Prof Fran Garrad-Cole is Deputy Head of the School of Psychology and Sport Science, and lectures in Psychology. She has significant experience leading and developing institutional teaching and learning innovation projects. She is a Bangor University graduate, having achieved a BSc in Psychology and a PhD in Developmental Cognitive Psychology. 

Teaching Interests

Fran is Module Organiser and lecturer for the year 3 module ‘Born to run: achieve your goals”. This module deaws on theories of positive and motivational psychology to teach ‘non-runners’ how to run a marathon. By training four times a week, including one run as a group during the workshop time, approximately 20 students per year train for and run a marathon in just 18 weeks. Before starting this module, Fran had only ever run half marathon distances but now she has run three, and has turned dozens of final year students into marathon runners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=137&v=704b5iPy4Ak&feature=emb_logo

Fran has been nominated for many Student Led Teaching Awards within the University and was awarded a Bangor University Teaching Fellowship in 2014. In 2016 she was awarded the most prestigious individual award for excellence in teaching in higher education, a National Teaching Fellowship, and more recently she has been awarded an HEA Principal Fellowship, (2019) in recognition of her strategic leadership of teaching and learning. 

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/research-support/news/bangor-academic-becomes-a-national-teaching-fellow-30015

Research Interests

Fran is a developmental cognitive psychologist and is interested in many elements of developmental psychology including behavioural, neuropsychological and educational. Her current research with year three undergraduate students investigates the Differential Outcome Effect (DOE) and how this may be adapted for, and used with very young children, and with older adults for medical adherence. Fran is currently collaborating with Dr Paloma Mari Beffa and colleagues in Almeria, Spain on this project.
Fran engages in a wide range of pedagogical research, including how student anxiety towards public speaking can be reduced during small group presentation sessions, the value of metacogniitve MCQ scoring (and students' perceptions), and the development of self-compassion and grit through group marathon training embedded within a curriculum. In response to the rapid pivot to online learning that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, Fran and colleagues at Bangor, published a review of online pedagogies and provided recommendations for lecturers across the sector.

Her work supporting students transitions, including a pre-arrival platform(https://www.bangor.ac.uk/bangor-welcome/be-bangor-ready), and year-long induction programme has been presented to national and international audiences including the Cross-party group Welsh parliamentary Senedd meeting on universities, the Staff and Educational Development Association (Keynote 2022); the International Federation of National Teaching Fellows (IFNTF); a recorded for presentation to HEFCW, the Advance HE Symposium; and to Sussex University. The work has been published as part of a SEDA text book (Routledge) on pre-arrival platforms.

Fran’s Twitter Feed: @FranGC_HE

Garrad-Cole, F., Lew, A., Bremner, J., & Whitaker, C. (2001). Use of cue configuration geometry for spatial orientation in human infants (Homo sapiens). Journal Of Comparative Psychology, 115(3), 317-320. doi:10.1037/0735-7036.115.3.317

Shapiro, K., & Garrad-Cole, F. (2003). Age-related deficits and involvement of frontal cortical areas as revealed by the attentional blink task. Journal Of Vision, 3(9), 726-726. doi:10.1167/3.9.726

Garrad-Cole, F., Shapiro, K., & Thierry, G. (2011). Developmental Aspects of Temporal and Spatial Visual Attention: Insights from the Attentional Blink and Visual Search Tasks. Child Neuropsychology, 17(2), 118-137. doi:10.1080/09297049.2010.509716

Garrad-Cole, F. (in prep.) Can present, will present! Anxiety reduction in small group presentation sessions.

Garrad-Cole, F. and Mari-Beffa, P. (in preparation) If I can name it, I can learn it: Conditions under which the Differential Outcome Effect is evidenced in three-year olds.

Garrad-Cole, F. and Mari-Beffa, P. (in preparation) The cumulative effect of physical and verbal reinforcers in the Differential Outcome Procedure in 3-5 year olds.