I was a Masters and then PhD student in the DTP from 2014 to 2018, based at Birkbeck on the Psychology pathway. My PhD was submitted in September, which was a huge relief! My research investigated the skills involved in science and maths reasoning in adolescence, and I’m lucky enough to continue working on the same research for my current Research Fellowship.
My Research Fellowship will run over the next 6 months, and it’s a fantastic scheme supported by Birkbeck and the Wellcome Trust. The scheme will allow me to spend half of my time writing up papers from my thesis for publication, and half of my time on public engagement work. My public engagement work consists of creating a film about the adolescent brain with a colleague of mine, Georgie Donati, and in collaboration with a film production company.
Our vision is to create a film for teachers, explaining the key facts relating to the adolescent brain that are relevant for teachers. We will be working with teachers, to ensure that the content of the film is well-matched to their prior knowledge and needs. The film will be just 2 or 3 minutes long, and we hope it will be informative and engaging, ideally leading to new ideas for teachers to try in the classroom.
I have a real passion for public engagement. The International Mind, Brain, and Education Society recently awarded me a prestigious Exceptional Trainee award in recognition of my work in this area. I am particularly keen to tell teachers and students about research that relates to them, as it may have implications for their own teaching and learning. I have therefore spent lots of time in schools, giving talks to teachers and students about my own research, and research on learning more generally. I have also written lots of blog posts, usually aimed at teachers, describing the latest scientific research into education. Finally, I was involved in a fantastic initiative linking researchers and teachers through informal online chats on a website called the Learning Zone.
I don’t yet know what I’ll do after my 6 months of post-doc funding. I am hoping to carry on doing work that brings scientific evidence to the classroom, whether that’s through conducting further research, or through more translational work. My time as a student in the DTP has developed my research and communication skills, and enabled me to work closely with schools and teachers. I look forward to continuing the development of these skills, and using them to help improve teaching and learning.
