My placement for the duration of my PCET course will be at University of Wales Trinity St David, Swansea. I arrived to meet Ceri on Monday morning at the university feeling excited. During this first week of my placement I was to be observing Ceri and Paul as lecturers; something I thought would be a doddle considering I have been watching them at work for the last three years! I was provided with a timetable for all the lectures Ceri thought would be worthwhile me observing, and any other duties I was to tackle whilst I was there.
Monday
I spent Monday morning observing the abnormal psychology lectures and seminars. I had only completed that module a year ago myself and I had been incredibly interested in it, so I found myself slipping back into the mode of a student and taking notes just the same as everyone else! I momentarily forgot that I was observing Ceri as a lecturer, and that I was supposed to be making notes of how she delivers her material not what she is delivering!
During Monday afternoon I got to observe a year 1 lecture and seminars. Paul was the leader of the module and I began to realised that his method of delivery and the way he teaches is not unlike the way Ceri teaches; however the difference between the material that is delivered at year 3 is incredibly different to the material that is delivered at year 1! I didn't realise the scope of information that these lecturers had to deliver at such different levels.
Tuesday
Today I observed the year 2 individual differences in the workplace lecture and three seminars. This is a module Ceri was hoping I would get highly involved with during my first term of placement due to the research and statistics nature of the assessment. Ceri provided me with all the information I could possibly think of to do with this module; week-by-week seminar schedules, the assignment proforma and additional information, and additional reading lists just in case I wanted to research anything myself! Handy!
Tuesday afternoon was again spent observing Paul at work in the research methods and statistics lecture for the first years. Just the same as the individual differences module, Ceri had hoped that this would be another module I would be heavily involved with as it will be focusing on introducing SPSS to the students when I return for my first week of placement.
Wednesday
Today I observed a number of other lectures, but I also had the chance to participate in my very first teaching position! Ceri had asked me earlier in the week if I would be willing to lead a session with a small group of third year dissertation students on the subject of Superlab; a programme I used for setting up my experiment for my dissertation. I was excited at the thought of teaching a group of students who (hopefully!) wanted to learn the material I would be delivering, but that excitement was far overshadowed by my nerves! My biggest worry was that the students wouldn't want a recent graduate 'teaching' them. After the session, however, I started to feel a bit foolish for worrying as much as I did! I realised that, if I had been in the position, I'd have been happy for the extra guidance on a new programme from someone who had experience with it. It did take a student to tell me this to realise though!!
Thursday
Today I got to accompany Ceri to Cardiff for two things; first, we attended a Tenovus conference at the Swalec Stadium, and during the afternoon I observed Ceri teaching a Masters Genetics Counselling class at Cardiff University. Even though waking up at 6am almost gave me heart failure (we had to be in Cardiff by 8.30!), I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. I got to have a taster of the work that Ceri is most passionate about (other than lecturing). As a chartered health psychologist, she works on a lot of research projects involving genetic testing. Tenovus had funded her proposal to create a virtual online counselling environment for young people who either had cancer, or were carers for a family member who had cancer. It was incredible to see psychologists from all over England and Wales at the conference, and I got to sit in on talks by some very highly regarded researchers!
It was refreshing to see the other side of what it is to be a lecturer; a realisation that even lecturers have lives beyond their lecture halls and office walls! It is evidently clear that Ceri is passionate about the subject she teaches, and that is reflected in every lecture she gives; be it to her first, second or third years at UWTSD, or a Masters Genetics Counselling class at Cardiff University! I can only hope that in the future I exhibit the level of enthusiasm for my work that she does.
Friday
On Friday I got the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with the entire Psychology team regarding the validation of the new Single Honours Psychology programme they are hoping to develop. Again, this was another different side to what it is to be a lecturer and I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join in with discussions! I also ran a repeat of the session I led on Wednesday for students who were unable to make that time. I felt a lot more confident before this session than I had on Wednesday! But I was still a little anxious in case I missed something out or the students didn't get it. I know that I struggle with breaking my own knowledge of the programme down to the very basics to explain to people who have never even opened up the programme before, but I am confident that this skill will come in time, and I left the session feeling that each and every person had at least grasped the basic functions of how to begin constructing their own experiments.
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