Areas of activity

Standard

Student's Initial assessment
(start of course)

Summary assessment
(end of course)

A1. Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study

Before this course I had no experience with designing and/or planning teaching activities. I was simply given a pre-structured activity to teach. 

A2. Teach and/or support learning

I have extensive experience with teaching to a small group in a  laboratory environment, having supported students run experiments for two academic years now. I have also helped with workshop sessions, where I go around a room and answer questions students may have regarding an exercise sheets they have previously attempted. I do not have, so far, any lecturing experience.

At the end of the course I felt confident and motivated to leave my "teaching comfort zone" and try teaching formats other than those I was used to. I sought the opportunity to give a lecture and was offered such opportunity. The lecture consisted of a ~50min presentation that related my scientific research to key concepts covered in one of the first year chemistry modules. It was specifically designed to support learning, providing a revision moment while connecting course material to real research.

In addition I have continued helping with small group teaching, mainly in the form of workshops, i.e. sessions where students are given exam-like problems and need to solve them, my role being to support them in doing this, answer their questions and clarify any doubts.

A3. Assess and give feedback to learners (introduced)

My teaching experience within the chemistry department involves marking the post-lab tasks that students have to complete. The department emphasises the need for feedback to be given: feedback is required at all times and it needs to be at least a couple of sentences long. I also make students aware that I am happy to give them further feedback if they need it and some do contact me at a later stage. I try to be thorough, encouraging, and clear when giving feedback. Since I try to make feedback a teaching opportunity in itself, I guide students by prompting the right questions rather than just delivering information.

In terms of assessment, the APP PGR course has mainly helped me be more objective and specific in terms of learning outcomes and assessment criteria. It is now clear to me how precisely telling students what is expected of them is essential for their good performance and I pay particular attention to this. In hindsight I think there were moments in my teaching where not being clear (even to myself) on what I expected from students in a certain activity, or what was considered correct/acceptable, may have resulted in inconsistent marking on my part. I now understand that a clear set of learning outcomes not only helps students, but it also helps designing an effective teaching activity.

Moreover, the true importance of feedback has been highlighted to me during the APP PGR course. While there were already things I had considered and recognised, I now pay particular attention to feedback I give to learners so that it is not only thorough and useful, but that it also guides students to realise and correct their mistakes and motivates them (i.e. not just point out where there are mistakes but praise good work). In addition, I have also come to believe that feedback from learners to teachers is equally as important, since it is the most direct way of evaluating how the audience is responding to the teaching methods used, and perhaps what other methods they would prefer. In order to tailor teaching to the group at hand it is important that their feedback is sought and evaluated.

A4. Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance. (introduced)

A5. Engage in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines and their pedagogy, incorporating research, scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices.

Core Knowledge

Standard

Summary assessment
(end of course)

K1. The subject material

I have good core knowledge of my subject area (chemistry) and related subjects. However, it is easy to forget some basics/fundamentals that are taught early in a chemistry degree, hence I can sometimes feel less confident when teaching these. Nevertheless, I take teaching as an opportunity to refresh on these chemistry fundamentals since it is also important for to know and understand them and having a good grasp of these fundamental concepts makes me a better scientist.

Moreover, since I am a physical chemist, I tend to steer away from teaching more organic chemistry related material because I don't feel I will be as reliable a teacher for these topics. 

This is the link to the lecture capture video of a lecture I gave to first year chemistry students on the photochemistry of sunscreens - my PhD research topic. The idea was to connect my research to their chemical kinetics module. I believe this lecture demonstrates other "K points" on this table, as well as K1.

This was an extensive exercise of drawing on my current knowledge and taking the time to analyse the students' course material and learning outcomes. By doing this I believe I was able to create a session that built on students knowledge and helped them understand the material in a new context by providing them with my perspective on it as a researcher. The teaching of this lecture drew on many of the concepts covered during the APP PGR workshops (for example, the importance of a clear leaning outcome and feedback system, finding ways to make students relate to the material, drawing on previous knowledge, contextualising, using poll technologies for enhanced engagement, etc.).

Another example of how I worked on my core knowledge in the interest of teaching was when I sat through all the second year statistical mechanics lectures so that I could best teach and help student at the two workshops I was asked to help with.

K2. Appropriate methods for teaching and learning in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme.

My knowledge of teaching methods was all drawn from my experience as both a learner and a teacher. As a learner I preferred classes that were a mixture of information delivery and practical practice as they kept me interested and active throughout the duration of the class. Too much information tends to lose me after a while; too much practice tends to leave me without a sense of purpose, i.e. lacking the relationship between the practical activity to course material. As a result, this is the way I tend to teach - blending theory with practice - and I tend to get good results.   

