MBB teaching towards 2030

Mission statement

At MBB, our mission is to deliver high-quality education that empowers the next generation of scientists, medical professionals, and researchers with a comprehensive understanding of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology. We are committed to foster a dynamic learning environment that combines rigorous academic training with innovative research and hands-on experiences. This requires the participation and commitment of everyone at MBB.

Teaching philosophy

Our teaching philosophy is to guide students towards a scientific approach to learning, reflecting the diligence and inquisitiveness inherent in research. This means that we acknowledge that learning is hard work, which is best supported by creating an environment where there is no shame in admitting incomprehension or in seeking clarification. We shall encourage students to express their tentative explanations, and to welcome scrutiny. In short: we stand for a teaching culture signified by honesty and openness, with a focus on learning.

We aim for students to retain knowledge and wanting to learn more. To achieve this, we wish to provide a strong framework with opportunities for open discussion on complex topics, thus ensuring that teaching is relevant to students. Teaching goes beyond presenting facts; allowing for post-processing of content and peer support are crucial. We train practical skills by hands-on experiences in labs and projects, and aim to create engaging exercises and group tasks. Our goal is for students to be more proficient and interested in the subjects after their learning experience at MBB.

Operative Strategic Goals at MBB towards 2030

1. Staffing of teaching with functional redundancy to minimize vulnerability and to allow for solid strategic initiatives and quality development efforts
2. Teaching is guided by pedagogic evidence-based recommendations for optimized learning
3. Teaching is up-to-date and includes forefront-based research
4. Pertinent correspondence between MBB competence and teaching profiles
5. Optimized process for including undergraduate students into MBB for research projects, internships, and exam projects
6. Sustainable use of the MBB teaching laboratories
7. A transparent and simple financial reimbursement system and strengthened merit evaluation for teaching

Below follows a brief elaboration of the thoughts underlying each aim, and we will continuously fill up with action points projects by which we pursue these aims over the five-year period, under each aim.

1.Staffing of teaching with functional redundancy to minimize vulnerability and to allow for solid strategic initiatives and quality development efforts

Redundancy implies the availability of more than one teacher with active competence, to be able to step in when another is unable, thus ensuring seamless continuity towards the students. This is most likely achieved if teaching is organized in teams. It allows flexibility in relation to research and other tasks. Furthermore, teaching teams, when needed, can educate aspiring teachers/new staff in their subject areas. This is a conscious move away from teaching as a one-person job. Assuming the role as a course director, however, is time consuming, and thus generally a task designated for the permanent lecturer staff. If full-time researchers take on such responsibility, an internal part-time teacher solution may be possible.

Possible action points:

• delegate responsibilities of specific course segments to specific MBB Divisions
• recruit researchers within MBB for part-time teacher positions
• upon need, recruit competence externally (e.g. assistant lecturer, which would point to further expansion; undergraduate and postgraduate students to support lab teaching)

2. Teaching is guided by pedagogic evidence-based recommendations for optimized learning

Four related challenges are in focus: 

First, students do not always perceive the MBB teaching topics to be as stimulating as their teachers consider them to be. This can often be traced back to lack of appropriate contextualisation. 

Second, adding extended explanations, new knowledge and teaching content usually requires existing content to be reduced, necessitating an ever-ongoing critical discussion about how to prioritise teaching content. 

Third, unlimited internet access, and rapidly emerging AI tools push the question of what relevant knowledge is today, in the future, and how to evaluate this. 

Fourth, we must continuously evaluate what pedagogical formats that are the most suitable for our subject areas to be embraced by the students in the context of the respective programme.

Possible action points:

• ensure that all teachers receive relevant training, by
  • attending relevant courses (organised by UoL or other departments)
  • establishing regular seminar or workshop series for the teachers at MBB (e.g. journal clubs, invited talks) with regards to relevant pedagogy (including didactics and methodology), possibly to be arranged together with other Departments
• support internal initiatives aiming at pedagogical development and establishment of a larger pedagogical network matching MBB’s expertise in relation to our teaching profile
• implement a virtual MBB handbook for teaching where good practices and responsibilities of teachers are easily accessed and clearly explained

3. Teaching is up-to-date and includes forefront-based research

Teaching can become outdated if the material is not regularly updated to reflect current knowledge. This risk is higher when teaching in a specific topic is seen as the responsibility of a single teacher. Sharing teaching responsibilities and materials within teams encourages discussion about content and format, helping to keep teaching dynamic. We strongly believe that a continued reliance on full-time researchers for most of the curriculum provides the best conditions for new discoveries to be incorporated into the teaching topics, where applicable.

