Academic Standards in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives and Practical Strategies
Dr Ian Sadler, along with co-editors Dr Nicola Reimann and Prof Jenny Hill have published a book addressing academic standards. Academic standards in higher education are largely misunderstood and yet they underpin the award of university awards. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many academics believe that their judgments about the quality of students’ work are the same as everyone else’s. This book examines the notion of academic standards and identifies the many myths that surround them.
Assuring standards in the context of complex, high-level assessment in higher education is more difficult than it might appear. Based on the lessons learnt from the UK-wide Degree Standards Project, which developed, piloted and evaluated a Professional Development Course on degree standards aimed at external examiners, the book offers practical suggestions for ways in which higher education staff can develop a more sophisticated understanding of standards. It proposes approaches for assuring and maintaining standards, which emphasise the socially constructed nature of standards and highlights the limitations of an exclusive focus on regulations and codification.
Written with a diverse readership in mind, this book is relevant to discipline based academics, quality officers, academic developers, university leaders and policymakers. As a broader approach to assessment literacy, the book aims to develop readers’ standards literacy by challenging routine practices and proposing promising alternatives. It is recommended for all those associated with university student education, especially those who think there is no problem with academic standards.
Care in Sport Coaching: Pedagogical Cases
Edited by Dr Colum Cronin and Prof Kathleen Armour. While it is accepted that sport coaches should safeguard participants, Care in Sport Coaching: Pedagogical Cases argues that coaches have a duty of care that moves beyond protection and involves the development of caring relationships with athletes. Recent high-profile incidents of abuse in sport highlight the need to reposition coaching as a caring activity and to embed care within coach education and coaching policy.
Based around extended case studies, this book provides grounded accounts of how coaches care in their everyday practice. These case studies are analysed using multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives to illustrate and problematise how coaches care. Conclusions are provided, based on these analyses, that will help coach educators, researchers and policymakers establish care as a key facet of everyday sport coaching activities. Additionally, the book offers guidelines that will aid practitioners to enact care in their practice.
This is important reading for coaches, researchers, lecturers and students who are concerned with the role of coaches and the development of coaching practice.
Myths of Sport coaching
Dr Amy Whitehead and co-editor Jenny Coe recently edited the new text Myths of Sport Coaching, which aims to challenge common misconceptions within coaching and offer new perspectives within coaching practice. Amongst the chapter authors are our current group members and LJMU staff, Dr Colum Cronin, Dr Jonathon Foulkes and Dr Liz Mahon.
Amy and Jen are running a monthly seminar series throughout 2022-23 which involves a different chapter author each month presenting their chapter and answer audience questions.
See our May Webinar with Dr Colum Cronin: Myths about Caring in Coaching - YouTube
Dr Amy Whitehead discussed the Think Aloud method with Dan Abrahams, specifically how it works in practice; how it can help coaches and athletes analyse their performances; self-reflection and flow.
Dr Amy Whitehead and Jenny Coe join Dan Abrahams on his Sport Psych Podcast where they discuss some of the key chapters in the Myths of Sport Coaching book. They discuss the idea behind the book, why these myths might exist, and considerations for coaches.
Sensible Soccer with Mike Phelan and Dave Horocks
(Dr Nic Robinson and Dr Amy Whitehead)
Dr Nic Robinson and Dr Amy Whitehead joined former Manchester United coach Mike Phelan and his business partner Dave Horrocks. Mike and Dave now own the company Sensible Soccer and are creating a series of educational resources for grassroots coaches. The group discussed Amy’s Myths of Sport Coaching book and the considerations for grassroots coaches.
As part of the Erasmus funder ParaCoach Project, Paralympic athlete Maria Lyle hosted a webinar series, consisting of conversations with coaches, athletes & academics all about sport, coaching and their individual journeys and experiences.
The following video presentation was presented at the TGfU 40th Anniversary Conference 2023. The presentation provides a summary of a study entitled: Systematic review of sport coaches’ and teachers’ perceptions and application of game-based and constraints-led pedagogy: A qualitative meta-study.
Members of the Coaching and Pedagogy Research Group worked with Cluster for Research into Coaching (CRiC), to host a 
