Dr John Craig

National Teaching Fellow 2009 Dr John Craig has previously served as an Assistant Dean at Teesside University and has taught at the University of Huddersfield, the University of Leeds and the Open University. At the time of his award, he was University Teaching Fellow at the University of Huddersfield and was responsible for supporting the development of Foundation Degrees across the institution. John's subject background is in politics and much of his work has focused on building links between the academic study of the discipline and the experience of real world practice. One example of this is the FDTL 5 Case-based Learning in Politics project, led by John. This utilised a problem-based approach in which students are presented with authentic workplace problems as the starting point for their learning. This can help students to make creative links between theory and practice and, as John puts it: "allow students to transform their passive knowledge into a more critical and active understanding of their subject". A range of HEIs now use the learning materials and interactive resources developed by the project and it was featured on a DVD, Innovations in the Teaching and Learning of Politics, launched at the Houses of Parliament in October 2008. More recently, John has undertaken work funded by the Higher Education Academy's Centre for Anthropology, Politics and Sociology (C-SAP) exploring the implications of the higher skills agenda for politics and the social sciences. The idea for the project grew out of John's own work in developing practitioner focused politics course for people working in local government as career officers and elected councillors. John is also involved in leading the development of the Police Studies programme developed in partnership with West Yorkshire Police. John has also taken a leading role in developing the scholarship of teaching and learning within the Politics discipline. He co-founded the Political Science Associations Specialist Teaching and Learning Group in 2005, which hosts panel sessions at PSA conferences as well as organising its own events. In 2009 he was receive a C-SAP Recognition Award for his work in supporting teaching and learning in Politics. John serves on the editorial board of two journals: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences (LATISS) and Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences (ELiSS). He is also Chair of the Politics Reference Group for C-SAP and the Access to HE Quality Assurance Committee of AQA. John has been Assistant Director and Head of Social Sciences at the Higher Education Academy since 2011.