Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences Short Course 2025
Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences is a short course designed for City St George’s, University of London staff involved in teaching and/or supporting learning. It will help you enhance your knowledge, skills, and understanding of active, inclusive, and student-focused teaching and support of learning; and also, it will support your development as confident, reflective teachers/supporters of learning in higher education.
If you intend to apply for Advance HE professional recognition via St George’s SHINE scheme at Descriptor 1 (Associate Fellow), Descriptor 2 (Fellow) or Descriptor 3 (Senior Fellow) of the Professional Standards Framework (PSF),Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences course can help you update/further extend your knowledge, skills and understanding of effective learning and teaching. You can find further information about the SHINE scheme here.
You will need to spend around 15 hours over a 6-week period to successfully complete the course, which uses a blended approach, via asynchronous (self-directed learning) and synchronous (in-person and live online sessions via MS Teams) modes of learning.
What do participants say about the course?
“The course was structured well and the learning journey was easy to follow and enjoyable. Self-directed learning sessions were well-organised on canvas, including useful links and references. Online sessions were well-run and engaging” Anonymous survey response, April 2023.
“I particularly enjoyed the microteaching session and the final session on improving future practice. I like the idea of reflective writing and keen to try it out in the future” Anonymous survey response, April 2023.
Case studies
Who is Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences for?
Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences is open to all full and part-time academic and professional services staff involved in teaching and/or supporting learning at St George’s. Relevant activities include (but are not limited to): lecturing, research supervision, assessment of research projects, laboratory demonstration, leading tutorials/small groups, or supporting students’ learning within professional services roles. The course is also open to postgraduate research students who are involved in one or more of these activities.
Please note: If you are an academic on probation and/or if your role has a substantial teaching component, the PgCert in Healthcare and Science Education may be the most appropriate course for you. Successful completion of the PgCert HSE bestows Fellowship of Advance HE. Find out more about the PgCert course and apply.
The course content has been designed to help you extend your knowledge about learning as well as teaching/supporting learning within a discipline while being sensitive to the range of learning contexts you occupy (as teachers, research supervisors, assessors, laboratory demonstrators, learning technologists etc.) and the diverse learning requirements of your learners.
The successful completion of this short course will enable you to:
- explore and adapt your teaching/support of learning to address the needs of individual learners within different teaching and learning contexts
- identify and use a range of evidence-informed approaches to develop more effective and inclusive practice
- be consciously aware of how your practice and professional values reflect relevant learning theories, the wider local-global contexts, and current topics in higher education
- reflect on and evaluate your practice to continue improving your professional learning.
What is the structure of the course?
The Teaching and Learning in Health and Medical Sciences course consists of 6 sessions delivered within two Units over 6 weeks. The content will be delivered through:
- asynchronous self-regulated, flexible learning (self-directed online sessions in Canvas)
- synchronous, active, and collaborative learning (group discussions, tutorials, peer learning, online face-to-face learning).
The self-learning resources accessible via Canvas will facilitate self-paced learning, based on your current knowledge about teaching and learning within higher education contexts.
Once you have registered on the course, you will be provided with access to the Canvas resources.
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Comprises 3 topics, delivered across the first 3 weeks:
- What do I know about my current teaching/supporting learning?
- How do learners learn effectively?
- How can I know learners learn effectively?
Unit 1 focuses on exploring what is effective learning within your own context of teaching/supporting learning. You will critically engage with the approaches and values that underpin your current practice to draw connections between your practice and how learning happens within your own discipline/subject area. You will also consider ways of assessing learners to check and help their learning while evaluating the impact of your teaching on their learning.
Includes 3 topics and will start from week 4 and continue up to week 6:
- How can I create effective learning environments?
- How do I know my practice is effective?
- How can I improve my future practice?
Unit 2 focuses on examining how effective learning can be made possible within your own context of teaching/supporting learning and within the wider context of higher education. You will also get the opportunity to be involved in microteaching and offer and receive immediate feedback from your peers and the course facilitators. Microteaching is a peer teaching activity and participants who are in professional services roles and academic/research roles can engage in microteaching.
What is next?
If you are interested, please register using this link. The course runs twice per year.
January 2025
The live sessions will be on MS Teams on the following days:
Tuesday 21st January from 10:00-11.30 (first session)
Tuesday 04th February from 10:00-11.30 (third session)
Tuesday 18th February from 10:00-12.00 (fifth session, microteaching)
Tuesday 25th February from 10:00-11.30 (final session)
The self-directed sessions facilitated via Canvas are scheduled on the following days:
- Tuesday 28th January from 10.00 to 11.30 (second session)
- Tuesday 11th February from 10.00 to 11.30 (fourth session).
Please contact the course director Dr Thushari Welikala (twelikal@sgul.ac.uk) for further information about the course.
For administrative queries, please contact the course manager, Paola Motta: pmotta@sgul.ac.uk