Jaume Castan Pinos is SDU’s Lecturer of the Year
Jaume Castan Pinos is passionate about teaching, and he is committed to creating a motivating and inspiring learning environment that awakens students’ curiosity and encourages critical thinking. That is why he is the recipient of this year’s Teaching Prize at SDU.
Every year, SDU recognises the University’s best lecturer, and this year the award goes to Associate Professor Jaume Castan Pinos from the Department of Political Science and Public Management.
He is the Programme Manager for European Studies at SDU, Sønderborg and teaches students in both Sønderborg and Odense in the courses ‘International Politics’, ‘Comparative European Politics’ and ‘Global Challenges’.
Jaume Castan Pinos receives the award for his huge efforts to inspire and involve his students in his teaching.
Passion for teaching
He is always keen to make his lessons interesting and educational at the same time, and he makes a virtue of activating his students in different ways, e.g. through simulations, discussions and real-life cases.
About the Lecturer of the Year Prize, Jaume Castan Pinos says:
- I must say that it came as an absolute surprise … I still can’t believe it!
- Receiving the SDU award means a lot because I love teaching and I spend quite a lot of time (perhaps too much) preparing my lectures. Please don’t tell my research director about this! It also means that my students – both in Odense and in Sønderborg – appreciate the effort and that I have managed to help them with their learning process. Last but not least, the award gives me a motivation boost to continue improving my teaching and to continue trying new methods.
What do you emphasise in your teaching?
- Some years ago, I was walking down a corridor of a university (not ours, of course!), and I observed that the vast majority of students in the classroom were on their social media, watching football highlights, playing online poker ... they were completely disconnected from the lecture. This experience made me think that avoiding this scenario should be my number one priority.
- How so? I believe that the two key ingredients are inspiring and engaging students. Easier said than done ... but it is possible to achieve it. I believe that the key is to put as much focus on how we teach as on what we teach. In practice, this means that students are my main priority. Before every class, I think: ‘how can I make this understandable and exciting at the same time?’. If I feel that an exercise or a method is not interesting or exciting enough, I drop it and choose another way. Simply put, I try my best not to be boring.
- The main philosophical rationale behind this it is that learning and pleasure are perfectly compatible phenomena. In fact, I would say that there is a co-dependence relationship; the more students enjoy, the more they learn. Finally, in order to engage them, I try to make my students active participants of their learning process through simulations of real-life scenarios, debates, Socratic dialogues, etc.
What do you enjoy the most about teaching?
- I enjoy every part of the process from the preparation to the delivery but there is a very beautiful moment when, at the end of a lecture, students are adamant to comment on some issues related to the lecture that have inspired them in a special way ... this moment is unique!
- I remember that back in 2016 I had a lecture on International Relations theories with a fantastic group of European Studies (EUS) students in Sønderborg. After 3 long hours, the lecture had officially finished but we were engaged in a collective discussion that I had not prepared nor foreseen. We were kicked out from the room (legitimately so, there was another lecture scheduled) and we continued our conversation in the lecturers' coffee room for a couple of additional hours. My colleagues were perhaps not impressed because we sabotaged their coffee breaks but I was pretty enthused, Jaume Castan Pinos remembers.
Inspires both students and colleagues
It may have come as a surprise to Jaume Castan Pinos that he received this year’s teaching prize at SDU, but it hardly surprises the students who have had him as a lecturer over the years.
As one student, for example, puts it in his recommendation:
- Jaume has been the best lecturer I have had on both my BSc and MSc programmes here at SDU. His teaching is the perfect blend of lectures, group work, discussions and activities. Furthermore, you can really feel his interest in the subject in all his lectures – you can’t help but be interested in a topic when he is talking about it.
Add to this the fact that Jaume Castan Pinos’s dedication and pedagogical teaching methods inspire not only his students, but also his colleagues, who apply several of his teaching and learning formats in their own teaching.
What does AI mean for education?
AI is a hot topic these days, and Jaume Castan Pinos is well on his way to exploring how AI can be used in education and what challenges and opportunities it presents.
- This is the mother of all questions at the moment. My personal opinion is that, while acknowledging the challenges it poses, we should explore the opportunities that AI offers us in connection to teaching. This may sound like a cliché but we simply can't hide our heads like an ostrich and pretend it is not there. My good friend Mark Friis Hau, from the University of Copenhagen, is leading the way when it comes to introducing AI insights to teaching – and I am learning an awful lot from him.
- I have started experimenting with it in connection with students’ assignments, where they have to compare and cross reference AI generated material with scientific articles. So far, so good, but of course it is still baby steps, he says.
Jaume Castan Pinos was presented with the teaching prize at SDU’s annual celebration on 27 October.
SDU’s Teaching Prize
The Teaching Prize is awarded to a lecturer who makes a special effort and shows great commitment to their teaching. The recommendation may emphasise academic, pedagogical and didactic qualifications as well as personal qualities.
Five teaching awards
The 2023 Lecturer of the Year award is not the only recognition Jaume Castan Pinos has received for his extraordinary teaching efforts. In fact, the SDU award is his fifth.
Earlier this year, he was awarded the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences' teaching award.
In both 2014 and 2019 he was recognised as the best lecturer at SDU in Sønderborg.
Finally, in 2013 he was awarded the prize for the best pedagogical project in connection with his lecture training programme.
And now he has also been recognised as SDU’s Lecturer of the Year.