Kristian Smeland Ytre-Hauge

I am a professor at the department of physics and technology at UiB. My discipline is medical phyiscs and my main focus is the use of ionizing radiation, such as X-rays, for treatment of cancer (radiotherapy) and medical imaging. I am active in teaching, research and supervision of students at the master and PhD level. This portfolio describes my teaching experience, development and philosophy and aim to provide insight into how I have developed my teaching over time aiming at increased student learning and thoughts on how I can develop further.

I have been teaching regularly at the Master level at UiB for nine years. My teaching experience is briefly summarized in the table below. My work to develop and improve my teaching and the students learning is described in the following paragraphs and in my teaching philosophy at the end of this document. Examples of teaching materials are available in a separate attachment.

Formal pedagogical training

The table below gives an overview of pedagogical courses taken at UiB. As indicated in the table, three of the courses are ongoing and soon completed. See separate attachment for details and documentation regarding this.

Year

2022

UPED 602 (fall) – Pedagogical project (Ongoing) 50 Hours

UPED 652 (fall) - Advanced Teaching in Mitt UiB : Visual Design (Ongoing) 15 Hours

UPED 659 (fall) - Creating Effective Discussions to Promote Learning (Ongoing) 15 Hours

UPED 601 (spring) – Documenting and evaluating teaching 36 Hours

UPED 676 (spring) - Creating Accessible Teaching and Learning Materials 15 Hours

2021

UPED 600 – Introduction to university teaching and class design 24 Hours

UPED 650 - Online and Blended Learning 30 Hours

2015

UPED622 – Research supervison/counseling, UiB 30 Hours

Sum

A total of 215 Hours

Year

2015 -  present

Master level teaching, UiB. Phys 213 – The physics of radiotherapy. Role: Course organizer and lecturer

2017- present

Bachelor level teaching, UiB. MTEK 100 – Medical technology in practice. Lecturer.

2017, 2020.

Master/PhD level teaching, NTNU - FY8412: Ionizing radiation, interactions and dosimetry, External lecturer

2013

Master level teaching, UiB. Phys 231 – Radiation physics. Role: Teaching assistant – lectures and exercises

Supervision experience

I have long and broad experience from supervision of master and phd students as summarized in the table below.

Master's students

Ph.D.
students

20+

10

Main supervisor for 5 PhD students in the field of particle therapy (UiB, Dept. of physics and technology). Four completed PhD theses and one ongoing. Co-supervisor for 5 PhD students (1 graduated, 4 ongoing). Supervisor for more than 20 master students (mainly as main supervisor).

Educational research contributions

Students and supervisors view on the role of the master supervisor. Scientific poster in preparation (in connection with the UPED 602 course)

A guide to master thesis writing. Kristian S Ytre-Hauge and Audun O. Pedersen. A written guide ((https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065441).) for master students regarding preparations and writing of a master thesis (in connection with the UPED 602 course)

Production of learning resources

For teaching in medical physics, I have developed project tasks, exercises, quizzes, lectures, canvas modules for asynchronous work and educational videos for students. Examples of these teaching materials are available in a separate attachment. Instructional videos have also been developed to guide master students in use of relevant software for radiation transport simulations in medical physics. To facilitate better learning I also use the technique of 3-minute papers – registering what students remember from a lecture – serving as repetition for the student and as guidance for me as a teacher

Collaboration in teaching

In my teaching I have collaborated with colleagues in many different ways. In my main field of teaching, I have had a very close collaboration with radiation physicists at Haukeland University Hospital (HUS) to ensure teaching relevant for the medical physics community where many of the students are employed after their studies. I have also taught at another university (NTNU) in a collaborative course aiming first and foremost to increase the knowledge of already graduated students who work as clinical medical physicists. In collaboration with X-ray physicists at HUS I have also guided students at the MTEK programme at UiB. Collaboration with colleagues locally, nationally and international has also been central in supervision of students at master and PhD level.

In addition, I have been member of the working group for development of teaching at the department of physics and technology. We have covered several topic including “lessons from digital teaching during covid”, “evaluation of students – ‘to-sensor-ordningen’ ” and “classroom tools and equipment at our department” and now also discussing supervision of master students.

