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Mrs Annette Crisp

Job: Senior Lecturer in Policing, Psychology and Criminal Justice

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0)116 207 8793

E: acrisp@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/appliedsocialsciences

 

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Personal profile

Annette was responsible for the development of the Police Foundation Degree and Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) UCPD programmes at the University and has additionally  made contribution to the development of other areas of teaching and learning at DMU.  She is currently the Programme Leader for the Policing 'Top Up' programme which is taught by distance learning and the lead for collaberative provision within the Division of Community and Criminal Justice.

In addition to working on the completion of a PhD which is focussed on complexity within police management and procedure- Perceptions of Policing the Management of Change within the Police Service; Annette is presently involved in the production, development and application of Avatar based learning materials to support  teaching and learning.

Simulation and scenario based methods have additionally been utilised in order to  develop and apply creative principles to utilise and visually represent research data.

Annette's research is essentially yoked with an academic interest in policing, and areas of teaching about criminal justice organisation. It currently focuses on the analysis of processes related to policing, particularly those associated with organisational change and chaos or complexity theory.

Research group affiliations

Policing and Criminal Justice  

Publications and outputs

  • PuzzlEd: RAISE
    PuzzlEd: RAISE O'Sullivan, Angela; Nichols-Drew, L.; Bacon, Joanne; Bassford, Marie; Crisp, Annette; Fowler, Mark R. In this interactive workshop, the HE Advance CATE (Spotlight) Award winning CrashEd team from De Montfort University will showcase our current innovative venture, PuzzlEd. Whereas CrashEd was the culmination of interdisciplinary subject specialisms including Criminology, Forensic Science, Physics, Maths and Policing, PuzzlEd has evolved from our differentiated personal learning styles. Between the team members, our varied strengths are represented including words (anagrams and homophones), associations (shapes, numbers, colours), language and images. By working together as partners, we have evolved our original collaborations which has culminated in an immersive and engaging pedagogic tool, that accommodates a range of learning styles and in doing so promotes teamwork and peer feedback. The purpose of PuzzlEd is to utilise the popular genre of escape rooms, whereby participants face tasks against the clock. We have created our challenges influenced from our own learning styles, resulting in an array of logic puzzles which when solved generate padlock codes leading to further clues. Underpinning PuzzlEd are numerous theoretical approaches such as Constructivist, Humanist and Connectivist, enabling scaffolding of learning and transformative opportunities. Utilising technology via computerised avatars as narrators further enhances the PuzzlEd experience for participants. This is a novel approach to teaching, learning and assessment, which will inspire and empower the higher education community. Workshop at 2019 RAISE Pedagogic Conference in Newcastle
  • PuzzlEd: Playful Learning
    PuzzlEd: Playful Learning Nichols-Drew, L.; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bassford, Marie; Crisp, Annette; Bacon, Joanne; Fowler, Mark This interactive Playful Activity Session presents our current novel endeavour, PuzzlEd, being developed by the successful Advance HE CATE (Spotlight) 2018 award winning team CrashEd (Angela O’Sullivan [NTF], Marie Bassford, Annette Crisp, Joanne Bacon, Mark Fowler, Marisol Martinez-Lees and Leisa Nichols-Drew). This innovative project, replicates the inter-disciplinary and constructivist team ethos of CrashEd, whereby our scholarship and knowledge, stemming from good practice, provides the pedagogic foundation of PuzzlEd as a learning, teaching and assessment tool. PuzzlEd provides a unique opportunity for participants, utilising the experiential and engaging principles of escape room activities, to learn new concepts, whilst developing teamwork skills. An array of innovative and creative teaching and learning approaches will be demonstrated to nurture problem solving skills and encourage lateral thinking. Additionally, the involvement of computerised avatars throughout the activity, highlights the theory of connectivism in our technology facilitated practice. Participants will find the challenge of the ‘hands-on’ puzzles immersive, building bridges across inter-disciplinary subjects and scaffolds of knowledge through the experiential learning of solving progressively complex and interlinked puzzles. Cohesively working together, groups of participants will also have the opportunity to work to their individual strengths and learning preferences, solving abstract puzzles, anagrams and a range of other practical logic problems to literally unlock the padlocks. In doing so, they will not only reveal formative assessment answers, but the key to successfully engaging students in fun, interdisciplinary tasks to embed learning. As in any escape room scenario, the task is against the clock. Therefore, participants are briefly introduced to the task to maximise actual participation time, with a subsequent 15 minute plenary discussion, to identify essential factors that make this imaginative approach transferable and engaging.
