Teaching is a team sport

Recently, I was in a meeting at SUS with our teachers in Stavanger. A useful take-home message was that the distance to colleagues in the other campuses may feel long: one may feel left alone to solve the issues related to teaching. Conversations with colleagues in Haugesund confirmed this experience. However, some colleagues in Bergen in smaller fields have also reported feeling left alone regarding teaching responsibilities. Hence, the issue is not geography but communication.

If you want to go fast, walk alone – if you want to go far, walk together. All academic employees at K2 should belong to a teaching group led by a UGLE. The UGLE can facilitate contact with the coordinator who can give access to relevant information in MittUiB. If you know someone who may not know which UGLE they “belong” to, or you yourself need help to get in touch with your teaching group, please contact me at mette.vesterhus@uib.no .

My hope is that we learn to talk more about teaching in teaching groups spanning all relevant educational programmes and campuses. For Medicine, work is ongoing both in the project group for Vestlandslegen in Stavanger and in a working group making plans for changes for year 4-6 in Bergen. It should stay a goal that the students achieve the same learning objectives and that the quality of the exams and other forms of evaluation is the responsibility of the collective teaching staff within teaching groups across single teachers and campuses.

The UGLE are invited to a meeting on Tuesday November 29^th at 11:30 (further info in email).

What is happening on the research front at the Faculty of Medicine?

The K2 Leader Group asks scientic personnel for sketches on a maximum of one A4 page of research areas/projects that are relevant to focus on in the coming years and that are good starting points for collaboration across departments/faculties/institutions, see below. The proposals are sent to research advisor Susanna Pakkasmaa (Susanna.Pakkasmaa@uib.no) by Monday 28 November.

Background (information from Dean of Research Marit Bakke)
The faculty management, in consultation with the Department Heads at the Faculty of Medicine, has decided that they will map directions and central activities in research at the Faculty. The purpose is to identify areas for collaboration across Departments and other institutions so that we can better develop impactful projects that are competitive in relation to external funding and dissemination. It may be appropriate to separately promote prioritized initiatives for external funding sources.

In this context, the Faculty asks the Departments to identify research areas/projects that are relevant to focus on in the coming years and which are good starting points for collaboration across Departments/Faculties/Institutions.

1. Each Department must present a prioritized list of relevant research projects (up to five). Each initiative must be described in approx. an A4 page and sent together and signed by me as Head of Department to the Head of the Research Section, Tone Friis Hordvik, by 01.12.22.
2. The prioritized initiatives from the Departmentswill be discussed collectively in extended research management and at Department Head Meetings under the auspices of the Faculty.
3. The outcome of the discussions will govern how the initiatives are worked on in relation to e.g. development of cooperation and applications. The Dean’s Office can also decide (on the basis of the discussions) whether certain initiatives should be promoted specifically against selected funding sources.

Process at K2
The Department Management at K2 has discussed the matter and decided that we want an open process where all academic staff will have the opportunity to put forward proposals. Since we can only forward five proposals, it is important that the proposals include several researchers and preferably several environments and themes across research groups, Departmentys and possibly Faculties.

It is important that the proposals represent innovative top research that we shall focus on the next years.

Good luck with the process!

Pål Rasmus Njølstad
Head of Department

Are you curious?

Or to rephrase, are you interested, inquisitive and questioning? Asking many questions, challenging established truths, finding alternative solutions, makes us smarter and better researchers. In Harvard Business Review you can read about the “Surprising Power of Questions” (https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions)

The authors summarize that asking questions is a unique tool for learning and exchanging ideas. It makes conversations more productive, gives innovation better results and it builds trust in the organization. It can also uncover unforeseen dangers and pitfalls. Despite this, many of us probably do not think that asking questions is an art that can be developed and improved. By asking questions you improve your emotional intelligence, which in turn makes us better questioners. The article gives tips on how different questions should be used – “not all questions are created equal”.

As researchers and teachers, we can also become better at asking questions, we can learn more and I believe our research will be better – what is the question you want answered when you do an experiment, and what is your lab neighbour doing?

I hope you will be inspired to become more questioning and curious.

Have a good weekend

Eystein Husebye

Vice head, K2