Professor Willie McGuire
- Professor of Education (Pedagogy, Praxis & Faith)
telephone:
01413303798
email:
Willie.McGuire@glasgow.ac.uk
College of Social Sciences, School of Education, R662 Level 6, St Andrew's Building, Glasgow, G3 6NH
Biography
I am a Professor of Education in the School of Education in which I teach on postgraduate programmes: CPP(S) English and Literacy and CPP (P) Literacy and English. I am also Programme Leader for the MEd (Professional Practice) which consistently produces outstanding results. In 2022, 17 out of 30 students received 1st class marks in their dissertations and have had their work published in the School-Based Action Research (SAR) space on the National Teaching repository (NTR).
One student had his work published directly in The Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics titled:
L'Impatto Degli Approcci Di Sviluppo Motorio All'Insegnamento Dell'Educazione Fiscia Sull'Autoregolamento Degli Alunni Primari 1 E 2 Nel Sistema Educativo Scozzese.
My work on this space was recently rewarded with a NTR Innovation Award.
On the PGDE programme, I have led many initiatives. One such innovation strenghtened student agentic skills by encouraging them to develop their abilities to devise self-generated feedback based on the comparison of exemplars. This was complemented by thematic feedback where problematic issues in previous student assignments were identified and direction given on how to avoid these pitfalls resulting in improved attainment and satisfaction.
As a consequence of consistent innovations, I was the recipient of two teaching excellence awards at both College and University levels and I have been nominated three times by students for Teaching Awards in four different categories. I am Co-convenor of the University's Teaching Excellence Network and I contribute regularly to Glasgow University Teaching Tips Online (GUSTTO). My alumni support initiative, Teachingjobs, a resource that supports our former graduates transition from their probationary period in teaching into permanent posts, is now in its fourth year and is available from my webpage.
I have been successful in the award of a range of small grant awards to increase the reach of my CPD courses:
I also published an impact story for my RTG for REF 21 to complement the submission with research from the Learning, Teaching and Scholarship track :
I was Subject Head of Language and Literature from 2004-2009 during which period I led the Section's varied activities as well as managing its day to - day running:
- Leading innovations in teaching and learning;
- Managing change;
- Developing online capability.
I am a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the only academic to hold such a position in the School of Education and one of only four at Glasgow University. I am also a member of the MyAdvanceHE community:
https://connect.advance-he.ac.uk/
and a member of the Jisc community of Principal Fellows:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/PFHEA, the purpose of which is to debate future policy in Higher Education.
I also published a podcast to encourage others to pursue HEA/RET accreditation to the highest possible level:
I was recently elected onto the SEDA Executive and I also a Trustee of the SEDA charity as well as being a Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Asociation (SEDA) the highest level of fellowship offered by this organisation. See my podcast below encouraging colleagues to pursue SEDA accreditation to the highest possible level:
https://soundcloud.com/user-161625818/willie-mcguire-staff-educational-development-association-seda
I am currently implementing the Student Partnership Impact Awards, designed by a SEDA/HESA/JiSC collaboration across UofG. GTAs are being targeted as well as alumni who have contributed to the development of the SAR NTR space.
Nationally, I was involved in the HEA FLiTE project on developing future leaders in teaching excellence. I also publish widely on the national level and and contribute regularly to conferences on the themes of feedback literacy, assessment moderation and hybridised assessment forms. I have also authored a range of textbooks on the teaching of English as well as academic book chapters and also published articles in scholarly and professional journals as well as in a range of online fora over a sustained period. I have also co-authored three books on improving teaching and learning in Higher Education with the Institute for Learning in Higher Education.
I have been commissioned to work for the Scottish Qualifications Authority in a range of roles from Examiner and Senior Examiner, to National Qualifications Development Specialist as well as Senior Team Leader, and Setter. I have also worked closely with Education Scotland to produce teaching materials for National 5 English as well as other external organisations such as the BBC, SDS and HMIe. Additionally, I have presented at a wide range of national and international conferences on a variety of topics most recently in relation to enhancing feedback literacy using the SWAY app. The latest iteration of the app, which was co-created by students uses self-generated feedback to develop student agency. Try it here:
Enhancing Agentic Feedback: Student Toolkit (office.com)
The National English Teaching Network through which educators and students disseminate teaching resources and peer support links all Scottish Teacher Education Institutions - a first of its kind and its impact via staff/student evaluations was outstanding. A ‘fantastic’ resource with over 300 views.
