My Teaching Manifesto

Teaching is not a science, it is an art, and should be treated as such.
Students are not customers (“persons who buy”) – they are clients (“persons who seek the advice of a professional man or woman”).
“Good learning experience” means mastering something new and advanced. To help his/her students, a university teacher has to be able to transform and restructure highly complex material from his/her subject area into a form suitable and accessible to the learners.
This cannot be achieved without teachers being experts in their disciplines.
Successful and inspirational teaching is a highly individual skill. The choice of teaching methods should reflect not only specifics of the target audience, but also the experience, teaching philosophy and individual psychophysiological characteristics of the teacher.
Structuring of the learning environment, choice of teaching and assessment methods have to be subject specific.
Values, standards, criteria of assessment in learning and teaching have to originate in, and be set by, the professional academic communities of their particular subject areas.
The role of managers is to create an environment which helps professional standards to be maintained; however, managers should not interfere in setting the standards.

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