This is how I teach

How would you describe your approach to teaching/your teaching philosophy?
As a biomedical researcher, I’ve been trained to ask questions, seek out evidence and challenge, and I bring this evidence-based approach into my teaching practice to ensure the best outcomes for students. I see learning as a 2-way street - it is not just me helping the students to learn new concepts or skills – I’m always learning too! I am still learning about my scientific areas of speciality as they continue to evolve, and indeed about my practice as an educator. I continually strive to better understand student needs and how to tailor my teaching practice to get the best learning outcomes for students. As such, my teaching approach is dynamic and doesn’t align with a single pedagogy, I find myself drawing from several schools of thought to best fit the student cohort or teaching activity.

My teaching philosophy centres about making learning accessible, engaging, meaningful, enjoyable for students. I see my role as helping students reach their potential – by assisting them to not only acquire foundational knowledge and skills but also the thirst for knowledge and confidence to move towards their goals.

Throughout my teaching I seek to include real-world examples and/or clinical context to highlight relevance of the content and address the “so what?” factor. I also love a good analogy to explain tricky concepts, relating a scientific concept to an everyday item or process can be a great way to really cut through the jargon and make a tricky concept stick.  Seeing a student have an “ah-ha” moment when a concept finally clicks truly is one of the best moments as an educator!

I take every opportunity to embed research and clinical case studies into my teaching, having this real world perspective is so important for our future scientists and clinicians. Although the specific tasks and learning activities differ whether I’m the lab with my research students to when I’m in the classroom with my undergraduate students, what underpins my approach to each of these is a drive to instill a love of learning and to help students on the pathway to reaching their potential.

What do you like most about teaching in your discipline?
I have always been really interested in how the human body works, and in all things science more generally, so it truly is a privilege to combine both of these in my work as an educator and scientist. I teach across the Bachelor of Health and Medical Sciences, Nursing and Medical programs, so I am fortunate to be able to play a small part in training the next generation of scientists and clinicians.

I really enjoy the breadth of my teaching, which spans human biology, pathology and neuroscience, and the students will tell you that I often get very passionate when talking about my favourite topics.Renee Turner

I think this enthusiasm for the content and thirst for learning can be infectious, so if even a small amount of this thirst for knowledge and passion for the content rubs off on the students then I’ve done my job!

Beyond my own teaching practice, it is enjoyable to work alongside so many passionate educators within the School of Biomedicine. It is equally motivating and inspiring to see these educators striving to deliver the best student learning outcomes and student experience.

How does your teaching help prepare students for their future?
Across both the lab and the classroom, this can be broken down into 3 main areas - discipline knowledge, skills and capabilities, and real-world context.

Discipline knowledge: I seek to equip students with deep discipline knowledge so that they have a solid grounding; to equip them with the knowledge to move to the next phase, whether that be further study or employment.

Skills and capabilities: The skills and capabilities that students acquire during their study are often more enduring that the discipline knowledge itself. Critical thinking, problem solving, team work, communication skills, professionalism and resilience are all key attributes of well-rounded graduates.

Realworld context: Whilst I’m a big advocate of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, I believe it is essential for students to understand how key concepts from their study relate to the world beyond the classroom. One way which I facilitate this in the classroom is through engagement with individuals with lived experience of neurological disease or injury. Such rich student engagement provides opportunities for connection, query and understanding, with the accompanying assessment asking students to reflect on the session in the context of the course content. Students often reflect on this as a highlight of their study, and the lived-experience guest speakers value the opportunity to speak with the next generation of scientists and clinicians. For my research students, I encourage conference attendance and engagement with the Neurosurgical Research Foundation (and other local consumer groups), to expose them to lived experience, to help provide new meaning, purpose and context to their research projects.

Which approach to educating students about academic integrity have you found to have the most impact?
As an Academic Integrity Officer I’m often speaking to both students and staff about academic integrity matters. For me it really boils down to education and collaboration over punitive approaches. Given the opportunity, I find that one-on-one conversations are really effective, enabling discussion on current study practices and the ability to provide some guidance and advice on how to achieve good academic practice. The advent of generative AI technology has really changed the way that students study and we all need to work together to understand how we can best harness the benefits of generative AI, whilst also identifying the challenges, particularly around assessments. As such, clear communication around good academic practice expectations and the boundaries for use of generative AI, between teaching staff and students is essential.