Having qualified as a physiotherapist in 1993, Fiona’s first foray into academia was in Sheffield Hallam University where she gained her PgCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in 2000. She joined the physiotherapy team at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen in 2005, but her passion for teaching developed during her clinical career where she was responsible for supervising physiotherapy students on placement and also in training staff to undertake on-call duties.
Fiona learnt that the more real she could make her teaching, the more she could engage learners and the better they appeared to learn. She loved to see students understand concepts, and see how they could positively impact patients, how staff who feared on-call could develop confidence through her mentorship.
As Fiona learnt about the pedagogy of learning and teaching, she understood that her experiential learning was soundly based in theory and this active approach to learning continues to underpin her learning and teaching. She has been committed to enhancing the student experience throughout her career; introducing and leading the use of high fidelity learning and the flipped classroom across the School, and now researching the effect of high fidelity simulation on student skill development, leading partnership working in the School, enhancing the assessment and feedback of students and working to improve their development of academic writing skills have all been a focus.
Fiona achieved Senior Fellowship in 2013 and was one of only four Teaching Excellence Fellows to be recognised in Robert Gordon University when this title was introduced in 2018. As a Teaching Excellence Fellow she has been able to work across the wider university which has enhanced her networks and also exposed her to the huge variety of practices that are being used, while being able to make meaningful change for the wider student population.