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Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction (Science)

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 and lab practicals 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:

• "Was a great overview of the situation that the students will be in (in terms of their academic progress) and also helpful in getting engagement."
• "Informative about lab and tutorial demonstration."
• "It's a good, though non-specific intro to teaching, especially online."
• "Good coverage of material and summary of UK higher education structure- particularly useful since I am an international student."
• "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."

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