Dr John Bamberg Postdoctoral Fellow, Ghent University

Biography

John Bamberg grew up in the Kinglake region of Victoria and attended Yea High School for his secondary school studies. He then completed a BSc with honours at La Trobe University, with a major in pure mathematics, and then in 2000, moved to Perth (UWA) to undertake a PhD under the supervision of Professor Cheryl Praeger and Professor Tim Penttila.

His topic was on a problem in finite permutation group theory related to the O’Nan-Scott Theorem for primitive groups. Towards the end of his candidature (2003), John and his co-supervisor Tim Penttila applied for a Discovery Project funded by the Australian Research Council, which included funding for a postdoctoral fellow. They were granted the funding which provided three years employment for John as a researcher working in finite geometry, with particular emphasis in applying group theoretic methods. In 2006, John moved to Ghent (Belgium) to begin a research fellowship of three years duration in the Incidene Geometry research group, which included two years of a Marie Curie fellowship. On May 1st this year, John will begin a fouryear research position at UWA, on an ARC project with Dr Michael Giudici and Associate Professor Gordon Royle.

Postgraduate students, in their three or four years of candidature, will invariably grow as researchers and academic scholars. If they wish to pursue a career in academia, they will have gained by the end of their candidature the skills necessary to be independent researchers, able to establish new collaborative networks, solicit for funding, communicate effectively with others, and make new discoveries.

This is all well and good, but in most cases, one of the primary roles of an academic is to teach undergraduates, and not all earners of a postgraduate degree are equipped sufficiently for such a role. Here is the significance and importance of the UWA Postgraduate Teaching Internship Scheme, which I was extremely fortunate to have been a part of in 2002.

With the excellent guidance of Allan Goody, the Internship of 2002 consisted of twelve Interns from a variety of disciplines, mine being mathematics. Particularly striking for me were the differences in both the teaching philosophy and the practice of the disciplines being represented. For example, it was common for the health sciences to base their courses around particular case studies and problems (i.e. Problem Based Learning), while in some areas of Humanities the use of visual tools was much less than I was accustomed to (we use blackboards a lot!). We were encouraged to look at different modes of practice for their advantages and disadvantages, and to shape our own opinions of what would be suitable for our own field of teaching. For example, due to resource issues, the teaching of mathematics now consists predominantly of lectures, which is a shame, as mathematics is perfectly suited to small group teaching such as tutorials and small problem classes.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University (Belgium) and have recently been given a masters-level course to coordinate. It was clear from the beginning that there were differences between my style of teaching and the very traditional way of Belgian tertiary education, and it was interesting for me to reflect on these differences. Some of the things I learnt during the Internship were essential for discerning and critically evaluating these differences and for adapting my style of teaching to a new system. I also called upon my experience of curriculum design, which was a major component of what I had learnt as part of the Internship, both from CATL and from an excellent mentor, Professor Tim Penttila (who is now at Colorado State University).

Another benefit of the Internship is somewhat of a side effect that is perhaps not emphasised as much as it should be, and that is its impact on my research presentations. The continual reflection and analysis of my teaching during and since the Internship has positively affected the way I present a seminar or conference talk.

The Internship has not only taught me that this kind of professional development is a great thing to do if one wants a career in academia, but also that it is helpful to someone who wants to improve their oral communication and organisational skills. It is often said that those who think they do not need to improve their teaching are likely to be those who need it! I am very grateful to the Internship, not only for emphasising the value of continual improvement and innovation, but also for establishing a solid basis for the teaching side of my academic profile.