Reflecting on our first seminar of our new National Teaching Fellow (NTF) series with Dr Emma Yhnell
12 October 2023
Written by Dr Emma Yhnell, Senior Lecturer in the School of Biosciences and Professor Emmajane Milton, Professor in Educational Practice.
What a fantastic first session we had on the 20 September 2023 for the first in our new regular National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) networking and discussion series.
Dr Emma Yhnell is our first and most recent NTF award winner to launch this exciting series which aims to raise the visibility and importance of learning, teaching and the student experience across our University. We asked Emma for her reflections on the session:
“I was thrilled to kick off the NTF seminar series with a session entitled ‘What, how and why are we doing this? – including and supporting everyone in Higher Education’.
The seminar highlighted the NTF scheme and my recent award which enabled me to reflect on the journey that the application process took me on and share this learning with colleagues across the University. The seminar was scheduled just before the beginning of the new academic term, an exciting time which provides real opportunity to reassess and re-evaluate our learning and teaching approaches. As we welcome new and returning students, I think it is really important to spend some time considering and reflecting on our approaches as educators as well as how we can include and support our diverse student cohort. I designed the session to challenge colleagues to think about one aspect of their learning and teaching practice and question before considering any changes or modifications they may introduce:
- what they were doing?
- how they were doing it?
- why they chose to do it in that way?
It was great to be joined in the seminar by colleagues from across the University who have a range of roles and career pathways. The series is designed to raise the profile of the Advance-HE Teaching Excellence Schemes, both NTF and the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) which recognises, rewards and celebrates individuals and team who have made an outstanding impact on student experience, learning and outcomes and colleagues educational practice in Higher Education. In this interactive session I was able to reflect on how much I had learned when writing and refining my NTF claim. One of the biggest lessons for me was being able to properly reflect on why I had implemented innovations and changes to my teaching practices. I was also extremely fortunate to have invaluable support from colleagues who were a tremendous source of advice and encouragement (particularly when the imposter syndrome kicked in) while also providing constructive challenge and important feedback.
I am really pleased to see the NTF seminar series begin, and I very much look forward to attending and contributing to future sessions. The seminar series will provide important opportunities to join up our thinking, share our knowledge and expertise and challenging our learning and teaching perceptions across Cardiff University. I hope to see many familiar as well as new faces at the next session in October.”
Emma’s session invited us all as educators to think carefully about our practice and the decisions we make, the assumptions we have and how we make our learning and teaching interactions accessible and engaging for our students – always thinking about how we are demonstrating care and meeting them where they are (which may not necessarily be where we want them to be…). All ideas that should be central to our thinking as we start the new academic year and meet our new cohorts of students.
Feedback from colleagues who attended this session was really positive.
Colleagues really enjoyed:
- personal stories from speakers
- great discussion and atmosphere
- space to discuss ideas
- hearing from a variety of people and different perspectives
In future sessions colleagues said they would like:
- even more time for discussion / networking
Join us at our next seminar
We warmly invite you to join us at our next National Teaching Fellowship seminar on 18 October from 13.00-15.00 at the Heath Park campus in the Main hospital seminar room A.
Our next event which will feature Dr Rob Wilson from the School of Mathematics and an NTF winner in 2019.
Please book your place through the HR System using the code: TEAC9691.
We look forward to seeing you there.