Possible action points: 

• maintain extensive involvement of all MBB Divisions in our undergraduate teaching
• systematically develop follow-up routines of examination results, course evaluations and course analyses, with discussion of these results with all teachers in the MBB Divisions

4. Pertinent correspondence between MBB competence and teaching profiles

MBB’s competence profile is changing with the direction of research and research groups, whereas our core teaching subjects do not change as rapidly. This has given rise to a partial mismatch between research specialty and the topics in our undergraduate teaching. For this reason, we must be transparent in what MBB can offer and seek dialogue with other KI Departments to make sure that teaching for all students at all undergraduate programs at KI is as good as possible. Opportunities to start new free-standing courses are limited, meaning that undergraduate programme revisions and development of new programmes are the most likely ways to find room for new courses to make more use of specific MBB expertise. As long-term commitment from divisions may be problematic, it can prove fruitful to develop courses in collaboration with other divisions/departments.

Possible action points:

• ensure that the skills and expertise of our staff are well aligned with the specific requirements of each subject area
• regularly evaluate MBB’s long-term teaching commitment in line with MBB’s expertise profile
• ascertain that regular meetings are held between teaching leadership representatives at Biomedicum, in addition to regular PD/GUA meetings, to re-ignite the dialogue with Departments responsible for courses where MBB has significant competence
• promote joint ventures with other Departments in development of new courses and course segments
• monitor opportunities for new course opportunities within core MBB expertise
• actively support development of new courses within core MBB expertise

5. Optimized process for including undergraduate students into MBB for research projects, internships, and exam projects

Usually, there is limited room for teachers to dive deep into science during their ordinary undergraduate classes and teaching engagements. Sharing hands-on experience is better executed when students spend time within the research groups. During 2023 alone, over 60 undergraduate students were involved in different undergraduate projects performed in research groups at MBB. These encompassed students from the biomedicine programmes (10/20 week (degree) projects), a few from the medical programme, some volunteers coming in on their spare time, some students from other Swedish universities, as well as international students, many through international exchange programmes, Usually, only students enrolled within KI courses will come with a bench fee directly for the hosting lab. Apart from that, no project student supervision is accounted for in MBB’s reimbursement system as no funds are received for this specifically. However, they constitute an exemplary mode of transfer of research expertise to undergraduate teaching, and we believe that this could be better promoted at a Departmental and University-wide level. As KI wishes to strengthen the connection between teaching and research, highlighting the teaching that goes on in research labs appears to be an obvious tool. MBB thus wishes to establish better ways of promoting interested students to perform research-based project in the Department, as well as better supporting the research teams to find suitable students for suitable projects. 

Possible action points: 

• annually account for and register undergraduate students performing research-based projects at MBB
• provide Departmentally organized support activities for incoming undergraduate students (pipetting skills, lab safety exercises)
• facilitate for PI’s and MBB Divisions to find and to accept suitable undergraduate students for research-based projects 
• highlight student achievements in the research labs

6. Sustainable use of the MBB teaching laboratories

Basic practical skills and laboratory experience is fundamental for students especially in a research career path which is highlighted and promoted in the Biomedical Programmes. Furthermore, an understanding of experimental conditions and parameters that may bias laboratory results is crucial for a wider understanding of biochemical concepts. Unfortunately, practical education has been down-prioritized in Swedish universities during recent years, meaning that advanced laboratory-based teaching will help to maintain KI students competitive. To prevent further reduction in laboratory-based teaching MBB will strive to increase the usage of the teaching laboratories, e.g. through collaborative efforts with other Departments, and by finding additional internal and external users.

Possible action points:

• further develop the undergraduate laboratory-based teaching 
• identify and attract new users of the Scheele chemistry labs

7. A transparent and simple financial reimbursement system and strengthened merit evaluation for teaching

Teaching merits are required for almost all academic positions, and all doctoral students at KI are expected to have gained experience of teaching. Time used for teaching engagement should be fairly reimbursed using the faculty funding for undergraduate teaching (and doctoral students receive up to 3 ECT credits for their teaching experience). The reimbursement for individual teaching activities is however cumbersome to calculate or determine within a given overall budget. Evaluation and appreciation of merits for engaged teachers is furthermore less well established compared to that of research merits. MBB therefore wishes to further develop the reimbursement system and merit evaluation for teaching undergraduate students. It is also an objective that this system should also be easier to administrate and to allow more transparent follow-up for individual teachers.

Possible action points:

• improve the transparency of the reimbursement system so that each teacher can easily identify how the teaching efforts have been rewarded
• offer percentages of wages to be covered for teachers as an alternative to Division reimbursement, for teachers involved to a higher extent (more than 5% of full-time on an annual basis)
• make efforts in teaching more visible and useful from a merit standpoint
• interview new staff, assign them to suitable teams, and ensure a proper introduction to the MBB teaching portfolio
• course directors shall make sure that teachers are properly introduced to each new teaching task, not only in terms of content, but also including context, e.g. wider scope and programme perspective
• teachers shall stay informed about their duties and well prepared for their teaching assignments
• the teaching unit shall actively support researchers who aspire for academic promotion to identify their teaching credits to advance their merits. 
• teachers taking on extra responsibilities in teaching shall be favoured in a transparent manner with regards to distribution of a proportion of research base funding
• teachers taking on more responsibilities for well-defined segments of the teaching shall be identified together with their teaching responsibilities on the MBB webpage.