A manifesto for plant science education Alvey et al. 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Societal Impact Statement also available in French. #PlantScience @apaterlini.bsky.social @lizalvey.bsky.social @PlantTeaching.bsky.social @katharinehubbard.bsky.social

Very excited to announce that our collaborative manifesto for 🌱 #PlantScience #Education has now been published! Educators from >10 countries and 30 institutions have contributed to it and we are incredibly proud of the final output. Here is a short thread 🧵1/4 doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...

I don’t often post politics, but @damedianajohnson.bsky.social please support change to house buying. With <2 weeks to go our sellers have pulled out so having to find short term rental at cost of £000s and massive disruption to small children. The system must change www.gov.uk/government/n...

Being open about personal set-backs and challenges when acting as a role model I recently wrote about the importance of understanding what is ‘below the iceberg’. The post seemed to resonate with many, so I thought I would extend this train of thought a little more. Here I will focus on how we…

The Other Side of Professional Success (with some help from Billy Joel) One of the songs that makes me cry the most is Vienna by Billy Joel. I feel like that song has directly looked into my soul and summed me up in 3 minutes with more insight than any therapist has ever managed. All to a…

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This week on Wonkhe: Despite the wealth of student services, many still fall through the cracks. Buxi Duan makes the case for a proactive, data-informed approach to support through academic coaching

This was a good article in @wonkhe.bsky.social today, but did @jimdickinson.bsky.social intend to quite so publicly share he is on the mailing list for Spiders nightclub?! 😂https://wonkhe.com/blogs/universities-should-face-the-consequences-for-misleading-students-over-the-cost-of-living/

Come and work for me! Permanent Senior Advisor in Pedagogy and Practice post. Want someone w experience in design & delivery of PGCAP - we have bold plans! @bnuni.bsky.social really exciting place to work right now. Pls share #AcademicDevelopment #HigherEducation jobs.bucks.ac.uk/vacancy/seni...

*New: Documentation is delivery. If knowledge lives in silos, we haven’t delivered properly. www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/blackboard/o... #Project #Blackboard #VLE #Education

Another beautiful piece of writing from @michaeloneill.org - one of the wisest and most thoughtful people I know in #HigherEducation bsky.app/profile/mich...

**New blog post** Hope in Chemistry Education. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...

I am once again pitching my romantic comedy: - two academics start dating - discover they are each other's terrible reviewer - hijinks ensue Working title: Love is Double-Blind

Decolonisation vs diversification of the curriculum – what do we mean, and does it matter? Oxford university students protesting in 2015. Original image (c) The Telegraph A lot of my work focusses on inclusive education. One component of this focuses on decolonisation and diversification of the…

Early train for me to get to Kingston University @royalsocbio.bsky.social funded symposium - I’m giving a keynote on ‘Decolonising and diversifying the biosciences - what do we really mean and can we ever achieve it?’

It's never been a Plan B. I didn't choose it because it was the only job available or some insulting notion it was a simpler or easier route. I love being LTS and and I'm grateful I get to spend the next part of my career supporting the next generation of LTS academics. Slides at osf.io/ktsq6

This times a million! Going down a teaching-specialist lecturing track IS an intentional choice for many of us on that route. Some of us actually love teaching, love working with staff to also enjoy teaching, and ensuring universities adhere to their civic duty of being EDUCATIONAL spaces.

New piece on WonkHE today - why isn’t the sector addressing inequity for postgraduate students? Why do we only care about outcomes for those paying the home undergraduate tuition fee? (Hint - the sector does what the OfS and league tables measure) wonkhe.com/blogs/why-ar... #HigherEducation

Put my neck out nodding at this from @katharinehubbard.bsky.social on teaching qualifications, professional recognition and what new lecturers need (practice not theory). Thank you for saying so many things I don't think I knew how to express! #AcademicSky katharinehubbard.blog/2025/05/20/t...

New blog post - Teaching qualifications vs professional recognition. We often conflate training, qualifications and professional recognition. What do staff and institutions actually need in terms of developing teaching practice? katharinehubbard.blog/blog-posts/ #HigherEducation #AcademicDevelopment

Teaching qualifications vs professional recognition in UK HE I have a confession to make - I don’t have a teaching qualification. I am an award winning educator, National Teaching Fellow and a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE. But I am entirely self-taught, and have never had any formal training in…

This a good read on the history of the college/university as “a place to meet other boys like themselves and to be steeped in the cultural norms of their religious denomination and social class” and why diversification has led to current attacks on HE www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why we need to stand up for ‘woke’ curricula This year has been a pretty turbulent one for higher education. In the USA, it feels like every week there is another attack on higher education and on anything related to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI in the UK - I’m not sure why it seems to be…

Really helpful post Juie and Steve! I created the SoTL staircase to demonstrate the variety of outputs go beyond books and journals for a staff development event I led in 2023. Now written up as a post on our new SoTL blog at Hallam. lta.shu.ac.uk/scholarship/...

