Prof. Magdalena Tabernacka: I am glad when students criticise my views. [IDUB teaching award]
Applications are open until 31 August for the third edition of the IDUB Teaching Award. In this article, we present an interview about didactics in the administration field with the winner of the IDUB first edition teaching award – dr hab. Magdalena Tabernacka, prof. UWr from the Institute of Administrative Sciences. Prof. Tabernacka received IDUB teaching award also for co-authoring the publication “Europa, dialog i perspektywy młodych ludzi w zwierciadle wyników badań prowadzonych w projekcie GANESA”.
Which innovative methods of working with students do you use?
The University of Wrocław uses the Bologna system. The system is mainly associated with the division of studies into bachelor’s and master’s degrees. However, the main idea of the Bologna process is the unity created by the university community. And it is possible thanks to the situation in which students teach lecturers, while lecturers – above all – teach students. What should we learn from the students? How to teach them. Because the differences in the perception of the world, values and everything that falls into the category of ethnocentrism (otherwise defined in science as individual perception filters) are now much more visible than they used to be. Previously, such differences were not so pronounced between people with an age gap of 20-30 years. But nowadays, according to my experience, even students with 5-7 years of age difference already have a completely different perspectives on the world and a completely different vision of what is important to them. That is why we have to continuously adjust our didactic methods for the needs and ethnocentrism of new generations of students, to their concept assets, language and mentality. For example, before creating the book “Europa, dialog i perspektywy młodych ludzi w zwierciadle wyników badań prowadzonych w projekcie GANESA”, of which I am a co-author, we first conducted a huge study on a group of over seventy hundred students to see what their perceptions of the European Union were. Moreover, the research examined their level of sympathy or antipathy towards Poland’s neighbouring countries. And also, to what extent they are acknowledged with such phenomenon as misinformation, or whether they are able to recognise so-called fake news.
I also try to be open to innovative didactic methods, one of which is the fish bowl. This is a method used in group work that allows you to have a discussion, which engages emotions. And at the same time it allows to learn democratic approach and social activity in presenting one’s own views.
How does this technique work?
Fish bowl participants take their places in two circles. Three people sit in the inner circle, nevertheless there are 4 chairs. Only those in the inner circle can lead the discussion aloud by expressing their views on the given topic. Participants who sit in the external circle are not allowed to speak, but they can join the discussion by taking the free extra chair in the inner circle. However, in that case, one of the people in the inner circle have to leave. This evokes strong reactions, because sometimes a new debater has an urgent call for speaking up, while people in the inner circle do not want to leave it. Sometimes the inner circle debaters give a nonverbal signal to somebody in the external circle to take their place. In this method, it is important to engage emotions in defending your own opinion, and also sometimes, in objecting to views, which are considered untrue or harmful by the participants. Occasionally, it is also important for participants to share their own experiences, and in this way they make their contribution to enriching the knowledge of the ‘community’. This method allows students to train public speaking and debating skills, and it also develops courage. I have just returned from Finland, where I participated in a week-long Scientific University, where we learnt different methods of studying. After these experiences, in the coming academic year I would like to introduce new methods of group integration during master seminars, including, above all, elements of yoga. It is very important to engage students in the process of gaining knowledge. And this is very valuable for me as an academic teacher.
Do you have problems with student activity during classes? It is believed that the new generation has problems with verbal communication.
No, not at all. What our generation did not have, but the current one does, is the possibility to create students’ scientific associations. I have been the supervisor of the ISKRA student scientific association for 17 years, and it is still very active. Through participation in the association, students also fulfil the need for social interaction, which is missing in the current circumstances, when there are no long-term study groups.
It is also very important to develop didactic competences in scientific projects, and such a project was GANESA. This project included, among other things, an interesting form of youth engagement: the creation of short videos with viral potential by students and pupils. Thanks to them, young people can send to their peers, in a funny or sometimes even moving form, important content using the language of their generation.
What are the main intergenerational differences between your and current generation you have observed? Surely there is greater awareness of environmental issues?
I have been teaching environmental law and environmental administration for several years. Since the youngest generation of our students attended educational activities on nature protection in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, their ecological awareness is very high, but on the other hand, it is strongly influenced by politics. Nowadays, protection of the environment is one the most important topics in public debate. Modern classes on this subject are completely different from those I taught 15 years ago. Today, above all other things, it is important to teach student how to evaluate the weight of arguments presented in this debate and how to understand the logic behind ratio legis of individual environmental provisions in the context of arguments, that may, for example, constitute to social manipulation.
We now have wonderful young people at university – with important cultural resources. This is the first generation in Poland which has opportunities that we did not have. Young people know foreign languages, which they could study at school or even earlier. They are generally open-minded, as they have had the chance to travel. Moreover, they enter university with considerable knowledge, but consequently they are also very critical. They are very demanding and know what they expect from the lecturers. They are much more aware of their own goals than we were at their age, which naturally creates a challenge for lecturers. However, at the same time, they are also vulnerable to contemporary social phenomena such as manipulation, disinformation, or misinformation. Knowledge about fake news is one of the first things, which I teach during the course on negotiation and mediation. My acquaintances from Finland, now in their forties, already had a fake news subject at school as soon as the Internet became widely available. We did not have that. I dare say that young people had their first encounter with fake news classes only during already mentioned project GANESA, which ended three years ago. And this is very important, because the contemporary level of manipulation at the group level is very high. Through modern tools, it is possible to promote literally anything, hence young people have to be taught a critical approach to the information and knowledge presented to them. I am very glad when students criticise my views, as it is always an area for discussion. The mission of modern academic teachers is to oppose the dangerous flow of anti-intellectualism, and this requires listening to the opinions of others and engaging in discussion with them.
