This text is translated from Norwegian using GPT UiO.
– Which teaching program would you like to highlight for your colleagues at the faculty right now?
– I teach applied microeconometrics, which is a relatively technically demanding subject at the Department of Economics. Since I took over the course in 2022, I have been working on increasing the focus on the "applied" aspect of its name, with the goal of providing students first-hand experience of how the methods they learn are used in practice. Quite a few of the students will be writing their master's thesis in about a year, and the methods they learn could be crucial.
– Who are you collaborating with?
– I mostly collaborate with the other lecturers who teach econometrics courses at the department, which my course is either based on or builds upon.
– In your opinion, what are the three most important factors for achieving good teaching in this field?
– I believe the most important aspect of methodology courses is to make the methods they learn tangible and applicable, so the students can implement the theory in practice. I do this primarily in three ways: Firstly, I use a lot of examples in lectures where students can try to interpret assumptions and results in light of an empirical example, which makes them easier to understand. Secondly, the seminars are set up so that students actually apply what they learn by coding various methods in the statistical program R, where I have developed several resources they can use to become proficient at coding. Lastly, I am a big proponent of visualizing theory, and I try to show figures that illustrate the various approaches we use as often as I can.
– If you were to give one piece of advice to new teachers at the SV Faculty, what would it be?
– Students don't always know best what constitutes good teaching – trust yourself and your own assessments of what works.