Investigating the impacts of teaching and learning research

Eve Little supervised by Ben Witz and Dave Riley

About the student researcher

I am Eve Little and I have just graduated from studying Psychology at the University of Leeds. I transitioned to University during COVID-19 lockdown measures and as a result of this, I experienced an entirely unique and abnormal first year of University. I definitely felt disconnected from the community of the University initially, and this drove my interest into understanding and improving student experiences. I completed my final year dissertation project investigating student wellbeing during transitioning to University. I loved the experience of independently conducting qualitative research in an area that I both cared about a lot and understood first-hand. I think a lot can be learnt about students from student-led research and this is what drove me to apply for a student research placement with LITE.

Project overview

My research project is a qualitative study aiming to investigate the impact that teaching and learning research has on students, the researcher themselves, and the wider university. I wrote my own interview scripts and conducted semi-structured interviews on four LITE fellows who have previously completed their own research projects studying different aspects of student experience. During these interviews, I asked them questions regarding the details of their projects, where their findings have gone on to be presented or shared, if their research has triggered any action or further research, how they personally found the experience of being a LITE fellow, and how they incorporated the student voice into their research. With this data, I transcribed the interviews and began to thematically analyse them, aiming to uncover what impact these pieces of research have had. From this, I am now producing a short video summarising what my project has involved, what my findings show about the impact of teaching and learning research, as well as some self-reflection to incorporate a student’s perspective into my findings.

If you are interested in finding out about the project findings, please contact the project supervisor.