Who is the best teacher?
Every year, the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS) chooses the best lecturer in the university. The prize is awarded during the Opening of the Academic Year, this year on 5 September.
With this award, the LUS honours a university lecturer whose teaching students regard as exceptional. Candidates for the award are put forward by the students themselves. Members of the LUS then attend a number of lectures, after which they make a shortlist of three finalists. The areas on which the LUS focuses are innovation in teaching, the interaction with students and whether the lecturer is able to achieve continuous improvement in his or her teaching.
Jan van Lith (LUMC)
Jan van Lith is passionate about teaching and is a very popular lecturer at the LUMC: students are very enthusiastic about the content of the modular programmes that he coordinates. Jan is a committed and involved lecturer; he believes students themselves can play an important role in teaching and involves them in improving his own teaching. He is always open for feedback. He also brings together theory and practice and stresses the importance of students being well prepared for medical practice. In the large lecture halls at the LUMC he always seeks effective ways of interacting with the large classes of students, challenging them to contribute their views to cases that he introduces from the clinical environment. Students describe his lectures as a ‘performance’ and are impressed with his natural charisma.
Interview Jan van Lith: ‘It's all about curiosity’
Marion Boers (Humanities)
Marion Boers is good at making students enthusiastic about her subject of art history. She is a born storyteller and is well able to communicate her passion for the art and economy of the Golden Age. Within the scope of her discipline she does her utmost to make her lectures as innovative and interactive as possible. She is knowledgeable about the latest developments in her field and incorporates them into her teaching. Students describe Marion as enthusiastic, honest, open and not afraid to discuss controversial issues.
Interview Marion Boers: ‘I may seem prim and proper’
Kim Beerden (Humanities)
As an ambassador of Blended Learning at the Faculty of Humanities, Kim is closely involved with innovations in teaching. She effortlessly integrates research and theory in her teaching in a way that is understandable and refreshing, by using such platforms as Facebook and apps like Mentimeter. Her students describe Kim als well-liked and motivating. She is also extremely enthusiastic about her specialist areas religion, food and mentality history and is able to communicate this enthusiasm to her students: even students from other programmes follow her subjects. Kim is a lecturer who is very knowledgeable about her subject and she always gives 100 per cent to her teaching and her students.
Interview Kim Beerden: ‘Peer review makes students more critical’