Dr Alyson Lewis

(she/her)

SFHEA

Research

• Lowe, C., Morley, H., Hall, J., Kalman, E., Lewis, A. Part, T., Pennington, H., and Winder, I. (2024) Teaching and Learning Communities of Practice Toolkit. Advance HE.https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/teaching-and-learning-communities-practice-toolkit
• Lewis, A. and Georgis, R. (2024) Reflections from teaching in a flying faculty model. In: Wong, S., Prest, K. and Goh, J. (eds) Transnational education in East Asia: learnings and reflections from the past 25 years. British Council, pp. 81-83. https://opportunities-insight.britishcouncil.org/short-articles/reports/25-years-of-uk-transnational-education-east-asia
• Harris, C., Lewis, A., Griffiths, R. and Anderson, L. (2023) Making meaningful recommendations for policy and practice: reflections from the evaluation of Ask and Act. Social Research Practice. Issue 13 Spring 2023.
• Thomas, A. and Lewis, A. (2023) Child Development from Birth to 8 Years: an interdisciplinary approach. London: SAGE.
• Lewis, A. (2021) Understanding how practitioners in Wales assess well-being in the early years curriculum. Education 3-13, pp.1-13. DOI: 10.1080/03004279.2021.2011943
• Lewis, A. and Thomas, A. (2021) Practitioners’ knowledge and understanding of schemas and well-being in the Foundation Phase curriculum. Wales Journal of Education, 23(1), pp. 3-22.
• Lewis, A. (2021) Understanding the concept of well-being: domains, dimensions and discourses. In: Brown, Z. and Mander, S. (eds) Childhood Well-being and Resilience: influences on educational outcomes. London: Routledge. pp.7-19.
• Lewis, A. (2019) Examining the concept of well-being and early childhood: adopting multi-disciplinary perspectives. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 17(4), pp.294-308.
• Lewis, A. and Poole, R. (2018) Into the great outdoors: opportunities and experiences. In: McInnes, K. and Thomas, A. (eds) Teaching Early Years: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE. pp.156-177.
• Lewis, A. and Rees, L. (2018) Understanding well-being in the early years. In: McInnes, K. and Thomas, A. (eds) Teaching Early Years: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE. pp. 65-85.
• Lewis, A., Sarwar, S., Tyrie, J., Waters, J., and Williams, J. (2017) Exploring the extent of enactment of young children’s rights in the education system in Wales.  Wales Journal of Education, 19 (2), pp. 27-50.
• Thomas, A. and Lewis, A. (2016) An Introduction to the Foundation Phase: Early Years Curriculum in Wales. London: Bloomsbury
• Lewis, A. (2010) Making Sense of Swedish practice: is it that different from practice in Wales? Reflection paper submitted to TACTYC (Training, Advancement & Co-operation in Teaching Young Children) http://tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/Reflection-Lewis.pdf

Teaching

Based in the Learning and Teaching Academy (LTA), I teach mainly on Launchpad and the Associate Fellowship programme which involves supporting colleagues to develop their practice in various areas such as:

• building a learning community
• creating engaging learning environments
• session design and developing activities 
• assessment and feedback
• innovation in learning and teaching 

I also facilitate workshops for staff with a role in teaching and/or supporting learning around the following areas:

• playful learning and teaching 
• gamification and game-based learning
• playfulness and creativity in leadership identity

Biography

My career in education started in 2001 having trained as a primary school teacher specialising in early years (3-to-5 year olds). Since then I have worked in a range of sectors including early years and primary education, forest school, and further education where I delivered foundation degrees and a top-up degree relating to education, learning and development.

On finishing my ESRC funded PhD in 2015 in the School of Social Sciences I joined Bath Spa University (BSU) as a lecturer. The role at BSU involved being course leader for the undergraduate early childhood studies degree, postgraduate tutor for higher education practice and link tutor for collaborative provision at two further education colleges. While at BSU I also developed and delivered an undergraduate Transnational Education (TNE) programme (flying faculty model) to students in Hunan, China.

In 2020, I decided to focus on developing my skills as a researcher and worked in the Government Social Research (GSR) profession in the social justice research team at Welsh Government before joining Cardiff University (May 2022). My main interests are cross-cultural and collaborative learning and teaching provision, play and playfulness in higher education pedagogy and well-being.

Professional memberships

• AdvanceHE