Liam Hill

Teaching Fellow in Developmental Psychology

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport
  • Institute for Education, Community and Society

Contact details

Address

Street

Moray House School of Education and Sport
St John's Land
University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 8AQ

Biography

Background

Liam is a teaching-focused academic with over a decade of experience in teaching and lecturing in Higher Education. As a scholar of teaching and learning in Higher Education (HE), Liam is passionate about issues relating to widening participation and fostering more inclusive practices within HE. Recently, this has involved him working on projects that look to enhance support for:

  • Muslim students during Ramadan (more info here)
  • Care-experienced students at the University of Edinburgh (as a mentor for the EdCares mentoring program).

Liam is also a strong advocate for Open Research practices, with particular expertise in teaching and mentoring others to use Open Research and Analysis methods. This complements his longstanding involvement in supporting longitudinal birth cohort research, which includes an ongoing collaboration with the Born in Bradford family cohort study (2012-present).

As a Developmental Psychologist, he specializes in the study of motor and cognitive development and has particular research interests in: (1) how we teach and learn Fundamental Movement Skills and (2) improve support for people who find learning coordination skills more challenging. For example, enhancing support for individuals who identify as having Dyspraxia, which is also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

 

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Psychology (2006), University of Aberdeen

MSC Health Services and Public Health Research (2008), University of Aberdeen

PhD Child Health (2012), University of Aberdeen

Responsibilities & affiliations

2025-present: Teaching-Focused University Network (T-FUN) - Committee Member (Social Media Lead)

Undergraduate teaching

  • Cognitive and Social Child Development in Education (EDUA10150)*
  • Education Studies 2a: Child and Adolescent Development in Education (EDUA08099)

Postgraduate teaching

  • The Psychology of Learning and Teaching (EDUA11354)*
  • Sources of Knowledge (REDU11046)
  • Conceptualising Research (REDU1105) 
  • Dissertation Supervision - for MSc Education (REDU11083)

*Also Course Organiser for these courses

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Past PhD students supervised

  • Clare Copper (2020-2025, Co-supervised), White Rose University Consortium funded. 
    • Title: Developing and evaluating Early Years policies and programs for supporting prematurely born children's school readiness, health and wellbeing.
  • Megan Wood (2018-21, Lead-supervised), ESRC funded. 
    • Title:  Exploring sociodemographic influences upon sensorimotor control across childhood using kinematic analyses.
  • Lucy Eddy (2018-21, Lead-supervised), ESRC funded. 
    • Title: Developing a school-based universal screening tool to identify deficits in fundamental movement skills in children aged 5-11 years. 
  • Joyti Panesar (2016-20, Co-supervised), Bradford Institute of Health Research funded. 
    • Title: The association between genotype and cognitive, motor and behavioural phenotype in children with Copy Number Variant disorders. 
  • Katy Shire (2013-16, Co-supervised), Bradford Institute of Health Research funded. 
    • Title: Motor coordination in children: determinant, screening and intervention

 

Research summary

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

THEME 1: ENHANCING EQUITY AND INCLUSIVITY IN EDUCATION

Liam has a strong interest in enhancing inclusive practices within education, as well as widening participation in Higher Education (HE). Recently, this has led him to collaborate on a multi-university project that is surveying the experiences of Muslim students and staff in HE. This project has published evidence-based guidance on how to enhance inclusive teaching practise during Ramadan. (guide available here).

His research also addresses neurodiversity in sensorimotor development, striving to remove barriers for those who find learning new motor skills challenging. In particular, his research advocates for better understanding of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and/or Dyspraxia and more support for individuals who identify as having these forms of neurodivergence (example pub. here).

THEME 2: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOVEMENT, LEARNING, AND EDUCATION

Liam’s research also explores the connections between movement and learning, including looking at the effects of being Physically Active whilst Learning (examples here and here). Recently, this has led him to be interested in the impact of physical activity on students' learning and wellbeing in HE. Inversely, he also investigates how children’s development of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) can be better supported within early years and primary education. He is a co-developer of FUNMOVES, an evidence-based, standardised tool for assessing FMS in schools.

METHODOLOGICAL EXPERTISE

Liam specializes in quantitative research methods and their applications to studying childhood development. This is complemented by a commitment to embedding Open Research practices throughout his work, including his teaching of research methods. His skills include:

  • Working with longitudinal birth cohort studies and making their data publicly accessible.
  • Utilizing and teaching open-source data management and statistical software (JASP, Jamovi, R).
  • Evaluating educational interventions via Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) with pre-registration.
  • Developing ecologically valid assessments for community settings.

You can view a comprehensive list of Liam's peer-reviewed publications on Scopus or ORCiD.

