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Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction (cross-faculty)

Target audience

All new teaching staff from any discipline. Contract research staff teaching for the first time in the UK may attend these OR relevant Academic Staff Development Programme workshops (https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/osds/my-development/academic-teaching-staff/asdp/).

Course pre-work

There are 4 compulsory courses that new postgraduate teachers must complete before they are allowed to begin teaching. Three of these are synchronous ("live") workshops (via Teams or in-person); the fourth is an asynchronous, online course which you complete in your own time. 1) Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction (online and in-person options) 2) Assessment and academic misconduct: an introduction (online and in-person options) 3) Student Services: supporting students and teachers (online and in-person options) 4) Diversity in the Workplace (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/training/) - (online self-study)

Course mapped to

Vitae's Researcher Development Framework domains: B3 (Professional and career development), C1 (Professional conduct), D1 (Working with others), D3 (Engagement and impact)

Follow on course

"Assessment and Academic Misconduct: an introduction" and "Student Services: support for students and teachers" and "Diversity in the Workplace"

Course information

IMPORTANT (for PGRs): If you have not already done so, please register on the Essential courses for postgraduates who teach - PDMS - University of St Andrews (st-andrews.ac.uk) to book and track your completion status. Doing this will also automatically give your School access to view your completion status.

This live workshop will take place in Microsoft Teams. If you’d like a bit more information on how to use Teams, have a look at this Introduction to Teams video. We recommend that you download the Microsoft Teams app to whatever device you are using to get the best functionality and user experience, and sign in to Teams before you click the event link.

Postgraduate and other part-time tutors and demonstrators play a crucial role in the support of student learning at St Andrews. The University places great value on the potential for enhanced learning that small group and lab-based teaching provides. The University therefore requires that all part-time teachers receive appropriate development for the role, so that both teachers and taught will get the most out of their time together.

This interactive workshop will focus on practical techniques for supporting student learning in small group situations. We will consider the aims of small group teaching, techniques for getting students engaged, and how to deal with various challenging situations that might arise (e.g. unprepared students, students with particular needs).

What previous participants have said about this workshop:

• "A good course which highlights a couple of things you might not have thought about in terms of teaching."
• "Fantastic tips and policies that were unfamiliar to me. It was well organized and allowed for questions and clarification of some issues."
• "It was very useful for me as someone with teaching experience to understand the specifics of how teaching is done at St Andrews, and learn about the recommended standards and approaches."
• "Heather structured the course in an extremely accessible way. As someone that deals with CPTSD and severe anxiety, I was so pleasantly surprised that I was able to stay for the full sessions without panicking. This encouraged me to take part in the class more actively, too."

You must also complete the following if you are a postgraduate teacher:

• Assessment & Academic Misconduct: an introduction workshop (either cross-Faculty or Faculty-specific)
• Student Services: supporting students and teachers workshop
• Online course Diversity in the Workplace

These workshops are not assessed or accredited, but are compulsory for any postgraduate who wishes to do any form of teaching at St Andrews.

These workshops are repeated before the start of each semester. We strongly recommend that participants attend just before the semester in which they will be teaching.

Aims and objectives

By the end of this workshop you should be able to:

• Develop confidence in participating in small group discussions
• Share experiences of working with small groups
• Identify techniques for managing small group learning situations
• Identify strategies for coping with challenging situations and student behaviours.

Tutors

Dr Paula Villegas Verdu

Course provider

CEED
Email: ceed@st-andrews.ac.uk