Dr Josie Booth

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Developmental Psychology

Biography

Background

Dr Josie Booth is a Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in Moray House School of Education and Sport. Josie is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS). Josie's research expertise is in cognitive development and links with health. For example, Josie has led research into The Daily Mile, which is a school based physical activity programme now undertaken by more than 3 million children globally. 

Josie undertook her ESRC funded PhD in the School of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde. Following this, Josie was employed as a postdoctoral researcher within the Physical Activity for Health group at the University of Strathclyde. 

Josie then held an academic position at the University of Dundee, before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2015.

Responsibilities & affiliations

-  Associate Editor for Frontiers (https://www.frontiersin.org/)

- Associate Editor for PLoS ONE (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/)

Postgraduate teaching

I am the pathway co-ordinator for MSc Education, Child and Adolescent Psychology pathway. 

In addition, I contribute to the following courses: 

  • Children and Young People 1 and 2 (Course organiser)
  • Child and Adolescent Development

  • Psychology of Learning and Teaching 

  • PGDE Primary

  • Psychology of Physical Activity

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

  • Chuchu Li: The effect of classroom-based interventions that reduce sedentary behavior on school-aged children’s psychological and educational outcomes. Supervised jointly with Dr Sam Fawkner (PAHRC)
  • Niamh Hart: Impact of yoga in mainstreams schools. Supervised jointly with Dr Ailsa Niven and Dr Sam Fawkner
  • Heather Simpson: Investigating the impact of school deferral on cognition. Supervised jointly with Dr Nic Chevalier

Past PhD students supervised

  • Alexia Revueltas Roux: What does engagement look like? Understanding multimodality in engagement.  Funded by the Wellcome Trust, supervised jointly with Dr Andrew Manches
  • Margarita Kanevski: Identification of cognitive predictors to tailor mathematics learning interventions for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Funded by Carnegie Trust, supervised jointly with Sinead Rhodes and Andrew Stanfield 
  • Helen Weavers- The effect of a resistance training intervention on physical activity levels in youths, jointly with Dr Sam Fawkner (PAHRC) and Dr Audrey Duncan (University of Dundee)
  • Ghaleyah Alajmi- jointly with Dr Katie Cebula and Dr Gale MacLeod (IECS)

Research summary

Josie’s research seeks to understand and support how children learn and the relationship with their movement behaviour (e.g. physical activity, sedentary behaviour). Much of Josie’s research involves school based programmes which are often co-created with teachers and pupils, and includes neurodiverse populations, such as ADHD. Josie uses a range of methodology in her research, such as Randomised Controlled Trials, Secondary data analysis of longitudinal data sets, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses.  Josie is also interested in Psychometric testing and currently holds a place on the Register of Qualifications in Test Use (RQTU) with the British Psychological Society.

Knowledge exchange

To hear about Josie's research on The Daily Mile, see this film made to celebrate the 10th anniversary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUV9D7WYF3w&t=17s

To see Josie talk about her research, see her TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2m_UJFpQk

 

Project activity

 Josie’s research seeks to understand and support how children learn and the relationships with their health behaviour (e.g. physical activity and obesity). Much of Josie’s research involves school based programmes which are often co-created with teachers and pupils, and includes neurodiverse populations, such as ADHD. Josie uses a range of methodology in her research, such as Randomised Controlled Trials, Secondary data analysis of longitudinal data sets, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Current project grants

• 2022: Wellcome Trust Institutional Translational Partnership Award (WT iTPA) (£19, 945): “Development of a pre-diagnostic psycho-education support package for children referred for Neurodevelopmental Disorder”. With Dr Sinead Rhodes (PI) and Dr Tracy Stewart (Uni of Edinburgh).

• 2021-22: ESRC Impact Acceleration grant (£30,899.03) Principal investigator on grant “Move & read: enhancing teacher’s knowledge of novel approaches to teaching literacy.” Co-I’s Dr Sarah McGeown and Dr Zayba Ghazali-Mohammed (UOE).

• 2021-2022: Salvesen Mindroom Centre Scientific Advisory Board (£22,534) for project “Autism Spectrum Disorder and associations with literacy skills at the start of primary school”. In collaboration with Louise Marryat (PI), Sinead Rhodes, Anne O'Hare (all Uni of Edinburgh) & Rachael Wood (National Services Scotland)

• 2019-22: The Waterloo Foundation (£123, 000). Co-Investigator on grant “Development and feasibility of a learning intervention in children with ADHD”. With Dr Sinead Rhodes (PI) and Dr Tracy Stewart (Uni of Edinburgh).

Past project grants

• 2020: Wellcome Trust Institutional Translational Partnership Award (WT iTPA) (£4,983.00). “Co-production with teachers of materials to facilitate learning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders”. With Dr Sinead Rhodes (PI) and Dr Tracy Stewart (Uni of Edinburgh).

• 2017- 2020: Wellcome Trust/National Science Foundation (£701, 656). Funds awarded to Dr Andrew Manches (PI) for “Science Learning+: Move2Learn” project.

• 2017: University of Edinburgh CAHSS Knowledge Exchange and Impact Grant (£4550) plus Physiological Society (£3000). Principle Investigator on grant “Investigating physical activity with Terrific Scientific: joining the BBC to help kids learn about science.” In collaboration with Dr Naomi Brooks, Dr Colin Moran, Dr Trish Gorely and Mr Ross Chesham (all University of Stirling).

• 2017: University of Edinburgh Seedcorn Funding (£1367.82). Principal Investigator on grant “Investigating the feasibility of standing desks in classrooms: one way to close the gap?” In collaboration with Prof John Sproule, Dr Sam Fawkner (Uni of Edinburgh) and Dr Amanda Pitkethly (Edinburgh Napier University).

• 2017: The Sutton Trust (£2000). Joint Principal investigator on grant “Using the Daily Mile to turn the WHEEL (Wellbeing Health Enjoyment Exercise Learning): A pilot study to assess body composition, physical activity, cognition and wellbeing in pupils who take part in the daily mile”. In collaboration with Dr Naomi Brooks, Dr Colin Moran, Dr Gemma Ryde and Dr Trish Gorely (all University of Stirling).

• 2017: Cochrane Library (£5000). Co investigator for review “Lifestyle intervention for improving school achievement in overweight or obese children and adolescents”. In collaboration with Anne Martin (PI), Yvonne Laird, Dave Saunders, John Sproule (all Uni of Edinburgh) and John Reilly (University of Strathclyde).

• 2015-2016: University of Stirling (£8500). Joint Principal investigator on grant “Using the Daily Mile to turn the WHEEL (Wellbeing Health Enjoyment Exercise Learning): A pilot study to assess body composition, physical activity, cognition and wellbeing in pupils who take part in the daily mile”. In collaboration with Dr Naomi Brooks, Dr Colin Moran, Dr Iain Gallagher, Dr Gemma Ryde and Dr Trish Gorely (all University of Stirling).

• 2014-2015: Waterloo Foundation (£48,672). Principal investigator on grant “Physical Activity in Children with ADHD and Reading Difficulties: Impact on Cognition and Behaviour”. Co-investigators: Prof John Reilly and Prof Jim Boyle (University of Strathclyde) and Prof Phil Tomporowski and Dr Bryan McCullick (University of Georgia).

View all 52 publications on Research Explorer

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