Experience from teaching, development and evaluation of teaching

Through seven years of teaching and organizing PHYS213 at UiB I have each year updated and hopefully improved my lectures and teaching material. This has been required both to increase the quality of the teaching but also because medical physics is a field that rapidly develops with new types of applications and treatments. I have particularly focused on making the structure and content of the course more logical and “chronological” while still giving some repetition of key issues and topics. In 2021 I did a complete revision of the learning outcome descriptions for PHYS213. For this purpose I found the Blooms taxonomy in Norwegian (from: “kvalitetslæring i høgare utdanning» R. C. Petterse) very useful. After that I have also revised the content and removed materials which I believe do not contribute to reaching the learning outcomes. In 2022 I expanded the course with an extension for PhD-students in collaboration with my colleague Sara Pilskog. On two occasions I have received feedback on my teaching from anonymous student questionnaires giving valuable input for adjusting my teaching methods and materials. I have also given and received teaching evaluations to/from colleagues which in my opinion also gives very valuable insights (see separate attachment for details). I also have experience from evaluating master and bachelor thesis.

I am an associate professor at the department of physics and technology at UiB. My discipline is medical phyiscs and my main focus is the use of ionizing radiation, such as X-rays, for treatment of cancer (radiotherapy) and medical imaging. I am active in teaching, research and supervision of students at the master and PhD level. After seven years as course organizer and lecturer in medical physics (PHYS213) at UiB, and also teaching other courses at UiB and elsewhere I have already gained quite some experience in teaching. These years have been a process of learning and hopefully improving my own teaching based on feedback from students, colleagues, and my own reflections. The learning process has been both in terms of a deeper physics understanding and in the pedagogical perspective.

Until 2021, I had little formal pedagogical training and very limited knowledge of theory and literature on teaching and learning in higher education. In 2021 and 2022 I have participated in the pedagogical UPED courses at UiB which have given me the opportunity to see and evaluate my own teaching in a broader perspective and given me a range of pedagogical tools and knowledge which I already believe have had a positive impact on my teaching and student learning. My interpretation of the main take home message altogether from these courses is as simple as moving the focus from teaching to student learning. While the message may be simple a researcher mindset is in my opinion needed to truly achieve progress in the teaching and student learning.  This is part of the rationale for introducing the concept of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) [Boyer, 1990]. The SoTL way of thinking could be summarized as inquiry focused on student learning [Flatten, 2013], but grounded in both scholarly and local context, i.e. using knowledge and methodology from research but also in partnership with students and colleagues.

I have a clear goal of making use of what I have learned in the UPED courses to improve and diversify my teaching in the future. One particular aspect I have already engaged in more is the collaboration and exchange of thoughts and knowledge with colleagues. As part of a committee for improved teaching at my department I have participated in discussions ranging from practicalities in the classroom (e.g. use of blackboard power point slides etc.) to supervision style and methodology.

Student learning from my perspective requires that students first have understood the background and context for the subject I am teaching. I believe that only when this is achieved, the student will be able to efficiently learn and understand the relevance of what is being taught. Without any context, I believe student motivation will be lower and more focused towards the exam than towards true learning. I therefore try to focus on not only the hard facts of the physics courses I am teaching but also why theses facts matter and are important to know. I have also increased my attention towards the learning outcome of each teaching activity. As discussed by Biggs [Biggs 2003], teching should strive for constructive allignment, e.g. alignment between the learning outcome we want, the teaching activities and also the evaluation of the students’ learning. In terms of evaluation of students or exams, this is a topic I have debated with my colleagues quite a bit, particularly in light of new regulations which may be introduced in 2023 – demanding two independent evaluations of works who contribute to determine the grades of the students. This is a challenge as I personally would like to base the grades on project works of different kinds in addition to a potential final exam. I think this is a topic which will be of great importance to work actively with in the future and I hope I will be able to continue with evaluations beyond a single final exam.

