Teaching Observation 1 (as observee)

This teaching observations took place during a statistical mechanics workshop. I had been sitting the lectures for my own benefit and to prepare to better help during the workshop. During the session, students were given a worksheet to work on and my role was to go around the room answering questions and helping students with any problems they might have when solving the exercises. I had solved the problems myself ahead of the session to make sure I could get the correct answers on my own.

Teaching Observation 2 (as observee)

The session that Dr. Russ Kitson observed to complete this teaching observation was a first year chemistry undergraduate lab session. This is probably the teaching style and the material that I am most comfortable teaching, because I have done it regularly since I started my PhD, i.e. I covered 6 terms of this module, once or twice a week for each term. Being a practical session, this was mainly problem-based, open-space teaching of two groups of 6-8 students (one in the morning, one in the afternoon).

Teaching Observation 3 (as observee)

This session was my first ever lecture, delivered to first year chemistry students and observed by Sara Hattersley. I learnt a lot from giving this lecture: not only did I finally try a teaching environment I hadn't tried before but I also got an eye-opening experience of how important student feedback is and how much we miss if we rely solely on our perception of the audience to judge the success of a session (more on this on my "Reflective Practice" page!). It was, nevertheless, a very pleasant experience and I look forward for my next opportunity at lecturing in this format and trying new student engagement techniques.