{"id":2167,"date":"2016-08-25T09:04:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T09:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doc.gold.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2016-08-25T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T09:05:13","slug":"vice-interviews-dr-sarah-wiseman-on-being-a-lecturer-in-her-twenties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.doc.gold.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2167","title":{"rendered":"VICE interviews Dr Sarah Wiseman on being a lecturer in her twenties"},"content":{"rendered":"

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VICE magazine recently asked three university lecturers: ‘What’s it like to lecture at university while you’re in your twenties?’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Here’s what she said…<\/p>\n

“I actually hope the students still think of me as a young person \u2013 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.”<\/p>\n

Sarah has taken part in Science Showoff<\/a>\u00a0gigs 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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n