What is the Teaching Academy of the Public Universities?
The Teaching Academy is a community of teachers from the public universities of Iceland who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and a commitment to teaching development. The main goal of the Teaching Academy is to promote discussion about teaching and teaching development within and between universities. It reflects an international emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).
Through the Teaching Academy, the public universities seek to recognise and reward teachers who have shown especial dedication to teaching with a focus on active student learning and ongoing teaching development.
The Teaching Academy is established with the support and encouragement of the Ministry of Education in Iceland with the involvement of all the public universities in Iceland:
- University of Iceland
- University of Akureyri
- Holar University College
- Agricultural University of Iceland
Role
The main role of the Teaching Academy is to promote discussions about:
- pedagogical development and good teaching methods within the university community
- involvement in the professional organisation of pedagogical development conferences and publications
The working methods and tasks of the Teaching Academy will be organised by those who sit in it, in close cooperation with divisions of academic affairs and centres for teaching and learning at the universities.
The Teaching Academy’s board:
Board members are nominated at the Academy’s first meeting every fall, and as a proxy for the Network of Public Universities in Iceland, Jón Atli Benediktsson rector of the UI, appoints the board members who will serve the role for two years.
The following board members were appointed for the first round of two years, starting on the 1st of January 2022:
- Margrét Sigrún Sigurðardóttir, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland
- Matthew James Whelpton, Professor at the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, School of Humanities, University of Iceland (Rannveig Sverrisdóttir, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, University of Iceland, has taken over Matthew’s position in the board from 1st of July 2023)
-
Sean Michael Scully, Adjunct at the Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Akureyri
Then, the following two members were appointed in January 2023:
- Guðrún Geirsdóttir, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education and Pedagogy, School of Education, University of Iceland
- Sigurður Örn Stefánsson, Professor at the Faculty of Physical Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland
The board’s role:
Among other things, the roles of the Teaching Academy’s board are:
- Summon the Academy’s meetings
- Organize an operational plan in consultation with the Academy’s members
- Organize projects in consultation with the Academy’s members
- Lead the Academy’s marketing operations and campaigns
- Lead the communications with the public universities’ divisions of academic affairs and centers for teaching and learning
- Lead the construction of the Academy’s procedures and work instructions
The Teaching Academy of Public Universities in Iceland is an independent group of university teachers, supported by central administration at the universities.
The Teaching Academy of public universities in Iceland is based on a Nordic model and was developed in collaboration with other Teaching Academies in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
In accordance with official recommendations, most Norwegian universities have recently established recognition systems for excellence in teaching and pedagogical development. All recognition systems aim to enhance discussion and awareness of pedagogical development, but are adapted to local circumstances.
Most Norwegian universities call their reward system ‘Merittering’.