The UQ Learning Lab warmly congratulates Dr Jonathan Brazil, whose PhD was conferred in February 2026. Jonathan's doctoral research focused on understanding and supporting university students' use of effective study strategies, a deceptively hard problem, since students often rely on strategies that do little to strengthen long-term retention, and most interventions have had only limited success in shifting study behaviour.
To address this, Jonathan proposed the IMPACT Framework, a new approach to designing learning-strategy interventions that integrates student insights, self-regulated learning theory, and behaviour-change science. He then put the framework to the test, designing and running the STAR Voyage Intervention, a longitudinal program supporting students to adopt more effective study strategies. The intervention was associated with medium-to-large gains in students' self-reported use of effective strategies,
increased procedural metacognitive knowledge, and high student satisfaction, offering a practical blueprint for designing learning-strategy interventions that work.
Jonathan has been part of the Learning Lab community for several years, presenting his work at successive Annual Symposia. His PhD was supervised by Professor Jason Lodge and Dr Louise Ainscough, with a progress review panel including Dr Stephanie MacMahon and Associate Professor Elizabeth Edwards, and early contributions from Professor Kelly Matthews.
Congratulations, Jonathan, we can't wait to see where your work goes next.
