Teacher training

Teaching requires experimentation, research and continuous development: this is the message promoted by the TLlab for the Teacher Training project.

Politecnico di Torino is committed to training its faculty on different levels. At Politecnico, lecturers have the opportunity to undertake various training paths (basic, advanced and lifelong training). Internationally, our university participates in European programmes for research and development of university education such as the OECD programme and the Unite! Project.   

 

Teaching lab

Fostering and assessing Creativity and Critical Thinking in Higher Education: this is the challenge launched by the OECD through an international research project.

Creativity and critical thinking are essential skills  in the 21st century. Politecnico di Torino recognizes them as key learning outcomes of our courses. Politecnico di Torino is the only Italian university that has joined the OECD project and its inspiring international community made up of 25 universities from 14 countries. To date, approximately 3000 Bachelor's and Master’s students at Politecnico have taken part in this project with their lecturers.

Go to the project website

Teaching lab

Polito teaching staff are increasingly required to use English both online and offline in classrooms, meetings, conferences and for publication. ENGLISH MEDIUM INSTRUCTION (EMI) involves more than simply translating from Italian to English and can impact staff and students in a variety of ways, requiring a considerable time commitment and new ways of communication.

The following services cover both the formal and informal registers of English and are available for any member of the teaching staff who is teaching or interested in teaching in English.

 

English Medium Instruction (EMI) consultation 

The CLA English language experts are available to provide individual consultation to Politecnico teaching staff who teach courses in English or are preparing to teach in English. The purpose of the service is to provide:

  • help with English for slides / lecture notes / exams / student information;
  • support for improving your English for teaching;
  • support for adapting courses/materials and teaching methodologies for the international classroom.

 

Improve your Pronunciation for Teaching in English 

This course aims to improve aspects of pronunciation in order to make teacher-student communication more efficient. Participants will develop personalized lists of words/phrases frequently used in their own course(s) and learn their correct pronunciation. 

 

English conversation for teaching staff 

This activity facilitates conversations between teaching staff in order to improve fluency in English in informal academic settings (conference dinners, international meetings, etc...). 

 

Academic paper consultation 

The CLA language experts are available to help identify areas of difficulty in English when writing papers for publication. The aim is to help authors improve their use of English in academic articles and become more autonomous writers. It is not a proofreading service.

 

Academic presentation coaching 

The CLA language experts are available to help you prepare for an academic presentation in English. A CLA language expert will listen to the presentation, give advice on pronunciation, correct slides and help to develop a more confident presentation style.

Visit our language services for teaching staff
To learn more about it

Teaching lab

Unite! is a network of seven universities from seven European countries that are working together to develop a model for a European virtual and physical inter-university campus. Unite! seeks to transform European higher education through multidisciplinary, multicultural and multilingual education, research and entrepreneurship. Unite! connects engineering, science and technology with the great challenges of society in co-creation with students, faculty and staff – providing skills for a new generation of European citizens. 

As an open community, the TLlab already engages in the kind of activities that Unite! is promoting at alliance level:

  • Unite! Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Centre: Unite! promotes the learning of the European languages of its partner institutions, Swedish, Finnish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalonian, and Portuguese plus English, by providing tools and learning services to accompany students in the daily life of their host country, before, during and after their mobility. 
  • Unite! Virtual Campus: Unite! partners are leaders in digitalization of learning and seek cutting-edge solutions for distance learning and on-line assessment to promote excellent student learning experience and support innovative pedagogical approaches. The long term ambition is a virtual Unite! campus offering online tools and virtual spaces/classrooms to share and develop joint teaching, research, embedded mobility, social and cultural interactions.
  • Unite! Teaching and Learning Academy: Unite! provides expert pedagogical training for university teachers all across Europe with focus on design and facilitation of flexible study pathways in multidisciplinary, multicultural and multilingual settings. Pedagogical experts from the partner universities work together as an inter-European team to support teachers in sharing good teaching practices and encouraging joint teaching actions. The Teaching and Learning Academy of UNITE! will be launched as an inter-university concept across Europe and will consist of pedagogical experts, teaching staff and faculty, and students of the partner universities.
To learn more about it
More info on Unite!

Basic Higher Education Teaching Skills

Learning To Teach

The “Basic Higher Education Teaching Skills” project seeks to create a system that fosters higher education teacher training for all members of the teaching staff at Politecnico di Torino, starting from the most junior lecturers. The goal of the project is to foster a continuous process for the development of teaching skills.

