Failures, I’ve had a few
Senior Academic Perspective
ECA Blog: July 2024
Professor Richard Franklin
Disipline of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University
It is not easy to write about your failures, let alone make them public. However, I believe that for every failure I have had (and there have been a few), I have learnt and grown, both as a person and an academic.
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Empowering Students: Tailoring Course Content Through Active Engagement
ECA Blog: June 2024
Dr Mikaela Wheeler, Early Career Academic Committee
Lecturer, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland
As I sat at my desk planning for the semester ahead, I wondered: what skills did my students want to learn this semester? What motivated them? And how could I connect the two to deliver a fun, meaningful, and impactful semester?
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Learning how to be a good PhD candidate!
ECA Blog, Senior Academic Perspective: May 2024
Anonymous Senior Academic
School of Psychology and Public Health
As experts in our chosen field, often we are doing a PhD because we are experts in our chosen field. This is particularly so if we are mature-aged with years of work experience – not academic experience. That was me. The first thing I had to learn was that doing a PhD is a whole different world to the one in which I work,
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Move Forward To Find Opportunities To Have An Impact
ECA Blog: May 2024
Helen Scudamore, Early Career Academic Committee Secretary
I tossed up between doing a GOAT (Greatest of All Time) experience or a failure. The tendency is to want to talk about what went well in the past and accomplishments, but for a little bit of fun let’s consider a “failure”.
One that jumps out in my mind is when I was not successful in renewing a contract.
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Navigating Teaching Cultures: Theory vs. Practice in India and Australia
ECA Blog: April 2024
Dr Tanmay Bagade, Early Career Academic Committee member
Reflecting on my journey from being a medical graduate in India to a teaching-intensive faculty member at a university in Australia, I am struck by the contrasting differences in educational approaches between these two countries. I feel that the teaching philosophies are entirely different and deeply rooted in the academic cultures of both countries.
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My GOAT networking experience and what I learnt: Take that chance, immerse yourself in the experience, and pay it forward.
ECA Blog, Senior Academic Perspective: April 2024
Associate Professor Helen Keen-Dyer
Disaster Management and Health, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia, Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
In an earlier blog post, Associate Professor Megan Teychenne reflected on the importance of surrounding yourself with GOOD people, and I wholeheartedly echo that sentiment.
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Embracing Discomfort: A Guide for Post-PhD Arrogance and Impostor Syndrome
ECA Blog: Senior Academic Perspective, March 2024
Associate Professor Amanda Rebar
Director of the Motivation of Health Behaviours Lab and the Lead of the Social Insights Research Group, Central Queensland University.
Dear Early Career Academic,
I get it. I understand the complexities of your current post-PhD phase. It’s a delicate balance between feeling overly confident in your expertise and grappling with imposter syndrome.
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Lessons Learned: Be a Rick
ECA Blog: March 2024
Dr. Vivian Romero, Early Career Academic Committee, Deputy Chair
I adore the fact that I am still learning and I hope you will chuckle along as I share my failure. My lesson learned emerged from a creative assessment. So, as teaching academics, we are in the dark forest of the AI assessment world. I may be one of the few who say good riddance to the traditional 3000-word essay.
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Dear ECA self: What I wish I knew starting out as an ECA knowing what I know now
ECA Blog: Senior Academic Perspective, February 2024
Associate Professor Megan Teychenne
NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University, Melbourne
Well hindsight is a lovely thing. And although I have consciously tried to make some ‘smart’ decisions throughout my early (and mid) career, I am not going to lie… there are many times that pure ‘luck’ has been on my side.
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Breaking the Mold: How I Became the GOAT of Classroom Expectations
ECA Blog: February 2024
Dr Elise Rivera, Early Career Academic Committee Member
When I think back to my experiences of the first day of class for new units of the term at university, they all started off generally the same – the lecturer gave a brief welcome and introduction, followed by a spiel about their expectations. I remember this generally being dry and matter of fact.
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