  • PuzzlEd
    PuzzlEd Nichols-Drew, L.; O'Sullivan, Angela; Crisp, Annette; Bacon, Joanne; Bassford, Marie; Fowler, Mark R. This interactive workshop showcases the next creative and innovative project, PuzzlEd, being developed by members of the successful Advance HE CATE (Spotlight) 2018 award winners, CrashEd, (Marie Bassford, Joanne Bacon, Annette Crisp, Leisa Nichols-Drew, Mark Fowler, Marisol Martinez-Lees and Angela O’Sullivan [NTF] ). The project emulates the successful constructivist and inter-disciplinary approach employed in CrashEd, ensuring that the knowledge and scholarship developed by the team’s good practice underpins the pedagogy of PuzzlEd as a teaching, learning and assessment tool. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience PuzzlEd which uses the principles of escape rooms to engage learners to develop teamwork skills whilst learning new concepts. A range of creative and innovative teaching and learning tools will be employed to encourage abstract thinking and nurture problem solving skills. Participants will be immersed in the challenge, building scaffolds of knowledge and bridges across inter-disciplinary subjects with a range of 'hands on' puzzles. Teams of participants will have the opportunity to work to their strengths, solving anagrams, abstract puzzles and a range of other practical logic problems to literally unlock the padlock to reveal not only the answer to the formative assessment but the answer to engaging students in fun, interdisciplinary tasks to embed learning. Like any good escape room scenario the task is against the clock and so participants will have a brief introduction to the task and a 15 minute plenary discussion afterwards to identify the key factors that make this creative approach engaging and transferable. Faculties of HLS, CEM and interdisciplinary research.
  • ‘Co-creation’ The experiences of student researchers in a ‘co-creation assessment project’ with academic staff.
    ‘Co-creation’ The experiences of student researchers in a ‘co-creation assessment project’ with academic staff. Crisp, Annette; Hine, Jean; Quinlan, Christina; Turgoose, Di Delivered to ULTAs 2017 Conference entitled Transformative & Co-created Education & 21st Century experience
  • The Co-creation, Connectivism and Collaboration Jigsaw; assembling the puzzle pieces for a successful multi-disciplinary student learning experience
    The Co-creation, Connectivism and Collaboration Jigsaw; assembling the puzzle pieces for a successful multi-disciplinary student learning experience Bassford, Marie; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bacon, Joanne; Crisp, Annette; Nichols-Drew, L.; Fowler, Mark R. CrashEd is a multi-disciplinary, cross-Faculty, University project that arose from five academics’ collaborative commitment to develop a car crash scenario as a widening participation activity. The success of the outreach project culminated in the inspiration to develop more academically challenging forensic scenarios for study at Higher Education level. The ethos of the Forensic Investigation module is on realistic, scenario-based learning and assessment methods, and involves subject specialists across five Schools, an FE college and the Leicestershire Constabulary. CrashEd team members and the police Forensic Crash Investigator have delivered their specialist expertise on anatomy and physiology, ballistics and trauma injuries to students on a local college FdA Theatrical Make-up and Special Effects course. These students have reciprocated the collaboration with the development of bespoke prosthetic resources designed from remits written by University Forensic Science students. The result is realistic latex ‘injuries’ for use as teaching and assessment tools for the new undergraduate module (optional for Physics, Mathematics, Criminology and Forensic Science students). This is a novel example of students working as co-creators. This study involves an investigation into the practicalities, benefits and challenges of co-creation and collaborative work; for example, the expanded specialist knowledge base available to the Physics and Maths undergraduates has provided them with wider vocational career awareness. The connectivist approach has stretched students to think across subject boundaries; a great motivator that has enhanced student engagement. The specialist resources provided by the police have enabled students to learn from real life simulations; a truly ‘hands on’ experiential learning environment.
  • CrashEd - A live immersive, learning experience embedding STEM subjects in a realistic, interactive crime scene
