Excellence in teaching

Latchezar Stoyanov is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. Since joining UWA in 1993, he has taught altogether 9 different units in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year mathematics. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences in 1995. This award represents a joint effort by the Guild and the University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching.

I started my teaching career rather early; when I was a 3rd year student, I was invited to take some tutorials in Calculus. Therefore, when I came to UWA in 1993 I already had considerable teaching experience. All of it however was in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Sofia with students doing mathematics and/or informatics ¹. The approach to teaching there (and seemingly at most universities across Eastern Europe) was pretty much elitist. Mathematics courses were taught at a rather high level with both oral and written exams for each unit ². Part of the material in lectures and some of the problems given in assignments, tests and exams were clearly beyond the abilities of a significant percentage of students. At UWA mathematics is taught (especially in first and second year) mostly for engineering and science students and of course the approach there is rather different. It took me about one year to adjust to the system here.

I do not think I am doing anything extraordinary in my lectures. Mathematics is one of the oldest sciences and there are well established traditions in teaching mathematics. In my lectures I try to follow some of the principles of teaching that are known to facilitate good learning. Of course, nowadays one also has the opportunity to use a variety of technology. Computers and computer software can greatly assist the teaching of mathematics.

One of the main things I decide before I teach a course is where to put its main emphasis. This is related to the main skills that the students are expected to develop as a result of the course. For third and honours year mathematics courses, I select valuable and sufficiently representative material which is both suitable for students at the corresponding level and up-to-date. Another consideration is finding appropriate examples, problems and applications. Mathematics cannot be understood without these. My personal view is that examples should be given immediately after the discussion of new notions, methods, tools, etc. Lectures in mathematics not only present a theory but also demonstrate how the theory works. I believe that along with the selection of the main material, the choice of appropriate examples/problems/ applications is what makes the difference between a reasonable and a good mathematics course.

During a lecture, I allocate more time for the most important and/or difficult parts. The students need some time to think and understand; without it they can easily get lost and then it is practically impossible for them to follow the lecture. I also find it very important to supply the students with written lecture outlines and solutions of all assignments, tests and exercise sheets. This is particularly helpful for students who sometimes struggle to follow a lecture/workshop or fail to understand some details during the time of the lecture/workshop. Even the top students appreciate the availability of these written materials.

• ¹ The University of Sofia (as most classical universities in Eastern Europe) does not have engineering courses. These are taught by the several technical universities in Sofia.
• ² It seems that was so in most East European universities.