Share your knowledge with secondary school pupils: give a guest lesson
Scholars from the Faculty of Humanities regularly travel the country to introduce secondary school pupils to their field. The schools can choose from 16 different lessons - and there is room for expansion.
The aim of the guest teaching programme is to bring the various fields of science closer to pupils. Scholars teaching secondary school pupils is a good way for the pupils to gain an insight into fields and research that are new to them. It also gives them an accessible introduction to university education.
University lecturer Willemijn Waal has been giving guest lectures for several years: one on the Trojan War and one on the oldest surviving peace treaty, concluded in the 13th century BC between pharaoh Ramses II of Egypt and a Hittite king. ‘I’m most often asked by grammar schools that cover Homer in class, for example,’ she says.
Goodwill
She enjoys the role of guest lecturer. ‘Students often like having a different face with a different story in front of the class, so you almost always have a lot of goodwill,’ she explains.
It also works well for Waal herself to occasionally have a class full of new faces in front of her. 'There is quite a big difference between school pupils and university students, which forces you to tell your story in such a way that it is understandable even to someone without any prior knowledge. And the reactions can be really fun. For example, when I tell pupils that the Hittite language, spoken some 3,500 years ago and written down on clay tablets in cuneiform, is related to Dutch and that the Hittite word for ‘water’ is ‘watar’, I sometimes see a world open up for these young people. That’s really stimulating, as are some of the questions they ask.'
Cooperation with ICLON
Waal knows that lessons can be booked by schools from all over the Netherlands. 'Personally, I never mind travelling by train; you just have to bring enough to read. It also helps that ICLON handles all the requests. If I'm busy with lectures for a period or it's not convenient, I let them know that I won't be available for a while or only under certain conditions. They then handle that.'
Signing up to give a guest lesson
If you are interested in participating in the guest lesson programme, you can sign up via the digital application form.
If you have other questions, or would like to exchange ideas with the guest lesson team about the content or design of a (new) guest lesson, please contact us at: gastles@iclon.leidenuniv.nl.