Dr Jonathan William Firth
Principal Teaching Fellow
Strathclyde Institute of Education
Personal statement
I am a Senior Teaching Fellow at Strathclyde’s Institute of Education. The main focus of my teaching, scholarship and research is the application of cognitive psychology to education. I lead the BA Joint Honours Education Studies at the Institute, teach across several other courses, carry out research, and supervise students.
Prior to working at Strathclyde I gained experience of school teaching and adult education, including more than 15 years as a secondary school teacher. I also write textbooks and books for teachers, most recently ‘Metacognition and Study Skills’ (David Fulton Books, 2024).
Publications
- Can roleplaying games be educational? : The Strathclyde Institute of Education’s Jonathan Firth discusses the educational role of Dungeons & Dragons and similar games.
- Firth Jonathan William
- (2026)
- SoTL as entrepreneurial practice : a collaborative autoethnography of networked pedagogical inquiry
- Jameson Molly, Williams Damien, Firth Jonathan William, Sypek Katarzyna, Sharif Abdul
- Learning and Teaching Day 2026 @ Strathclyde (2026)
- Difficulties with Educational Ease
- Firth Jonathan William, Wang Gebing
- (2026)
- Teacher-ready research review interleaving : implications for lectures
- Firth Jonathan
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology Vol 12, pp. 351–360 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000464
- Some Principles of Good Academic Writing for Students : The Strathclyde Institute of Education’s Jonathan Firth and Allan Blake demystify the process and provide practical tips for new students.
- Firth Jonathan William, Blake Allan
- (2026)
- The Potential of Fan Fiction for Developing Creative Skills
- Firth Jonathan William
- Autobiography, Fan Fiction, and Education (2025) (2025)
Research Interests
My research interests focus on the psychology of memory and metacognition as it applies to learning, as well as learning theories, higher-order skills, assessment, and teachers' professional learning. Applications of these interests include teaching strategies, educational interventions for critical thinking, approaches to teacher education, and professional engagement in evidence-based practice.
Professional Activities
- Transitions and barriers: Scottish school study to 1st year university
- Speaker
- 16/6/2026
- Hatano’s adaptive expertise: An overlooked educational insight
- Speaker
- 20/3/2026
- Educational Ease and Desirable Difficulties
- Participant
- 6/11/2025
- Breadth of knowledge, transfer and usefulness in Higher Education
- Speaker
- 10/10/2025
- Heads need more support to make most of PEF
- Recipient
- 8/7/2025
- Understanding Metacognition: Strategies for University Educators
- Speaker
- 10/3/2025
Projects
- Writing retreat focussing on education essay
- Firth, Jonathan William (Principal Investigator)
- I organised a series of writing retreats in connection with the APT Education research sub-theme. The sessions had a focus on supporting colleagues/students to write essays on the theme of consciousness/conscious experience.
- 01-Jan-2025 - 18-Jan-2025
- Columba 1400 Senior Leadership Academy for Police Scotland
- Sosu, Edward (Principal Investigator) Firth, Jonathan William (Principal Investigator) Wilson, Claire (Co-investigator) Chen, Yueling (Post Grad Student)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2024
- Columba 1400 Head Teachers’ Leadership Academy: A Retrospective Evaluation Study
- Wilson, Claire (Principal Investigator) Sosu, Edward (Co-investigator) Firth, Jonathan William (Co-investigator) Chen, Yueling (Post Grad Student)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 29-Jan-2024
- Columba 1400 Head Teachers’ Leadership Academy: A Retrospective Evaluation Study
- Sosu, Edward (Principal Investigator) Firth, Jonathan William (Co-investigator) Wilson, Claire (Co-investigator) Chen, Yueling (Post Grad Student) Liu, Jia (Post Grad Student)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 29-Jan-2024
- Columba 1400 Head Teachers’ Leadership Academy: An Evaluation Study
- Sosu, Edward (Principal Investigator) Firth, Jonathan William (Co-investigator) Wilson, Claire (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2024
- Memory and Metacognition Updates
- Firth, Jonathan William (Principal Investigator)
- As part of my knowledge exchange work, I write a weekly newsletter during term time with explainers of research and theories related to memory, metacognition, and other closely related concepts, including case studies and applications to teaching and lecturing. This has been shared via Substack.
- 21-Jan-2022
Contact
Dr
Jonathan William
Firth
Principal Teaching Fellow
Strathclyde Institute of Education
Email: jonathan.firth@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 444 8069