Peer Assessment

Rhed got a very clear sense that the anxiety about teaching research degree students without having a research degree, specified in profile 2, were not going to be fully resolved by doing a PGCert in Teaching and Learning.

Although this will help to give me some context of pedagogical theory and, through knowledge and peer experience, will strengthen my actual delivery practice, I won’t be able to be satisfied until I have gone through the whole process myself.

In a way, I was very glad Rhed pointed this out. I was great to hear it from someone else. I am applying to do a PhD next October as a career move. I want to be a researcher but I anso want to improve my professional teaching practice, being able to relate to students from a position of having the experience. The people I have talked to about this all think that I am doing it because of the subject or because I have an inclination to write academically. This is only part of my decision and having someone notice how important a PhD will be and how it will enhance my teaching was indeed very rewarding.

I applied to Central Saint Martins in December and I am currently writing my AHRB Doctoral Award application. This has already changed the way I teach some of the sessions of the training programme (more confidence, first hand examples I can relate to, real problems encountered rather than those I have read about or seen in other students). It ias evident the benefits a PhD will have in my job.

Both Leonora and Rhed pointed out the quality of the writing in the profile statement. This was very encouraging as I will be looking at producing a 60,000-word thesis for my PhD and, English not being my first language, I feel a little intimidated. I did spend a lot of time articulating the text for the profile 2 of the PGCert course. I teach the session on proposal writing and I place a lot of emphasis of quality, trying to avoid obscure theses and papers that will only be read by academics. I really want to produce a good PhD where people from outside the field can relate to the writing and which, perhaps, can be published into a book. I was very pleased with their comments and felt as if all the hard work with the Oxford English Dictionary. and the Thesaurus wasn’t in vain.

[Note to self: read more Barthes, who writes beautifully in an academic way]