We are delighted to congratulate Marcus Conyers who recently achieved his PhD by Published Works degree at the University based on four books focusing on ‘improving teaching practice through education, mind and selected brain research’. Marcus’s supervisors, Dr Pauline Armsby (Westminster Business School, Department of Leadership and Professional Development) and Dr Laura Boubert (Faculty of Life Sciences, Psychology Department) said Marcus’s works were an excellent example of using scientific research on learning to develop and extend teaching practices.

Marcus applied two original frameworks developed through transdisciplinary, practice-based research over 15 years. The first translated implications of education, mind, and selected brain research on how people learn into a conceptual framework and strategies for enhancing teaching and learning. The second focused on a process for supporting changes in teaching practice and was aligned with research and theory from implementation science. Marcus incorporated these frameworks into professional development programmes for some 100,000 educators and 2,500 teachers from 47 U.S. states, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia through one of the first two graduate degrees in this field. The four texts (including Conyers, M. A., & Wilson, D. L. (2015a). Positively smarter: Science and strategies for increasing happiness, achievement, and well-being. Chichester, West Sussex, UK:John Wiley) extended the impact of this body of work to a broader audience of teachers, researchers, faculty, and other educational stakeholders and uniquely incorporated research, theory, and examples of practical strategies being applied in real-world settings.

Marcus continues to publish his work and plans to collaborate with Pauline and Laura to disseminate the frameworks for developing practice that he applied. His publications and future work will make a valuable contribution to the Centre for Teaching Innovation http://cti.westminster.ac.uk/