It was mid-April 2009 when a younger, bulkier, and hairier Frank entered the student laboratories of the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy. He was about to start off a one-week training program to become a ‘student teaching assistant’ during the analytical chemistry practicals for first-year Pharmacy students. He was looking forward to assisting in this course as he really liked taking this course himself one year earlier. Also, this opportunity allowed him to (somewhat) follow in the footsteps of his father, who is a chemistry teacher in Dutch secondary education, who successfully transmitted his passion for teaching to all of his children, and who was the person he looked up to the most.
Now, twelve years later, I am again roaming around student laboratories where first-year Pharmacy students are being introduced to the principles and practices of analytical chemistry. This time, however, French is the official language in the lab, instead of Dutch, and I am not just assisting in teaching but also assisting in course management and organization. Quite a promotion, is it not?
But when I arrived in Geneva, I was actually surprised that this course was managed by our group’s postdocs and primary taught by these same postdocs together with the group’s PhD students. Because during my time in Groningen, PhD students and postdocs were generally not involved in practical classes (at least from what I have witnessed). There, practicals were organized by dedicated University teachers and were co-taught by student teaching assistants. Corresponding teaching expertise could thus typically only be gained upon taking initiative to become a student teaching assistant as a BSc or MSc student, as I could fortunately do several times for different courses. Moreover, during my PhD project, I found that it was, in principle, possible to make some contributions to undergraduate practical classes as well. Still, for PhD students in my old group, teaching responsibilities mostly consisted of supervising BSc’s and MSc’s research projects, and it was rather unusual that I made (minor) contributions to practical classes for third-year Pharmacy students and for Pharmacy Top Master students.
Back to Geneva, what I particularly like about my present-day teaching activities is that I can compare between the organization of the course we are currently running and the first-year analytical chemistry course I took and assisted in Groningen. Also, I can compare between the current course pre-lockdown, peri-lockdown, and post-lockdown, which represent vastly different teaching conditions, each with different challenges. And this changing of conditions allowed me to gain many (additional) experiences as a teacher, some of which will (hopefully) not be relevant for the future.
And what I also like about my present-day teaching activities are some of the students who can truly make my day. For example the cool student who did not properly prepare for a session but who nailed it anyway. Or the insecure student who only needed a couple of compliments and encouragements to start shining on the lab. Or the quiet student with near-perfect laboratory etiquette whose movements are absolutely pleasing to the eye. Or the ambitious student who meticulously prepared for a session and who could not sleep the night before because there was one thing she could not fully grasp (which turned out to be a mistake in the manual, oops).
Needless to say, I feel privileged to see these talented students gathering knowledge and experience during the courses we organize, and I wish for all PhD students and postdocs to be granted the same opportunity to supervise and teach students and let them enrich their lives.
analyzed-by-frank.com 