Collaborative Health, Education, Self and Society (CHESS) Lab

The CHESS lab is a multi-disciplinary research group working together to collaboratively solve real-world problems “in the wild”. We are particularly interested in applied research focusing on education, health and wellbeing.

label Research theme

Research themes

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Dr Lillian Smyth

About

The Lab works collaboratively on three core foci:

  • Understanding, developing and innovating student experience, teaching and learning approaches, and student outcomes in Higher Education
  • Exploring the roles of self-concept, identity, social interaction, self-expression (including the creative arts), tolerance for uncertainty and leadership skills in student and professional education, development and wellbeing.
  • Exploring the nexus between social science, art and education, and creating opportunities for transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary education and communication.

Each lab leader also leads a specialisation group with a specific focus:

  • The Webb group: technology enhanced learning and teaching
  • The Valter group: authentic assessment approaches in anatomy and medical education
  • The Smyth group: self-concept and social identity, particularly in the context of participation in health and education systems
  • The Aggio-Bruce group: using visual communication approaches to translate research findings and ideas to a broad range of stakeholders and professionals.

Publications

Walker, S., Campbell, S., Smyth, L., Platow, M. J., Venville, G., & Willis, T. (2024). ‘Why can't people see or understand or make that effort to see who I am?’: documenting the experiences of low socioeconomic students at an elite tertiary institution through a social identity lens. The Australian Educational Researcher, 1-21.

Rathbone, J. A., Smyth, L., & Cruwys, T. (2024). A mixed-methods investigation of weight bias reduction in medical students. Fat Studies, 13(3), 319-337.

Rivera, K. M., Smyth, L., Pike-Rowney, G., & West, S. (2024). Are we all anxious about the same thing? A comparison of lay definitions of music making and performance in the context of music participation. Psychology of Music, 03057356241256958.

Sharma, A., Smyth, L., Jian, H., Vargas, N., Bowles, D., & Hunter, A. (2024). Are we teaching the health impacts of climate change in a clinically relevant way? A systematic narrative review of biomechanism-focused climate change learning outcomes in medical curricula. Medical teacher, 46(3), 414-422.

Aland, R. C., Hugo, H. J., Battle, A., Donkin, R., McDonald, A., McGowan, H., Nealon, J. R., Ritchie, H., Stirling, A., Tentrisanna, M., Valter, K., & Xiao, J. (2023). A plethora of choices: an anatomists’ practical perspectives for the selection of digital anatomy resources. Smart Learning Environments, 10(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00285-3

Attard, R., Smyth, L., Ollis, L., Valter, K., & Webb, A. L. (2023). Is it the same, socially? Fully online learning and its impacts on social identification, academic performance and confidence. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(8), 1855-1873.

Woodley, S. J., Green, R. A., & Webb, A. L. (2023). A core musculoskeletal anatomy syllabus for undergraduate physical therapy student education. Clinical Anatomy, 36(2), 190-223. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/ca.23953

Crossing, E., Smyth, L., Valter, K., & Webb, A. (2022). Visualizing the Human Body Using an Artistic Approach. In Biomedical Visualisation: Volume 13–The Art, Philosophy and Science of Observation and Imaging (pp. 129-148). Springer International Publishing Cham.

Fuller, R., Goddard, V. C. T., Nadarajah, V. D., Treasure-Jones, T., Yeates, P., Scott, K., Webb, A., Valter, K., & Pyorala, E. (2022). Technology enhanced assessment: Ottawa consensus statement and recommendations. Medical teacher, 44(8), 836-850. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2022.2083489

Smyth, L., Roushdy, S., Jeyasingham, J., Whitbread, J., O’Brien, P., Lloyd, C., Lueck, C. J., Hawkins, C. A., Reynolds, G., & Perriman, D. (2022). Clinician perspectives on rapid transition to telehealth during COVID-19 in Australia–a qualitative study. Australian Health Review, 47(1), 92-99.

Smyth, L., Banas, K., & Mavor, K. I. (2022). Calculating self-concept structure indices, including Linville’s H: toward standardization and replication. Collabra: Psychology, 8(1), 38597.

