This document provides an overview of the field of learning development in UK higher education. It discusses key concepts from academic literacies like positioning students, power dynamics, and third space. It also explores how learning development has progressed from supplementary to embedded approaches. Challenges around neoliberal influences are addressed, advocating for learning development principles of diversity, collaboration and education for the common good. The document references many important learning development scholars and resources.

1. Learning Development:
pedagogy, principles and
progress
Dr John Hilsdon, University of Plymouth, UK

2. Fletcher

3. Freak out!
… to enter into or cause a period of irrational
behaviour or emotional instability, to lose or
cause to lose emotional control from extreme
excitement, shock, fear, joy, despair, etc..

4. The significance of the field of practice ‘Learning
Development’ in UK higher education
John Hilsdon
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of
Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD)
Plymouth Institute of Education
University of Plymouth, UK
January 2018

5. Assignment advice …
 Make sure you allow a good few days – preferably at least a week -
between the last check you do on your written work and the day you
have to hand it in. Then do another read-through and sense-check
before you submit, allowing yourself plenty of time to make the
changes and to print off a final copy.
 You will be amazed to find how many mistakes you simply miss if you
just do the proof-reading of your work immediately after writing it.
(Hilsdon, 1994)

6. (Cue sound effect)
NEOLIBERALISM

7. What – me again?

8. Freewriting a keynote?
OMG – a KEYNOTE? … that means it has to be good ... and what have I got to
say? My mind’s gone blank. Agghghg this is not helping … Just write. No
stopping no checking to see if anything is spelled/spelt correctly or makes
sense when you read it back. Well … you know, and I know I’ll break the rules
and what will be on show will be nicely tidied up and edited and rationalised
post hoc … But this really is the first thing I wrote:
“A keynote! That’s scary ….MUM! … Help!” ..
Well I might call her if she were still alive. Being my mum she would probably
have said “A keynote speech, eh? Well that’s nice dear.” But to build up an
imaginary, internal ‘mum/parent’ really can help with learning and
performance tasks.

9. Unprostrated!
There are, I believe, three steps to overcoming fear: name
it, normalise it, socialise it.
Do not let fear rule your life. Fear hems us in, stops us from
thinking clearly and prevents us from either challenging
oppression or engaging calmly with the impersonal fates.
George Monbiot

10. Collegiality and intellectual love
“A love of knowledge, the most valuable
resource in universities, is being squandered by
policies designed for the market place”.
Rowland (2008)

11. The invitation to Learning Development
Legitimate participation
Scaffolding – starting from what is familiar to our
students
Demystifying – discussing and unpicking specialist
terms
Embedding – LDs and subject specialists
collaborating
= LD works “alongside” staff and students

12. Renaissance ideas and WP
 In late 15th-century Venice, a vital contribution to the Renaissance was made
by the establishment of the Aldine Press. This printing house had a "widening
participation" mission to bring learning and scholarship to the people of
Europe, using the popular languages Italian and French (as well as Latin and
Greek), by publishing "affordable" books, both classics and new works of
scientific and philosophical importance.
 (This) … Venetian printing press is the inspiration behind a new organisation
devoted to equipping students with university-level study skills.
 The Association for Learning Development in Higher Education - ALDinHE -
came into being in April 2007
Times Higher, July 6, 2007

13. Demystifying …
…what united us most strongly was our commitment to work with
students to help them make sense of the seemingly mysterious and
alienating practices of academia (Lillis, 2001); and to work with
academics to rationalise and clarify such practices.
(Hilsdon, 2011a, p. 17)

14. ‘Learning Development’ is born c. 1995
Although we were unaware of it at the time, the phrase ‘learning
development’ was in use before the genesis of the LDHEN, and
attempts to theorise an LD approach were already underway, for
example, at the University of East London, among staff working to
widen participation and access to HE (Wolfendale and Corbett, 1996;
Gosling, 1995; Simpson, 1996; Wailey, 1996; Cottrell, 2001). This work
distinguishes a ‘learning development’ from a more traditional study
skills focus. Key to this is opposition to a ‘deficit’ model. Rather than
seeing students and their needs as problematic, LD identifies aspects of
learning environments which are inadequate or alienating.
(Hilsdon, 2011a, p. 17)

15. Academic Literacies
1997 / 1998: Lea and Street’s groundbreaking study shows the
inadequacy of study skills approaches to academic writing which assume
that students need simply to become familiar with ‘rules’ about grammar,
punctuation and essay structure to succeed at university.
A study skills pedagogy, having its origins in “behavioural psychology and
training programmes … conceptualises student writing as technical and
instrumental” (1998, p. 159), and it “… attempts to 'fix' problems with
student learning, which are treated as a kind of pathology” (1998, p.
159).

