Professor Louise Taylor

PhD, CPsychol, PFHEA, AFBPS

Professor of Education and Student Experience

School of Sport, Nutrition and Allied Health Professions

Louise Taylor

Role

My research focuses on understanding psychological factors that affect human growth and development, particularly in relation to education and wellbeing. 

As a National Teaching Fellow and Professor of Education and Student Experience, my research is concerned with supporting students to develop identities that promote engagement and learning. Please see Student Identities and Inclusion Projects for teaching resources.

Teaching and supervision

Modules taught

  • Human Growth and Development
  • Research Methods (UG and PG)
  • Dissertations 

Other work

Awards

Supervision

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students who would like to work broadly within of my areas of interest in Developmental and Educational Psychology, Children and Families, and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

 

Research Students

Name Thesis title Completed
Roger Hiley Is there sufficient evidence to support a manifesto for the enhanced use of the outdoors therapeutically, when supporting vulnerable children? Active
Alice Wilby Why some students succeed in Higher Education: investigating the BTEC as a pathway for student retention and success Active
Mrs Josie Jacobs Developing a Resilience Intervention to Promote Thriving in Parents of Primary School Children 2024

Research

  • Factors affecting human growth and development, particularly in relation to education and wellbeing:
  • Supporting students who experience racial discrimination in higher education - working towards equality of outcomes
  • The student-as-consumer approach in higher education: effects on staff and student motivation, autonomy and performance

Previous projects

  • Impact of engaging in fantasy on creative performance in children and adults (collaboration with Dr Jacqueline Woolley, University of Texas at Austin, and Dr Elizabeth Boerger, Slippery Rock University, and The Science Museum, London).
  • Children's perspectives of museum objects (collaboration with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History)
  • Children's understanding of the fantasy-reality distinction (collaboration with Prof. Margaret Harris, Prof. Paul Harris, Harvard)
  • Understanding the electric vehicle driver's experience - a user perspective (collaboration with Prof. Margaret Harris, Dr Mark Burgess, and Dr Naomi King).

Research grants and awards

Recent funding

  • 2020: Oxford Brookes University Teaching Innovation Project (£3000)
  • 2019: Social Prescribing Public Health England via  Citizens Advice North Oxon and South Northants (£9000)
  • 2019: Global Challenges Collaborative Research Award to investigate resilience in social work students in Burundi, Africa, and the UK (£11,300)
  • 2018: Action for Children: Evidence review of mental health and the early years in the UK, with Prof. Jane Appleton and Sarah Howcutt (£8,000)
  • 2017: Oxford Brookes University Teaching and Learning Project Scheme, Supporting engagement and academic success in BME students (£3,000)
  • 2016: Oxford Brookes University, Building academic success and resilience in social work students using a self-determination theory approach (with Jill Childs and Adam Lonsdale) (£5,000)
  • 2016: British Psychological Society, Undergraduate Research Assistantship. The impact of engaging in fantasy on cognition in children and adults (£1,600)
  • 2015: The University of Winchester Learning and Teaching Award: Staff perceptions of the student-as-consumer approach in Higher Education and implications for pedagogy (£2,000)
  • 2014: Developmental Section of the British Psychological Society, International Collaboration Scheme (£1,500) ​
  • 2010: British Academy, Small Research Grant with Prof. Westermann. Young children's understanding of the fantasy/reality distinction: Perceptual or conceptual processing? (£7150)

My research in the media

Groups

Projects

Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution

  • Supporting students’ identities as learners to increase inclusion: Evaluating and disseminating a research-informed teaching intervention (01/09/2023 - 31/07/2025), funded by: Association of National Teaching Fellows (NTF), funding amount received by Brookes: £4,671

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol)
  • Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS)
  • Principle Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Conferences

Recent:

