María Sofía Espejo is trained as a biotechnologist and began her academic journey in Argentina, where she completed her PhD in Biology working with cardiovascular physiology in small animals. Although her main ambition was to pursue a research career, she chose to take on teaching medical students at the bachelor’s level during her doctoral studies. Not out of obligation, but because it seemed like a good opportunity to develop her academic profile.

What started as a supplementary role gradually became more than that. She found herself enjoying the interaction with students and the sense of purpose that came from helping others, especially future medical doctors, in understanding the biological mechanisms behind health and disease.

“It feels good teaching people who will go on to help others. In research, you are not always successful. It can lead to a lot of frustration. When you teach and see the students understand what you mean – seeing things click for them – it is genuinely rewarding,” she says.

María Sofía Espejo’s path eventually led her to Denmark, where she joined a research group at Aarhus University.

A classroom full of unwritten rules and customs

In Denmark, María Sofía Espejo spent her first years focused entirely on research. But after two years, she approached her supervisor and asked to be involved in teaching. He agreed, and soon she was scheduled to teach a few sessions for medical students at the bachelor’s level on the cardiovascular system and electrophysiology. She arrived early on the day of her first lesson, ready to begin at 8.00. But the room was empty.

“I arrived early for class, and then at 8.00, no one was there. Five minutes passed, and eventually the first student arrived. I was like ‘is this normal?’ and asked the student about it. They explained that they do not start before 8:15, and that is how I found out about ‘the academic quarter’,” she recalls with a laugh.

No one had told her about the academic quarter, which is the unwritten rule that teaching starts fifteen minutes past the hour.

María Sofía Espejo would later discover that she was far from the only one caught off guard by this Danish custom when she recently completed the newly updated Teaching@AU self-paced online course, which is an introductory course for international teachers. In a course video, Scottish associate professor from the CED, Sarah Robinson, describes the same experience when having to teach in Denmark for the first time:

"I was there ten minutes before with my computer ready to set up and was very surprised – and perhaps a little annoyed – about the fact that there was somebody still in the room. So, I waited until ten and the people left, including the lecturer, who nodded and walked past me. I thought it was very strange that she did not leave the lecture until ten, when my lecture was supposed to start. So, I hurried into the room, set up my computer, and could see that there were some students drifting into the room, not in a particular hurry. Around about ten past ten, I decided I should be starting the lesson, but there were still students drifting into the room,” Sarah Robinson comments in the video that what might be interpreted as collective tardiness was instead ‘the academic quarter.’

In the video from the course, Sarah Robinson also highlights other Danish customs, like the lack of use of formal titles, a more smiling and open body language than is customary in some other countries, and that Danish students often approach studying outside the classroom in a way that may differ from what international teachers may expect.

Although an informal teaching environment was not unfamiliar to María Sofía Espejo, based on her experience from Argentina, the cultural difference in how students prepare for class quickly became apparent:

“Upon suggestion from a colleague, I tried doing a short evaluation after class to see how the students experienced my teaching. I thought they would want me to do a 20-minute presentation of the material at the beginning of each class before opening for discussion. But from the feedback I got, it was clear they preferred to jump into discussions right away. They all came very well-prepared for class. Much more than I was used to from Argentina. It is wonderful that they take their preparation so seriously,” she says enthusiastically.

The students’ level of preparation led María Sofía Espejo to adjust her teaching style, spending less time on presentations and more on creating space for discussions and interaction.

The value of department-specific onboarding programmes

This experience and the continuous adjustments of her teaching taught María Sofía Espejo a lot about Danish students. Yet, looking back, she believes that more subject-specific guidance at the outset would have made the transition smoother.

“For me, it would have helped to also get an overview or introduction to the specific subject I was going to teach, so I would have known what was expected of me. Danes are very flexible and build the plane while flying it. Which is great. But when you do not have that background, it can leave you feeling like you do not know what you are doing, even though you really do. I think it is more related to the ways than the material, which is an important learning and something every international would appreciate to be introduced to,” María Sofía Espejo says.

She thereby highlights how different teaching domains are influenced by department-specific knowledge and traditions. Knowledge and traditions that might be taken for granted, and thus not openly discussed. Therefore, to support international teaching staff even more effectively, the CED offers department-tailored onboarding programmes to better prepare international colleagues for teaching within the department-specific traditions.

The CED has developed four flexible concepts to support departments’ onboarding of international academic staff in their teaching responsibilities. An onboarding programme is planned and agreed upon between the CED and the department’s representatives, and the choice of formats depends on the scope of the teaching task, employment category, and teaching experience of the staff being onboarded, as well as the department’s specific needs regarding teaching formats and university educational topics.

• Read more about onboarding new international teaching staff.
• If you would like to hear more about our onboarding programmes, please contact: Anders Hjortskov Larsen (ahlarsen@au.dk | +45 42 31 87 04) or Simon Raaby Holmgaard Poulsenn (srhp@au.dk | +45 93 52 28 08).