The Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences requires docents to have enough scientific publications in the relevant field to correspond to at least two dissertations approved with a grade of “Good”. The applicant must also provide proof of an independent scholarly career or researcher profile as well as continued active research work. The Faculty requests that the assessor statements indicate unambiguously whether the applicant fulfils the above requirements and is qualified to hold the title of docent in his or her field. The assessor statements must discuss the applicant’s qualifications in sufficient depth, and must include an analysis of the scholarly publications of the applicant.
The teaching skills of applicants for the position of docent at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences will be evaluated as a whole based on the teaching skills evaluation criteria (pdf) approved by the Faculty Council.
The Faculty Teaching Skills Evaluation Committee will issue a written statement on the applicant's teaching skills. A teaching demonstration is part of the evaluation of teaching skills. The teaching demonstration will be evaluated based on the criteria approved by the Faculty Council. For the requirement of good teaching skills for docents at the Faculty to be met, the teaching demonstration as a whole must be at least at a good level, as specified by the evaluation criteria. See also the instructions for teaching demonstration (pdf).
The same evaluation criteria are applied to all the teaching skills evaluations carried out in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Teaching skills are assessed as a whole based onsubmitted written material and a demonstration of teaching skills.
When assembling their academic portfolio/application documents, applicants should thoroughly familiarise themselves with the assessment matrix for teaching skills. Applicants must describe their teaching qualifications in the academic portfolio or equivalent application documents in such a way that they can be assessed according to areas 1–4 of the matrix.
Instructions for applicants for teaching and research positions
The recommended maximum scope of the academic portfolio is seven pages. Consequently, the portfolio should represent a summary of the necessary facts, and any required details can be included as enclosures. The date and organiser of any completed training must be provided. Any supervised theses and participation in the supervision of postgraduate students must be itemised, and if necessary, presented as an enclosure. Concrete examples of collected feedback and its application must be provided.
A demonstration of teaching skills, also known as a trial lecture, is an interactive teaching event intended to impart learning to the target audience. The objective of teaching is not only to present content but for the audience to learn (not forgetting a research-based orientation). Teaching must be interactive, while supporting active learning by the students. Engaging the committee in the learning situation is particularly recommended. The scope of material used must be proportional to the duration of the demonstration (not all of the applicant’s scientific expertise should be squeezed into the demonstration). Teaching skills demonstrations should take 20 to 25 minutes, unless otherwise agreed. Five minutes should be reserved for discussion with the teaching skills committee. Each applicant has no more than 30 minutes for their demonstration.
The target audience of the teaching demonstration must be specified at the beginning of the lecture (such as first-year biology students, master’s students of genetics etc.). Since the position available is located at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, the teaching topic must be relevant to students of the Faculty. The teaching skills committee includes representatives of different fields within biological and environmental sciences, and ranges from students to professors. Applicants must be prepared to justify their choices of teaching methods upon request.
Teaching skills demonstrations can be given in Finnish, Swedish or English, unless otherwise announced (e.g., when looking for appointees for professorships, the appointment committee may provide all applicants with the same topic, target audience and language for their teaching skills demonstration).
The demonstration will be assessed as a whole (based on five components). Applicants giving a demonstration of teaching skills should thoroughly familiarise themselves with the assessment matrix for the demonstration of teaching skills when preparing their demonstration.