinary expectations. In an increasingly AI-mediated, post-plagiarism context, the article argues for greater recognition of pedagogical knowledge generated through practice, positioning EAP as central to Learning Development and student learning. | Paula Villegas Verdu: pvv1@st-andrews.ac.uk |
| 2019 | Paper | ** SPECIAL ISSUE ** Beyond perceptions of helpfulness: designing research to investigate the impact of embedded academic literacy interventions Embedded approaches to academic literacy development are a core strand of learning development work in higher education, yet demonstrating their value and impact remains a challenge for our profession. A recent systematic review revealed that impact claims are dominated by perceptions. A further finding, corresponding with a recent scoping review, is sparse pedagogic detail with which to relate claims of benefit to specific practices. In response to recommendations from these reviews, we introduce two current research projects. For the first project, within a Bachelor of Business context, we discuss the affordances of collecting multiple data types. For the second project, within a Master’s of Nursing Science programme, we discuss the suitability of design-based research for our embedded contexts. These projects focus on practical responses to generating robust research in our field. We conclude with two planning processes for disseminating findings: mapping outputs to specific audiences and designing publication suites. | Steve Briggs: steve.briggs@beds.ac.uk |
| 2030 | Opinion piece | From AI feedback to feedback co-creation: designing generative AI as a Learning Development tool Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly entering feedback practices in higher education, but its educational value depends on how feedback interaction is designed. This opinion piece argues that AI-mediated feedback should be treated not as automated assessment, but as a Learning Development opportunity for strengthening students’ feedback literacy, self-evaluation and evaluative judgement. Drawing on feedback scholarship, AI literacy literature and a postgraduate music education teaching-design context, the article proposes feedback co-creation as a way of understanding how students, rubrics, teacher-designed AI systems and learner judgement interact to construct feedback meaning. The article cautions against positioning AI as an authoritative feedback provider and instead argues for pedagogically constrained AI tools that support questioning, contextualisation and responsible revision. It concludes with practical design principles for using generative AI to preserve student agency, academic voice and teacher responsibility. | Lee Fallin: Lee.Fallin@hull.ac.uk |
| 2016 | Case study | ** SPECIAL ISSUE ** Beyond linguistic preparation: Learning Development insights from a Kazakhstani EAP course English for Academic Purposes (EAP) foundation courses are often narrowly positioned as preparatory linguistic support. This overlooks their broader role in students’ transition into higher education (HE). Drawing on an autoethnographic case study, this study reconceptualises EAP foundation courses as structured sites of learning development. The researcher analyses reflective diary entries and programme artifacts using thematic analysis framed through the lenses of academic literacies and the hidden curriculum. The study examines how the course supports students’ development of criticality, self-regulated learning, and academic integrity. Findings suggest that EAP plays a significant role in fostering critical thinking and academic integrity through explicit communication of expectations, constructive curriculum alignment, and sustained teacher support. However, the development of self-regulated learning presents a more complex and uneven picture, with limited student progress despite structured opportunities on offer. The study highlights the importance of unpacking the hidden curriculum by making implicit academic expectations more visible, while also recognising the limitations of structural provision alone. It argues for a more explicit pedagogical focus on enabling students to understand and enact academic literacies. These insights contribute to a broader reconceptualisation of EAP as a central component of student transition into HE. | Steve Briggs: steve.briggs@beds.ac.uk |
| 2032 | Case study | Navigating emotion and e-feedback in blended learning: a qualitative case study of first-year university students This qualitative case study examined the emotional responses of first-year university students to electronic feedback (e-feedback) in a blended learning environment. Drawing on Pekrun’s Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions (CVT), semi-structured interviews with ten first-year students explored how participants emotionally processed, interpreted, and responded to digitally mediated feedback. Thematic analysis revealed five themes: anticipatory anxiety and checking rituals; emotional relief versus disappointment at the point of access; frustration with perceived impersonality; conditional motivation shaped by feedback characteristics; and disconnection from learning goals. Findings indicate that the timing, tone, specificity, and relational warmth of e-feedback significantly influenced students’ affective states and their subsequent engagement with learning materials. The study makes a distinctive contribution to learning development scholarship by mapping how blended learning contexts compound the emotional complexity of feedback for first-year students, and by identifying concrete implications for learning developers and academic support practitioners seeking to design emotionally responsive e-feedback practices. | Vic Boyd: victoria.boyd@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk |
| 2040 | Paper | What do Learning Developers in Scotland really do? Insights into professional practice and identities from mapping Learning Development in Scotland Learning Development (LD) continues to establish and define itself, as ongoing discussion and reflection on the professional practices and identity of Learning Developers (LDers) demonstrates. To ensure these discussions accurately reflect the ‘doing’, ‘knowing’, ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ that constitute professional practice and identities (Higgs and Titchen, 2001) in LD, it is vital to include as wide a range of professional voices in this process as possible. This paper examines these elements in the self-report of 49 Learning Developers (LDers) who defined their work and the knowledge that guides it as part of the Mapping LD in Scotland survey. ‘Doing’ was most salient in their self-report, but answers to an open invitation to define their job also showed that their doing was highly relational and underpinned by expertise. Closer examination of LD ‘knowing’ reveals that learning and language and literacies are particularly prominent. | Vic Boyd: victoria.boyd@cityofglasgowcollege.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
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