Supervising students in the lab is an important part of the work of postdocs, and, along with some teaching (demonstrations, tutorials, lectures...) and mentoring, provides an opportunity to inspire the next generation of researchers.
Teaching and supervision experience are essential to apply for lectureships but not only; they also contribute to developing the communication and the people management skills required in many employment sectors.
Transfering knowledge and keeping students motivated is not an easy task though and the resources below should be of help!
Writing Good Multiple Choice Questions
An Introduction To Queen's Online For Learning And Teaching
More CED courses HERE.
Dynamic PowerPoint Presentations
Cognitive behaviourial Coaching for high performers
Management and Leadership in a Research Role (2 days)
Mood Matters for Managers and Supervisors
Creating the Seven Secrets of Highly Successful PhD Students (for supervisors)
The Higher Education Academy (HEA) has merged in Spring 2018 with the Equality Challenge Unit and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to become AdvanceHE.
The HEA delivers teaching certifications recognised in many countries. Several levels of qualifications exist, including the "Associate Fellow of the HEA" which corresponds to the level of teaching of most postdocs (in some rare cases the "Fellow of the HEA" can also be applied for by postdocs).
The CED at QUB has been accreditated to deliver those certifications and provides a programme of 5 courses and support the application of postdocs to obtain this certification .
Next scheduled sessions and booking link
To be able to apply, postdocs must have at least 20 hours of experience of teaching/supervising/tutoring in Higher Education.
Please contact Karen Fraser (k.fraser@qub.ac.uk) at the CED for more details and to register your interest in the programme.
To get some teaching experience, your first contact will be your PI. You should discuss with them the amount of time they would agree you spend on teaching and be able to offer guidance on who to contact to get some opportunities. This could include doing some of their own teaching or some of their colleagues in your department. Contacting modules coordinators is a good place to start.
You could be involved in tutorials, practicals and sometimes even lectures. Other forms of teaching like group projects may also require additional facilitators. Asking to shadow or help with marking is a good experience and can be most welcome by PIs; be careful not to take on too much though!
As a postdoc, you can get official recognition for supervising students in some cases. Check the policies section for more details.
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For more information please read our Equality and Diversity Policy.
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