In my teaching, my objective is for the student to achieve the learning outcomes and also be able to apply this knowledge after they graduate. In my lectures I therefore strive to connect the theory of medical physics and radiotherapy to real life examples, exercises or situations which may occur working as a medical physicist or researcher. I have also over the past few years attempted to reduce the number of traditional lectures in favour of more student active learning. Examples of activities I have introduced are small group discussions or problem solving, topic specific quizzes using the Socrative-software. By letting the students work in small groups of 2-4 participants I find that students become more active and engage in important discussions with their fellow students. This kind of peer instruction is also well founded in the pedagogical literature in general and also within the field of physics as show e.g. by Bozzi et al [Bozzi, 2018] These activities also serve as a break from lectures and, in my opinion, increases the students’ attention to the now shorter sections of traditional lecture which are mixed with the student active activities. In the more pure lectures I still believe it is possible to avoid a monotonous style. I therefore try to combine the use of blackboard, power point slides and, if possible, practical/computer based demonstrations. To facilitate better learning I have also the past year begun to use the technique of 3-minute papers – registering what students remember from a lecture – serving as repetition for the student and as guidance for me as a teacher.

I believe in the use of modern technology in teaching. In the UPED course blended learning I got further insights into the possibilities of combining in-classroom teaching with so-called asynchronous work where the students work independently or in groups without a teacher present. The Canvas tool at the student portal MittUiB used at UiB brings a broad range of possibilities which I have only over the past year begun to explore and apply. To make video lectures I have used the tool Kaltura, but also for shorter videos, simply used my phone or Zoom. The different options have their advantages and disadvantages e.g. with respect to audio/video quality vs ease of use and possibilities for editing. I still believe that the use of videos should be a supplement rather than a replacement for in classroom teaching as important discussions and room for questions may be missed. I have therefore mainly made shorter videos explaining concepts or tools e.g. required to solve exercises or as an introduction to a new topic. Examples of such teaching material developed by me is available in a separate attachment.

In addition to university level teaching, I have broad experience from scientific presentations at national and international conferences. For such presentations I seek to communicate in a natural and engaged manner and avoid following a predefined script. In my opinion a presenter should know the content of his/her work to the extent that there is no need for a script, but rather the presentation should flow naturally like in a discussion or conversation with a colleague or a friend.

Regarding supervision of students my philosophy is that frequent meetings and an open door policy is a good way to achieve a good collaboration with the student. Students are diverse and while some students may thrive and move their project with less frequent support, most student benefit from a clear structure with respect to frequency and form of supervision meetings and guidance. I also strongly believe that it is a great benefit to have more than one supervisor, both in terms of diversity in the guidance of the students and also giving the student other possibilities if they for any reason feel communication is challenging with one of the supervisors. In my supervision, I have invited colleagues with complementary expertise to co-supervise my students. Through the UPED 622 course I gained valuable insights into the role of the supervisor and now through the UPED 602 course I’m performing a pedagogical study regarding the supervision done for master students at our department and how we can improve this. This is a topic of great interest for me and while the project is in a data collection stage now, we will soon analyse the input from students and supervisors regarding how supervision is done, and how it could improve.

To summarize, I have learned from i) my own Personal Experience, ii) from Colleagues, iii) Students and iv) Theory - how to improve my teaching. In my opinion, I take small steps in my own development each year. I have systematically worked to revise and improve the teaching materials in my courses as well as improve the way I teach.  A very significant boost in this effort has come from the UPED courses and I look forward to focus on improving student learning using these four “lenses” mentioned above as described by Brokenfield [Brokenfield 2017]  as essential to be a critically reflective teacher: The students’ eyes, Colleagues perceptions, Personal experience and Theory.

Biggs, J. (2003). Aligning teaching for constructing learning. Higher Education Academy 1(4).

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered (1 ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers

Bozzi, M et al (2018). Peer learning for large size Physics lectures in higher education: yes, we can.

ISBN 978-84-09-05948-5

Brookfield, S.D. (2017) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Felten, P. (2013). Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal Vol. 1, No. 1 (2013), pp. 121-125 (5 pages)