16. Academic Literacies 2
Lea and Street’s approach arises from their findings that implicit models of
student writing: “… do not adequately take account of the importance of issues of
identity and the institutional relationships of power and authority that surround,
and are embedded within, diverse student writing practices across the university.”
(1998, p. 157). Adopting a practices rather than a skills approach avoids assuming
that:
… the codes and conventions of academia can be taken as given … (rather) in
order to understand the nature of academic learning, it is important to investigate
the understandings of both academic staff and students about their own literacy
practices, without making prior assumptions as to which practices are either
appropriate or effective. This is particularly important in trying to develop a more
complex analysis of what it means to become academically literate. We believe
that it is important to realise that meanings are contested amongst the different
parties involved: institutions, staff and students.
(Lea and Street, 1998, p. 158)

17. Power and positioning in education 1
The discourse forms in which we teach favour students of particular
social backgrounds, language experiences and language use habits.
(Lemke, 1989, p. 2)

18. Power and positioning in education 2
Drawing upon Bakhtin (1981) Lillis contrasts “dominant practices
oriented to the reproduction of official discourses: Monologic”, with
“practices oriented towards making visible/challenging/playing with
official and unofficial discourse practices: Dialogic” (Lillis 2003, p. 194).
Her aim in promoting a dialogic approach is to avoid a pedagogy which
“privileges only the tutor/institution’s perspectives and denies students’
contributions to, and struggles around, meaning making” (Lillis 2003, p.
196); and to promote approaches to writing and the expression of
knowledge by other than hegemonic ‘essayist’ literacy practices (Scollon
and Scollon, 1981).

19. Power and aspiration
I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall
not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience,
and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them,
and libels against the best government. God keep us from both.
(William Berkeley, 1671; cited in Brieg, 2016)

20. Ideas from the field of Academic
Literacies
An AL approach suggests embarking upon collaborative work with
students to explore our positionings and develop mutually supportive
“funds of knowledge” (Curry, 2007, p. 125) to inform practice ..
An example of an AL informed response that could be helpful in such a
situation is “networking across boundaries” (Ivanič and Satchwell, 2007,
p. 106). This would involve students, academics and LDs in collective
research into their respective practices (how one studies, how one
teaches, how one supports learning), the results of which, when shared
and further refined in collaboration, could enable deeper understandings
and improvements in practice on the part of all.

21. LD and “third space”
LD practices can be seen as offering a potential ‘third space’ (Bhabha,
1994) for learning, in productive contradistinction to ‘official’ academic
space. In theoretical work on culture and education undertaken in the
US, this idea suggests a ‘space’ where students’ own home culture,
language and social histories (the ‘first space’) can be validated and
drawn upon before being critiqued. This third space is … an
environment stressing informality and relatively equal power relations;
and where there is encouragement to explore, question and critique
collectively the specific practices of the (academic) subject, and of the
academy (‘the second space’) more generally.

22. Learning Development:
pedagogy, principles and
progress …???

23. TRANSFORMATION 1.
Just a few of the wonderful things that would not exist without LD
Peer Learning at Plymouth https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-
life/services/learning-gateway/learning-development/pals
The Writing Café https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/services/learning-
gateway/learning-development/writing-cafe
ALDinHE Professional Development Website
https://aldinheprofdev.wordpress.com/sharing-experience/strategic-stories/
Embedding Skills Project at the University of Huddersfield http://aldinhe-
embeddingskills.hud.ac.uk/homepage
 Take5 Blog London Met to share our passion for teaching and
learning; helping our students to (learn how to) act powerfully within this
strange beast that is University https://lmutake5.wordpress.com/

24. TRANSFORMATION 2
And some other things that ‘remind me’ of an LD approach:
 http://www.bcur.org/
 https://lthechat.com/
 http://www.raise-network.com/
 https://patthomson.net/category/literature-review/
 https://wonkhe.com/blogs/it-aint-what-we-do-its-the-way-that-we-do-it-researching-student-voices/

25. The big BUT
Student choice
Student satisfaction
Giving teaching parity of esteem - equal status with research
“this is the age of the student”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwrhOd9Do2A

26. https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=vwrhOd
9Do2A

27. Neoliberalism explored
… the terms ‘neoliberal’ and ‘neoliberalism’ … characterise the socioeconomic
context in which the changes … (to universities since the 1980s) have taken
place. My definition for these terms is distilled from the works of Michel
Foucault (1991), Pierre Bourdieu (1998), and Stephen Ball (2012). Alongside the
encroachment of processes of marketisation and monetisation into areas of
public life considered previously as services for the common good (such as
education), neoliberalism also refers to political (and, as Ball stresses) moral
imperatives to adopt market-related conventions, criteria for practice and
language in more than a ‘liberal’ (laissez-faire) way. Rather, Bourdieu points out,
contemporary neoliberalism aims for politically managed markets; he calls it a
‘strong’ discourse, embedded in power structures and relationships such that it
has “the means of making itself true and empirically verifiable” (Bourdieu,
1998).

