In education, Jean’s work commenced at a time when essential change in the culture of Higher Education (HE) was required to properly integrate midwifery education. Her goal was to reduce the existing wide theory-practice gap by introducing meaningful pedagogical approaches to reflect the practice-based nature of midwifery. Whilst it is now commonplace in HE to offer a diverse range of Learning, Teaching and Assessment (LTA) approaches, this was not always the case. Midwifery education has continued to flourish to become the largest Centre of Excellence for midwifery education in Scotland.
Midwifery has a strong external reputation for contemporary Learning and Teaching (LT). Over recent years pass rates have always exceeded 95 percent with 100 percent of graduates gaining employment in midwifery. Midwifery is a practice-based profession. Over the past two decades, Jean has made a significant contribution to reducing the theory practice gap by introducing meaningful LTA methodologies and strengthening partnership working with our clinical colleagues and users of maternity care. LTAs are now more contemporary to meet the needs of student midwives and the future midwifery workforce. Examples include integrative assessments, clinical simulation, objective structured clinical examinations, problem-based learning and accreditation for practice and teaching methods to stimulate creativity in student learning.
Jean is proud of her contribution to breastfeeding education including UNICEF-UK accreditation for midwifery programmes at University of the West of Scotland (UWS), being Director of the international Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and core international educational documents. Using creative teaching methods has re-energised and motivated students and lifelong learners to engage in learning and take ownership for their professional development. This inspired her with a sense of achievement and satisfaction. One highlight was to contribute to the UWS Inspiring Women Series. Jean is proud of her anatomy and physiology textbooks for student midwives. These were designed to facilitate learning incorporating student midwife feedback.