The SUNCETT Team
The team are a group of leading professionals in the sector of further, adult and vocational education and are based at the University of Sunderland faculty of Education and Society.
Professor Magaret Gregson (co-director)
Maggie Gregson is a Professor of Vocational Education and Team Leader for the Post Compulsory Education and Training (PCET) department within the Faculty of Education and Society at the University of Sunderland. Her research and practice focuses upon the role of enquiry in developing pedagogy and professional learning in the PCET sector.
She has a particular interest in the potential of thinking skills interventions to stimulate and support the development of teaching, thinking and the improvement of classroom practice.
Her research has also involved investigating theories and taxonomies of thinking and learning, evaluating thinking skills interventions in schools and PCET contexts and the evaluation of the impact of Learning and Skills Council Policy upon teaching learning and inclusion in the sector, particularly in relation to the teaching of adult literacy and numeracy.
As part of her work as Co-Director of SUNCETT she in currently involved in researching notions of 'best practice' and the development of innovative approaches to the initial and continuing professional development of teachers in PCET.
Trish Spedding (co-director)
Trish Spedding is a Senior Lecturer in Post Compulsory Education and Training in the Faculty of Education and Society at the University of Sunderland. She has worked on the development and delivery of both pre-service and in-service ITE courses.
Her main research interests centre around innovative and creative practice, assessment for learning and issues on the impact of policy upon practice in Further Education and Adult and Community Education. As part of her work in the Centre for Teacher Education and Research she has been involved in a number of regional and national research projects concerned with the development of learner identity, offender education and the evaluation of thinking skills and creative teaching in schools and colleges.
Most recently she has been a key member of an EPPI research team investigating practitioner's perceptions of policy and the ways in which policy is implemented in their practice. She is Secretary for the International Association of Cognitive Education and Psychology.
As part of her work as Co-Director of SUNCETT, she is currently involved in researching the development of approaches to the initial and continuing professional development of teachers in Post Compulsory Education and Training, teacher and learner identity and creative pedagogy.
Dr Lawrence Nixon (co-director)
Lawrence Nixon is a Senior Lecturer in Post Compulsory Education and Training at the University of Sunderland. He has worked in Community Education and Further Education in England. He studies for his PhD in Philosophy at University of Hull.
Lawrence Nixon’s research interests focus primarily on improving teaching, learning and management in the Further Education system. Publications and paper presentations over the last four years have focus on:
The epistemological issues relating to professional knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer with a specific focus on Joint Practice Development.
Aristoteletian accounts of professional practice.
Values informed practice.
Further Education policy formation and administration