Teaching experience

Tutoring on the new Undergraduate First Year

The involvement will allow forming a working relationship with, and mentoring, the same group of students throughout their weekly workshops. Workshops are designed to support students to develop good learning methods and skills for biologists (writing, thinking, coding, researching, reflecting, collaborating and working with biological models, concepts and data), and course staff will lead and oversee each workshop. The experience will provide not only face-to-face student teaching but also an insight into the radically re-designed curriculum and its ethos, and the opportunity to contribute to changes required to improve learning for future first years.

If you are interested please contact:

Heather McQueen

or

Patrick Walsh

Other Tutoring and Demonstrating Opportunities

There are also opportunities to sign up with BTO as a tutor  or a demonstrator .

Sign up as a tutor

Sign up as a demonstrator

Postdoctoral University Teacher Secondment Scheme

The Postdoctoral secondment scheme was started in 2018 as a mechanism to provide postdoctoral staff opportunities to engage in a diverse range of teaching activities (e.g., lecturing, tutoring, marking, leading workshops and practicals) as well as development of teaching material and activities.  

The scheme uses a single fte (full time equivalent) that is divided up into smaller allocations, usually 0.1fte (range 0.1 - 0.25fte), to build a portfolio of activity in a specific discipline or area of Biological Sciences teaching.  The secondments last for between 1 and 3 years and can, in certain circumstances, be renewed for an additional term. 

The secondments are intended to be a development opportunity, so also include time (approximately 15% of the secondment) for professional development.  This can include simply taking IAD courses or completion of a teaching qualification (e.g., the EdTA or PGCertAP).

IAD courses

Teaching accreditation

Opportunities arise based on teaching need and will be advertised internally via People and Money. 

A searchable list of jobs within the University (where these opportunities will appear) can be found under the “Current Jobs” tab in People and Money.

People and Money 

Supervising

You may also have opportunities to be a supervisor for an undergraduate Honours project, to find out it this is possible you should ask your PI, who can ask the Biology Teaching Organisation or relevant Honours Programme Coordinator.

Supervision experience can also be gained by formally acting as a thesis committee member for one of our research students; if you are interested in doing this please ask your PI.

Teaching Training and Qualifications

There is the opportunity to gain portable teaching qualifications (Associate fellowship or Fellowship of HEA) via the Edinburgh teaching award.

The Edinburgh teaching award (EdTA)

The Edinburgh teaching award (EdTA) is a self-led pathway that is supported by a mentor over a period of 6 months-2 years, submitting a series of reflective blogs as well as information about the development of your teaching via reading/CPD etc, all via Wordpress.

There is also a local network (the biology EdTA network) to support EdTA participants in the School, offering:

• resources,
• advice,
• meetings, and
• events.

If you are interested please contact:

Heather McQueen

or

IAD

Alternatively, it is possible to learn more about teaching theory and method via taught courses such as the introduction to academic practice and the postgraduate certificate of Academic practice which also lead to Associate fellowship or Fellowship of HEA respectively. 

Introduction to Academic Practice

Postgraduate certificate of Academic practice

Whichever route you prefer you do need current teaching experience on which to base your reflections or assignments.