Increasing quality in teaching through new pedagogical framework
The three-phase model at the Faculty of Science has had its time. Instead, a new pedagogical framework must have a greater focus on, among other things, enjoyment in teaching and more in-depth learning.
Dear colleagues
In recent times, the education committee and the management group at the faculty have begun major work on updating the pedagogical framework for the teaching offered by the Faculty of Science.
It is necessary to be able to change some of the experiences that now lead to frustrations among the teachers and dissatisfaction among the students.
Therefore, in collaboration with the SDU Centre for Teaching and Learning, we have created a draft for a new pedagogical framework for our programmes. The draft will now be consulted on in the study boards and in the departmental teaching committees.
To a much greater extent, we must create well-being in teaching. Whereas until now we have tended to see the well-being of the students as an independent aspect that can be worked on independently of the teaching itself, today we stand in a place where all the research on the well-being of the students tells us that you cannot separate well-being and teaching. The teaching and the professional communities are the very key to the students thriving.
The new framework must be the new starting point for our continued and forward-looking conversation about teaching.
The amount of knowledge within the subjects has been increasing rapidly – and it will only continue like this. But we don't get more time to teach. On the contrary, some degree programmes are made shorter with the .
Therefore, as teachers, we cannot simply continue as we usually do, and simply try to fill the students with even more knowledge. We will have to cut the width so that we can have more calm, quality and in-depth learning.
This should give the students an experience of mastering the subjects that we prioritize for them. And if they have learned the core material in depth, they can acquire knowledge and skills in new subjects themselves later. By cutting the width, we also give the teachers more time to get in depth with fewer subjects.
I believe that all of us as researchers and teachers have experienced that a course has become redundant as a result of the development of the subject. Therefore, all our degree programmes should be reviewed for subject overload, redundancy and unclear learning objectives.
At the same time, we must increase the variety in our learning methods and teaching methods. This does not mean that we have to abolish lectures. But we must have fewer of them in the future. Lectures may well be an element that we continue to use, but as a form of teaching, lectures have their natural limitations.
Therefore, we must make more use of teaching methods that enable us to involve the students better. We must make more room for, for example, case-based assignments, feedback and dialogue. For the teachers, it also means that you don't have to be prepared for perfection, but to a greater extent you have to be able to create the framework around engaging teaching. At the same time, we must dare give the students co-responsibility for parts of the teaching.
Both teachers and students must move away from the culture of perfection. Instead, we must support the students in their opportunities to collaborate and participate in communities and study groups and to work innovatively with learning.
As teachers, we must become better at focusing on the skills our students bring with them, acquire and all that they have learned.
In this way, we must clarify the relevance, but also the coherence in and between our courses. That part is important, so that our degree programmes are not just the sum of the individual courses but a larger whole with clear goals and meaning.
The students do not necessarily have to know what they want to use their education for from day one, but are made safe in the knowledge that they are developing skills step by step that can support their further learning and prepare them for an exciting and meaningful future.
Therefore, the already established competence portfolio is also a central element in the new educational framework.
The same is true of the start of studies. The students must experience from day one that we want them to be here. We must take them with the prerequisites they bring, and recognize these as a fine starting point for academic university life. We must limit set aside our own prerequisites and explain university codes that may seem inaccessible to newcomers.
There are many things we have to do differently in the future. It doesn't all have to happen at once. We must take the time to implement our new educational framework so that it will shape our teaching culture. Therefore, we must first and foremost be open to experimenting with new approaches and other forms of teaching.
Together with the management group and the education leaders, I look forward to the continued work with the educational framework, the dialogue with various committee and lecturers and the implementation in our teaching on the programmes.
Poul Nielsen, vice dean for education