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Despite emotion being recognised as fundamental to learning, the affective aspects of learning have often been side-lined in higher education. In the context of rising student wellbeing challenges, exploring ways of supporting students and their emotions in learning is increasingly significant. Pedagogic partnerships have the potential to help students to recognise and work with their emotions in their learning in a positive manner. As such, pedagogic partnerships offer opportunities to promote resilience and enhance student wellbeing. In this paper, we develop partnership research in three ways by: 1) considering the ways in which pedagogic partnership may support students to encounter emotions and empower them to develop resilience, leading to positive wellbeing; 2) exploring how this process might be achieved in the disciplinary context of geography; and 3) developing an evidence-based model to summarise the potential effect of pedagogic partnership in enhancing student wellbeing. We draw upon two case studies of student-faculty and student-student pedagogic partnership within geography curricula in order to evidence that emotional awareness in learning comes through the joys and struggles of working in partnership. We argue that pedagogic partnership may be developed to support the wellbeing of modern-day higher education communities.

This Editorial reflects on the ‘Directions’ section of the Journal of Geography in Higher Education over the last 25 years and highlights the new Co-Editors’ plans for the future of the section. We discuss how the section first emerged in the context of a heightened focus on skills development in higher education and follow this with a brief analysis of the 42 ‘Directions’ papers published to date. We reflect on how the nature of the published articles initially focused on enhancing undergraduate student assessment performance before expanding the discussion to consider broader aspects of the student experience and disciplinary learning. We recognise that while most of the articles have focused on undergraduates, many of them are also relevant to postgraduate geography students. Following a lull in submissions between 2008 and 2017, a revival of the section emerged through articles either co-authored by students and staff, or authored solely by geography students. We intend to develop this ‘students as partners’ approach with respect to future ‘Directions’ publications, by encouraging submissions co-authored by students and staff and ensuring that all articles are reviewed by both a current academic staff member and a student.

This paper, written by two former Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Leaders and a PAL Tutor, will support any geographer considering a PAL role. It reflects our experiences of participating in a PAL scheme at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, and research conducted with Geography PAL Leaders over two academic years (2012-2014). Overall, we found being a PAL Leader was positive, good fun, sociable and had positive benefits in terms of professional development. As such, we encourage you to get involved in your institutional PAL schemes.

The higher education landscape is shifting under neo-liberal forces that are increasingly aligning the goals of business, government and education. This shift is engendering debate around the world about the role of higher education institutions in producing employable graduates to feed national prosperity in the emerging knowledge economy. As this evolution continues, we need to consider how we enhance generic graduate capabilities as well as the disciplinary expertise of our undergraduate students. Our graduates should possess the knowledge, skills and values to enable them to cope with dynamic employment opportunities, but they must also understand, through the benefits and constraints of their disciplinary perspectives, who they are and how they might contribute positively to the heterogeneity they will encounter in their local, regional and global communities.

This paper examines undergraduate student perceptions of the learning utility of video podcasts. The perceived and actual effectiveness of the technology was assessed by written questionnaire, focus groups and assessment results. The podcasts were perceived as effective in supporting learning, largely by offering a flexible and visual learning experience. They were also viewed as a useful resource for revision and assessment, stimulating factual recall. There were no significant differences, however, between examination grades from cohorts prior to and post-adoption of podcasts. There is a need to unite the technology with reflective discussion and critical application in a social constructivist framework.

This paper reviews the opportunities and challenges for re-framing the purpose, process, product and assessment of final-year geography dissertations. It argues that the academic centralities of critical thinking, analysis, evaluation, effective communication and independence must be retained, but that the traditional format limits creativity and innovation. Re-imagining capstone projects has implications for students, faculty, departments and institutions, but greater diversity could enhance its relevance to students and employers, better aligning the student experience with the academic interests and future career demands of the 21st century graduate.