Dr Claire Timmins

Senior Teaching Fellow

Speech and Language Therapy

Contact

Back to staff profile

Personal statement

I joined Strathclyde in 2005 as a teaching fellow in Speech and Language Therapy with responsibility for the teaching of Clinical Phonetics and Phonology. I currently provide all Phonetics teaching alongside Clinical Linguistics (pragmatics, semantics, grammar, sociolinguistics).

I am interested in the application of technology and social media for teaching, learning and assessment. Further interests include the use of online techniques for the learning and teaching of phonetics skills, and the use of playful learning techniques.

I am currently the Director of Teaching for the Department of Psychological Sciences and Health.

Back to staff profile

Area of Expertise

  • Articulatory Speech Analysis (Electropalatography)
  • Accent variation and change
  • Playful learning in HE

Prize And Awards

Best Overall
Recipient
18/5/2023
Digital Innovator
Recipient
13/5/2021
Digital Innovator
Recipient
13/5/2020
Most Innovative Teacher
Recipient
10/5/2019
Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
Recipient
18/10/2018

More prizes and awards

Back to staff profile

Teaching

I am module leader and lecturer for the following:

B6118 Clinical Phonetics and Phonology

B6119 Anatomy and Physiology for Speech and Language Pathology 2

B6117: Linguistics 1 Introduction to Language and Communication

B6235: Linguistics 2 Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics

B6340: Linguistics 3 Sociolinguistics, Multilingualism and Speech Acoustics

I also provide supervision for 4th year undergraduate dissertations.

Back to staff profile

Research Interests

My current research lies in the use of creative and playful learning in Higher Education. I am interested in how we can use technology and gaming to increase student engagement and successfully achieve learning outcomes.

I am also interested in how we can support and develop Programme Leaders in their role at Strathclyde. 

 

Professional Activities

Claire Timmins, Mincraft and articulate mandibles - PGZ@PL games and practice mini (PODCAST)
Recipient
14/11/2022
University Of Strathclyde (Organisational unit)
Member
10/10/2022
The Journal of Social Media for Learning (Journal)
Guest editor
19/3/2022
Social Media in Higher Education
Organiser
14/12/2021
Speech And Language Therapy (Organisational unit)
Chair
1/10/2021
18th Biennial Conference of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association
Organiser
22/6/2021

More professional activities

Projects

Working toward Phonetics Competencies: An investigation of the current provision and techniques for teaching clinical phonetics and phonology within UK and Ireland based HEIs
Timmins, Claire (Principal Investigator)
This study aims to survey clinical phonetics lecturers across the UK and Ireland to access information on how clinical phonetic transcription and phonetic/phonological analysis skills are currently taught, assessed and maintained.
01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2024
Programme Leaders at Strathclyde – role definition and support needs
Timmins, Claire (Co-investigator) Savage, Katy (Co-investigator)
Working with staff from OSDU, this project aims to provide a network for support and development of Programme Leaders across Strathclyde. Aims include the production of a broad role descriptor, an interactive timeline and online resource, a peer mentoring programme and induction activities.
01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2023
Evaluating the extent to which the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) impact on future student placement development
Cohen, Wendy (Principal Investigator) Timmins, Claire (Co-investigator)
When designing the current BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Pathology, OSCEs were identified as having a role at a specific stage in student development. Using the Scottish Curriculum Qualifications Framework (SCQF, 2012) as a skills’ benchmark, there was a clear description in two skill sets (Practice, applied knowledge and understanding; Communication) at levels 8 and 9 of the framework that corresponded to 2nd and 3rd year level of undergraduate study in Scotland. Four specific clinical skills were identified as suitable for OSCE and these were introduced into the curriculum in academic session 2015/16. Each task was intrinsically linked to a specific skill that would be developed during the 2nd year clinical placement with class based support activities. The OSCEs were then timetabled to take place during the summer examination diet for 2nd year students. Student feedback has been positive since the introduction of the OSCEs, with students commenting on aspects related to their relevance to clinical practice, their understanding of what the OSCEs were assessing, parity across the cohort and the value of constructive feedback for future learning (Cohen & Timmins, 2017). External examiners have also commended the course team on the introduction of the OSCEs. Recent studies have explored OSCEs from the learners’ perspective and in particular from the field of nursing. Nursing students have reported that OSCEs lead to increased self-directed learning and increased self-confidence (Ha, 2016) and that the constructive feedback learners receive contribute positively to their future learning and development. The extent to which speech and language therapy students can implement the skills they have demonstrated during their 2nd year OSCEs has not been evaluated and this study proposes to undertake this type of evaluation. By sampling, anonymously, the current 3rd year SLP cohort, who have successfully completed their OSCEs it is hoped that we can understand whether or not students have been able to implement these skills successfully in practice. Through additional discussion with the clinical tutors who provide guidance and support to these students as they progress through their subsequent 3rd year placement we hope to understand more about the effect that OSCEs have on future student learning and development.
24-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019
Fine phonetic variation and sound change: A real-time study of Glaswegian (also Sounds of the City)
Stuart-Smith, Jane (Principal Investigator) Timmins, Claire (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2011 - 01-Jan-2014
An online Ultrasound Tongue Imaging resource for Phonetics, Linguistics, and Speech Therapy teaching at Scottish Universities (Seeing Speech)
Stuart-Smith, Jane (Principal Investigator) Timmins, Claire (Co-investigator) Scobbie, James (Co-investigator) Turk, Alice (Co-investigator) Durham, Mercedes (Co-investigator) Beavan, Dave (Co-investigator) Barras, Will (Co-investigator)
This online resource is a product of the collaboration between researchers at five Scottish Universities: The University of Glasgow, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen. The resource will provide teachers and students of Practical Phonetics with synchronised ultrasound video, audio and 2D/3D diagrams of modelled speech and spontaneous speech (drawn from collected UTI and MRI corpora).
The website can be accessed at: http://www.seeingspeech.arts.gla.ac.uk/uti/
01-Jan-2011 - 20-Jan-2013

More projects

Back to staff profile

Contact

Dr Claire Timmins
Senior Teaching Fellow
Speech and Language Therapy

Email: claire.timmins@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3793