The Lund model: four pillars of academic development

At Lund University, our academic development work is characterized by four key traits. These traits form the foundation for our approach to helping academic teachers develop and have guided our design of this learning resource.

Authenticity: the advantage of learning from real contexts and the possibility to analyze, improve, and develop yourself as an academic teacher within your teaching reality 

Interaction: the view that learning is an active process where individuals interact with material and peers/colleagues

Reflection: the idea that developing as an academic teacher is a continuous, reflective process 

Flexibility: a format that allows for individual studies adjusted to your needs, where you can use the material in a way that benefits your development

Authenticity

Throughout this learning resource, we will encourage you to think analytically about your own situation, considering not only your experience but also the context of your teaching practice and the factors influencing it. The more open and genuine you are in your reflections, the more connections you will be able to make between the material presented here and your actual needs, and the more you will get out of this resource.

Interaction

You will interact with the material presented in this resource. But in doing so, you will also interact with aspects of the context you inhabit (the structures, policies, and cultures you encounter), especially when you do the reflection tasks. We also encourage you to interact as much as possible with your peers (colleagues, mentors, leaders, and anyone else you can find), to share your thoughts, insights, and questions.

Reflection

Reflecting continuously on your role as an academic teacher and on your teaching practice is an important part of developing as an academic teacher. It is also part of documenting your pedagogical qualifications in the form of a pedagogical/teaching portfolio. We encourage you to reflect on your teaching practice and experiences and how your views change (or don't) over time. What are the most important things you have learned? Have you had any of your existing beliefs confirmed? Disproved? How have you developed in your role as an academic teacher? Throughout this resource, we use reflection questions to prompt you to step back and consider a particular idea. We strongly recommend that you make a habit of writing down your reflections and of returning to them from time to time to see how your views have developed.

Flexibility

This learning resource is organized into modules that consist of texts, videos, and suggested readings. You decide how and when to work through these modules. We've organized the modules in a way that we think makes sense, but you may prefer to work through them in a different order. There is no schedule to follow when working through this resource. Instead, we encourage you to work through the material at a pace that suits you, so that you can be sure to have ample time to think and reflect without distraction or stress. Flexibility for us means that you use and reflect upon the content in relation to your own reality as an academic teacher, in a way that supports you as well as possible, at times when you can give it your full attention.