IÉSEG’s 2019 Teaching Excellence Awards: Combining excellence in research with great student learning experiences
11/21/2019
Ann-Sophie de Pauw, Tina Tessitore, Lies Bouten
Rather than choosing between research and teaching, IÉSEG School of Management has adopted a balanced strategy between both. Thus, our professors produce top-level research, and deliver an outstanding learning experience to their students.
This learning experience relies on four main pillars: (1) active learning, to favor the students’ engagement; (2) adaptive learning, to individualize the learning process; (3) interdisciplinary learning, to connect disciplines to each other and (4) competency-based education, which enables the development of students’ competencies thanks to real-life exercises and activities (cases, simulations, guest-speakers, etc.). Across these pillars, the student learning experience is also rooted in the cross-fertilization between research and teaching: through their research, professors are constantly renewing their expertise. This ensures the originality and the quality of the content brought into the classrooms and when engaging with other stakeholders (for example in the corporate or tertiary sector or for public policy).
Ghassan Yacoub
In order to highlight IÉSEG’s commitment to constantly improving pedagogy across all programs, and to acknowledge some of the outstanding contributions from our faculty, the School recently launched its first ever Teaching Excellence Awards.
Based on the teaching evaluations of the School’s students, 15 professors were nominated for an award in each of the following four categories: Bachelor, Master, Postgraduate programs, and Executive Education.
The nominated permanent professors could then submit a proposal that included a teaching-focused CV and a 1,500-word document. The latter included: their vision on teaching and learning (how they influence, motivate and inspire their students to learn); how they contribute to the development of curricula, resources or services that support learning, and how they develop their own and other professors’ teaching skills or contribute to the development of new teaching methods.
A jury composed of the Program Directors and professors with high-teaching skills then selected a winner for each of the four categories. These were announced during a special event in October:
• Bachelor-level: Lies Bouten, Professor of Accounting, who teaches Financial Analysis in the Bachelor of the Grande Ecole and in the International Business and Law Programs. Her research interests include social and environmental reporting/accounting.
• Master-level: Tina Tessitore, Professor of Marketing, who teaches several courses in the Master of the Grande Ecole Program (such as Pricing in Marketing, or Contemporary Marketing Communication Strategies). Her research focuses on consumer behavior and marketing communication.
• Postgraduate Programs: Ghassan Yacoub, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Strategy, who teaches Strategy and Innovation in several postgraduate programs. His research interests include innovation management, intellectual property rights and tech/fintech startups.
• Executive Education: Ann-Sophie de Pauw, Professor of Negotiation, who teaches several courses in Executive Education, including Negotiation and Conflict Management, or Decision-Making for Managers. Her research deals with conflict management, mediation, group dynamics, gender, and stereotypes.
Loic PLE, Deputy Director for Pedagogy and Academic Development explains, “These first IÉSEG Teaching Excellence Awards aim to acknowledge and value outstanding pedagogical contributions from our professors. They also recognize their dedication to improving teaching and learning at IÉSEG, as the awardees are also strongly involved in several pedagogical projects, share their practices and experiences with colleagues, etc. Moreover, students benefit from the expertise of these professors, who transpose the content of their research in their courses. These awards demonstrate the ability of IÉSEG professors to combine outstanding teaching levels with remarkable research skills, which is totally aligned with the School’s strategy to balance both activities, rather than favoring one over the other”.