The United Nations has proclaimed the 24th of January as International Day of Education. At the Erasmus University Rotterdam, we’d like to celebrate this by thanking all EUR lecturers for their great efforts and enthusiasm while teaching.
We’ve asked our students: what makes a good teacher? And the answers we got doesn’t have anything to do with their amount of knowledge, but with their ability to inspire, to stimulate critical thinking, to offer relevant societal problems to tackle and to create a safe and inclusive environment in which you can share every opinion, even if the lecturer doesn’t agree with that opinion.
"A place for every opinion, especially in social science related disciplines. Even if you do not agree".
- student
When asked, lecturers come up with similar replies. Floor van Rosse, assistant professor in the pharmacy department of Erasmus MC: “The ability to inspire your students is the most important trait of a good teacher. When you see the students’ eyes light up and notice you really made sense to your students, that they found new perspectives or had new insights, that’s what makes this such a great job.”
Jeroen Jansz, full professor Communication & Media at ESHCC, likes to distinguish between the different educational methods. “Teaching at a lecture with 200 students requires skills that differ from teaching in a small interactive setting. During a lecture, you’re being a good teacher when you can really use the stage to your advantage, with excellent presentation skills and involving people in the back rows as well. In an interactive setting with far fewer students, a good teacher is able to take a step back and observe, very sensitive to group dynamics and ready to step in with the right knowledge.”
Both lecturers have a very close connection to the Community for Learning & Innovation. As CLI Fellow, Floor has the ability to work on educational innovation projects and research for one day a week. Her advice for her peers: “Make sure you choose an inspiring work environment such as the Education Lab in the Polak building. Away from your daily business. This really helps to focus and to redesign your course, or work on your educational innovation project for instance.”
In his capacity as Academic Director of the CLI, Jeroen hopes this International Day of Education is a nice occasion to talk about the teaching profession. “Naturally, we encounter a lot of challenges being a teacher in an academic environment, but let’s also count our blessings: it’s a beautiful job.”
Education at Erasmus University Rotterdam encourages you to think further than your assumptions. You learn to explore other perspectives, look for new solutions and discover different insights. This is how you push your limits.
Having an idea to improve or innovate your education? Interested in becoming a CLI Fellow yourself?
Contact the CLI: cli@eur.nl
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