Bioscience Postdoc Educational Leadership Program

Join the Bioscience Postdoc Educational Leadership Program

Add some educational leadership and mentoring experience to your CV!

Winter 2020 Application Deadline: December 4, 2020

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs for the Biomedical and Life Sciences is working with the School of Medicine and Department of Molecular, Cellular, & Integrative Physiology (MCIP) to provide opportunities for postdocs to develop leadership skills in educational settings.

Skills to be developed:

  • Leading small-group discussions
  • Evaluating effectiveness of lecture content and presentation
  • Course review and analysis

Bioscience Postdoc Educational Leadership Program has two parts:

Observation
Program postdocs will audit and observe a 3-week block of the graduate course, Molecular Mechanisms in Human Diseases, which covers fundamentals in modern molecular biology, with special emphasis on the implications and relevance to human diseases. This course was chosen for the program because its broad range of bioscience topics matches with a wide range of postdoc research interests and its variety of instructors provides multiple potential instructional role models for participants. Witness firsthand how a course is developed and improved and get the opportunity to observe a variety of UCLA faculty lecturers and discussion leaders. Participants will be assigned a 3-week block of intensive observation and participation during the Winter quarter.

Training
Program postdocs will be provided access to the course development process, using the audited course as an example and have the opportunity to develop their own leadership skills by leading three small-group discussions with graduate students on research proposal writing skills. One training/information meeting will take place just before the academic quarter, and a follow-up debriefing and course planning meeting will take place after the quarter. Course observation will be a 3-week block during the quarter with a commitment of 2 hours/day, 3 days/week.

Participants selected to join the Bioscience Postdoc Educational Leadership Program are required fully participate in the following activities:

  • Audit and attend a 3-week block of the course, Molecular Mechanisms of Human Diseases during the appropriate quarter, including:
  • Closely observe all the lectures during the 3-week commitment block, preparing lecture reviews on teaching and lecture style.
  • In a group of 4 postdocs, attend and facilitate a weekly Literature Discussion for graduate students during assigned block.
  • Attend a pre-quarter training, information and course planning session for program participants.
  • Attend a post-quarter debriefing meeting with course faculty for course and curriculum planning.
  • Review the instructional style of each lecturer looking for most effective practices.
  • Get permission from their PI/mentor for their potential participation, should they be selected.

The application should take 10-15 minutes to complete, in addition to confirming your schedule availability.

Fall 2020 Participant Schedule: Participant Schedule – Winter 2021

2020-2021 Course Syllabus: M252 & M262 – Course Syllabus

 

Program FAQ’s