This project was funded through a small grants award:
and can be accessed here at trhe National Teaching Repository:
https://figshare.edgehill.ac.uk/The_National_Teaching_Repository
https://doi.org/10.25416/ntr.16578104
This resource generates a novel form of knowledge exchange for beginning teachers of English where ideas can be shared in easily-accessible formats and, therefore quickly deployed to solve 'live' challenges in schools.
I created a suite of six online literacy CPD courses to support the profession adapt to online learning and teaching as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. These courses come with over 400 pages of resource materials to develop pupil literacy, thus enabling teachers to adapt more easily to the demands of digital pedagogies. Home (williemcguire.co.uk)
Internationally, I have published widely in the scholarship of learning and teaching specifically in relation to MOOCs, SPOCs, the moderation of summative assessments and in terms of re-imagining the relationship between formative and summative assessment into a hybrid structure in order to create effective feedback to students and to enhance their use of feedback. My work in the area of online/blended learning was awarded the prestigious Vidya Ratan award from India:
CONFIDENCE FOUNDATION TRUST, INDIA: Gallery.
My MOOC 'Write A CV Online', had the highest uptake at GU at the time (36,000) of any course and had five-star reviews many of which were genuinely touching:
‘Coming from Africa, I have never had access to such a helpful resource…A fantastic course. Thank you!’
and comments on it can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQIIyzg6KOw&feature=emb_logo https://twitter.com/FLNetThatJob
https://edshare.gla.ac.uk/812/
I am a member of the Institute for Learning in Higher Education, the strategic focus of which is to effect improvements to learning and teaching in Higher Education, an aim which is managed in two ways: the symposium, to network with leading experts and textbook publication to disseminate findings. I expanded this reach in two ways; the creation of a Zoom video seminar/workshop, which explained, summarised and also provided interactive content to engage the audience and which was easily replicable within other institutions. A range of institutions then invited the presenter(s) to showcase their work, which led to the uptake of the original idea(s) transnationally as evidenced by evaluations used to determine the extent and impact of the initiatives in departments beyond their origins. Between 2016-2018, more than half of the participants at each symposium had become actively involved in the international dissemination of their ideas in a format beyond that of the textbook, so activating the link between research/knowledge exchange and teaching practice.
One recent example of how I have re-shaped the pedagogic culture both in and beyond the university lies in my leadership of the design and implementation of an alumni support resource-Teaching Jobs, which is designed to support former PGDE students gain employment as full-time teachers after they complete their Probationary period, an area once felt to be beyond the purview of the University.
My Teaching Jobs resource transitions students into the teaching profession by enhancing both student experience and alumni job prospects as evidenced by evaluations. ‘ The mentoring was first class.’ It also forms part of the lecture input for the PGDE to 400+ students and acn be accessed here:
https://www.williemcguire.co.uk.
My latest SoLT passion project is to enleash the potential of inner feedback by enabling students to create their own feedback through the use of comparison by identifying the similarities and differences between exemplars which they then compare with their own work. This is done prior to peer and finally tutor review, thus targeting the use of peer and tutor feedback necessary for student progression. See the Youtube video of the presentation I gave with Professor David Nicol and our Research Assistant Gemma Haywood at the recent Learning and Teaching Conference at the University of Glasgow.
My latest publication in the Journal for Innovative Practice in Higher Education (IPHE) The TEDM Principle: Improving Written Feedback is available:
http://journals.staffs.ac.uk/index.php/ipihe/index.
My mini-keynote to the 2022 Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) conference can be found here:
Latest online presentation on Agentic Feedback to GoReact can be accessd here:
Enhancing Agentic Feedback for Students - ReAction 2023 (goreact.com)
Look out for my mini keynote video, which will soon be available from
Research interests
- Developing internally generated feedback in students.
- Using comparison across exemplars (of variable quality) to enhance self-regulation of learning.
- Use of exemplar and non-exemplar comparators to deepen learning.
