Charika
teaching career
university Instructor
2023 - PRESENT
Since August 2023, I have been a University Instructor at Tampere University. Currently, I teach English Academic Writing and Working Life Interactions courses. My duties include pedagogical planning, the production of teaching materials, and teaching administration. As a university instructor, I am also involved in the curriculum development of my team.
I also serve as Digimentor for the Language Centre. The Tampere Higher Education Community's Digital Mentor network consists of teachers from Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University, who act in their own competence units and faculties as peer support for other teachers in digital pedagogical matters.
university teacher
2022 - 2023
From January 2021 to July 2023, I taught at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. At Hanken, I was responsible for English Academic Writing courses for Master Students (5ECT) and English Business Communication courses (6 ECT) for Bachelor students. Here, I had the opportunity to develop my own 14-week academic writing course that caters to master’s students. Both my academic writing and Business Communication courses obtained gold stamps (Hanken's system that notes courses that have received high course evaluations in the previous academic year). Overall, my duties as a university teacher included lecturing, course development, assessment, grading, and administrative organization.
university teacher
2017 - 2021
From 2017-2021, I taught English and Afrikaans Academic Literacy at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. These courses focused on the development of academic skills such as the search, processing, and production of academic information. During my time as lecturer of academic literacy, I taught introductory and advanced literacy courses that average nearly 200 undergraduate (first year) students per semester. My duties included lecturing, the development of assessments, grading, and administrative organization.
pedagogical Training
2022-2023
2024
Both these programs form part of UNIPS.
UNIPS (University pedagogical support) is a project funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Opetus - ja kulttuuriminsteriö) and is one of the three divisions in the larger thematic project "Enhancing pedagogical and digital teaching and supervision skills in higher education" in Finland. While coordinated by the University of Turku, UNIPS was developed in collaboration with eight Finnish Universities. The modules are aimed at supporting University teachers through challenging their experiences and conceptions of teaching and learning in higher education.
Autumn Semester 2022
- Module 1: Becoming a teacher
- Module 2: How to plan my teaching?
- Module 3: Lecturing and expertise
- Module 4: Teaching practice
Spring Semester 2023
- Module 5: Assessment of learning
- Module 6: Learning in groups
- Module 7: Activating teaching
- Module 8: Constructive alignment
Spring Semester 2024
- University as a Working Environment, 4 ECTS
Module 1: Selection and equality in university
Module 2: Internationalized university
Module 3: Structural aspects of teaching and cultural boundaries
Module 4: Academic identity and agency
Module 5: Management and leadership practices at the university
Co-Teaching Seminars
- Discipline Specific University Pedagogy I, 5 ECTS
ECTS are completed by participating in seminars, trainings and events that have a discipline-specific pedagogical focus.
Autumn Semester 2024
- Learning-focused teaching, 6 ECTS