Knowledge exchange

Project activity

CURRENT PROJECTS

  1. The T-FUN network

    • A Teaching-Focussed network for academics in Higher Education, within Psychology and Related Disciplines. Set up in 2024, we run online monthly seminars, are growing an online community of practitioners (see LinkedIn group) and run an annual Online Festival/Conference on Teaching in HE. Themes for 2025: Assessment & Feedback, ED&I and Engagement & Belonging.
  1. Understanding Muslim student’s experiences of Ramadan in HE and enhancing inclusive practice in relation to this annual event.
    • Taylor, L., Ahmed El-Hosny, N., Hall, D., Hill, L. J. B., Kempers, K., Malik, F., Mathers, H., Page-Tickell, R., & Raza, R. (2025). Creating an inclusive approach to teaching and learning during Ramadan: A brief evidence-based guide for educators in the UK. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.28381739
  1. Open Analysis in R (OpenAiR)
    • Developing research training in Open Analysis methods and tools for Postgraduate students at Moray House School of Education & Sport. Link to example Summer School event here.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

Liam also has considerable experience of coordinating and contributing to the delivery of large-scale, education-based, quantitative research studies, including both regional and national Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluations of teacher-led educational interventions. Since 2012, Liam has also worked with a large longitudinal birth cohort study (Born in Bradford, https://borninbradford.nhs.uk/). One of his key contributions to this cohort was to help organise their repeated assessment of consenting participant's cognitive and motor skills whilst in primary and early secondary education (2012-2023). 

To-date, Liam has been involved in successfully securing funding for 15 research projects, either in the role of Principal or Co-Investigator (Total Value: £3.966m + 7 PhD Scholarships). This includes winning support from the following organisations: The Medical Research Council (MRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF), and The Waterloo Foundation.

Past project grants

AS THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
2020-23. The Waterloo Foundation (£62,000). Investigating the effects of Movement Breaks and Active Learning on attention, behaviour, and learning in the classroom.

PERSONAL AWARDS
2018. University of Leeds: Researcher Mobility Award (£3,000). Exploring sensorimotor development's relationship with childhood psychopathology.
2012-13. MRC Centenary Early Career Award (£51,000). Intervening to support Physical Activity and Motoric Development in Childhood.

AS A CO-INVESTIGATOR:
2018-19. NIHR: Research Capability Funding (£85,000). Developing a research infrastructure for studying linked health and education data.

2018-19. The Education Endowment Foundation (£350,000). A RCT to examine the impact of a motor skill intervention on educational attainment.

2014. The Waterloo Foundation (£47,000). Paying attention to attention in co-occurring neuro-developmental disorders.

PhD NETWORKS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2023-26. ESRC Whiterose Doctoral Training Partnership Pathway Award. (1x PhD Scholarship). Improving Support for Children’s Fundamental Movement Skill Development in the Early Years. In collaboration with Lucy Eddy (University of Bradford) and Lucy Taylor (University of Leeds)

2020-23. Whiterose University Consortium Studentship Network (3x PhD Scholarships). Listen and Learn: A studentship network for innovative involvement in early years prevention research. In collaboration with Kate Pickett, Kirsty Pringle, Cheti Nicoletti (all University of York), Amy Barnes (University of Sheffield), Rosie McEachan and Sally Bridge (both Bradford Institute of Health Research).

2017-21 ESRC Whiterose Doctoral Training Partnership Pathway Award. (1x PhD Scholarship). The impact of socio-economic factors on psychological development and child mental health. In collaboration with Amanda Daniel Bingham (University of Bradford) and Mark Mon-Williams (University of Leeds).

2017-21. ESRC Whiterose Doctoral Training Partnership Network Award (3x PhD Scholarships). Inequalities in Cognitive Development. In collaboration with Kate Pickett, Paul Wakeling (both University of York), Emma Blakey, Dan Carroll (both University of Sheffield), Mark Mon-Williams and Amanda Waterman (both University of Leeds).

AS A NAMED COLLABORATOR:
2016-21. The ESRC and MRC (£2,300,000). Born in Bradford 2nd Wave. (Named collaborator)

Invited speaker

“What is Open Analysis?” (2024)  @Moray House School of Education and Sport’s “Building an Open Research Community” Launch Event (In person). 

“Can increased collaboration across Health and Education drive improvement in support for children with coordination difficulties?” (2021) @ Developmental Coordination Disorder UK Biennial Conference (Keynote, Online)

“Visual development, family circumstances and academic learning: Findings from the Born in Bradford Cohort” (2018) @ School of Optometry Seminar Series, UC Berkeley, USA (In person)

“Movement Matters: Investigating the role movement plays in children’s psychological and academic development” (2018) @ Centre for Population Health Sciences Research Seminar, Stanford University, USA (In person). 

Organiser

T-FUN Festival (2025), Member of Organising Committee + Co-chair of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Theme (Online, attendees TBC)

BiBFest 2019 (2019), Member of the Organising Committee + Primary School Engagement Lead (In-person, >500 attendees)

Developmental Coordination Disorder UK Biennial Conference (2016), Chair of the Organising Committee (In-person, 101 attendees)

Papers delivered

Recent presentations:

"Open Analysis in Quantitative Research" (Feb 2025) @Researcher Development seminar series, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh (in person)

“Inclusive approaches to teaching and learning during Ramadan” (Feb 2025) @ Practice Worth Sharing seminar series, University of Edinburgh (In person). 

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