At a small ceremony at CS Copenhagen, on Friday, 10 September, Johannes Bjerva was presented with the Teacher of the Year Award 2021 by Head of the Department, Peter Axel Nielsen. In his tribute speech, Peter commended Johannes for his passionate commitment to interactive engaging teaching.
Structure and predictability are key elements in his approach making it easy for the students to follow his courses. Just by way of example: At the start of the semester, Johannes presents students with the text book to use and a plan for the semester including a list of the literature that he expects them to read. In addition, he has a clear plan for each class communicated by early morning messages to the students and supplemented by small quizzes to kick off the day.
Also, in the event that students fail to get it the first time around, Johannes is always able to come up with additional examples making complicated stuff easier to understand.
The Teacher of the Year Award is awarded by the student members of the Study Board, and the department Teachers of the Year are automatically candidates for the faculty Teacher of the Year Award.