Rate My Professor Sarah Ainscough

In her current teaching-focused role, Ainscough pursues scholarship of teaching and learning research to foster student development as learners, citizens, and future healthcare professionals. Her academic interests center on self-regulated learning, self-efficacy, metacognitive strategies, curriculum design, and assessment in physiology and histology. She has secured funding via University of Queensland New Staff and Early Career research grants for studies on self-regulated learning and self-efficacy. Ainscough supervises undergraduate and Honours students in educational research methodologies and academic writing. Her influential publications in this domain encompass 'Navigating the second year slump: mindsets and learning strategies of biomedical science students' (2025), 'Mindset matters: exploring the link between mindsets, learning intentions, and performance in biomedical science students' (2025), 'Students' approaches to developing scientific communication skills' (2024), 'The anatomy of agency: Improving academic performance in first year university students' (2022), 'Do-it-yourself physiology labs: can hands-on laboratory classes be effectively replicated online?' (2021), 'Learning how to learn: can embedded discussion boards help first-year students discover new learning strategies?' (2020), and 'Changes in biology self-efficacy during a first-year university course' (2016). These works have contributed to advancing pedagogical practices in biomedical education, particularly for first-year STEM students.