Intercalating periods of theory with practical activities is still my preferred teaching method. I feel students benefit from the changing pace and practical activities keep them engaged and help contextualise concepts.

However I am now more aware of different methods to deliver theory and practical activities (other than laboratory sessions) that may break up the constant stream of information while aiding learning. When it comes to covering theory I find it important to keep a logical order and present it in a “story-telling” format so that things are linked to each other. I also find it important to contextualise concepts, be it in terms of real-life applications or in a research context. Showing students how the material is relevant and where it sits in the bigger pictures seems to aid both deeper understanding and motivation. Practical activities are good tools to show how a theoretical, perhaps abstract, concept applies to a very real thing (for example, simple experiments to demonstrate that air is in fact a mixture of molecules in their gaseous phase, i.e. it is matter and therefore has weight). But practical activities within the context of a lecture, for example, can take other formats such as solving problem sheets and/or answering questions with interactive tools. These are no less useful and still provide a kinesthetic experience, to a certain extent, that may aid deep learning.

This being said, it is important to recognise that blending theory and practice in a teaching session will lead to individuals keeping up at different paces. This is, in fact, one of the reasons this “blending” approach works well because both the students who learn best by listening to a lecturer and those who learn best by doing (and all of those in between, somewhere in the spectrum) will have an opportunity to have material delivered to them in a way they can best learn from. Nevertheless it is important to keep individual paces in mind and being able to adapt to this so that the progress of the group is not negatively affected.

K3. How students learn, both generally and within their subject/disciplinary area(s)

I was aware of different learning preferences/models but was of the opinion that it was the students' responsibility to know recognise their own learning preferences and work on the course materials accordingly.

In chemistry specifically, I knew there were usually lectures, labs and workshops/tutorials and saw these as the necessary tools to convey the course material and develop the essential practical skills. 

I have learnt more about learning models and preferences; in specific I have realised how fluid these can as there are many models and people tend not to fall into one single "box" but have a combination of strengths and weaknesses in different aspects of learning. I have also realised how much more of a responsibility of the teacher it is to make sure different learning methods are used in order to address different learning preferences so that every student has the opportunity to receive information in a way that will be best for them to retain. 

In chemistry specifically, I have learnt to look at the different components of a chemistry degree as part of a central effort to convey core knowledge and provide different teaching environments to aid deep learning. For example, while I used to see labs mainly as an opportunity to learn practical skills, I now see them as a great tool to put scientific concepts into practice and deliver a more concrete type of teaching. Lab activities are the opportunity to join the "pieces of the puzzle" and contextualise what are sometimes rather abstract concepts; they are therefore a powerful teaching tool.

In terms of pitching things to the right level, I have learnt to respect the balance between accessible and challenging as this is important for both learning and motivation. Importantly, even within the same year group students will be at different levels of understanding and an effective teacher will have to be able to identify and address any issues related to this. I think this may be one of the most challenging things to deal with at all levels of education, but addressing it is essential for inclusive teaching. In my own teaching - which tends to be done mostly in small groups - I try to ask questions to the group and it soon becomes obvious who is keen to answer them and who is more quiet. I try to draw out the quiet learners and try to understand if their lack of participation comes from lack of confidence or knowledge. Because there is always a practical task at hand it is easy to go around the group and ask questions individually so that students are not put on the spot (which can sometimes be counterproductive). 

K4. The use and value of appropriate learning technologies

Before APP PGR most of my knowledge of learning technologies came from a learner's perspective. I had had contact mainly with in-class quizz tools, which I found engaging and useful. I failed to recognise Moodle as a learning technology, it was more of an information storage tool for me. While I knew technology could be successfully used to enhance learning I had no experience with using it as a teacher and I wasn't aware of the wide range of tools available or how to access/use them. 

The APP PGR course explored many different ways in which to use technology for teaching and learning. I was introduced to Warwick's "Extended Classroom" which I see as a "one stop shop" for getting started with employing technology in my teaching.

Firstly, I furthered my knowledge of lecture engagement tools and explored just how powerful they can be, not just for engagement but for encouraging peer support and thus deeper learning. Even though, as a learner, I was already a fan of these questioning systems, being shown their true teaching potential made me want to try them - which I did in a lecture I prepared (see above).

Importantly, I understood that there are many more ways in which to include technology in teaching. Moodle, for example, has much more teaching potential than I thought, not only for delivering material (by supporting a "flipped classroom" approach, for example) but also for receiving feedback, for example. In fact, I discovered that the Moodle page for one of the sessions I teach has an "in-built" feedback facility that no one was using so I started encouraging students to make more use of it, having has a good response and substantial increase in feedback. There are many others functionalities of Moodle that I am yet to explore but I now consider it a much more dynamic, engaging tool (when used well) rather than a static "information dump".

