2024 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient meets students with warmth and dedication

Hello Therése Fridström Montoya, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Law, and congratulations. In May 2024 you received the news that you would be receiving the Distinguished Teaching Award in Law and Social Sciences for 2024.

Did you have any inkling that you would be receiving this award?

“No, it was a complete surprise! I was lured to a specific location at a specific time, where I found out from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor that I was one of this year’s recipients.

Fridström Montoya does not know any more about who nominated her than the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s disclosure that it was a group of students.

Students and staff can nominate teachers who have made outstanding contributions to student learning in one or more specific nomination categories. A total of five awards worth SEK 20,000 each are presented every year.

Fridström Montoya received the award because she meets her students with warm dedication in all her teaching. In the classroom, she allows possible solutions to legal problems to emerge on the board in dialogue with the students in a way that ensures that everyone feels seen and able to contribute.

Do you have any teaching tricks or do you have any special techniques you use in your teaching?

“Gosh, that’s a tough question! Something I know differentiates me from many other teachers is that I consistently ‘dare’ to use PowerPoint in all of my teaching. Even if I’m lecturing to a really large group, I always want to write and sketch on a board. That also applies to when I teach on Zoom – then I connect an iPad to the computer, which I can write on as I talk.”

Fridström Montoya is convinced that there are many advantages to providing visual support in an analogue way during teaching. In her view, it makes her more flexible as a teacher as she can adjust the support to whatever is actually happening in the classroom.

“Gradually letting notes, structures and figures develop on a board in dialogue with the students also gives the students the chance to feel like they’re fully participating in the teaching.”

The students appreciate this, which is feedback that Fridström Montoya often hears from them. She feels that it is important to activate and engage the students. The teaching should be akin to a discussion.

“I have two tricks in that regard,” she explains. “One is that I always introduce the theme of the teaching via small stories. They become examples that everyone can relate to. The second is that I ask students questions about what I am teaching or ask them to reflect on something to check that they are following. I think this brings a lively feel to the teaching, which increases both participation and learning.”

What do you think is most important as a teacher when teaching students?

“Trying to understand what students bring with them and what they need in order to absorb and understand the theme of the teaching – so that they can develop their own learning.”

Do you want to share any concrete advice about teaching?

“Very difficult question; I feel it would be rather presumptuous to even try... We are all different. My approach to being a teacher wouldn’t have to automatically work for someone else, perhaps quite the contrary. So perhaps that is the advice: that it’s important to be yourself and find your own way to be genuine and confident in your role as a teacher.”

What will you do with the prize sum?

“I’m thinking that a new sofa to rest my tired teacher’s legs on in the evening would be a great idea!”

Ulrika Hurtig