Unless you've experienced it yourself, you will never understand the frustration of being soemone who is good at using Excel watching someone who isn't using it in a meeting

I have been using skeleton PowerPoint presentations this year. It lets me ask students to do things before showing them how I do it (e.g. electron counting). I think it’s working well, and it has saved me *so* much time. The blog’s point about responding to student questions really resonates, too.

Stop making beautiful PowerPoints! On being more efficient in teaching preparation If you ask most university educators what the most time consuming aspect of their job is, you will probably get the answer of ‘teaching prep’. I’ve certainly worked into the small hours many a time trying to perfect…

Lately I’ve been reflecting a lot on inclusivity in fieldwork and in research spaces and I just found this brilliant blog post by @katharinehubbard.bsky.social. As usual, she is already miles ahead of everyone. Thanks for the clarity and the inspiration! 🤩

“So this is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach not by buying real estate but by bringing education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement.”

New blog post: Making teaching laboratories more inclusive and accessible - how would you spend £1 million? #HigherEducation #Inclusion #STEM

Why do I feel so seen by a cartoon dog?! #stress

Lovely day in Durham for Genetics Society plant biology meeting - delivered workshop on ‘Plant Biology Education for the 21st Century: An authentic and inclusive approach’. Shame I couldn’t stay for longer, but hoping I stimulated some useful ideas and conversations #StemEducation #PlantBiology

Am hiring! If you know anyone who might want to lead institutional approaches to digital pedagogy and practice either let me know or send them this link. @bnuni.bsky.social an exciting place to be right now! jobs.bucks.ac.uk/vacancy/seni... #DigitalPedagogy #DigitalEducation

Hello UK #HigherEducation friends. Does anyone know of an institution that is using an alternative to Turnitin, or do they have a monopoly on the sector?! Any insight welcome @ntfellows.bsky.social @lthechat.bsky.social @mkseery.bsky.social @leefallin.bsky.social @suebecks.bsky.social

New blog post: Some reflections on my experience of gaining PFHEA, and some tips that for those considering applying #HigherEducation #AcademicSky

This from UCU Edinburgh on the destructive mentality many university managers are taking is well worth a read - www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/blog/tlwewp3...

Stop shrinking to fit into places you've outgrown. 💙- your Bluesky mom

Looking forward to reading and digesting this on my long train journeys this week. Really want my work and that of my team to adopt a really clear user centred design - who is educational development for, what are their needs, and how to we design really effective support for educators? #HigherEd

A lovely time to remind everyone that cancelling and rescheduling meetings because you need to stare at the wall for a bit longer or walk in circles on a piece of grass outside or make yourself a snack and lie down, is a form of self care. The meetings can wait because they are systems built by us.

New blog post: How not to do an educational evaluation (or, learn from my mistakes to save yourself some pain!) #HigherEducation #SoTL #scholarship

A study on what many of us already know: over 75% of internal service work in academia is done by women. The bit that gets me:”The male associate professors in particular made it clear that they actively engaged in evasiveness and did not want to participate if it was not positive for their careers”

This article worth a read - it connects our work on hidden curriculum to the lived experience of commuter students - what is your institution doing to demistify the ‘rules of the game’ and build a ‘sense of belonging’ for these students? wonkhe.com/blogs/suppor... #HigherEducation #Inclusion

From now on, after every BNU exec meeting, I’m going to send out details of what we discuss, what decisions we make and what value those decisions bring. Our colleagues give so much to our university, it’s only right that they know what’s happening, how we’re leading and hold us to account. 1/

📢Join us for "Catalysing Diversity – A Chemistry Seminar Series for All"! Hear from scientists from minoritised, LGBTQ+, & neurodivergent communities as they share their journeys & insights. 🎤 Speaker: Prof Robert Mokaya, OBE, FRS 📅 March 5th|⏰ 5–6 Hybrid #chemsky #Inclusivity #Diversity #RSC

Enjoy these 'bad metaphors for teaching'! I really like "the student's mind is a dartboard and the teacher chucks sharp objects in its general direction to see what sticks" Thankfully a lot of HE has moved on, but still persists in many areas ... #AcademicSky mathwithbaddrawings.com/2016/01/06/u...

While I appreciate why mandatory online training is often necessary, I always find I learn more about how *not* to design online educational materials than I do about the subject matter. Some frustratingly poorly designed questions in the ones I am plugging through today .....

Applying for Senior Fellowship of AdvanceHE? Tips to ensure you meet the criteria #AcademicSky #HigherEducation

Dear #LTHEchat, #loveLD & #AcademicSky communities. Have you ever used one of the Hull SkillsGuides and would be willing to write an endorsement? I'm looking for evidence of impact, and I know these guides have been widely recognised! I'm super proud of my design & approach.

A4: I might be lurking for the answer to this one 🙊. But seriously, we need to sell the benefits of inclusion. What person working in #HigherEd wants to produce something that *isn’t* inclusive? But we also need a stick. Appraisals, promotion criteria, badging & awards for compliance. #LTHEchat

ASPB "remains committed to robustly supporting and strongly advocating for diversity and inclusion in the plant sciences, period." Read full statement 👉 https://blog.aspb.org/aspb-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion/.