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.

Teaching responsibilities

Victoria contributes lectures on all 3 years of the BSc Psychology degree at Portsmouth, including: Developmental Psychology (Year 2); Issues in Language Development (Year 3); Applications of Psychology (Year 1); Practicals (Years 1 and 2). In addition Victoria is personal tutor to several Year 1 and 2 tutor groups.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications and Presentations before 2008

• 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.