Applying Psychology Edited by Nicky Brace and Helen Westcott – The Open University (2002)

We would like to dedicate this course to the memory of Brenda Smith, Psychology
Staff Tutor and member of the course team, who died during the final year of the
course’s production. She had been a Psychology Staff Tutor since 1995, first in
Scotland and then most recently in Ireland, but her close association with the
Open University stretches back much further than this. She was an Open
University student herself and then later returned to teach and was a tutor who
enthused and supported very many students throughout their social science
studies. At her funeral one of these students spoke very movingly of her warmth
and energy and of the fact that she had really ‘made a difference’ to their lives.
She certainly also made a difference to our DSE212 course team, where her
commitment to education for mature students was clear in everything that she
said and did, and her immensely hard work influenced many of our plans for the
teaching and learning strategy of the course and the content of the texts. She
contributed enormously at both a professional and personal level, particularly to
the early work of the course team, and we hope that her influence on the course
will shine through, helping it in turn to ‘make a difference’ to the lives of all the
students who will study it in the coming years.