Find out how visitor Peter Bannister changed after visiting CRADLE

15 May 2025

We were thrilled to host PhD candidate Peter Bannister from the International University of La Rioja in Spain recently for a three-month academic visitation with CRADLE His time spent at CRADLE not only resulted in scholarship development but exciting opportunities to continue collaborative research activities with CRADLE. Below, Peter reflects on his time and the outcomes of his visit.

Does anyone enjoy exams? I certainly didn’t as a student. Even as a teacher working with international students on English for Academic Purposes courses, assessment put me on edge. I became convinced that things could be done differently, and it was then that I came across the sector-leading work of the CRADLE team. Being enthusiastic about all things assessment didn’t exactly make me very popular amongst colleagues at the time, but it did inform my decision to leave my role and pursue full time PhD study in Spain.

With a focus on Generative AI and English Medium HE assessment, CRADLE was the clear first choice for my international doctoral research stay. Thanks to the funding and support of my home institution, International University of La Rioja (UNIR), I was able to spend three months in the company of Professor Phill Dawson and the CRADLE team.

Despite initial nerves, I was pleasantly surprised during my first week that the leading lights of the field took a genuine interest in the work of this academic novice and generously offered their time and expertise.

Having now concluded my time at CRADLE, I am excited to continue working on several forthcoming publications which broaden the scope of my initial PhD studies and centre on:

the use of GenAI in scientific writing,

GenAI authorship accusation by journal editors and peer reviewers, and

the implications for knowledge in student-GenAI interactions

I am most grateful to Professor Phill Dawson, Dr Thomas Corbin, Dr Jack Walton, and Dr Juuso Nieminen for their guidance and collaboration on these projects. I also extend my thanks to Dr Joanna Tai and the CRADLE PhD students for the opportunity to be involved with the graduate researcher programme throughout my stay. In particular, my thanks to Türkan, Pearl, Kaiyu, Xin, and Tegan who went above and beyond to ensure that I felt part of the team.

This experience has been a watershed moment in my academic career. At CRADLE, I found something exceptionally rare. The conversations were rigorous, the critiques constructive, and the collaborative spirit refreshingly authentic. On my return to Spain, I realise that my approach to scholarship has fundamentally shifted.

The true value of this doctoral research stay wasn’t just in what I learned, but in how it changed the researcher I’m becoming.

About Peter Bannister

Peter Bannister is a pre-doctoral Fellow at the International University of La Rioja in Spain. He has a decade-long career in English Language Teaching and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the UK, Spain and China. He has published and presented nationally and internationally on diverse matters such as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), gamification in Higher Education, L2 (critical) listening pedagogy and assessment, and the role of EAP in transnational education partnerships.

At present his research currently focuses on generative AI in English Medium Instruction (EMI) didactic settings and its implications for teaching, learning and assessment. He has a number of forthcoming international publications in press to this end.