Call for "Future leaders for strategic educational development"
A development-oriented and meritorious program for skilled teachers at KTH
The President, the Vice President for Education and the Department of Learning in Engineering Sciences invite teachers who want to enable and drive the continued development of KTH's educations and educational organisation to a program that takes place in 2022. The last application date is 10 December.
KTH invites teachers to a program for supporting their continued establishment and visibility as educational leaders. The program will accept participants who have shown excellent pedagogical skills and interest in pursuing a project. In the program, participants can further strengthen their expertise and skills, thereby also contributing to the development capacity and culture at KTH.
The content of the program is shaped by the participants' interests. Through joint activities and individual work in their own projects, the participants get opportunities to develop and demonstrate expertise and skills that can be useful to them in many contexts in the future. Participants will have opportunities to broaden their networks, also nationally and internationally. The participants’ own projects will be supported and further developed in collaboration with other participants, program leaders and experts. The products that the participants create, such as publications and reports, are strong merits in the academic career.
Aims and goal
The aim of the program is to enable and drive the overall expertise and capacity for development at KTH by stimulating and supporting the continued development of already skilled teachers, especially with regards to their pedagogical skills in a collegial and scholarly sense. The focus is to promote the development of the educational organisation and of education on all levels. At the same time, pedagogical development work is made visible and the value of pedagogical merits is strengthened.
The overall goal of the program is that participants should strengthen their ability to contribute to and lead successful development and innovation within the educational environment at KTH and in their own teaching assignments. In particular, they should:
- develop their expertise in issues of importance to education at KTH
- develop their capacity for impactful educational development, also in collegial and cross- border collaboration – for example, with students, across disciplines, between universities
- develop their ability to develop, use, assess and communicate pedagogical knowledge
- contribute to the visibility of pedagogical development within KTH and in national and international contexts
Program organisation
The program is commissioned by the President Sigbritt Karlsson and Vice President for Education Leif Kari. It is organized by the Department of Learning in Engineering Sciences, and led by Kristina Edström and Marie Magnell.
Several internal, national and international experts are engaged in the program to provide expertise and mentor participants in their projects.
Recruitment
The application is open until 10 December 2021. See below for instructions on how to apply.
Eligible to apply are all teachers (lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, professor) employed at KTH.
Applicants are expected to have substantial teaching experience, i.e. several years, and must have completed the courses on teaching and learning in higher education (at least 15 credits) by the time of application.
Each school is responsible for creating reasonable conditions for the admitted participants (20% of full-time during 2022).
The selection is made by a group appointed by the Vice President for Education, and decisions will be announced on 23 December.
Selection criteria:
- Demonstrated pedagogical skills according to self-evaluation (quality and credibility)
- Relevance of project idea - usefulness and importance for KTH, and scholarly significance
- Potential for leadership and influence in the development of KTH's educational environment and/or for scholarship in higher education
Admission can take into account the diversity of the group and balance regarding the themes of the projects.
Program description
The program is, to a large extent, based on the participants’ projects, which will be supported and further developed in collaboration with other participants, program leaders and experts.
The program contains regular activities during 2022. The program activities, including the work in the participant’s own project, is estimated to take about 20 percent of participants’ time during 2022. When relevant, some support for participants to publish can continue also into 2023.
The program is led by Kristina Edström and Marie Magnell. Internal, national and international experts are also engaged in the program to provide expertise and mentor participants in their projects.
Program activities include:
- Kickoff meeting
- Regular joint meetings for continuous support, reflection and inspiration
- Work on your own development project, with knowledge acquisition
- Peer visits and observations within the group
- Discussions and presentations of the projects in various contexts internally at KTH
- Away-days with half-way reporting and critical reflection with national and international experts
- Reporting at a national or international conference focused on engineering education
- Support for manuscript development and journal publication
The program is designed to make the participants' work highly visible:
- Visibility during the program, with opportunities for participants to pursue issues in different contexts, e.g., at their department and within arenas and networks
- Joint report for the group
- Individual publications – report, conference contribution, journal paper
Instructions for application
The application consists of two parts and should be written in English or Swedish. Please send your application to strategiska-programmet@kth.se by 10 December 2021.
Part A. Self-evaluation – pedagogical competence
Discuss your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the following aspects, providing supporting documentation in appendices. The quality and credibility of the self-evaluation is evaluated holistically and it is not necessary to demonstrate all aspects equally.
- demonstrates skill, experience and creativity in a range of teaching activities
- designs and develops courses appropriate for the programme and inspiring for the students
- demonstrates expertise in the subject matter and in particular, the ability to guide students into the subject
- draws on experience and pedagogical concepts to develop their teaching and supervision practice, with a focus on enhancing student learning
- contributes to a collegial and collaborative educational culture, to programme development or thematic development, across the department, school or KTH
- exchanges teaching experiences and ideas with colleagues and/or the wider higher education community
Maximum 2000 words, plus references and appendices.
Part B. Preliminary project idea
Describe your preliminary project idea, demonstrate your interest and ambitions and how the work can contribute to KTH and your school. Very tentatively, you may want to sketch some aims, plans for the work, collaborators, what knowledge is needed, or intended results.
Some questions you could address: Why is this important, and what needs are addressed? What can my work contribute to the development of the education programs and the educational environment? How does the project connect to the desired development at KTH and the school, according to the current visions, development plans and action plans for education?
To support you in preparing your project idea, you can discuss with colleagues and the educational leaders at your school and consult current planning documents at KTH and your school. You are also most welcome to discuss ideas with staff at the Department of Learning.
Maximum 1000 words.
Contact
Welcome with your questions or send your application by 10 December 2021 to strategiska-programmet@kth.se .