- 'Modelled' feedback using the TEDM principle to improve the quality of feedback given by staff and to enhance its use by students.
- M-learning in relation to the construction of VR literacy 'apps'. I have written three literacy apps for Apple iPhones to support students' knowledge of language.
- E-learning and M-Learning in relation to English teaching and literacy. I am the Scotland representative for this BERA SIG.
- Blended learning in the post-Covid era, using blends within blends to optimise student engagement while offering maximum learner autonomy.
- Virtual learning environments: I have used Moodle and the Futurelearn platforms to produce a wide range of blended or hybridised courses.
- The moderation of summative assessments in Higher Education.
- MOOC architectures. My MOOC 'Net that Job' had over 36,000 learners.
- Retro-fitting MOOC aproaches to teaching in SPOC formats.
- Innovation in Higher Education teaching.
- Teaching excellence. I have been nominated three years in succession by students for teaching excellence awards in different categories.
Grants
External Funding |
Internal Scholarship Funding |
£150,000 for BOLD2 2015 |
£19,000 to develop projects on: |
£100,000 from Welsh government to review national assessment strategies 2016 |
MOOCs/SPOCs/TEI webpage/CPD webpage |
£40,000 from Scottish Office-online PGCE course 2014 |
The moderation of summative assessments |
£40,000 from consultancy work with the Scottish Qualifications Authority 2015-2020 |
Alumni Transitions |
£80,000 from a range of CPD/SULAS courses 2015-20 |
Feedback Modelling/Internally generated feedback |
|
Hybridising formative and summative assessments |
Supervision
PGR Supervision
Masters
I have taught widely at Masters level on the MEd in Children's Literature and Literacies and I am Programme Leader of the MEd in Professional Practice where I have supervised a wide range of theses (35) over the last five years.
PhD
I have supervised two PhD students on blended learning and MOOCs.
Teaching
I was Co-ordinator of the Language and Literature section within the School of Education for five years.
I am currently Director of the MEd (Prof Practice).
I have taught mainly at postgraduate levels on:
Understanding Learning and Teaching
Professional Enquiry
Learning and Teaching (Secondary)
Learning and Teaching (Primary)
MEd Children's Literature and Literacies
MEd Professional Practice
MOOC. Net That Job with a CV Online https://edshare.gla.ac.uk/812/
Lead designer of SWAY app to enhance feedback literacy. https://sway.office.com/n1bOrAOCCja3Cpkg
My Teaching Jobs resource supporting probationer teachers to secure full-time jobs is now available from my website as is my portfolio of CPD resources:
My CPD courses are also available from the website:
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2014: College teaching excellence award (University of Glasgow)
- 2014: University teaching excellence award (University of Glasgow)
- 2016: Finalist: Student Led Teaching Awards (University of Glasgow)
- 2017: Finalist: Student Led Teaching Awards (University of Glasgow)
- 2018: Finalist: Student Led Teaching Awards (University of Glasgow)
- 2017: Vidya Ratna Award for Research Excellence (CFTRA)
Professional & learned societies
- 2018 - —————: Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
- 2020 - —————-: Principal Fellow, Advance HE (HE Academy)
- 1987 - ————-: Member, General Teaching Council Scotland
- 2021 - -----------: Executive member and Senior Fellow, Staff and Education Development Association
- 2017 - ------------: Member, British Educational Research Association
- 2016 - -----------: Member, Scottish Educational Research Association
- 2021 - -----------: Director, National English Teaching Network
- 2014 - ------------: Director, Scottish Unit for Assessment Literacy Support
- 1995 - -----------: Senior Examiner, Scottish Qualifications Authority
Selected international presentations
- 2020: MyAdvance HE (Online)
- 2020: BERA (Online)
- 2020: ECER (Online)
- 2019: ICTEL (Prague)
- 2018: Advance HE (Birmingham)
- 2018: ESLTS (Bristol)
- 2017: SERA (Edinburgh)
- 2017: SERA (Edinburgh)
- 2016: SERA (Dundee)
- 2019: LiHE (Greece)
- 2019: LiHE (Greece)
- 2018: LiHE (Copenhagen)
- 2015: Edulearn (Barcelona)
- 2023: IUT (Malaysia)
Additional information
Journals and Rewiewing
- Reviewer for JPAAP Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic practice 2018-
- Reviewer for JETHE Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education 2020-
