Dr Michelle Harvey

Biography

Dr Michelle Harvey is currently Senior Lecturer in Forensic Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, specialising in forensic entomology. She completed a BSc/BA at the University of Queensland in entomology and Chinese, followed by BSc Hons in zoology at UWA, and graduated with Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Forensic Science at UWA in 2007.

Michelle was a UWA Teaching Internship recipient in 2005, and during her PhD studies was also a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow based in South Africa, and a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellow of the American Australian Association.

I was fortunate to be an Intern in 2005, while studying towards a Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Forensic Science in the Centre for Forensic Science at UWA. My previous teaching experience had involved demonstrating in laboratory classes and occasional lectures, as well as numerous talks to public groups. These experiences were instrumental in fostering an enthusiasm to share my passion for research and my subject as a whole.

During my Internship I taught both undergraduate and postgraduate forensic entomology and DNA topics in the Centre for Forensic Science, under the mentoring of Professor Ian Dadour. This enabled me to facilitate smalland large-group formal lectures, laboratory classes and field sessions.

A valuable part of the Internship was the group sessions where our experiences in teaching practice were discussed. These allowed difficult situations to be deliberated and, likewise, successful approaches to be shared. The diversity of the group allowed sharing across disciplines – an important opportunity given the innate differences in methods of knowledge transfer between the sciences and the arts. My research project considered the use of competency-based assessment in forensic science – a critical question to consider in a field grounded in practical abilities and professional practice.

On completion of my studies, I was fortunate to secure a position as Senior Lecturer in Forensic Biology at the University of Portsmouth, commencing in September 2006. My Internship served me well as preparation, as I now coordinate three undergraduate units, supervise up to ten honours students in any one year, and am running a new forensic entomology research laboratory with my first two PhD students. The Internship was acknowledged here, with formal credit granted towards my teaching in higher education training in my current position.

My Internship shaped my approach to teaching by encouraging me to consider issues such as surface and deep learning approaches, teaching to a variety of learning styles, the use of e-learning in my courses, and a variety of assessment formats. Problem Based Learning (PBL) was a topic I presented in workshop format during my intern year, and now employ as an assessed learning task in my undergraduate teaching.

I credit the Internship Scheme with providing the grounding for my direct transition from research student to academic, and am grateful that UWA has such a program to facilitate the development of a new generation of academics to share their passion and enthusiasm for learning.