Hilary Wason

Senior lecturer

I have worked at Kingston University since 2006 and I am currently a senior lecturer in Learning and Teaching in the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre. Previously, I was the Learning and Teaching Lead in the Department of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation as well as having responsibility for curriculum design and delivery of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate marketing and communications programmes. In addition I led the delivery of an employability programme at Kingston College. During my time in the Faculty of Business, I identified a learning and teaching need to develop students' critical thinking skills. I developed a research-informed Critical Thinking Skills Toolkit to address these needs. This resulted in my award of a University Teaching Fellowship (2016) and a National Teaching Fellowship (2017) in recognition of its impact on the student learning experience. I was project lead for an OfS Catalyst Fund - 'A small-scale, 'experimental' innovation in learning and teaching, meeting employer demands for higher order thinking skills'. This involved working with colleagues, students and employers from six professional disciplines to embed critical thinking in their curricula. Prior to joining Kingston I worked as a marketing practitioner on branding, advertising and innovation programmes for a range of blue chip companies and advertising agencies.

In my current role I support the KAPS director with the delivery of the KAPS programme - Kingston's HEA-accredited framework which recognises the professional practice of experienced colleagues at Kingston within the UK Professional Standards Framework. I am also responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of our staff Continuous Professional Development Programme and for the University Teaching Fellowship Scheme. I am a trained assessor for the University's Teaching Observation Scheme. I have extended the work I have done on critical thinking to design a blended staff development provision to enable staff to embed critical thinking within their disciplines. This involves face-to-face workshops as part of our CPD programme supported by an online resource which I have designed within the Staff Academic Skills module. I have set up a staff community of practice called CritTalk which brings together critical thinking champions from across the university to share best practice of using the toolkits and to evolve its provision. This initiative has been shortlisted for the final of the SEDA Educational Development Initiative of the Year.

Qualifications and memberships

My educational/professional qualifications include a law degree from the University of Edinburgh (1991) and a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (1992). I am currently undertaking a professional doctorate in education at the Open University. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a University Teaching Fellow and a National Teaching Fellow. I am an institutional member of the Peer Review College of the University Teaching Alliance.

Research interests

My research interest is critical thinking curriculum development and how to support staff to enable students to think critically within the context of their disciplines. I have published and spoken at a range of national and international conferences in this area.

Publications

Read more in Kingston University's Research Repository (a digital archive of published research produced by Kingston University staff and researchers).

Contact details

• Email: h.wason@kingston.ac.uk