How do I become a Psychology Lecturer?

I love angels · 01-02-2019 8:55pm #1

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering how do I become a Psychology Lecturer in a University. I know I would have to be Educated up to PHD level in Psychology but what teaching training course would I have to do afterwards to become a Psychology Lecturer. How would I get teaching experience or do they allow you to teach when you are doing the PHD?

Many thanks,

kind regards,

Linda

rainbowtrout · 01-02-2019 10:50pm

Lecturers don't do teacher training courses. Some may have a teaching qualification or teaching experience but lecturers are employed to do research and bring in funding to universities and do lecturing as part of their duties.

bolgbui41 · 03-02-2019 9:01pm

There's no teacher training course for third level, but in some universities you can get teaching experience while doing your PhD that'll stand to you when applying for lectureships. The university I was in in the UK employed PhDs to teach seminars and mark essays and exams; we also had to hold "consultations" with our students and effectively act as a conduit between lecturers and students. I also worked with a couple of good module conveners who let me write and give lecturers on their modules - again, something that looks good on the CV. We got some basic pedagogical training during our first term and then top-ups at the start of every academic year.

While rainbowtrout is right in saying lectures are employed to do research and attract funding, early career lecturers seem to be given a disproportionate amount of teaching duties. If you look at academic job sites in the UK specifically, you'll also see a lot of "teaching and learning" lectureships for early career academics for which the primary focus is teaching rather than research (I'm on one of these contracts myself at the moment).

There's more information on this link, and you could also have a look through the job specifications to see what you need to become a lecturer: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers-advice/working-in-higher-education/1057/how-to-become-a-lecturer

i5kra · 14-02-2019 9:02am

From experience in academia (not psychology) PhDs are usually offered teaching opportunities - mainly in supporting roles such as supervising tutorials etc. I got to supervise the completion of end of year individual coursework by students which was very useful as you were dealing with people on a 1 to 1 basis. Lots of them were very stressed so I had to be careful how to approach dealing with them. But it was a good experience and I learned a lot. Similarly, one of the lecturers was out sick and I got to deliver a module to a class which was also very good experience.

In terms of training you to actually teach -- we had a mickey mouse course that was of zero use. I just used my common sense and winged it and got positive reviews from students. (Very positive actually - helped that the other lecturers on the course were crap).

I honestly wouldn't worry unduly about the teaching aspect of things at the moment - that is for a later stage.

For a 3rd level job you need:
1. Good network/Influence
2. Know how the system works
3. Research publications
4. Ability to attract funding for research
5. Some sort of teaching ability

A lot of it is about being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people and having the right qualifications.

Lots of competition in academia.

Again, I don't have direct experience in the area of psychology. I'm just sharing my own experiences.

How do I become a Psychology Lecturer?

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