Teacher training programme helps overcome culture shock
In order to understand and learn from the Danish methods of teaching, Shivani Joshi from India attends the teacher training programme for AU employees in English. Although she has only just begun the course, Joshi feels it has already broadened her perspectives of teaching at university level.
by Line Hassall Thomsen
“I am used to one-way teaching, where the students are told what to do. So, the Danish way of teaching was a bit of a culture shock to me”, Shivani Joshi explains.
After being awarded the International Mobility PhD Stipend in 2010, Shivani Joshi arrived to Denmark from India. She finished her PhD at Aarhus University, and today she teaches both PhD and Master-level students at the faculty of Health. As she found the Danish way of teaching so different to the one she was used to, she was excited to find the teacher training programme on offer in English.
She began the course with plenty of expectations: “I really wanted to improve my teaching skills. I wanted to learn about the Danish education system, and the Danish classroom scenario as it seemed very different to the one I was used to in India. Also, I really hoped to find out the differences between teaching at lower level and teaching at university level,” Joshi says.
So were the expectations met? “So far, I have learnt what I hoped to learn, but also so much more,” she replies with a smile. “Rather than just learning what I had expected, I also got to learn about different types of learning, and I got to know the role of the teacher in this whole process.” The contents of the course, the way it was taught, and the meeting with other international teaching staff have meant a lot to her as a university teacher today.
“To me, the structure of the course was really inspiring. There was a lot of group work and interaction, and a lot of breaks. There were simple breaks, like a 48 second reflection time. There was also a two-minute break, in order to give us time to speak to the fellow students about what we had just learnt.” Shivani Joshi explains
“The course sets a good example”
One of the positive elements of the teacher training course, which Shivani Joshi singles out, is the structure of the course. The course is taught using many different ways of learning. Students of the teacher training course will work with both assignments, own reflections, group work, lectures and teacher coaching-sessions.
A few weeks before the course began Shivani Joshi and the fellow students were given reading assignments, and they were told to write up reflections on the text and their own cultural background of teaching. Then, all course participants met up at a hotel outside Aarhus for a three day intensive course. To Joshi Shivani, this intensive structure of the course made her feel more focused. During the course, the methods of teaching ‘set a good example for university-level teaching,’ she argues.
“To me, the structure of the course was really inspiring. There was a lot of group work and interaction, and a lot of breaks. There were simple breaks, like a 48 second reflection time. There was also a two-minute break, in order to give us time to speak to the fellow students about what we had just learnt. I really liked those breaks, and the whole way in which the course was conducted.” The course used a lot of different activities involving the students. These activities were new to both Joshi and her fellow students.
“There were a lot of different student-involving methods which they used in the course that we students will definitely use in our own teaching. There was for instance something called a Magic Chart hung on a board. On this chart we should summarise what we had learnt every day. That chart had two advantages; One is that you will remember what you have learnt throughout the day. The other advantage is that this board is still up the morning after, so you can look at the board at the beginning of the day and reflect on yesterday’s activities. Then there were elements like Think, Share, Pair, which I really found useful too.”
During the course, participants were asked to do a lot of different things. This made Joshi reflect on the uses of practical work for understanding theory. “Students create knowledge by doing things. So make them do things. And then there are the exams, exams should be made in a way that also aligns with your learning goals — this was a very important take-home message for me; my role as a teacher and how I can help students learn better.”
“I have learnt that a Danish classroom is quite democratic, and students influence the teaching, and there is a high level of activities that students are involved in. Also, I learnt that teachers are mostly free to choose their method of teaching.” Shivani Joshi
The independence of students was the biggest culture shock
One of the first things Joshi noticed when she arrived to Denmark was the level of student independence. As a PhD student she felt she had to set up a meeting with her supervisor in order to find out exactly where the boundaries for her independence were. “That was my biggest cultural chock, where I did not know exactly how to behave — because I come from a country where we are told to do things. So it is not very easy at first, when you come to a country where there is so much independence. Now I am used to it, and I feel I have evolved because I have the freedom and flexibility to do things.”
Another thing which Shivani Joshi was surprised about, was the equality between students and teachers, and the way in which students appear part of creating and shaping teaching. “I have learnt that a Danish classroom is quite democratic, and students influence the teaching, and there is a high level of activities that students are involved in. Also, I learnt that teachers are mostly free to choose their method of teaching. These things you learn by doing of course, but it saves a lot of time when you know already, so you can adjust to the cultural differences in the class.”
“One of the most important things I have learnt at the teacher training course is that the teacher is a facilitator,” says Shivani Joshi. This perspective of teaching is not one which she was used to from India. At the teacher training course, many of her fellow students also found the Danish way of teaching different from what they were used to. Sharing experiences and networking with these students was a high-point for Joshi: “There were students from Spain, China, India, Italy, the US and the Middle East. They all taught at different areas of Aarhus University. It was really interesting to hear about how teaching is done in their home countries, and then it was inspiring to hear what they were doing to adapt. I learnt a lot during my discussions with the other participants of the course.”
A mandatory course to aid university teaching
At the moment, Shivani Joshi has only finished the first of the four teacher training modules, but she will return to take more modules in the next semester. Currently, she is busy researching. Joshi is part of a team researching the kidney disorder termed nephrotic syndrome. But in the coming semester she will be teaching again.
After having finished the first module of the teacher training course, Joshi has already had plenty of ideas for how she can better the course that she will be teaching in next semester. For instance, Joshi she will be asking her future students to write up short reflections on what they expect to learn from her course — and then she will use the first lecture to align student expatiations with the teacher’s intended learning outcomes. Also, she will introduce more case-work, and work towards engaging the students more in the lectures.
The teacher training course in English is offered to all assistant professors and postdocs at Aarhus University. The course consists of four modules of which the first one serves as an introduction to university teaching. The additional three modules must be completed to obtain the university teaching diploma required for permanent employment at a Danish university. The full programme is mandatory for anyone wishing to apply for a fully tenured position at a Danish university. Students are encouraged to teach and research while doing the course. This is why the course can be taken over three years, leaving plenty of time for other academic work.
According to AU Educational Development Network, which also includes CUL, the aim with the teacher training course is to ‘contribute to the professionalization of university teaching by means of increased knowledge, more and better teaching skills, more reflection, more well documented choices and more sharing of knowledge and experience among faculty.’
Learn more about the teaching program at Aarhus Universty
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Centre for Teaching and Learning is an educational research and development unit at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Denmark.
