Dr Jo Rees has completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCTLHE) at the University of Cambridge.
Jo was amongst the first cohort to gain the PGCTLHE qualification, a new teaching course offered by Cambridge University. Having completed the TAP (Teaching Associate Programme) back in 2014, Jo was keen to learn more about teaching practices. This year-long, part-time (but intense) course allowed one to explore pedagogy, hear wise words from teaching professionals, engage in peer-to-peer learning, and pursue their own practitioner research project. For the research project, Jo developed online quizzes and practical papers for the Part 1A Molecules in Medical Science course to enable students to practice independently, as one feature encompassed iterative feedback, and then analysed the impact of the resources.
Speaking about the course, Jo said: "This was a fantastic investment of time and has really prepared me well for securing a teaching post. In particular, it allowed me to gain more confidence in my teaching approaches. Our small-sized peer groups comprised all professional levels from postdocs up to professors, and from all disciplines, and it was a great opportunity to learn with such diverse but like-minded peers."
Jo is already putting her newly acquired knowledge to good use and is embarking on even more teaching opportunities next year!
The Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is a collaboration between the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Institute of Continuing Education. It is a nationally recognised certificate that in some universities is a requirement for gaining a lectureship position. Throughout the course, participants develop enquiry-based approaches to engaging with educational challenges and to contributing to improvements in the education of students at Cambridge and at tertiary-level more broadly.