You can nominate your teacher (include your reason) on the Hint intranet page of the Rotterdam University of Applied Science. You have until Friday the 7^th of December to do this. A jury consisting of four SGMR members will choose the best teacher from the submitted nominations.

Number of votes is not all that matters

‘We look at the reasons why teachers are nominated and also how often someone is recommended’, states Willemijn den Herder of SMGR. ‘But it is possible that the person who gets named Teacher of the Year did not get the most votes.’

After the 7th of December the jury makes a shortlist of about five teachers. Those best candidates are then assessed on the national election criteria of the Dutch National Students Association (ISO).

‘Relating to the experiences of students’

It involves ‘passion for the profession’, ‘actuating didactics that connect with the (cultural) diversity in education’, ‘relating to the experiences of students, and the professional field’, ‘using feed-up, feed-forward and feedback during lessons and assessments’, and about ‘a vision on teaching and creatively implementing this with the help of suitable digital teaching materials and appropriate supervision methods’.

Den Herder: ‘For the selected teachers, we make enquiries about this with people such as the directors of education.’

At some point in January 2019 the winning teacher will be taken by surprise during one of their lectures with the award and actual trophy.

Last year the title went to communication teacher Leon Goor. His predecessors were Joyce Buitelaar (small business), Adrian de Jongh (office management) and Maurice Scheepers (real estate and brokerage).

Jos van Nierop