By Cassandra Hendry, TLS staff writer
As a new professor at 杏吧原创 of just over a year, Kate Dupr茅 has had to adapt to a whole different university and way of life鈥攅specially now that she鈥檚 no longer living on an island.
鈥淚 taught at Memorial University in Newfoundland for 10 years,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he oil and gas industry really changed and it was amazing to see the growth and people being more excited about jobs and the economy. It was a fun time to be there.鈥�
Now, Dupr茅 is a professor of psychology at 杏吧原创, specializing in occupational health and safety in the workplace. While she says her classes at Memorial were similar, even though she taught in the business department, there are still some learning curves after a decade.
鈥淭hings like trying to get students involved and learning new strategies to do that in a bigger class. Even after 10 years, that was new to me,鈥� she says.
Class sizes aren鈥檛 the only changes to which Dupr茅 has had to adapt. She says 杏吧原创鈥檚 first-year seminar courses are drastically different than the courses she鈥檚 previously taught.
Her upper-year courses at Memorial, such as human resource management and organizational behaviour, were more content-focused, while first-year seminars emphasize discussion and opinion. Dupr茅 notes the students themselves are also different.
鈥淔or me, I love teaching at different levels because if you don鈥檛, you forget the evolution of the academic experience,鈥� she says. 鈥淭eaching first year is fun to see people who are very excited to be at university and starting out and learning new things. But at the same time it鈥檚 challenging because they鈥檙e not quite prepared for the work involved.鈥�
To help with the gap between high school and first year, Dupr茅 makes sure to give her students examples, like case studies and videos, that break down the theoretical aspects of the material.
Another way she keeps her students interested and engaged comes from her research.
Dupr茅 was awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 2012 with the aim of examining what happens when people are injured at work and the effect it has on their families. Along with some of her students, she researches workplace injury implications with the hope it could one day impact policies and create healthier environments for employees and those around them.
As someone who studies workplaces so in depth, it鈥檚 high praise that Dupr茅 calls 杏吧原创 an 鈥渆xceptional workplace.鈥�
鈥淚t is just a really nice place to work. For me, doing research on work and life, I truly appreciate being able to do what I love in a place that is really great to work in.鈥