Ago Luberg, nominee of the ‘Teacher of the Year 2022’ award and Senior Lecturer of Informatics, is highly appreciated by his students. What makes him a great teacher in his own opinion? How do you teach a complicated subject while winning over the students?
Please note! TalTech also has another candidate for the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award – Sergei Pavlov, Lecturer of Telematics and Intelligent Systems Group at Virumaa College.
1. I try to be patient, helpful, and supportive. If at all possible, I am always available to my students.
2. Friendly communication. In addition to communicating formally with my students, I also talk to them at a simple and personal level – students can always stop me in the middle of the hallway to discuss what is troubling them.
3. A teacher must have a deep passion for teaching – it is always obvious when that desire is lacking.
4. A teacher must have a sense of mission that they can achieve something awesome and contribute to bettering the IT sector in our country.
5. I try to motivate the students so they would have a true desire to learn. The more technical and complicated the subject, the harder it is for a teacher to present it in a compelling and gripping manner. Nevertheless, it can be done if you put some effort into it. I have learned a lot from the best in the field. Students are more motivated to learn when they see that their opinion matters to their teacher. I meet my students online before the course begins to get an understanding of the level that they are at, their problems, and interests.
6. Creating a contemporary learning environment is very important when it comes to student-friendly teaching; this entails as much feedback as possible so that students could find answers to the questions that interest them, and they absolutely must receive answers to questions about the issues that have remained unclear.
7. It is important to make sure that a student is not left alone with their problems – this might lead to mental health problems, which we saw a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic when society was in lockdown.