Mind The Gaps: managing transitions into and out of undergraduate study
Simon Bates, Professor of Physics Education, The University of Edinburgh
Abstract
Successful progression through undergraduate study involves negotiating a wide range of transitions. In this talk, I'll focus on the transitions at both boundary regions: the entry into and the exit from undergraduate education. For both of these, I'll highlight some of the work that we have been doing at Edinburgh to map out these transitions and support students in navigating them successfully. I'll cover topics including mathematical preparedness for university-level study amongst entrant undergraduates, how student attitudes and beliefs about their subject of study change over time and also the development of graduate attributes (with particular focus on the development of data handling skills in undergraduate scientists). Though the examples will have a distinctly physical sciences flavour, much of what I will present will be relevant and resonate across a much broader range of disciplines.
Biography 
Simon Bates did a first degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, followed by a PhD in the Department of Chemistry at UMIST (now part of the University of Manchester). Following post-doctoral work in a chemical engineering department (in Eindhoven, the Netherlands) and in Physics at Keele, he took a temporary lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. After a brief spell at Trinity College Dublin, he returned to Physics and Astronomy at Edinburgh in 2000.
Alongside a continuing research programme in atomistic simulation of materials and liquids, he has developed research activities in e-learning and Physics Education Research. Between 2006 and 2009, he was Director of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Edinburgh. In 2006, he received the Chancellor's Award for Teaching, the highest individual award at Edinburgh in recognition of academic excellence. In 2008 he was awarded a Personal Chair in Physics Education.