Florian Schneider wins LUS Teaching Prize
Florian Schneider has earned the title of Leiden University Lecturer of the Year. Sinologist Schneider was nominated by his students and crowned winner of the LUS Teaching Prize at the opening of the academic year by the board of the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS).
‘This is what we look for in a lecturer,’ said LUS chair Ghislaine Voogd during the ceremony in the Pieterskerk. ‘Schneider is a lecturer who teaches for teaching’s sake. He doesn’t teach because that’s what an academic has to do. Far from it: he sees it as his priority to train the researchers of tomorrow.’
Teachers' Academy
The Teaching Prize wins Schneider the title of Leiden University Lecturer of the Year. He also wins a place at the Leiden University Teachers’ Academy and a grant of 25,000 euros that he can use for teaching projects.
Nerve-wracking
Schneider explained in a previous interview that he sometimes works 70 hours per week to combine his research with high-quality teaching. But this does deliver results. ‘I recently taught one of my Master’s courses in the form of a game. Students could earn points for each successful assignment. It was nerve-wracking for me: would the students stop as soon as they were guaranteed a mark of 6? Luckily, that proved not to be the case.’
Undercover
Schneider’s students liked the method – that much was clear when they nominated him for the prize. In the weeks that followed, students from the LUS attended his lectures undercover to see him in action. Alongside Schneider, Thijs Porck (Old English) and Christine Espin (Learning Problems and Specialised Interventions in Education) were nominated for the prize.