    CrashEd - A live immersive, learning experience embedding STEM subjects in a realistic, interactive crime scene Bassford, Marie; Crisp, Annette; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bacon, Joanne; Fowler, Mark R. Interactive experiences are rapidly becoming popular via the surge of ‘escape rooms’: Part game, part theatre, they are exploding globally, having gone from zero at the outset of 2010 to at least 2800 world-wide today. CrashEd is an interactive learning experience that parallels many of the attractions of an escape room – it incorporates a staged, realistic ‘crime scene’ and invites participants to work together to gather forensic evidence and question a witness in order to solve a crime, all against the backdrop of a ticking clock. An animation can enhance reality and engage with cognitive processes to help learning; in CrashEd it is the last piece of the jigsaw that embeds the students’ incremental acquisition of knowledge to tie together the pieces of evidence, identify a suspect and ultimately solve the crime. This paper presents the background to CrashEd and an overview of how a timely placed animation at the end of an educational experience can enhance learning. Our lessons learned from delivering bespoke tailored versions of the experience to different ages and demographics are discussed. The paper will consider the successes and challenges raised by the collaborative project, future developments and potential wider implications of the development of CrashEd. Open Access journal
  • Real Engagement
    Real Engagement Bassford, Marie; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bacon, Joanne; Crisp, Annette; Fowler, Mark R. Pedagogical practice in STEM education is directed to authentic learning approaches in order to engage students and develop graduates with the skills employers demand. This pecha kucha considers the outcomes of this approach to learning and assessment in a physics and mathematics module at De Montfort University. The collaborative CrashEd project was developed by university Teacher Fellows, academic specialists, police crime scene investigators and and an FE college Theatrical Make-up and Special Effects department. The result is a ‘real life’ car crash. Undergraduates have been taught a wide range of forensic crash investigation skills on a cross-faculty module by academics and police staff. These include criminology, blood pattern analysis, skid mark and light bulb analysis alongside forensic entomology and palynology (creepy crawlies and pollen!) Teaching and formative assessments utilise realistic learning tools including the university’s forensic house and a bespoke crashed car. Qualitative evidence drawn from multiple deliveries of the course suggest that authentic assessment is a valuable tool for improving student learning outcomes and delivering key insights into workplace practices. Students were enthused by this novel approach; “It was such a refreshing change to our usual assessments”. Academics were equally enthused by the professionalism displayed by the students as they became emersed in the realism of the summative assessment investigation. This involved students collating evidence at the scene of a fatal car crash, complete with a realistically injured manikin. Assessment has never been such fun, both for the students and the academics!
  • Perceptions of Policing: An Investigation into Modern Community Policing Responses through the Management, Administration & Development of the Police Community Support Officer in Leicester
    Perceptions of Policing: An Investigation into Modern Community Policing Responses through the Management, Administration & Development of the Police Community Support Officer in Leicester Crisp, Annette This thesis provides an examination of the historical development and changing management of community policing by reflecting the impact of complexity on the work and role of modern police process, as particularly exhibited in the function and role of the Police Community Support Officer (PCSO). The research, which is central to the review, combines the perceptions of front line police ranks, police managers and members of the public to consider whether their expectations of community policing are the same. Subject responses to scenario based questions associated with common incidents to which the police might respond, were visually mapped and subsequently compared. The resulting maps indicate that there are, in some cases, significant differences between actions and expectations of the three study groups. This highlights the impact and influence of complex systems on police process, evidencing the need to apply and be aware of alternative methods to resolve complex problems in the community.
  • Crime Scenes: cultivating colleagueship and enabling connectivist learning
    Crime Scenes: cultivating colleagueship and enabling connectivist learning Bassford, Marie; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bacon, Joanne; Crisp, Annette; Fowler, Mark R. A cross-Faculty collaboration has brought together five academics from a variety of disciplines at De Montfort University (DMU), resulting in a novel project that inspires year 8-12 students to learn collaboratively and apply their mathematics, physics and other classroom learning in a practical context. The exercise centres around the collision of a real motor vehicle on campus at DMU and a realistic injured manikin. Along the way students have to question a witness, measure skid marks to calculate speed and collate additional forensic evidence to enable them to identify the cause of the crash. An animated film finally shows the cause of the accident – texting while driving. Ainsworth’s six different levels of explanation that can and should be evoked to understand learning with animation [1] are explored as part of this paper, namely a) expressive, b) cognitive, motor and perceptual, c) affective