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James Leinster

Senior Lecturer

Nottingham Business School

Staff Group(s)
Department of Human Resource Management

Role

James is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Human Resource Development in the Department of Human Resource Management. James has been in the Human Resource Management Division for 12 years, and has extensive experience of teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate, masters and professional programmes. James is the module leader for several modules across the HRM provision.  He has also taught on several other Masters’ programmes. James’s main teaching subjects include Learning, and Talent Development, Performance Management and Developing Business and Professional Skills.

James is a very active member of the University’s community for improving the student learning experience. James has been an active member of the Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching since 2016. In 2016, Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching appointed James as Chair of the Games in Learning Special Interest in which he organises group meetings and symposiums in order to general discussion and application of game-based tools in the learning process. James is also a member of the NTU Pedagogy and Decolonising the Curriculum special interest groups. James won a Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching sabbatical in 2018-2019 which enabled him to develop a learning tool that can be used on any topic and at any level of study. James’s research travels a chronological spectrum examining the ‘business’ student learning journey and how this can impact the teaching and learning experience. James presents his research at national and international conferences. James also provide consultancy support to local businesses to pursue Knowledge Transfer Partnership funding opportunities.

James has experience of international teaching in Baku and Moscow. James delivered modules on Learning and Talent Development and Performance Management to local employees of national and international organisations. He supervised research projects on a wide range of business and HRM topics.

Career overview

Prior to coming to Nottingham, James worked at several Management and Business Centres where he taught on several different programmes. He was Programme Director for the management curriculum which involved liaising with local employers and other providers. Prior to coming into higher education in 1999, James was employed by the Government where he worked with the Ministry of Defence as an HRD specialist.

Research areas

The research James is presently conducting is exploring the ‘business’ undergraduate learning journey from a multilevel stakeholder analysis of the experience. James’s work in this area is informed by different literatures from the role of parents in the decision-making process, the psychological contract between students and the Business School, game-based learning to the philosophical position that tutors adopt when they teach.

This puzzle connects with two strategically framed questions: What should Nottingham Business School do to improve its understanding of the ‘business’ undergraduate learning experience? & What do Nottingham Business School staff need to do to improve the ‘business’ undergraduate learning experience? Work in this area informs James’s involvement in the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice.

James has a growing interest in game-based learning and designing games that aids learning; this is all achieved by his role as Chair of the SIG Games in Learning as part of the Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT).

Sponsors and collaborators

James is collaborating with a publisher and a professional body to identify ways in which one of the game-based learning activities he designed could be developed further and be made available to the wider HE community.