Teaching with passion and empathy
During the foundation day celebrations on 8 February Leiden University’s Student Council (LSr) will present the Teaching Prize, which recognises excellent and inspirational teaching. Five lecturers have been short-listed for the prize. ‘I think it’s wonderful when I see passion for a subject being conveyed to the students.’
Surprise
Tessa Minter during her research in the Philippines
For Isabelle van de Calseyde, lecturer on the French Language and Culture degree programme, the nomination came as a complete surprise: ‘Whether I win or not, it is a mark of appreciation for your teaching style from the students.’ Laura Heitman, lecturer in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, sees her nomination as an honour: ‘It is nice to know that students appreciate of my love of teaching.’
Special approach
Isabel Hoving, lecturer in Film and Literary Studies, likes to use the old-fashioned blackboard for what she hopes are ‘enlightening – though from time to time unintentionally insane – diagrams and drawings’. On top of that, she cannot help but make jokes during her classes: ‘That’s because I enjoy teaching so much, I get carried away,’ she says. Tessa Minter, lecturer in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, has her own approach to her teaching: ‘That means I like to do things well, and that I am interested in the people sitting in front of me. I always try to learn my students’ names by heart, for instance: it’s a great way to fight off old age too!’
A good teacher
Isabelle van de Calseyde with her students on a working visit to a shipyard.
According to Jan Pronk, lecturer in Public Administration, a good teacher has to be able to convey passion for his or her subject. ‘A combination of theory and authentic practice can bring the material in books to life and show why it is relevant. This is also how lecturers can demonstrate their worth.’ Pronk himself, therefore, tries to make all his classes interesting and stimulating. Van de Calseyde also stresses the importance of lecturers being able to identify with their students: ‘This is the only way to make the different disciplines and professions accessible, and to foster the exchange of knowledge so as to create an optimal environment for working and studying.’
About the LSr Teaching Prize
Since 2000, Leiden University’s Student Council has awarded the LSr Teaching Prize to the best and most inspiring lecturer, chosen by students. ‘The first selection was based on nomination forms filled in by the academic students’ unions,’ Christel de Lange, chairperson of the LSr, explains. ‘Based on these nominations we chose more than ten lecturers whose classes we sat in on. We narrowed the selection down to a top five, based on whether there was enough of a focus on research and current developments in the field, and on the level of interaction between the lecturer and the students. The lecturer who scores the most points in each category will receive the Prize for Education on Wednesday.’
Links
(5 February 2012)