  • Invited speaker: Bunce, L. (2020) How can we meet the needs of students as ‘learners’ and ‘consumers’ in post-pandemic higher education? The Higher Education Sector in the Post Pandemic Landscape, online
  • Invited keynote speaker: Warwick University Annual Learning and Teaching Conference (2020)
  • Foxcroft, D., Howcutt, S., Matley, S., Bunce, L. & Davies, E. (2019) Testing social status and family socialisation hypotheses of alcohol use in Norwegian young people: a causal mediation analysis. Poster presentation at 10th European Society for Prevention Research. Ghent, Belgium.   
  • Boerger, E., Woolley, J. & Bunce, L. (2019) Development and validation of a creative thinking task for young children, Poster presentation at Cognitive Development Society Biennial Conference, Louisville, KY
  • Talib, S., Bunce, L., King, N. & Saran, S. (2019) Experiences of BME students at university and implications for academic success: an application of self-determination theory. Talk at Department for Education, University of Oxford Inclusivity Conference STORIES.
  • Invited speaker: Westminster Insights Policy Forum, Student consumers (2018)
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S. & Talib, S. (2018) Understanding experiences of black and minority ethnic students: implications for academic success. Talk at Access and Participation across the student lifecycle: highs and lows of research and practice conference, Reading, UK.
  • Bunce, L. & King, N. (2018) Academics’ perception of attitudes towards learning in undergraduate student 'consumers': a self-determination theory approach. Talk at the British Psychological Society Education Section Annual Conference, Oxford.
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S. & Talib, S. (2018) Understanding the psychological needs of black and minority ethnic students at university. Talk at the British Psychological Society Education Section Annual Conference, Oxford.
  • Bunce, L. & Bennett, M. (2018) A degree of studying? Approaches to learning and academic performance among undergraduate student ‘consumers’. Talk at the British Psychological Society Education Section Annual Conference, Oxford.
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S. & Talib, S. (2018) Inclusive learning and teaching practices to enhance academic achievement for black and minority ethnic students in social work. Talk at Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference, Canterbury.
  • Bunce, L. (2018) Research-informed practice? How to co-produce research with social work students in the classroom. Talk at Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference, Canterbury.
  • Bunce, L., Lonsdale, A., King, N., Childs, J. & Bennie, R. (2018) Emotional intelligence and self-determined behaviour reduce psychological distress: Interactions with resilience in social work students in the UK. Talk at Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference, Canterbury.
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S., Sheriff, M. & Talib, S. (2018) Understanding the psychological needs of black and minority ethnic students at university. Talk at the British Psychological Society Division of Academics, Researchers, and Teachers in Psychology Inaugural Annual Conference, Birmingham.  
  • Bunce, L. & King, N. (2018) How do academics respond to student ‘consumers’? An exploration using self-determination theory. Talk at the British Psychological Society Division of Academics, Researchers, and Teachers in Psychology Inaugural Annual Conference, Birmingham.  
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S., Sheriff, M., Talib, S. & Bell, J. (2018) Learning and teaching to enhance academic achievement among black and minority ethnic students. Talk at Oxford Brookes University Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Oxford.
  • Bunce, L. (2018) Perception of value for money and educational engagement in undergraduate students. Talk at Oxford Brookes University Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Oxford.
  • Beck, S., Whalley, C., Cutting, N. & Bunce, L. (2018) Tool innovation, manufacture, and use in evolutionary, ontogenetic, and neurocognitive perspectives. Symposia at the 26th Conference of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Rijeka, Croatia.
  • Bunce, L., King, N., Saran, S., Childs, J. & Sheriff, M. (2018) Understanding the psychological needs of black and minority ethnic social work students at university. Poster presentation, Talk at CRISOWO Professional Social Work and Sustainable Development in Africa, Rwanda.
  • Bunce, L., Lonsdale, A., King, N., Childs, J. & Bennie, R. (2018) Resilience and psychologicalwellbeing in social work students: supporting social work education in challenging times. Talk at CRISOWO Professional Social Work and Sustainable Development in Africa, Rwanda.
  • Beck, S., Whalley, C., Cutting, N. & Bunce, L. (2018) Social and psychological contexts for tool-innovation Poster presentation at Eighth Annual Budapest CEU (Central European University) Conference on Cognitive Development, Hungary. 

Consultancy

In the past, I have conducted consultancy for Action for Children, OASIS Art, Disneyland Paris, and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

I am available for consultancy in areas broadly related to my teaching and research.

Further details

You can book me to give a talk about my areas of interest.

See my website containing teaching resources on inclusion and identities www.brookes.ac.uk/SIIP

Blog posts

Fiction

Collaboration with myself and a writer, Deborah Fielding, who wrote a short story inspired by research entitled 'Is it real?' https://www.brookes.ac.uk/poetry-centre/projects/science-writes-to-life/louise-bunce-and-deborah-fielding/

Social media

The British Psychological Society - the regulatory body for Psychologists in the UK.

Read the most interesting latest research in Psychology in easy to read bitesize format Research Digested, free!

Other experience

  • Chair, Psychology of Education Section of the British Psychological Society (2022-23)
  • External Examiner, Birmingham City University (2021-)
  • External Examiner, University of East Anglia (2024-)
  • Committee member: Joint University Council for Social Work Education and Research Committee (2017-)
  • Co-Editor Psychology Teaching Review (2020-)
  • Mentor: Feminist Leadership in Science (FELISE) (2020-2021)