Personal statement

I am a teaching fellow in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. My job involves a focus on teaching and learning in computer science, in particular my role currently involves the development and delivery of a range of courses, membership of teaching committees, and involvement in the co-ordination of final year projects.

In teaching computer science my primary goal is to develop students' ability to be computational thinkers. I believe this can be achieved by encouraging deep learning of the subject material and developing students as independent learners. To help develop students as independent learners I adopt a student-centred approach. To achieve this I use a number of mechanisms. One example is "interactive windows" as defined by Huxham
(2005) where at most 10 minutes of content is delivered followed by activities such as paired discussions, problem solving, and quiz questions. In addition I explore other innovative teaching techniques such as blended learning and continuous assessment.

As well as my day to day teaching and learning activities, I am also interested in the pedagogy of computer science. I am eager to explore how we can achieve more effective and efficient assessment and feedback and have evaluated the use of video presentations for computer science assessment, and continuous assessment using a classroom response system.