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Mrs Nerys Defis

Profile summary

  • Regional Academic Staff
  • Primary Curriculum Tutor: PGCE Wales
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport
  • Education
  • nerys.defis

Professional biography

I joined the Open University in Wales team in September 2020. Since starting in my role as a Primary Curriculum Tutor, and the Wales PGCE course, it has been a pleasure to get to know our students and working with them and our partner schools. In addition, I feel privileged to be able to continue to work in the field of education in Wales – doing so at such an exciting time in terms of curriculum developments. 

Research interests

My research interests are attitudes and mindset; cross-curricular teaching and pupil groupings. I have recently joined the OU's Professional Doctorate programme with the aim of furthering my research into children and young people's use of technology and its potential impact on their health and wellbeing.

Teaching interests

Primary Education

Early Years Education

Impact and engagement

Educational blog posts:

Distance learning & inital teacher education: Making connections in a virtual world, August 2021: Distance learning & initial teacher education: Making connections in a virtual world | BERA

A test for Welsh Education, May 2018: A test for Welsh education – Yr Athrofa

Life Outside the Classroom, May 2016: Life outside the classroom – Yr Athrofa

External collaborations

Education resource collaborations with Hodder and Peniarth press (resources currently under production).

Publications

'Distance needn't mean distant': Promoting a distance learning model of teacher education in a changing educational landscape (2021-05-06)
Defis, Nerys; Jennings, Carys and Jones, Mathew R.
In : Teacher Education Advancement Network Conference 2021 (06-07 May 2021, Online)

Distance learning & inital teacher education: Making connections in a virtual world (2021-08-20)
Defis, Nerys
British Educational Research Association (BERA)