The award for the best LUT teacher of 2024 was decided to be awarded this time in two different categories: the category for Bachelor's programmes and the category for Master's programmes. The winners are Antti Silvast and Jarkko Niemi.

The associate professor Antti Silvast has received the best course feedback from students in the course Science and Technology Studies (5 ECTS), which is part of the BSc programme in Social Sciences.

'The course Science and Technology Studies integrates engineering and social sciences and students find the subject very interesting and inspiring. Practical exercises on social engineering phenomena help students to understand the potential of social scientists to solve interdisciplinary problems. Students also appreciate the fact that I put a lot of effort into supporting student learning’, says Antti Silvast, summarising the student feedback he has received. 

The assistant professor Jarkko Niemi has received the best course feedback from students on the course Sales Technology (3 ECTS), which is a Master's degree course in Business Administration. 

'In my teaching, I want to introduce students to a research-based approach and critical data processing. In this course, the students' mini-theses and reflective essays and the joint discussion on them seem to work well for the students', says Jarkko Niemi, explaining how his award-winning Sales Technology course is implemented.

Both award-winning teachers have completed quite a lot of pedagogical studies. This is reflected in their approach on student learning, their practical teaching work and their interaction with students. A learner-centred approach, activating learners, using a variety of working methods and tools to support learning are common to their teaching style.

Building an atmosphere that supports learning is also essential in the teaching of both Antti Silvast and Jarkko Niemi. Their focus is on student learning. They support students in their learning, inspire and motivate them, and provide personal feedback. Active discussion with students and facilitating interaction that supports learning is a natural way of working for them. Silvast praises an easy tool he used to activate students, allowing them to ask anonymous questions during lectures. They also value the course feedback they receive from students. The winning teachers are grateful for the good and constructive feedback they have received from students and are very pleased to receive the LUT Best Teacher Award.

'This time we wanted to award the best teachers in the Bachelor's and Master's programmes separately, because they appeared to be clearly distinguishable in terms of student feedback. We are very pleased that LUT's new openings in both social sciences education and sales education in business administration studies have got off to such a good start. The excellent student feedback is a strong and convincing proof of this', says Vice Rector Jaana Sandström, congratulating the winners of the 2024 Best Teacher Award.