Mr Samuel A Messam

Samuel A Messam started his career delivering personal and professional development programmes before moving into sports development. Specifically, he moved to the role of Coach Development Officer for an Active Sport Partnership, blending his passion for coaching with the provision of development opportunities. He enjoyed five successful years in the role, hosting conferences, workshops and implementing a county-wide mentoring programme before moving in to education. Having enjoyed several years teaching in Further Education, where he continued to combine his love of coaching with the concept of development, Samuel moved to Higher Education. The transition presented a number of challenges, including tackling the demands of validation. He found this to be a rewarding experience and was able to combine previous experiences of coaching with an understanding of education. Samuel's teaching covers a range of subjects with an emphasis on pedagogy, skill acquisition and learning theories as well as the supervision of projects. He has recently taken on the role of Cross-College Research Coordinator, which includes supporting colleagues in all scholarly endeavours as well as promoting scholarship across the college. To this end he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Colleges' internal journal and utilises the opportunity to engage, promote and disseminate scholarship across the college. Impact of work There are a number of innovations within his teaching that he is particularly proud of and believes have had a profound impact on students. These include the integration of vocational practice, the creation of a VLE, implementation of a Technology Enhanced Learning Environment, Peer Assist Programme and CoP. However, the teacher-student research project has provided students with a very broad UOL and investment and ownership by the students has been phenomenal. Plans for the future Looking forward, Samuel seeks to continue to promote and deliver staff-student scholarship, particularly within his subject interest to promote and advance understanding of coaching pedagogy and development. Furthermore, he would like to continue to develop insight and practice supporting students' progression as sports coaches, specifically examining blended and vocational models of technology-enhanced learning supported by industry and National Governing Bodies for sport.