Professor Velda McCune

Professor Velda McCune

IAD Deputy Director / Head of Learning and Teaching

Contact details

• Work: 0131 651 4083
• Email: Velda.McCune@ed.ac.uk

Role in the IAD

I am the Deputy Director of the IAD and Head of the Learning and Teaching Team. The team work with both staff and students in the University to co-create excellent learning experiences for everyone.

I have oversight of the continuing professional development opportunities which the IAD offers for staff involved in teaching and supporting student learning. An important focus of my work is collaborating with colleagues in Schools and Colleges to take forward research and scholarship relating to teaching and learning in Higher Education.

Professional interests

For the last 20 years, my work has focused on understanding and supporting the identities, cultures and practices of students and teachers in higher education. I am fascinated by how we can create transformational learning experiences for diverse learners in the rich ecologies of online and face-to-face (but still digital) programmes in the University.

I have worked directly with students on their learning and with academic staff looking at their teaching practices. I am an active researcher currently interested in how higher education can support students’ engagement with global challenges. I also research learner and teacher identities in higher education.

Selected publications

McCune, V. (2019). Academic identities in contemporary higher education: sustaining identities that value teaching, Teaching in Higher Education, DOI:10.1080/13562517.2019.1632826

McCune, V. (2018). Experienced academics’ pedagogical development in higher education: Time, technologies and conversations. Oxford Review of Education, 44(3), 307-321.

Herrmann, K., Bager-Elsborg, A. and McCune, V. (2017). Investigating the relationships between approaches to learning, learner identities and academic achievement in higher education. Higher Education, 74(3), 385-400.

Christie, H., Tett, L., Cree, V. & McCune, V.  (2016): ‘It all just clicked’: a longitudinal perspective on transitions within university, Studies in Higher Education 41(3), 478-490.

Herrmann, K., Bager-Elsborg, A. and McCune, V. (2016). Investigating the relationships between approaches to learning, learner identities and academic achievement in higher education. Higher Education DOI:10.1007/s10734-016-9999-6

Ashwin, P., Boud, D., Coate, K., Hallett, F., Keane, E., Krause, K-L., Leibowitz, B., MacLaren, I., McArthur, J., McCune, V. and Tooher, M. (2015). Reflective teaching in higher education. London: Bloomsbury.

McCune, V. and Rhind, S. (2014). Understanding students' experiences of being assessed: The interplay between prior guidance, engaging with assessments and receiving feedback. In C. Kreber, C. Anderson, N. Entwistle and J. McArthur (eds.) Advances and innovations in university assessment and feedback. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 246-263.

Anderson, C. and McCune,V. (2013). Fostering meaning: fostering community. Higher Education 66, 283-296.

Anderson, C. and McCune, V. (2013). Facing an uncertain future: curricula of dualities. Curriculum Journal 24(1), 153-168.

Entwistle, N. and McCune, V. (2013). The disposition to understand for oneself at university: Integrating learning processes with motivation and metacognition. British Journal of Educational Psychology 83, 267-279.

McCune, V. & Entwistle, N. (2011). Cultivating the disposition to understand in 21st century university education. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(3), 303-310.

McCune, V. Hounsell, J., Christie, H., Cree, V. E. & Tett, L. (2010). Mature and younger students’ reasons for making the transition from further education into higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 15(6), 691-702.

McCune, V. (2009). Final year biosciences students’ willingness to engage: Teaching-learning environments, authentic learning experiences and identities. Studies in Higher Education, 34(3), 347-361.