This text is translated from Danish to Norwegian by UiOGPT
What teaching plan would you like to highlight for your colleagues at the faculty right now?
In the specialization subjects at TIK we have begun to supplement the lectures with weekly seminars. These are two hours per week where the students work with the material themselves, which really allows for a broad range of learning styles.
In the STS (Science, Technology, and Society) seminars, the students have made presentations, quick analyses, reading, writing, and discussion exercises, and they have drawn large maps of theoretical schools on the board. It is truly a pleasure to see the students take to the dance floor, so to speak, and I also believe that the learning outcome is higher when we supplement the traditional lectures with more student-centered activities.
Who do you collaborate with?
In the actual teaching situation, I collaborate with the students, but behind the scenes, my closest collaboration is with TIK's study coordinator, Petter Br?nstad, and with my fellow researchers.
This spring, I was responsible for a course for the first time, and it really dawned upon me just how much administration and planning such a course entails. It's a luxury to be able to collaborate with administrative staff who are on top of formal requirements, deadlines, and communication with the library, printers, and bookshops.
My research colleagues at TIK are also important sparring partners, and they generously share tips and tricks, suggestions for teaching activities, old PowerPoint presentations, and their overall experiences.
Which, do you think, are the three most important factors for achieving good teaching in the field?
I believe it's important that the students experience that their teachers care about the subject, and that we also find the encounter between students and subject exciting and inspiring.
Next, it's important to have students who are engaged in the subject. Here at TIK, we are lucky because even though we have a relatively small number of master's students, they engage in several social and academic activities, such as publishing the magazine 'Teknovt?ren'. I am convinced that students who feel welcome and valued in a social community also have more energy to contribute academically.
Finally, of course, it is important to be well-prepared and to have thought about what you want to disseminate to the students. STS is not an easy subject to master, but it can be great fun to study and practice STS. That enthusiasm is easiest to rub off on the students when I am well-prepared myself.
If you were to give one piece of advice to new teachers at the Social Sciences faculty, what would it be?
Ask your colleagues for advice, but make the teaching your own!