My teaching reflects many of the same interests as my research: behaviour, evolution, ecology and scientific explanation. I have taught across psychology and biological science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as supervising Master's and doctoral research.
I am particularly interested in teaching that helps students move beyond learning established findings and towards understanding how scientific explanations are constructed, evaluated and tested. This includes attention to theory, research design and the relationship between models, evidence and the phenomena they are intended to explain.
I have taught behavioural science, evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
A recurring aim is to connect different levels of explanation. Understanding behaviour requires attention both to the mechanisms that produce it and to the ecological and evolutionary processes that help explain why behavioural systems have the properties they do.
Fieldwork has also been an important part of my teaching. I have used the study of animal behaviour to introduce psychology students to observation, measurement, hypothesis formation and the practical process of doing science.
I contribute to doctoral education within the School of Human and Social Sciences at the University of West London and work with doctoral researchers across a range of behavioural and social-science topics.
My doctoral teaching focuses particularly on research thinking: developing tractable questions, understanding the relationship between theory and method, evaluating evidence, and communicating research effectively.
I also supervise doctoral research and contribute to the development of postgraduate research training within the School.
An additional strand of my teaching concerns how scientific knowledge is communicated and represented.
I use examples from museums, exhibitions, scientific writing and public communication to encourage researchers to think about the choices involved in explaining science to different audiences. This includes considering what is selected, simplified or left implicit when complex scientific ideas are represented outside their original research context.
Science communication is therefore treated not simply as the final stage of research, but as another opportunity to think carefully about explanation, evidence and audience.