Similarly there are many other technologies (videos, podcasts, online classrooms) that I have not had the opportunity to try but I am keen to do so in the future. In particular, I am interested in evaluating the impact that a much more active use of discussion forums would have on students and I hope I can try this soon.

K5. Methods for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching

At the beginning of the course I didn't pay much attention to this. This was mainly because module leaders (for the undergraduate lab experiments I was teaching) tend to look at average student grades; if these fall below a certain threshold then the demonstrator is consulted in order to understand why that is. Since my sessions seemed to go well and the average grade was within what the department believed acceptable, I simply took that to mean that teaching was effective.

K6. The implications of quality assurance and quality enhancement for academic and professional practice with a particular focus on teaching (introduced)

 Summary assessment
(end of course)

V1. Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities.

My determination to respect students and learning communities has been strengthened by the APP PGR course since it has showed me ways in which I could improve on this. In particular, it made me aware of unconscious bias and lack of diversity in curricula, and it highlighted the importance of considering learning difficulties such as dyslexia when producing teaching content. Some of these things I hadn't even considered before the APP PGR course hence, in particular for this point, this course was important to me and has made be a better, more inclusive teacher. 

I now take a much more proactive approach to acknowledging and catering for students' individual needs, in whatever form these may take. I recognise not only the importance of knowing each student individually but also the challenge that represents in large groups. I believe that making an effort to know more about each student is often not enough and I try to make it clear to my students that there is an open communication channel with me that they can use to voice any concerns. I have found this to be successful in some cases, having had students contact me regarding a number of issues. I find this helps me, as a teacher, to have better insight into my students' difficulties and overall experiences.

V2. Promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners.

This course, and specifically the free choice workshop entitled 'How can my teaching widen participation?' by William Rupp, really gave me a new perspective into what widening participation in higher education means and showed me in what ways universities are working towards this and how to get involved. As I knew before and am now more aware of, there is a large number of people from certain backgrounds and communities who may not feel like they belong in university, or that enrolling in university is unattainable to them for whatever reason. This is a vast talent pool which society cannot afford not to ignore and these are very capable people that are being unfairly left out of the academic sphere. I believe it is the role of every member of an university to break down these barriers, to encourage and welcome more people from more different backgrounds to join. Widening participation activities should serve much more than recruitment purposes: they should demystify the academic atmosphere, showcase teaching and research, and ultimately motivate and inspire prospective students.

I am fortunate to have some people within my department who do a fantastic job at widening participation. For example, Nick Barker, who does extensive work with children and young adults from less fortunate backgrounds and brings them into the university for many different activities: from fun little experiments with younger children to small research projects for year 12/13 teenagers. I have been lucky enough to be able to help with some of these activities and now have a better understanding of their true relevance. Another example is my PhD supervisor, Professor Vas Stavros, who despite his busy schedule often finds time for widening participation activities. These are two examples of people who remind me of how crucial embracing diversity and fostering diversity in higher education is crucial and how it is also my responsibility to work towards this not only as a teacher, but as a member of the academic sphere. Especially being someone who has benefited from this type of activity in the past, I feel compelled to give back and therefore I actively look for opportunities to get involved. In the short term, I am helping with the next Warwick Summer Schools offering chemistry activities for students; in the future I hope to be able to do more.

V3. Use evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development

This is yet another point where the APP PGR course has made me a better teacher since it was the first proper, formal training I had on dealing with learning difficulties and other special needs. This was crucial for me since, before, I would get a note on some assignments informing me a student had certain learning difficulties but there was no guidance on how to deal with them. The APP PGR course made me think about inclusiveness issues that I had not considered before. One example that particularly stuck with me was realising how someone with reading difficulties would experience a powerpoint slide or a handout, how it may help them to read the material beforehand, etc. - these were all things that I hadn't thought about before. Selfishly I believed students with dyslexia would find their own ways around things but failed to recognise the role of the teacher in including those students as well. Therefore this course made me a lot more conscious of the way I produce certain student materials and I will seek to gain further training on this and do more reading around the subject. 

V4. Acknowledge the wider context in which higher education operates recognising the implications for professional practice.

I have since learnt that the University of Warwick teaching and learning strategy is built around five major themes:

• Promoting Innovation in Teaching and Learning
• Enriching the Learning Experience
• Providing a High Quality Educational Environment
• Creating a Diverse and Globally Connected Community
• Preparing Students for Life after Warwick