Daniel
Zahra
Research Interests and Academic CV
This page lists my current areas of interest (in no particular order), though I'm always interested in the overlap between different domains, and how methods, ideas, and techniques from one can be used in others. This is followed by an overview of my Academic CV, skills, and experience.
If you would be interested in collaborating on work related to any of these topics, or any others, please get in touch.
All aspects of integrating educational programmes and the benefits and challenges of such undertakings
Emotion in all its forms; the structure of affect, theories of emotion, and how they interact with our cognitive processes.
Standard setting, formats, delivery, the underlying assumptions; how assessment drives learning and whether it should or not.
Equality of access, encouraging participation across higher education and beyond
Widening
Participation
Assessment
Emotion
Interprofessional
Education
Particularly in educational contexts and using virtual patients to explore team working, decision-making, or the use of virtual reality patient-perspectives to develop empathy skills.
Philosophy of emotion and emotional experience and the problems raised by issues of identity, self, and reality. Issues of society, politics and language also intrigue me.
Reasoning and decision-making in general, but particularly how evidence is evaluated and incorporated into the social processes of deciding.
Any new and interesting applications of statistical techniques, particularly those designed to overcome specific methodological problems.
Decision
Making
Philosophy
Statistics
Simulation
Qualifications
2008 - 2013 PhD "Mood, Emotive Content, and Reasoning"
2007 - 2008 MSc Psychological Research Methods, Distinction
2004 - 2007 BSc (Honours) Psychology, 1st Class
Memberships and Affiliations
Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (CPsychol)
Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsP)
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (inc. Registered Data Analyst)
Academy of Medical Educators, AoME (FAcadMEd)
Association for Medical Education in Europe, AMEE
Association for Dental Education in Europe, ADEE
Association for the Study of Medical Education , ASME
International Association for Dental Researchers, IADR
British Society for Oral and Dental Research, BSODR
Association of Science Educators in Dentistry, ASEiD
Community and Primary Care Research Group (University of Plymouth)
Division of Education and Scholarship (University of Plymouth)
Collaboration for the Advancement of Medical Education Research, CAMERa
International Network for Health Workforce Education, INHWE
Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research, PIHR
Carers and Parents Network, University of Plymouth
Collaboration for Compassion in Healthcare Education, University of Plymouth
LGBT+ Allies Network, University of Plymouth
Faculty Research Ethics and Integrity Committee (University of Plymouth Faculty of Health)
Research Skills
I regularly work with R, SPSS, AMOS, Microsoft Excel, Word, Publisher, and Powerpoint. I've also used MLwiN, E-Prime, Visual Basic, Dreamweaver and other Adobe creative suite applications, Google drive applications, and LaTeX for data collection, analysis, and dissemination of my work.
I have used and developed a range of assessment and psychometric measures, am WASI trained, apply and adapt quantitative analysis techniques on a daily basis, and have experience of qualitative methodologies including interviewing, focus groups, and transcription.
Experience
2024-Present
In conjunction with my Associate Professor role, I am also the Head of Assessment for Peninsula Medical School. With the role comes responsibility for all forms of assessment across the school's programmes, and the opportunity to work with staff, students, and external partners to continue developing our approaches and methods in these areas. During this time I have also received (and accepted) an invitation to join the editorial board of BMC Medical Education.
2021-Present
Alongside lecturing, and promotion to Associate Professor of Assessment and Psychometrics, I have focussed more of my time of developing workshops for staff training, both locally, nationally, an internationally, covering topics related to assessment strategy, design, and standard setting. I have also recently developed modules on Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in Dentistry, and Teaching Evidence Based Medicine for the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and consulted as a subject matter expert for CommsMultilingual. During this time I have been granted registered Data Analyst status with the Royal Statistical Society, through which, alongside my Fellowship of the society, I am part of the 'Statisticians for Society' project which offers pro bono statistical support to charitable organisations.
2018-2021
Lecturer in Assessment Psychometrics, University of Plymouth Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (Faculty of Health), continuing from my previous role, as well as managing the Psychometrics Team, supporting assessment and research across the medical, dental, dental therapy and hygiene, physician associate, clinical education, and diagnostic radiography programmes. Research on assessment, equality, and integration, among other topics, as well as additional work in the areas of clinical skills, simulation, and rehabilitation, and projects funded by medical and dental regulators.
