This text has been translated from Norwegian with the assistance of GPT UiO.
– Which teaching program would you like to highlight for your colleagues at the faculty right now?
– I would like to highlight the teaching plan I am developing for the new bachelor’s programme in Economics and Finance. Here we will combine existing economics courses with new finance courses, and there are three particular courses that students take during the first two years which together form the backbone of the finance component. I place a lot of emphasis on viewing these three courses as a whole, both in terms of content and structure. I have a long list of important issues in finance that go beyond the purely academic content you find in the textbooks. These might include questions of personal finance, historical events, the management of the Oil Fund, or typical issues that appear in the news. In addition, I have a number of guest lecturers I would like to bring in during the bachelor’s programme. As I plan the courses, I am also planning how and when these different elements should be incorporated into the teaching, so that they create as much engagement and learning as possible for the students.
– Who do you collaborate with?
– In developing the new bachelor’s programme, I collaborate with both the management and excellent colleagues here at the department. There are many people here with a great deal of experience and smart ideas about how we can design the programme. I also receive a lot of useful input on the teaching itself through discussions with my colleagues. In addition, I collaborate with people outside the university who give exciting and academically relevant guest lectures. I approach people I know well, whom I know are academically strong and, not least, very good communicators.
– In your opinion, what are the three most important factors for achieving good teaching in this field?
– Showing engagement in your teaching. I imagine that most subjects have both exciting and rather dull elements, and both are important for understanding the discipline. It is important to motivate the material well, preferably through engaging questions that bring out why the theoretical aspects matter. I also believe that showing genuine engagement and enthusiasm for the subject has a strong effect on students’ interest and learning. Enthusiasm is contagious.
– Seeing the subject from the students’ perspective. This can involve thinking carefully about what the students already know, which examples they can easily relate to, and which parts of the syllabus are difficult or less difficult. By being conscious of how the subject and the teaching are experienced by the students, it becomes easier to meet them where they are and build a bridge between you, the subject and them.
– The third point I would highlight is having a good structure for the subject, both in Canvas and in the lectures. I believe it helps students to have a simple and comprehensible structure for the available resources, that the subject itself is built up in a clear and coherent way, and that along the way you remind students where we are and where we are heading.
– If you were to give one piece of advice to new teachers at the faculty, what would it be?
– Don’t reinvent the wheel, but make it your own. Make use of resources that already exist, try to understand the thinking behind them and form your own view of why they work or do not work – and then create your own from the ground up.
– I don’t believe you achieve good teaching simply by reusing someone else’s lecture material, but I do think it is wise to draw as much inspiration as possible from others.