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Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction (Arts)

Target audience

Research postgraduate students teaching this semester. Contract research staff teaching for the first time in the UK may attend these OR relevant Academic Staff Development Programme workshops. New academic staff are encouraged to attend.

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), 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.

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 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).

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 courses are repeated before every semester. We strongly recommend that participants attend just before the semester in which they will be teaching.

What previous participants have said about this course:

• "I found the course frighteningly useful for and applicable to my own work and the improvement thereof. Dear God, I think I want to be an academic! Thank you very much." [Modern Languages]
• "I really appreciate that this course was clear and concise. Excellent, thank you!" [International Relations]
• "Provided a solid, practical framework for dealing with tutorials and assessments." [Modern History]
• "Presenter is brilliant - observing her is very useful as she showcases techniques, tools + explains them!" [Art History]
• "As a PhD student, you have likely forgotten / never knew what it is/was like to need encouragement to learn and be passionate about a subject. This will help teach you how to instill this in students." [History]

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

Venue

Old Union Diner, Butts Wynd

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Course provider

IELLI
Email: ielli@st-andrews.ac.uk