and motivational, d) strategic, e) metacognitive and f) rhetorical. An animation can enhance reality and engage with cognitive processes to help learning and in our project is the last piece of the jigsaw that embeds the student’s incremental acquisition of knowledge to tie together the pieces of evidence, identify a suspect and ultimately solve the crime. The ‘hands on’ initiative was initially developed for a TeenTech event in April 2014 and hosted at the University. Since then, more than 200 school pupils along with visitors at three university-wide open days have participated in this practical challenge. Collaboration with local police Crash Scene Investigators (CSI) and Artistic Make-Up and Special Effects (AMSE) students from a Leicester college helped to increase the authenticity of the project. It has proven especially effective as a way to enthuse and motivate pupils identified as disengaged from education and demonstrates the importance of connective knowledge requiring an interaction. Downes posed ‘Is the knowledge being produced the product of an interaction between the members, or is it a (mere) aggregation of the members’ perspectives?’ [2]. We have observed that a different type of knowledge is indeed produced when student learners interact as a network to solve a crime and concurs with one of Siemen’s principle of connectivism, namely that the ‘ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill’ [3]. We will discuss the successes and challenges raised by the collaborative project, and consider the numerous nodes and connections in our network as well as future developments and potential wider implications. [1] Ainsworth, S. (2008). How do animations influence learning? In D. Robinson & G. Schraw (Eds.), Current Perspectives on Cognition, Learning, and Instruction: Recent Innovations in Educational Technology that Facilitate Student Learning. pp 37-67: Information Age Publishing. [2] Downes, S. (2007). An Introduction to Connective Knowledge, Media, Knowledge & Education – Exploring new Spaces, Relations and Dynamics in Digital Media Ecologies. Proceedings of the International Conference held on June 25-26, 2007. [3] Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Vol. 2 No. 1.
  • The Evidence: Translating a crime scene outreach activity for school pupils into a Higher Education module whilst maintaining student engagement
    The Evidence: Translating a crime scene outreach activity for school pupils into a Higher Education module whilst maintaining student engagement Bassford, Marie; O'Sullivan, Angela; Bacon, Joanne; Crisp, Annette; Fowler, Mark R. In April 2014, a team of academics at [anonymised] University developed a ‘hands on’ outreach initiative for year 8 school pupils attending a TeenTech event. A realistic crime scene was set: the pupils, dressed in forensic overalls, approached the ‘live’ scene of a crime whereby a car had just crashed, a ‘body’ lay injured in the vehicle and a distressed witness was causing havoc nearby. On cue a Police Officer approached the scene of the crime and the children were led through a process of gathering evidence and interviewing the witness in order to identify the cause of the crash. In the past year, the outreach activity has been incorporated into numerous other on-campus school visits and university-wide open days, with more than 200 school pupils to date participating in our practical challenge. The age range of participants has naturally increased to include pupils in year 8 to year 12, and accordingly the content and pitch of the activity has evolved significantly. Feedback from schools and TeenTech organisers has been extremely positive; student engagement is exceptionally high. It has proven especially effective as a way to enthuse and motivate pupils identified as disengaged from education. The academic team recently acquired University funding to adapt and enhance the scenario to develop a new cross-Faculty module on Forensic Investigation aimed at Physics, Mathematics and Forensics undergraduates. The translation of a single, focused activity lasting between 20-30 minutes into a 12-week module involves significant new material development, however the ethos of the module will continue to centre about our innovative ‘hands on’ crime solving scenarios. This is because with striking consistency, studies show that innovative, active, collaborative, and constructivist instructional approaches shape learning more powerfully, in some forms by substantial margins, than do conventional lecture- discussion and text-based approaches [1]. Another step towards the improvement of student engagement is the provision of clear, immediate feedback. Our crime scene scenario concludes with an animated film that shows the cause of the accident – texting while driving, which immediately confirms the students’ success or otherwise in solving the crime. This paper presents our collaborative experiences in translating a successful school activity into a HE module, and includes the benefits and challenges to raising the academic level whilst maintaining student engagement. [1] Pascarella, E.T. and Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How college affects students, Volume 2, A Third Decade of Research, p.646, San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Click here to view a full listing of Annette Crisp's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