The project builds on the assumption that the University clearly values the importance of teaching in its vision and mission in order to be able to provide good quality education.

The project seeks to implement activities that support the teaching staff and other academic bodies in charge of teaching (Collegi, degree programmes, Committees, working groups, etc). The project implements flexible activities that respond to the needs of the various stakeholders in order to work with them to develop teaching innovation solutions shared by the community.

During the project participants exchange their views. In particular, new teaching staff bring their research and teaching experience into the group and compare it with the experience of other new staff. Trainers build methodologies, strategies and techniques to facilitate the acquisition of new and different teaching skills straddling tradition and the transformations imposed by the contemporary culture of interconnected knowledge.

Learning to Teach: 40 hours

Registrations are now open for the 4th iteration of the “Learning to Teach (L2T)” course. March-May 2024

Deadline for application submission: 23 February

Download the PROGRAMME

Register HERE

Mentoring Polito Project

"Mentoring with experienced lecturers" seeks to develop a community of experienced lecturers (mentors) who are able to boost the level of professional development of the teaching staff and to support individual lecturers, groups and bodies (degree programmes, Collegi) in the implementation of innovative teaching projects.

The teaching staff involved in the Mentoring project have previously acquired competencies through basic higher education teacher training and significant teaching experience in their own courses.

In order to become a mentor, training is provided with a specialised course and personal experimentation paths. Participants work towards their role of mentor through experiencing and sharing methods, tasks, values and tools for peer-to-peer training and reflecting together within a mentoring unit.

The training model is based on the Mentoring Polito Project (M2P), implemented as a pilot project in September 2021. The first iteration of the project is expected to be repeated for two years, building on the evaluation of the pilot project.

Mentoring Polito Project: 20 hours

 

Mentors:

  • Valentina Agostini
  • Michela Barosio
  • Silvia Beltramo
  • Federico Bosia
  • Alberto Botter
  • Daniele Botto
  • Giulia Bruno
  • Federico Caviggioli
  • Davide Dalmazzo
  • Manuela De Maddis
  • Laura Farinetti
  • Renato Ferrero
  • Christian Maria Firrone
  • Lorenzo Galante
  • Luca Giaccone
  • Maria Grazia Graziano
  • Silvia Gron
  • Elisa Guelpa
  • Marzia Quaglio
  • Diana Massai
  • Tatiana Mazali
  • Andrea Mazza
  • Francesca Montagna
  • Bartolomeo Montrucchio
  • Davide Papurello
  • Elisabetta Raguseo
  • Alessandro Scattina
  • Louena Shtrepi
  • Fabrizio Valpreda
  • Riccardo Vesipa
  • Elena Vigliocco

Improvvisazione teatrale

The improvisation course for Politecnico teachers focuses on the contents of improvisation, communication and creativity. Teachers learn expressive techniques that can help them while they teach in the classroom; they develop new communication skills to maintain audience attention and improve nonverbal communication. Course participants also become aware of the potential of gestures and posture; they improve their narrative skills with a view to making complex topics more appealing and more understandable. The course methodology is based on standard improvisation techniques designed to improve listening, attention, problem solving, creativity, stage presence and voice, facilitating discussion among the participants in a positive and non-judgmental environment, with the aim of finding new incentives and food for thought with respect to one's role as a teacher.

Improvisation course: 20 hours

In addition to our basic higher education teacher training programmes (L2T - Learning to Teach) and training of mentors (M2P - Mentoring Polito Project), the TLlab organizes Teaching Weeks, which provides continuous updating on current issues of academic education.

The Teaching Week is open to all members of the teaching staff as an official occasion for professional updating and sharing of ideas, with an eye to building a community of lecturers who work together and support each other for the purpose of education.

Lifelong training of our teaching staff continues beyond the Teaching Week. Lifelong training means the opportunity to get trained at any time of one’s academic life.This is among the objectives of the TLlab:  informal advisory services are offered to the teaching staff, including English courses and English pronunciation courses specifically for the international classroom.

The 4th Teaching Week (Explorations in Teaching) is scheduled from 26th February to 1st March 2024. As in previous editions, there will be seminars, workshops and meetings to reflect on and discuss current experiences and new teaching methodologies thanks to the contribution of some of our colleagues as well as some external experts.