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Lorraine Syme-Smith

Biography

Lorraine Syme-Smith's career in education started in 1993, having previously been a systems programmer with a well known financial organisation. Her first education job was in the voluntary sector with a project supporting women to gain ICT and employability skills. She then moved to the college sector working at Edinburgh's Telford College, at first as a senior lecturer and latterly as curriculum manager for Computing. She has also worked for the Open University as a programme tutor.

She joined the University in 2003 on secondment as a teaching fellow on the TQ(FE) and combined this with also being on secondment at COLEG (College Open Learning Exchange Group). Since 2005 Lorraine has been a member of University staff.

Outside of work she enjoys textile crafts and running.

Qualifications

Research Interests

Lorraine recently restarted her doctorate studies and is particularly interested in learner motivation and self-efficacy. Other recent work is on assessment feedback for distance learners and on the relationships between learner confidence, science questions and presenting those questions by the use of audience response systems. She is also interested in the use of online technologies to facilitate learning.

Teaching

Like all TQ(FE) team members, Lorraine works across all aspects of the programme including tutoring students, marking assessment work, delivering workshops and liaising with partner colleges.

She particularly likes the way that the TQ(FE) programme assists participants in the confirmation of their own abilities and the associated effect this has on their self-confidence. She enjoys encouraging participants to see how they can improve their own practice by thoughtful consideration of the wealth of research and literature in education.

As well as working on the TQ(FE) Lorraine also tutors on the BA in Professional Development which is the progression route for Undergraduate TQ(FE) participants who wish to continue their studies and complete a degree. She is a member of the School Academic Quality Assurance Committee and was on the University Senate Library and Information Services Committee.

Awards

The TQ(FE) team won the following awards in 2011:

Publications


Chapters
Fortuna, C., Henderson, S., McLuckie, J., Rodrigues, S., Syme-Smith, L., Taylor, N & Williamson, G, 2010 Fortuna, C., Henderson, S., McLuckie, J., Rodrigues, S., Syme-Smith, L., Taylor, N and Williamson, G. (2010) A conversation between colleagues: defining multiple literacy in science education. In: S. Rodrigues, Multiple Literacy and Science Education: ICTs in Formal and Informal Learning Environments. IGI Global, Hershey, NY: Information Science Reference, pp. 1-10.
Journal Papers
Rodrigues, S., Taylor, N., Cameron, M., Syme-Smith, L., Fortuna, C, 2010 Rodrigues, S., Taylor, N., Cameron, M., Syme-Smith, L., Fortuna, C (2010). Questioning Chemistry: The role of level, familiarity, language and taxonomy, Science Education International, 21(1), 31-46
Conference Presentations
Syme-Smith, L., Boyle, L. & Golden, L., 2012 Syme-Smith, L., Boyle, L. & Golden, L. (2012) Feedback or Interference : Are lecturers' perceptions of their language used in feedback consistent with the actual language used? In: Proceedings of British Educational Research Association (BERA 2012).
Taylor, N., Syme-Smith, L., Rodrigues, S., Fortuna, C. & Cameron, M., 2010 Taylor, N., Syme-Smith, L., Rodrigues, S., Fortuna, C. & Cameron, M. (2010). The relationship between science questions, levels of perceived confidence and science answers: Patterns in data collected through an interactive response system. In: Canadian International Conference on Education Proceedings (CICE-2010). Conference held 26-28 April 2010, Toronto, Canada.