As a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at University of Sussex, Dr Wendy Garnham teaches the entire cohort of Psychology students in the foundation year on a core module, as well as students taking this as an elective from business, arts and humanities and social science foundation courses. In doing so, Wendy has developed and delivered a number of innovative projects with both students and colleagues which have accelerated achievement and creativity as well as promoting the development of good practice both in her own institution and externally. These projects have been disseminated at conferences and in publications and contributed to a CATE award in 2019 with Wendy’s foundation year colleagues, an Innovative Teaching Award, and two Digital Practice awards.
Wendy co-founded the Active Learning Network (ALN) which is now in its fourth year, with 10 satellite groups, at institutions both in the UK and internationally, working together to develop active learning pedagogy. The network’s annual conference has attracted sponsorship from industry each year and the network website has received over 14,000 views from people in 121 countries and continues to grow. Wendy co-ordinated and contributed to the publication of the network’s first Active Learning open access book bringing together a selection of examples of active learning innovation from members of the network.
Wendy is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and one of twelve people nationally to be selected as part of the Higher Education Pedagogy Board at SAGE. Wendy is a Global Subject Centre Convenor for Psychology on the OneHE network, a fellow of SEDA, a member of the Papers Committee for SEDA and a reviewer for the journal Innovations in Education and Teaching International.
Alongside her teaching role, Wendy is also the Director of Student Experience for the Central Foundation Year programmes, with responsibility for overseeing support needs of over 800 students and responsibility for co-ordinating a team of 29 academic advisers. Wendy has instigated the “touching base” initiative to reach out to students in need which has received acclaim from students who have gone on to succeed as well as improving retention and supporting transition to university.