Karin Nijenhuis and Paz González are the new teaching coaches: ‘Experienced teachers also deserve support’
The Faculty of Humanities has two new teaching coaches. On 1 September, Karin Nijenhuis and Paz González took over from Maarten van Leeuwen and Astrid Van Weyenberg. New: the focus on more advanced teachers.
The teaching coaches offer personal guidance and advice to teachers who want it. ‘We want to highlight that teaching is a wonderful profession,’ says Nijenhuis. ‘It’s great fun to work with a group of students, to see who needs attention, how the group dynamics work, when it’s necessary to be flexible and change the structure of your lecture.’ The prerequisite for this is that you are able to relax in front of a group. Nijenhuis: ‘You sometimes see that new teachers are particularly stressed.’
Teachers can therefore have the teaching coaches observe a lecture. This is mandatory for the BKO programme, but all lecturers are free to request this. ‘It’s not our intention to impose a solution,’ emphasises González. ‘As coaches, our job is really to help teachers find a solution. What is their problem and what works for them?’
Nijenhuis and González are also explicitly focusing on teachers who have been working at the faculty for some time. ‘Given the faculty's financial challenges, it’s likely that fewer new teachers will be hired,’ explains Nijenhuis. ‘This could lead to existing teachers facing a higher workload: they suddenly have to deal with larger groups and teaching has to be organised more efficiently. We want to support them in this.’
Intervision sessions
This support takes the form of a series of eight peer review meetings, in which participants discuss the issues they encounter. González: 'Karin and I complement each other. We have different perspectives, but ultimately we believe the same things are important. In the peer review meetings, I will mainly focus on technical educational innovation: which tools are suitable for integration into lectures and how can this be done effectively? Karin is more into coaching: what issues do teachers bring up and how can we guide them in handling them?’
Nijhenhuis: 'Such a peer review session takes time, but it also has a big impact. Your lectures become more enjoyable, your job satisfaction increases, you feel more confident in front of the group: it pays off. What's more, the sessions require little preparation time and it isn’t compulsory to attend all of them. Of course, we would like you to attend, but we understand that it isn’t always possible or necessary. In that case, it's fine if you join in when you can.’
The first peer review session is scheduled for 7 October. Afterwards, there will be drinks and snacks for informal further discussion.