This is a guest post by Leibniz PostDoc Network spokeswoman Marta Ferreira-Gomes.

Bridging the Teaching Gap: Empowering Leibniz PostDocs with New Skills

In the academic world, PostDocs often find themselves teaching without proper training. Recognizing this gap, the Leibniz PostDoc Network organized an online workshop from September 27th to 29th. The aim? To equip us with essential teaching skills.

This workshop – highly requested by many Leibniz PostDocs – gave us tools to design our own courses, but also a good introduction to learning theories, teaching tools and classroom management. Interestingly, we also talked about diversity and inclusion in a teaching context and discussed the role of AI in the future of teaching and grading. All of this was presented in an interactive, hands-on manner, making the learning experience engaging and enriching for us all!

The attending postdocs were also give the chance to participate into a Micro-Teaching meeting and a course design activity both with the idea that the participants could get professional and peer feedback.

We owe this engaging experience to Dr. Annika Zorn, whose expertise guided us. We’re immensely grateful for her support.

This workshop was organized by the Career Development working group of the Leibniz PostDoc Network, however, only the participation and feedback of the PostDoc community can drive these initiatives forward! We invite you to participate in our Annual Meeting where we debate and decide the future actions of the network. This significant event is scheduled for the 16th and 17th of November and will be conducted via Zoom, ensuring that everyone is able to join. Your active participation is essential, and we look forward to engaging in fruitful discussions together. More information can be found here.

This post was written with help from Chat GPT 😉