Dr Kevin Orr

National Teaching Fellow 2014 Dr Kevin Orr has been committed to vocational education in higher education since working as an English assistant for work-related courses in France in the 1980s. After 16 years' working in further education colleges around Manchester, mainly as a teacher of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and as a teacher-educator, he became a senior lecturer in post-compulsory education and training at the University of Huddersfield in 2006. Since 2010 he has been the coordinator for the University's continuing professional development (CPD) framework and he also instigated and leads the MA in Professional Work-Based Learning. In 2013 he was promoted to Reader in Work and Learning in recognition of his expertise in vocational education. Throughout his career Kevin has sought to promote the value of experiential knowledge combined with high level academic study in professional development. Much of Kevin's work has been in teacher education for the learning and skills sector, which is also where much of his research interest lies. Kevin received a grant from the HEA in 2008 to lead research on how to enhance the work-based learning experience of student teachers in colleges. The project's recommendations have been presented to fellow teacher educators and also to college managers. Kevin's PhD thesis was entitled 'College cultures and pre-service trainee-teachers: a study in the creation and transmission of ideas about teaching'. He has given evidence to the government's Commission on Adult and Vocational Teaching and Learning and has presented keynote lectures and invited seminars nationally. Kevin has been co-convenor of the special interest group on post-compulsory and lifelong learning in the British Educational Research Association and he also convenes the Yorkshire and Humberside Learning and Skills Research Network. Kevin is currently working with a colleague in architecture to research the professional training of architects. The findings from this project, published in the journal Vocations and Learning, will inform his work on the CPD framework and in the education of teachers. For his own CPD Kevin is taking a part-time MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics at the Centre for Census and Survey Research at the University of Manchester.