Webb, A. L., Smyth, L., Hafiz, M., & Valter, K. (2022). The question of dissection in medical training: Not just “if,” but “when”? A student perspective. Anatomical Sciences Education, 15(2), 281-290.

Smyth, L., Carter, J., Valter, K., & Webb, A. L. (2021). Examining the short‐, medium‐, and long‐term success of an embodied learning activity in the study of hand anatomy for clinical application. Anatomical Sciences Education, 14(2), 201-209.

Sandars, J., Correia, R., Dankbaar, M., de Jong, P., Goh, P. S., Hege, I., Masters, K., Oh, S. Y., Patel, R., Premkumar, K., Webb, A., & Pusic, M. (2020). Twelve tips for rapidly migrating to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. MedEdPublish (2016), 9, 82. https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2020.000082.1

Pather, N., Blyth, P., Chapman, J. A., Dayal, M. R., Flack, N. A. M. S., Fogg, Q. A., Green, R. A., Hulme, A. K., Johnson, I. P., Meyer, A. J., Morley, J. W., Shortland, P. J., Štrkalj, G., Štrkalj, M., Valter, K., Webb, A. L., Woodley, S. J., & Lazarus, M. D. (2020). Forced Disruption of Anatomy Education in Australia and New Zealand: An Acute Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Anatomical Sciences Education, 13(3), 284-300. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1968

Burgis-Kasthala, S., Elmitt, N., Smyth, L., & Moore, M. (2019). Predicting future performance in medical students. A longitudinal study examining the effects of resilience on low and higher performing students. Medical teacher, 41(10), 1184-1191.

O'Rourke, J. C., Smyth, L., Webb, A. L., & Valter, K. (2019). How Can We Show You, If You Can't See It? Trialing the Use of an Interactive Three‐Dimensional Micro‐CT Model in Medical Education. Anatomical Sciences Education.

Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., & Gray, L. R. (2019). Not just who you are, but who you were before: Social identification, identity incompatibility, and performance‐undermining learning behaviour in higher education. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 29(6), 474-491.

Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., & Platow, M. J. (2019). Social identification and academic performance: Integrating two existing models of tertiary student learning. Educational Psychology, 39(3), 409-425.

Smyth, L., Chandra, V., & Mavor, K. I. (2018). Social identification and normative conflict: When student and educator learning norms collide. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48(6), 293-303.

Smyth, L. (2017). The modifying role of perceived norms. Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts, 223.

McNeill, K. G., Smyth, L., & Mavor, K. I. (2017b). The complexity of medical education: Social identity and normative influence in well-being and approaches to learning. In Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts (pp. 320-338). Routledge.

Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., & Platow, M. J. (2017). Learning behaviour and learning outcomes: the roles for social influence and field of study. Social Psychology of Education, 20, 69-95.

Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J., & Grace, D. M. (2017). Understanding social identity in education. Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts, 223.

Bouwer, H. E., Valter, K., & Webb, A. L. (2016). Current integration of dissection in medical education in Australia and New Zealand: Challenges and successes. Anatomical Sciences Education, 9(2), 161-170. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1559

Smyth, L., Davila, F., Sloan, T., Rykers, E., Backwell, S., & Jones, S. B. (2016). How science really works: the student experience of research-led education. Higher education, 72, 191-207.

Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I., Platow, M. J., Grace, D. M., & Reynolds, K. J. (2015). Discipline social identification, study norms and learning approach in university students. Educational Psychology, 35(1), 53-72. 

More information

The lab is open to students intrested in undertaking a research project.

Learn more

Members

Leader

Riemke Aggio-Bruce

Lecturer in Anatomy, School of Medicine and Psychology

Associate Director Higher Degree by Research students (HDR), ANU School of Medicine and Psychology
Senior Lecturer Medical Education, ANU School of Medicine and Psychology

Krisztina Valter

Chair of Medical Science, Associate Professor in Anatomy, ANU School of Medicine and Psychology

Alexandra Webb

Associate Director Education (Medicine), ANU School of Medicine and Psychology
Associate Professor, Medical Education Unit

Location

Florey Building, 54 Mills Road, Acton

-35.282847161237, 149.11425765