Our colleague Mohammad Nasiri (Amsterdam Business School) is the faculty winner of the 2022 UvA Lecturer of the Year award. What is his teaching style and how does he keep his students engaged? Find out in the interview with the assistant professor in Strategy and Change (Bachelor) and Strategy & Organisation (Executive Programme in Management Studies).

How do you feel about winning the 2022 UvA lecturer of the Year EB award?

It first came as a surprise to me because I am still at the beginning of the learning path in my academic career and there is still room for improvement in my courses and teaching skills. However, seeing your students’ appreciation for your passion and efforts is reassuring and encourages me to take the next steps with more confidence.

“Students engage when they are in charge. When they believe it, they engage, run and manage their class properly.”

How would you describe your lectures?

The aim is to have interactive and informative classes in which students enjoy a natural process of learning during the course. I like to create a narrative thread based on a couple of well-known successful and unsuccessful business cases to connect the lessons. It helps students to make sense of the main messages of each class in the context of the whole course.

How do you keep students engaged?

Students engage when they are in charge. When they believe it, they engage, run, and manage their class properly. I do not take it as a given, as the dynamics of a class changes from session to session and from topic to the topic. Nevertheless, my students and I are always on the same side, so we always find a way to enjoy the topic of the day.

Do you have tips or tricks for your fellow lecturers?

I am not sure because there are many possibilities; whatever style of teaching fits your personality, the type of students, and the objectives of the course and programme is good in my opinion. In my case, I didn’t like to teach at arm’s length even in large classes, but at the beginning I was not sure how to break the ice so I did many (sometimes painful) trial and error. Since I learnt how to get along with my students and maintain an ongoing healthy conversation with them, we have increasingly enjoyed our time in classes. Then suddenly, I noticed that they chose these classes as their favorite.

Want to get in touch to discuss and share? Reach out to Mohammad via e-mail or contact TLC at TLC-EB@uva.nl.