By Rebecca Denniss
How it began
In July 2021, a University Teacher post was advertised in the Psychology department to cover for staff secondment. The role was to teach First Year Research Methods - I had the knowledge and experience from my previous teaching and PhD at another university (and I really needed a job!), so I applied.
Fast forward to August, and I was offered the role. I was excited to get started on 1st September.
What happened next
This is where I had a small surprise...I wasn't just teaching First Year Research Methods, I was also the Module Organiser for First Year Research Methods!*
Additionally, neither of the people who had been running the module in the previous academic year were still in the department (my role was covering for one person who was on sabbatical). However, I had been left with a fantastic set of module materials to work with.
*important note - when accepting a job, make sure you know what the job actually entails!
What I did - Semester 1
I had just over three weeks to get my head around the module and have everything ready to go before teaching started. The prospect was a little overwhelming, but panic would solve nothing. The Head of Department had assigned an experienced member of staff to help me get the Tutorial element of semester one ready, and I had another member of staff to share the Lecture and Workshop content. There was also a brilliant Director of Learning and Teaching (DLT) to support me with the everyday aspects of running a module.
I also had a team of GTAs to work with (and lead!) for the Workshops and Tutorials. I can’t say that it was easy, because it wasn’t, however I found (much to my surprise) that it wasn’t beyond me to do this thing. I ran the module in as close to the way that it had been delivered in the previous year (bearing in mind that was the Covid remote teaching year) making notes as I went along on things I thought I could tweak. Semester 1 whizzed by - nothing fell apart and I also managed to write my first exam paper.
The most important advice I could give to someone who found themselves in a similar situation is to listen to other people - I listened to the GTAs (many of whom had taught on the module in the previous year), I listened to the DLT, and I listened to the students. All of these people told me what was going well and what needed attention. I could then make note of all of this input and use it going forwards.
What I did - Semester 2
Semester 2 brought new challenges. I had to plan the tutorials for semester 2 without the support of my colleague (as they had other responsibilities), and the GTAs had fed back to me that one of the journal articles that had been used in the previous year as part of the basis for the assessment was tricky for students (and staff!) to grapple with - could I find something more straightforward?
I took the slightly cringe-making decision (for me) to use an article I had written: I knew it, I could answer any questions students or colleagues might have on it, and I felt it was straightforward enough for students to understand. The rest of the module materials I again left as they were - I had managed to get a good amount of the preparation completed before the semester started and my colleague was also equally well prepared.
Good news of the semester - my contract was extended for another two years! This meant that I could implement some of the changes I had thought about as I had worked through the module.
Less good news - the DLT was leaving, and I had really valued their support.
What I realised over the course of this semester was that as some of the support had been given to start with in the role was removed (by a combination of design and happenstance) nothing bad happened. The module was still working.
Going forwards - Plans and decisions
I received good TellUS feedback on the module, there was nothing that rang alarm bells that I was making a mess of things (which is always good!) but I felt there were some things that could be improved:
- The recently appointed module organiser of 2nd year Research Methods and I decided to make attendance at Workshops compulsory for the next academic year - although exam results had followed the same pattern as previous years, we both felt that poor attendance at in-person sessions must be having negative effects on the learning of at least some students, potentially those with the greatest statistics anxiety. This wasn’t an easy decision, and at this point in time we don’t know if it was the correct one, we will just have to see what the overall grades for 2022-23 are.
- Based on verbal feedback from students I decided to add a graded assessment into semester 1 - students had fed back to me that they didn’t feel as well prepared for other module semester 1 exams as they would wish, as they hadn’t had any feedback on written work at that point. It turns out that what I was planning was actually what had happened on the module pre-Covid! Not as revolutionary an idea as I had thought it might be. It was also a plan that was only a little ahead of the curve, as the department has now decided that for 2023-24 all modules will be returning to the pre-Covid assessment model.
- Finally I made the decision to alter the organisation of semester 2 - teaching parametric and non-parametric versions of statistical tests in the same week, rather than teaching the parametric tests in the first few weeks and then teaching the non-parametric versions. Pedagogically this plan is to improve engagement with the material, and therefore improve learning, by getting the students to think about the data in front of them and decide which is the most appropriate test, rather than conducting tests by rote. Again, I will have to see what the outcome of this change is in performance on the semester 2 exam