Imperial College London

DrMagdaCharalambous

Faculty of Natural SciencesDepartment of Life Sciences

Principal Teaching Fellow
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5372m.charalambous

 
 
//

Location

 

505Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Pedagogy

Educational Research

I am interested in evidence-based improvements to teaching to better facilitate student learning.  My current research is an investigation of student transition from school to university. I am employing a sequential mixed-methods design that involves analysis of quantitative exam performance data and survey questionnaire data. The results of these analyses have been explored further using semi-structured focus group interviews to generate qualitative data on the perception of students of factors affecting the school-university transition. Some of my recommendations have already been put into practice by the BSc Biological Sciences Year 1 convenor, Dr Steve Cook.



Teaching Expertise

I use teaching methods that align best with the specific intended learning outcomes, such as:

Lectures with active learning, often using student response systems (Mentimeter and Socrative)

Flipped classrooms

Blended learning, i.e. using both video and face-to-face lecturing in modules

Problem-based learning

Team-based learning

Research-based learning, i.e. Mini-Projects within course modules

Ecology field-work  

Creating videos for practical techniques

Social media, i.e. Facebook

R software programming language to teach statistics

Quizzes on Blackboard VLE



Cascading Teaching Practice

I am an advocate of practical enquiry-based learning and have delivered a departmental 'Good Practice Workshop' to encourage the use of authentic course-based undergraduate research experiences.

 

Curriculum Reviews

As well as challenging the teaching methods we use, it is also important to keep asking whether our curriculum is up-to-date and best serves our students. As Year 2 convenor I have overseen changes to the Year 2 provision and have also radically redesigned Genetics with Statistics and created Behavioural Ecology, as a new course module. Both these modules emphasise the importance of teaching statistical skills, using R software, to biologists.