28. Through a ‘neoliberal’ educational lens
Students are customers
Customer demand should drive supply and influence pricing and quality
Teaching excellence can be defined in terms of student satisfaction and
graduate employment
University programmes should prioritise the development of skills for
employability
Learning skills should be part of a university’s enhancement offer
Students should become self-regulating professionals
Education is an investment in the self to produce a return via employment
Graduates are assets to the UK economy
Progress means: selling more, reducing costs of production, maximising
profits

29. Looking through an LD ‘lens’
Students are …
Student demand should …
Teaching excellence can be defined in terms of …
 University programmes should prioritise …
 Learning development should …
 Students should become …
Education is …
Graduates are …
Progress means …

30. So what? What now?
“If lecturers were doing their jobs properly we
wouldn’t need you, would we?”
(Anonymous senior manager at a university somewhere in the South West of the UK)

31. Progress?
The LD community
1286 subscribers to LDHEN; membership of ALDinHE, 13 issues of the
JLDHE; LearnHigher; Professional Development; Research group;
Regional events … all FAB!!
LD practice
From bolt-on to embedding and collaborative teaching; peer learning
and ‘students as partners’; LD representation on boards of study; LD in
online learning environments; initiatives such as Writing Cafés …
LD Universities
◦ ….? Pedagogies for diversity and transformation .. HE for the common good

32. Playing in the ruins
Reddings, Bill (1996) The University in Ruins
Courage!
Now is our time
A learning development ‘imaginary’

33. References 1
Bakhtin, M. (1981) Discourse in the novel. In M. Holquist (ed.) The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays by M. Bakhtin (trans. C. Emerson and M.
Holquist). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Ball, Stephen J. (2012). Foucault, Power, and Education (Routledge Key Ideas in Education) Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
Barnett, Ronald (2011) Being a University. Abingdon, Routledge.
Bhabha, Homi (1994). The location of culture. New York: Routledge.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1998) The essence of neoliberalism. (Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro) Le Monde Diplomatique December 1998. Available
at: https://mondediplo.com/1998/12/08bourdieu#tout-en-haut Accessed 3rd January 2017.
Breig, James. (2016) Early American Newspapering. Available at: http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring03/journalism.cfmAccessed 1st.
October, 2016.
Curry, Mary Jane (2007) Drawing on funds of knowledge and creating third spaces to engage students with academic literacies. Journal of Applied
Linguistics and Professional Practice, JAL Vol 4, no 1
Elbow, Peter (1973) Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press
Foucault, Michel. (1991). 'Governmentality', trans. Rosi Braidotti and revised by Colin Gordon, in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller
(eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, pp. 87–104. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Freire, Paulo. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmonsdworth: Penguin.
Hilsdon, John. (2011a). ‘What is Learning Development?’ In Hartley, P., Hilsdon, J., Keenan, C., Sinfield, S. and Verity, M. (eds.) (2011) Learning
Development in Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan.

34. References 2
Hilsdon, John (2018) The significance of the field of practice ‘Learning Development’ in UK higher education. Doctoral Thesis available at: https://johnhilsdon.wordpress.com
Ivanic, Roz and Satchwell, Candice (2007) 'Boundary crossings: Networking and transforming literacies in research processes and college courses', Journal of Applied Linguistics,
Vol. 4, No. 7.
Lea, Mary. & Street, Brian. (1998) Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach, Studies in Higher Education, 11(3), 182-199.
Lemke, Jay L. (1989) Using Language in Classrooms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lillis, Theresa M. (2001). Student writing: access, regulation and desire London: Routledge.
Lillis, Theresa (2003). Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design. Language and Education, 17(3), 192 -207.
Monbiot, George (2018) Unprostrated Blogpost, 16th March 2018. Available at http://www.monbiot.com/2018/03/16/unprostrated/
Reddings, Bill (1996) The University in Ruins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Rowland, Stephen (2008) Collegiality and intellectual love: British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol 29 No. 3 Pages 353-360
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S.B. (1981) Narrative, literacy and face in Interethnic communication, Vol. 7. 2nd edn. Norwood, NJ: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Smith, D., Wolstencroft, T. and Southern, J. (1989) Personal transferable skills and the job demands on graduates, Journal of European Industrial Training, vol 13, no 8.

35. Mind map of this talk
This link is to a PDF file of a mind map of the talk created by Lee Fallin from the University of
Hull Lee.Fallin@hull.ac.uk
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0kmzup57myy5c6/Mindmap%20Hilsdon%20keynote%20by%20L
ee%20Fallin%202018.pdf?dl=0