- Editor for LiHE Institute for Learning in Higher Education series-Innovations in HE Teaching 2017
External Examining
- Chief External Examiner for University College London's PGCE 2022-
- External Examiner for Sheffield University's MA in Applied Professional Studies in Education 2022-
- External Examiner for PGCE English at Roehampton University 2022-
- External Examiner for University of Wolverhampton's MA (Education) 2022-
- External Examiner for University of Cumbria's MA in Professional Practice Online 2022-
- Chief External Examiner for PGCE at Birmingham City University 2018-22
- External Examiner for Secondary PGCE and SDT English at Brighton University 2018-22
- External reviewer for Newman University PGCE validation June 2022
Consulting
I have delivered CPD to a wide range of Scottish Local authorities on the following topics:
- Writer's craft in both Primary and Secondary schools
- Moderation of standards for writing in both Primary and Secondary contexts
- Standard grade folios, close reading and writing
- The National 5 Writing Portfolio: assessment
- National 5 Critical Essays: assessment
- National 5 Raising Attainment
- National 5 Critical Updates
- Higher English:preparing for implementation
Academic and Professional Body Membership
- Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA)
- Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SFSEDA)
- Full GTC Registration
- Chair (former) of the Association of English Advisers in Scotland
- Co-convenor of the University of Glasgow Teaching Excellence Network
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Additional Information
- SQA Question paper setter 2003-2014
- SQA Examiner for Intermediate 1 and 2 English 2000-2007
- SQA Examiner for Standard Grade English 1995-2014
- National Qualifications Development Specialist 2006
- National Qualifications Development Specialist 2008
- Item Writer for National 5 English 2013-continuing
- Senior Examiner for National 5 English 2014-continuing
- Invited by almost every education authority in scotland to deliver courses on a variety of topics
Publications
Access to full list of publications is available here:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/staff/williammcguire/#publications
Evidence of Esteem
2014:College/University Teaching Excellence awards
15-18:Student Teaching Award nominations-four categories
2017:International award for scholarship excellence by CFTRA Global 'Vidya Ratan'
Sustained record of invited workshops internationally:
2015:SPOC architectures-La Trobe University, Australia
2016:Translating MOOCs into SPOCs-Chinese University of Hong Kong
2017:Enhancing Feedback Protocols-Aarhus University, Denmark
2017:CFTRA Global-building MOOC capabilities in Mumbai, Dubai
2017-18:Using an online platform for effective transitions by the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education-Greece and MOOC/SPOC architectures-Copenhagen
Sustained record of national workshops by invitation on feedback literacy:
2018-20:MMU and Brighton; My Advance HE/BERA/ECER and on the key components of online learning at Edinburgh Napier
2018:External Reviewer: Cambridge University’s literacy assessments; Teaching Scotland’s Future literacy assessments for aspiring teachers.
2019-Chief External Examiner for the Universities of Birmingham and Brighton’s PGCE
2019 Appointed as RSA Fellow
2017-20:Collegiality enhancing others' esteem:
• Mentoring visiting academics-Associate Professor Annie Zhang from China
• Mentored Teaching Excellence Award Winner from Engineering and 2 GTA winners
• Supporting 2 GTAs to HEA Associate
• Advocate for 2 GU colleagues for SFHEA and PFHEA and 6 internationally at SFHEA
• Co-authoring with 2 RAs who then secured Lectureships
2021:National Reviewer-HEA Teaching Excellence/Group Awards for Teaching Excellence/National Teaching Fellowships and BERA
2021:Invited to facilitate on International Principal and Senior Fellowship writing retreats for Advance HE
2021:Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association.
2022:Mini keynote on the use of comparison in feedback development for AHE Conference.
2022: Chair of two assessment panels at AHE Conference.
Awards
- Vidya Ratan award for Scholarship Excellence 2017
- College level Teaching Excellence award 2014
- University level Teaching Excellence award 2014
- Nominated in one category for STA 2022
- Nominated in two categories for STA 2015
- Nominated in one category for STA 2016
- Nominated in one category for STA 2017