Book Chapters

Crisp A and Ward D (2008) Policing the Community in the 21st Century in Stout B, Yates J and Williams B (eds)‘Applied Criminology’ London Sage.

Crisp A (2013) The Education and Training of Police Community Support Officers in Stanislas, P (ed) ‘International Perspectives on Police Education and Training’ London Routledge.

Research Papers

Ward D and Crisp A (2005) A Quality Audit of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP) 2004-2005 unpublished London Home Office.

Atherton S and Crisp A (2011) Top Cats the role of Leadership in Community Justice British Journal of Community Justice Vol 9:1/2.

Crisp A (2012) The use of Avatar based learning as a Medium for Criminal Justice Education British Journal of Community Justice 10 (1), pp. 15-26.

Research interests/expertise

Annette is currently undertaking the final year of a PhD which focuses on the impact of complex systems on police management proceedures.She is additonally working on research in relation to the use of Avatars to support learning. 

Annette has contributed examples of her research, which reflects creative approaches to the presentation of research data to the following web-site:

creativeresearchmethods.wordpress.com/

Areas of teaching

  • International Pespectives on Crime and Criminology
  • Media and Crime
  • Victimology
  • Policing
  • Diversity and Ethics
  • Management and Leadership
  • Forensic Psychology and Crime

Qualifications

  

  • BA Combined (hons), 2ii

Psychology, English & Information Technology.

Leicester University

(1993).

 

  • MSc

Security, Management and Information Technology

Leicester University

(1994)

  • Postgraduate Award

Portfolio for ILTHE membership awarded

De Montfort University Leicester

(2005)

 

  • Currently PhD Student (P/T)

De Montfort University Leicester

(2008)

 

Courses taught

Currently Annette teaches in the following areas:

Policing

Criminology

Criminal Justice

Membership of professional associations and societies

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Awarded  January 2010

 

Projects

Annette, with a colleague from the Business School Ros Lishman, is currently recruiting a student to work with them on a Front Runners Project which will focus on the use of Avatars in teaching and Learning. 

Conference attendance

Conference Papers

Crisp A and Hill P (2008) Review of the Introduction of IPLDP in Leicestershire Policing Education Conference Northampton University.

Crisp A (2010) The Perceptions of Police Training by Student Police Officers- POLCON Conference University of Central Lancashire.

Crisp A (2013) The use of avatars to prepare for practice- Cultural Exchanges Conference De Montfort University.

Crisp A (2013) It’s not just Max Payne or Black Ops 2 you know; The use of[Avatar technology in teaching police officers POLCON Conference Canterbury University.

 

Consultancy work

Module Leader Police Management Programme Norfolk  2009-12

 

Consultant to Business School - Employed to provide training in the Management of Ethics and Diversity for  Police Sergeants and Inspectors 

Case studies

The use of Avatar generated/supported learning has made an impact on teaching within the area of criminal justice and media studies. 

The following represents comments from some of our final year students.

 'I have used them in both International Perspectives and Victimology as well as Media and crime last year, I have found them invaluable. Some of my mates on other courses have said they wouldn’t mind something like that with the level of content and such, as when they have missed a lecture due to illness it would be good to be able to find out still what was talked about'.

 ‘I think they're useful and show just how much effort she puts into our learning. They help make her lectures different and engaging’ .

 ‘I think they are really good and provide extra understanding and context to the lecture, I particularly liked the avatar exercise that we did on offender profiling with rape victims, it was very useful and a very engaging activity’ .