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Dr Hilary McDermott

Dr Hilary McDermott is a Senior Teaching Fellow, a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and Programme Leader for Psychology at Loughborough University. She is passionate about teaching qualitative research methods and her work draws on the implementation of innovative technology-based initiatives to support and enhance student learning.
Year
2022
Institution
Loughborough University
Job Title
Senior University Teacher

Dr Hilary McDermott is a Senior Teaching Fellow, a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and Programme Leader for Psychology at Loughborough University where she is responsible for teaching qualitative research methods. Following a career in the police service she returned to education and after completing her PhD in 2007, was appointed as a Lecturer at Loughborough University in 2008.  

She has established herself as a teaching specialist with national recognition in teaching and using qualitative research methods in Psychology. She is a passionate and committed educator and her academic practice is grounded in the pedagogical philosophy of Constructivism. She is a strong advocate of the co-constructivist approach to education whereby learning relies on dialogue and this underpins her approach to teaching and learning.  

Hilary seeks to engage in innovation in her teaching to meet the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching qualitative research methods and aims to empower students to develop independent research skills. She enhances student understanding through active learning to ensure that students not only learn about research and research methods but also understand how to undertake independent research and use research methods. She has been awarded five Teaching Innovation Awards to develop technology-based initiatives within and beyond the curriculum to support and enhance student learning and in 2015, she developed the qualitative coding App for IOS devices, E-Qual.  

Hilary is also committed to the wider Student Experience and much of her research is student-focused with the findings from student projects being fed directly to the university Student Experience Team. She undertakes considerable work across the University to ensure an exceptional student experience and her own experience and expertise feeds into several university committees. As an advocate for widening participation in High Education, Hilary has developed a portfolio of outreach activities and has led on projects implementing peer mentoring, e-learning, and leadership training for students.

Advance HE recognises there are different views and approaches to teaching and learning, as such we encourage sharing of practice, without advocating or prescribing specific approaches. NTF and CATE awards recognise teaching excellence in a particular context. The profiles featured are self-submitted by award winners.