Psychology

Profile

PhD, 2009: University of Portsmouth
MSc, 2005: University of Portsmouth
BSc (Hons) Psychology, 2003: University of Portsmouth
BEd (Hons) 1992: Middlesex University.

Background

Victoria graduated from Middlesex University in 1992 with a BEd (Hons). Following this she taught full time in a Primary school for eight years. During this time she became IT and English coordinator for Key Stage 1. Victoria developed a keen interest in children's language and literacy acquisition, which she had the opportunity to develop further at the University of Portsmouth. She graduated in 2003 with a first class honours degree in Psychology. After finishing an MSc in Psychological Research Methods, Victoria was awarded an ESRC PhD studentship in 2006. She was awarded her PhD in 2009; her thesis was entitled “Structure, logic and meaning; a route to reading and spelling”.

Victoria’s PhD comprised 4 intervention studies involving over 400 primary school children. It compared the results of teaching children explicitly about morphology, etymology, phonology, and rules about form, with traditional phonic-based methods. The interventions were shown to be effective; it was found that children, even as young as 5 years, are able to appreciate the complex nature of their own writing system and that this understanding leads to improved reading and spelling.

Research

In addition to continuing research on children’s reading and spelling, Victoria is also a Research Fellow on the ‘Changing Mindsets’ project: Hoskins, S. & Devonshire, V. (2012) Changing Mindsets £368,460- funded by Education Endowment Fund.

Teaching responsibilities

Unit coordinator:  Language and Communication (Level 6)

Victoria contributes lectures on all 3 years of the BSc Psychology degree at Portsmouth, including: Developmental Psychology (Level 5); Psychology of Everyday Life  (Level 4); Exploring Psychology (Level 4); Research Methods and Analysis (Level 5). In addition Victoria is personal tutor to several Level 4 and 5 tutor groups and supervises Level 6 project students.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Presentations

• Devonshire, V. & Fluck, M. (2008). Spelling Development; Fine-tuning strategy–use and capitalising on the connections children make between words. Poster Presented at the British Psychological Society, Developmental section. Oxford Brookes University.
• Devonshire, V. (2008). Structure, logic and meaning a route to reading and spelling. Presentation at Psychology Seminar Series, University of Portsmouth.
• Devonshire, V. (2008). A different approach to reading and spelling. Presented at Hook with Warsash Primary School, staff development session.
• Devonshire, V. (2005). A conceptual, orthographic model of spelling. MSc presentation. University of Portsmouth.
• Cameron, V.  (maiden name) (1991). On task and off task behaviour. In D. Struthers (Ed). A closer look at classroom research. London: Middlesex University.