2013-2018
Senior Assessment Psychometrician, University of Plymouth Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (Faculty of Health); see above.
2012-2013
Lecturer in Psychology, Plymouth University. Teaching Social Psychology, Environmental Psychology, and Critical Thinking, as well as statistics and research methods.
2011- 2012
Appointed as an Editor of the PsyPAG Quarterly. Voluntary research consultancy on an NHS service evaluation of the input of Clinical Psychologists to a paediatric diabetes team. Working as a Research Assistant with the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry.
2010- 2012
Conducting WASI assessments on members of an Autism support group in Plymouth as part of an ongoing research project; Working as an assessor for OCR.
2009
Research consultancy and support for an ongoing NHS research project based around a sex-offender treatment programme and its effectiveness.
2008- 2013
PhD research into the effects of emotion from a range of sources on reasoning tasks; Associate Lecturer, teaching statistics and research methods to undergraduate psychology students at the University of Plymouth; Marking and assessment across a range of topics and methods.
2008
Masters dissertation on the effects of mood and content in syllogistic reasoning.
2007
Undergraduate dissertation project on the effects of assessment anxiety on reasoning.
2004
Assisting with teaching maths and science at The William Allitt Secondary School as part of the Student Associate Scheme with Exeter University.
2004- 2010
Undergraduate and Postgraduate representative, liaising with fellow students, staff, and programme committees
2003- 2004
Working as a member of a support team for new students to Burton College as part of an initiative to improve completion rates on AS and A2 courses.
2000
Voluntary teaching work in Stanton Primary School.
Examples of my Teaching, Training, and Educational Roles
Staff training and Professional Development
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Assessment in medical and dental education workshops
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Standard setting and post-test analysis workshops
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Workshop on survey methods and questionnaire design
BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography
-
Introduction to Statistics in Research
BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy and Hygiene
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The Brain: An Overview - Introduction to Neuroanatomy
-
Statistics and Research Methods
MSc Clinical Education and MSc Global Health
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Research Designs and Data Analysis
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Blueprinting, Standard Setting, and Psychometrics
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Statistics and Research Methods Clinics
-
Project supervision
Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery
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Problem Based Learning session facilitation
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Enquiry Based Learning session facilitation
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Academic Tutoring
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'Doctors as Educators' session facilitation
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Support and facilitation of Student-Selected Components in Research
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Statistics and Research Methods Clinics
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Prizes and Awards Coordinator
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Case-Unit Block Lead
Environmental Psychology (Module Lectures) - BSc (Hons) Psychology
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Environmental Psychology: Its scope and assumptions
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Environmental Stress I: Its nature and effects
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Environmental Stress II: Crowding and other stressors
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Orienting to the Environment: Cognitive Maps
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Crime, Defensible Space, and Neighbourhoods
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Resource Conservation I: Managing the ‘Commons Dilemma’
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Resource Conservation II: Psychological Approaches and Interventions
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Environmental Attitudes: Cultural Representations and Environmental Philosophies
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Environmental design: Taking the user into account
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Psychology of Place: Identity and Attachment
Critical Thinking (Module Lectures) - BSc (Hons) Psychology
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Why is thinking hard?
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Knowledge, Beliefs, and Science
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The Scientific Method I
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The Scientific Method II
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Evaluating Evidence
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Fallacies in Arguments
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Decomposition and Structure of Arguments
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Potential Pitfalls in Study Design
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Human Judgement
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Objectivity and Subjectivity
BSc (Hons) Psychology and MSc Psychological Research Methods
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Qualitative Research in Psychology
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Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
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Planning, Conducting, and Transcribing Qualitative Research Interviews
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The Science of Human Behaviour
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Experimental Design
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The Ethics of Psychological Research
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How do you find out the age of a tree? - Simple Linear Regression
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How do you find out the age of a tree? - Multiple Regression
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Analysis of Variance and Related Techniques
Summer School - BSc (Hons) Psychology
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Measures of Variability and Z-Scores
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Probability and Sampling Distributions
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Psychoanalytic Approaches
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Perception
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Historical Perspective
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Teratology