Distinguished university teacher

In the section Pedagogical approach, provide a brief account of your teaching, your teaching outlook, and your approach to Örebro University’s educational philosophy and vision for education. This will enable the external expert to form an opinion of how you view yourself as a recognised university teacher at Örebro University and in your subject. Some questions to bear in mind as you outline your discussion are:

• What do I teach? What characterises me as a recognised university teacher? What is my teaching outlook? Has it changed since I was appointed recognised university teacher?
• Which parts of the university’s educational philosophy and vision for education do I believe are particularly important and urgent for a distinguished university teacher to focus on? Why?
• What challenges can I identify in realising this philosophy and vision? How would I as a distinguished university teacher want to address these challenges?      

In the section Pedagogical leadership, provide a discussion based on the following criterion:

The teacher takes a leading pedagogical role among the teaching staff, successfully organises and drives pedagogical development, and promotes collegial exchange and collaboration among teachers.

In the application form, explain in what way you take a leading pedagogical role among the teaching staff and successfully organises and drives pedagogical In the application form, explain in what way you take a leading pedagogical role among the teaching staff and successfully organises and drives pedagogical development, and in what way you promote collegial exchange and collaboration among teachers. Provide annexes that verify your pedagogical leadership and attest to you meeting this criterion. Where relevant, refer to your annexes in the text.

Some questions to bear in mind as you outline your discussion are:

• What are the pedagogical activities or the pedagogical development work that I lead?
• What am I like as a leader within pedagogy? Why do I lead others and organise and drive pedagogical development the way I do?
• How do I achieve good results in my pedagogical leadership? In what way can the pedagogical development work that I organise and drive be described as successful?
• How do I promote collegial exchange and collaboration among teachers? What challenges do I see in getting teachers to cooperate on pedagogy and how do I address them?

You can show that you meet this criterion, for instance, by demonstrating that you have pedagogical leadership and development roles and thereby contribute to strengthen teaching staff’s ability to promote students’ learning, or that you initiate, organise and drive the development of courses or study programmes. Your discussion may also revolve around you promoting collaboration on pedagogy and offering support to colleagues in their roles as teachers, course coordinators or programme coordinators, or that you initiate pedagogical discussions, seminars, or conferences both at and outside the university. Naturally, there are also other ways to show that you meet this criterion. Regardless of what you choose to highlight, it is important that you verify your pedagogical leadership by attaching relevant documentation.

Examples of documents that may attest to you meeting this criterion are:

• reports on pedagogical development projects you have managed,
• self-assessments you have made and action plans you have produced,
• documentation from collegial exchanges and collaboration activities you have organised, and    
• written statements from your managers or colleagues about your pedagogical leadership.     

In the section Pedagogical knowledge development, provide a discussion based on the following criterion:

The teacher examines their pedagogical practice with a scholarly approach to teaching and learning and contributes to the development of higher education pedagogy or subject didactics knowledge by documenting their conclusions and sharing them with others at conferences or in publications.

In the application form, explain in what way you examine your pedagogical practice and develop knowledge of your teaching and your students’ learning and in what way you make your conclusions available to a wider group of teachers. Provide annexes that verify how you have developed pedagogical knowledge and attest to you meeting this criterion. Where relevant, refer to your annexes in the text.

Some questions to bear in mind as you outline your discussion are:

• How do I go about developing knowledge of my teaching and of my students’ learning?
• What have my conclusions been when I have examined my pedagogical practice? How have the results impacted the way I have designed my teaching?
• How do I document this knowledge? What do I do for this knowledge to reach other teachers? What channels do I use to disseminate this knowledge? Why those particular ones?
• What challenges do I see in examining my pedagogical practice and how do I address them?

You can show that you meet this criterion, for instance, by demonstrating that you examine and document your pedagogical practice and participate in national and international networks where you share new knowledge about your teaching and your students’ learning in the form of papers and posters. Your discussion may also revolve around you writing reports, chapters, and articles about your pedagogical practice, publishing them in report series, books, or journals. Naturally, there are also other ways to show that you meet this criterion. Regardless of what you choose to highlight, it is important that you verify how you develop pedagogical knowledge by attaching relevant documentation.

Examples of documents that may attest to you meeting this criterion are:

• talks or lectures that you have held about your pedagogical practice,
• papers or posters that you have presented about your pedagogical practice, and
• reports, chapters, or articles that you have published about your pedagogical practice.

Attached to your application for appointment as a distinguished university teacher should be a teaching portfolio with information that may be required for the external expert to be able to follow your discussion on your scholarship of teaching and learning. The portfolio in itself is not a basis for assessment but provides the expert with context and can also provide a starting point for your discussion on your pedagogical approach and work as a teacher.

The portfolio may contain quantitative details of your higher education pedagogy training, your experience of teaching at different levels (first, second and third cycle), and your experience of pedagogical development work and pedagogical leadership (course coordinator, programme coordinator, head of division, and other leadership roles within education). To the portfolio, you can also add participation in conferences on pedagogy and publication of texts on pedagogy. Teaching awards and prizes can also be listed in the portfolio.