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Alison McMaster


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Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for PGCE iQTS Primary Education

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Society. I studied for my degree largely via distance learning and subsequently retrained as a teacher with a specialism in Early Years. I later went on to study the MA Education, again via distance learning. My experience is broad and ranges from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to Year 6.

I have held several management positions in schools and, through my role as English subject leader, my passion for teaching English language has been fuelled.

I have a wealth of experience in mentoring both trainees and newly qualified teachers, providing support and challenge in order to improve teaching and learning through best practice as well as establishing confidence in the classroom. As a result of this, I am extremely impassioned about the value of practicum placements and the importance of the support network available to trainees during this challenging time. With my own experience of independent distance learning, I appreciate how crucial a strong support network is for trainees studying via this route and again, am keen to offer the support needed to be successful and maximise their University experience.

I'm keen to share my teaching expertise with others who similarly have a passion for enriching the lives of young people.



Teaching and supervision

I am Programme Leader of PGCE Early Years Teaching ITE.

Having studied largely via distance learning myself, I appreciate the importance of a strong support network. I enjoy being part of a team who are able to provide support for overseas trainees, as well as for those trainees receiving their training in school, through the School Direct route.

Research interests for potential research students

Dialogic formative assessment models for practical teaching modules.

Publications

Number of items: 1.

Conference or Workshop Item

Hidson, Elizabeth, Elliott, Ian, Sheard, Simon, Bell, Jemma, McMaster, Alison, Wynn, Vikki and Hughes, Mark (2021) Video-enhanced dialogic assessment of teaching practice portfolios: the process of constructing dialogic evidence in an online space to demonstrate meeting professional teachers’ standards. In: Assessment in Higher Education Conference 2022, 22-24 June 2022, Manchester.

This list was generated on Sat Jun 14 13:31:10 2025 BST.

Last updated 09 June 2025