VICE magazine recently asked three university lecturers: ‘What’s it like to lecture at university while you’re in your twenties?’
One of them was Dr Sarah Wiseman, 29, a research and teaching fellow in the computing department at Goldsmiths University of London. She leads lab sessions, talking to around 50 students at a time, and also has some experience lecturing. Here’s what she said…
“I actually hope the students still think of me as a young person – maybe I’m just getting old and desperately want that to be the case,” she laughs. “I was a bit nervous at first, but I’ve learned a lot after a few years of teaching. I’ve learned it’s absolutely OK to admit you don’t know the answer to something. You’d look like an idiot otherwise. And I’ve learned to freestyle a bit, rather than stick to a script.”
Sarah has taken part in Science Showoff gigs designed to help young academics become more confident public speakers by getting them to do stand-up comedy about their research. “It was kind of terrifying, and definitely put the teaching into perspective,” she says.
When it comes to socialising, Sarah thinks it’s important to maintain a very clear boundary between undergraduate students and academics. “You want to be approachable… but it’s about being viewed as a professional, rather than a friend,” she explains. “There is a culture of end-of-the-day drinks among colleagues in my department, but not with the students. In fact, we do need to be a bit careful about what pubs to go to in the New Cross area to make sure there aren’t awkward encounters.”