20.10.2020

Nominate a good teacher or a good instructor for a prize!

NEWS

Have you come across a brilliant lecturer, a dedicated instructor an otherwise excellent teacher? The Student Union rewards this year’s best teacher, best international teacher and best instructor at the University of Helsinki. Send in your suggestions!

At HYY we want to make good teachers and good instructors known! Nominate a wonderful teacher as a candidate for HYY’s Good Teacher – Magister Bonus Prize or Best International Teacher prize or nominate an invaluable instructor as a candidate for Good Instructor Prize. Nominees must be in a teaching or instructing position at the University of Helsinki. Any member of the academic community or a member organization can make nominations

Good Instructor –award

HYY’s Good Instructor prize has been established in 2018 and is awarded in the autumn to an instructor who has demonstrated commitment and interest in instruction and the people they instruct in their work.

The criteria of the Good Instructor prize are:

Commitment
A good instructor is committed to the person they are instructing and the instruction they are giving. In the best-case scenario, this commitment carries through the course of the student’s studies all the way from orientation in the fresher year to graduation. A good instructor helps students in the varying situations during their study path.

Support for study planning
A good instructor supports students in planning their own studies. A good instructor helps students see their study path as something that carries them into the time after studies, too. Any potential career dreams, whether they concern research or a career outside the University, can successfully be integrated as a foundation for planning one’s own study path.

Encountering students
A good instructor sees their students as individuals and understands that all students do not fit the same mould – they need different kind of support during their studies depending on their situation. A good instructor takes care of students’ wellbeing, even if only by encouraging them to rest sometimes or by reminding them of the importance of the student’s own wellbeing.

Helping students become a part of the University and scientific community
A good instructor helps students become a part of the University and scientific community. A good instructor teaches students about the practices of the discipline and cooperates with student organisations and tutors to help the students they instruct become a part of the University community.

A special criterion this year is:

Supporting students in the exceptional situation
A good instructor supports students and their study progress along the study path during changing situations, too. A good instructor stands by students who need support and helps them resolve problem situations. During the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a good instructor may have come up with great ways to keep in touch with the students they instruct or to generate peer support among students even when face-to-face meetings are off the table.

 

Magister Bonus –award

HYY’s Good Teacher – Magister Bonus prize is awarded each autumn to a teacher who has demonstrated skills and interest in both teaching and the people they teach in their work.

Criteria of the Magister Bonus prize are:

Student friendliness
Besides attitude, student friendliness suggests a desire to improve our common wellbeing and sense of communality. Appreciation for students is shown in teaching, on lectures and in the teacher’s other actions.

Expertise
Expertise is shown as the ability to focus on the relevant issues. A good teacher is interested in their own field and conveys their enthusiasm to their students, too. A competent teacher is also a trustworthy guide to the scientific community for their students and is able to bring out the working life connections of what they are teaching.

Active attitude towards development
A good teacher actively develops both themselves as a teacher and their teaching methods. They utilise different teaching methods in their teaching and have a positive attitude towards developing their pedagogic skills. They act as a part of the scientific community and strive to develop teaching in their own unit and at the University.

Giving and receiving constructive feedback
A good teacher knows how to collect feedback and actively uses it to develop their teaching. They know how to both give constructive feedback to their students and encourage them to open dialogue.

A special criterion this year is:

Conducting interactive distance teaching
During the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, teaching has had to be organised largely via remote connections only, which has created a new kind of challenge for the interactivity of teaching and the communality of the University. A good teacher creates interactivity in distance teaching, too, encouraging students to learn through cooperation and peer support. A good teacher uses interactive teaching to build communality both among the students and between the students and the staff.

Best International Teacher –award

HYY’s Best International Teacher prize is awarded each autumn to a teacher who teaches in a foreign language and has demonstrated skills and interest in both teaching and the people they teach in their work.

The criteria and instructions for proposals for the Magister Bonus prize apply to the Best International Teacher prize:

Student friendliness
Besides attitude, student friendliness suggests a desire to improve our common wellbeing and sense of communality. Appreciation for students is shown in teaching, on lectures and in the teacher’s other actions.

Expertise
Expertise is shown as the ability to focus on the relevant issues. A good teacher is interested in their own field and conveys their enthusiasm to their students, too. A competent teacher is also a trustworthy guide to the scientific community for their students and is able to bring out the working life connections of what they are teaching.

Active attitude towards development
A good teacher actively develops both themselves as a teacher and their teaching methods. They utilise different teaching methods in their teaching and have a positive attitude towards developing their pedagogic skills. They act as a part of the scientific community and strive to develop teaching in their own unit and at the University.

Giving and receiving constructive feedback
A good teacher knows how to collect feedback and actively uses it to develop their teaching. They know how to both give constructive feedback to their students and encourage them to open dialogue.

A special criterion for the Best International Teacher prize this year is:

Conducting interactive distance teaching
During the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, teaching has had to be organised largely via remote connections only, which has created a new kind of challenge for the interactivity of teaching and the communality of the University. A good teacher creates interactivity in distance teaching, too, encouraging students to learn through cooperation and peer support. A good teacher uses interactive teaching to build communality both among the students and between the students and the staff.

 

Instructions for making proposals:

Proposals for the recipient of the prizes should be made via Lyyti by 11.59 pm on 8 November 2020.

In your justifications, you should use examples on how the proposed person fulfils the set criteria. You may also attach any recognitions, nominations and prizes the candidate has previously received as well as other relevant information to the application.

Comments by students or other members of the University community or other suitable samples of the candidate’s merits may also be attached to the application. The proposal for the recipient of the award is made by HYY’s Studies Committee. The final decision on the recipient of the prize is made by HYY’s Board on 26 November 2020. The prize is awarded at the Anniversary livestream of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki on 26 November.

 

Additional information is given by
Jenna Sorjonen
jenna.sorjonen@hyy.fi
0503255202