Lecturer of the Year Jan Aten: “The student is really just a colleague”

For more than 30 years, Jan Aten has been a teacher although he is “also still a student.” Corona or no corona, Aten finds a way to connect with students. While cycling, he philosophizes in an introductory video for students in the pathology course about what pathology is. “Pathology, what is that anyway? Pathos, suffering, logos, doctrine. The doctrine of suffering, heavy stuff. Not too bad, though.“

He modestly accepted the award he received for his open, patient and clear teaching style. At the end, the video interview with Folia shows him on camera. “The students already apologized that my name is wrong on it, it says ‘Jan van Aten.’ That doesn't matter. I find it comical and typical of the UvA. I'll make a new card for the back, for when my grandson can read.”

Did you see the Lecturer of the Year award coming?

“No, not at all. Surprise was the first thing that went through me and joy. And yet also some embarrassment, I must admit. To be with so many fantastic people on an afternoon like that, and then to be chosen. I especially like the fact that students appreciate the education I give. That's the most important thing.”

The judges mentioned that you teach very personally and with the student. You also know the students' names. How is it that you can put yourself in the student's shoes so well?

“I honestly don't think about it that much. I am who I am. I don't try to hide anything. If I walk into a lecture hall and I'm in a bad mood, I say so. Sometimes you say something personal, like that my grandson just turned one year old. I also think about questions with the students. If a student asks me a question, I don't always know the answer right away. Then I try to think about it on the spot with the person. Our opinions are completely equal at that point.”

You have been a teacher for over 30 years. Have you enjoyed it all that time?

“I've always liked teaching. But I've also come to like it more and more. You find your own way and get better at it, at least that's how I feel. I also love it in combination with the research I do. But the most important thing is the contact with the students. I always learn from that. In that sense, you grow from teaching.”

What do you get out of the contact with students?

“The student is really just a colleague. And it's great fun to discover things together. I am still a student myself. You keep learning. You have to be open to that. It doesn't work if you say ‘I know everything, and I'm going to tell you what I think about it.’ It turns out that students are very intelligent people who come up with questions I hadn't thought of yet. So then you talk about that.”

What were you like as a student and what teachers did you look up to?

“That's a question every teacher should really ask themselves. I was serious as a student. I worked long and hard on the material and tried to do well. I was not an exceptionally bright student, getting eights but no tens. There were definitely teachers I looked up to. These were teachers who were open and focused on their business and the student. In the first year, there was a lot of distance between student and teacher. But after that, in biology studies, I got a lot of internships where I was in close contact with the professor and could really talk about things. Even then I experienced that as very valuable. And that's what I'm trying to do now, too.”

You are praised by the jury for your clear and structured teaching. Do you expect the same from students?

“Yes, I do. I am now supervising an undergraduate thesis. It’s an evolving process. It's great to see how that structure grows, but I also want to see that. Then I do get strict when I see that that’s not happening.”

Isn't that also old school, that things have to go by the book?

“Yes, but that is still appreciated by the students. The exams I give are quite tough. I am also challenging as a teacher. I think you can and even should expect something from students. Teachers’ opinions do vary somewhat on that. There are also teachers who address first-year students as if they were in the bridge class. That is not the case: These are people who are just as smart as you and I and you have to address them at that level. Students sense that, too, and appreciate it.”

What would you like to change in education?

“In educational testing I would like to change some things. Not only how you make the tests but also how you arrive at a grade. It is the subject of lively discussion among teachers. Now on the faculties of medicine throughout the Netherlands (except Utrecht, I believe), the best or highest scoring five percent of students are looked at as a measure of the 'difficulty' of the test. Their average score is the reference point. The idea is that if the test is more difficult, the highest scoring students will also do a little less well and the benchmark as a fixed percentage of the reference point will then be lower for everyone. I don't think that's right. Because the reference point is the students who always do well and are not so sensitive to the quality of teaching.”

“So even if your teaching isn't very good, those students will still get a very high score. Even if you send those students off to the moors with a book, when they come back eight weeks later they will still get a nine. At the same time, the students who fluctuate between five and seven suffer from poor teaching. That's where you should set your benchmark. How you do that is tricky. The test can become very sensitive to things out of your control. I'm thinking about methods to do that well anyway. Fortunately, there is now increasing attention in education to different forms of assessment and to appreciating students' development of complex skills.”

You began as a researcher in experimental pathology at Amsterdam UMC. Over the years, more and more teaching tasks have been added. Why is doing research still important to you?

“In general, I think that every lecturer in the academy should have a discipline in addition to teaching. You have to be nourished by the field you are teaching. That could be scientific research or the clinic or something else so that you're not just parroting books. You must have experienced things yourself. And secondly, it's pure curiosity. You should be fascinated by things you see happening. In that sense, I think teaching is also an investigation. I have the same fascination with that.”

Have you never found it taxing to add more teaching?

“Everyone complains about strain. And, of course, I'm often extremely busy. But you know, it's a matter of how you deal with it. You can throw in the towel and ask for more money and additional colleagues to do the teaching. But teaching is also a way to survive as a researcher. If you are purely a researcher, you are completely dependent on grants that you have to bring in every few years. That really is a burden for young postdocs. You sometimes see those people drop out, which is painful to see. As a researcher, it makes a lot of sense to delve into teaching in good time. But that only works if you really enjoy it, otherwise it is a dead end. Then you have to look for something else.”

You received a carte blanche to coordinate a self-devised course for a year. How will you give substance to that?

“Yes, that's a very attractive idea. I have to think carefully about what exactly I can do with it. Right after the presentation I spoke to David Bos, the previous[BA1]  Lecturer of the Year. He and René Smits, the Lecturer of the Year before that, had not yet used their carte blanche. So now the three of us are going to have a drink soon and brainstorm 'interdisciplinary' about what we can do with the carte blanche.”

And what direction will that take?

“I live in the heart of the Bijlmer. It's a great part of town, but it also has its share of problems. When I look at the students at the Amsterdam UMC, there are very few from the Bijlmer, maybe one or two. So I've been thinking: I should do something together with social studies to ensure that those students also end up at the AMC. That would be wonderful.”

Read previous interviews with past winners here:

Lecturer of the Year David Bos: “I prefer teaching, it feels like real work”

“For Lecturer of the Year René Smits, connection is the magic word”

Jan Aten

2022 UvA Lecturer of the Year

1991-present Lecturer and coordinator of the pathology course. Researcher experimental pathology, immunology, nephrology and cell biology at Amsterdam UMC.

1989-1991 Researcher in immunology, Hôpital Broussais, Paris.

1992 PhD Experimental pathology in Leiden

1984 Graduated in biology in Groningen, the Netherlands

1958 Born in Wormerveer