What is the most satisfying aspect of being a teacher for you?
It may be a cliché, but of course I am happy when my students are better than me and achieve success. When I see that they can organise a conference on their own. When I receive a vacation postcard with wishes from them, or when I meet them accidently years later and they remember things I taught them. Non omnis moriar, something of me will remain in these people. Perhaps the greatest success of my teaching practice was a situation, when during a class I was explaining the role of government administration in the context of the principle of the separation of powers. I made a joke that, in fact, one shouldn’t address a policeman as ‘officer of authority,’ but rather as ‘officer of executive authority’, since, after all, police officer only enforces the law. A policeman from Dzierżoniów town, who was present in the class, raised his hand and said that he knew this from his boss, who had been my student two years earlier.
Where do you get inspiration for improving your teaching methods?
I think we should take inspiration from real life. A university professor never really leaves work, especially when it comes to teaching future public administration specialists and lawyers. We gain real practical knowledge only by having contact with the real practice of law enforcement and its application. And we have to pass this knowledge on to our students with appropriate commentary in the context of specific provisions. Above all mentioned, it is very important not to close ourselves off, but to gain knowledge from the contact with other people. That is why I always try to participate in science camps organised by Scandinavian countries. The fish bowl method comes from there.
Additionally, there is TED talks. I am fascinated by the people who speak there. One of them is my unrivalled role model – Frans de Waal, a primatologist from the Netherlands. He dedicated his life to the study of bonobos (dwarf chimpanzees). Let’s say, I have managed to reach his level of teaching in Polish, but now I am trying to achieve it in English.
Do you have any effective method for distribution of your best practices?
Of course, publications are the most accessible and, in a sense, obvious method of sharing research results for academics and professors, but they require certain resources. Thanks to an EU grant, we managed to raise funds for books in the GANESA project. In total, three publications, which are all available for free, were created. One of them includes research results, another has ready-made scenarios for university classes and school lessons, and also a record of an interview conducted by young people.
It is also important to take part in conferences and scientific sessions, for example at summer universities, such as the one planned this year in the Expect_Art project.
What is this project?
Expect_Art is an international project financed within the Horizon program. This project aims to include art in teaching processes in the context of the phenomenon of Cultural Literacy in relation to the phenomenon of decolonisation. The Polish team deals with cultural and law issues. It includes such researches as dr Karolina Kurowska, mgr Klaudia Kaptur and mgr Anna Knauber, who is also a teacher. A group of students from pedagogical and, among others, administration fields (that is, those who will decide about education in the future) were invited to participate in the summer university. The aim of the project is to show future teachers how to teach using art. The idea is to apply it to all subjects, not only art classes itself, but also, for example, mathematics, physics or social sciences.
Who is your didactic role model?
A role model is not a guru, but aways someone important who has achieved or is achieving something valuable. Someone who can inspire constructive action. In my case, it is not that simple. First of all, Maria Montessori is extremely important to me, as she was the one who proved that, in essence, anyone can be taught anything. Working with my master’s students shows that sometimes it requires a lot of commitment, but in most cases, if we find the right method, I fully agree with Maria Montessori that it is possible.
Cultural anthropologist prof. Ludwik Stomma is also an extremely important scholar and teacher to me. He was a very open-minded person and academic. He maintained quite intense intellectual contacts with his students, but above all, he did not build barriers in direct contacts. He was not a professor locked up in an ivory tower. It was very valuable that he tried to connect students, doctoral students and professors with each other, which was very effective and intellectually inspiring. Moreover, prof. Zygmunt Bauman is extremely important to me. He was, in fact, one of the first to discover what globalisation is and what real consequences it has for modern societies, politics, and economies. Professor was fully aware of the fact that personal relations at university are extremely important. At the end of his life, he wrote that he felt obliged to get to know all the new academics at university, who he had headed some time earlier. He really regrated that, in fact, this was no longer possible, since long-term employment had ended at British universities. Professors work on contracts. They work a little here and a little there, which makes it impossible to conduct long-term research within a stable team. This is a great loss for modern university life. We, as a university, have to be a united community that develops a lasting organisational culture.
You have a very interdisciplinary view of administration.
Administration is absolutely fascinating! The subject of administrative law and the field of administrative activity cover everything that is important to human life. Let’s look at the scope of legal regulation: road traffic law, name and surname changes, marriages, permissible chemical compositions of cosmetics and medicines, the composition of clothes and what we do with them afterwards. All of this is administration. Administration law is like air. We think about it only in two situations: when it begins to smell so strongly that it disturbs us, and when it becomes visible. In everyday life we do not notice it. Yet it fills every crevice of it.
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Applications for the third edition of the teaching award are now open! We encourage you to take part in the competition!!!
The IDUB Teaching Excellence Awards competition, “The Best Among the Best – In Pursuit of Teaching Excellence”, is one of the initiatives under the “Excellence Initiative – Research University (IDUB)” programme, financed by the Polish Minister responsible for higher education and science for the years 2020–2026. The competition aims to enhance the quality of education and promote best practices in teaching at the University of Wrocław. Across the two previous editions, a total of 75 laureates have been recognised.
Academic staff from all units of the University of Wrocław are eligible to apply for the IDUB Teaching Excellence Award, provided they are employed on a full-time basis in a teaching, research-teaching, or research position on the day the competition is announced. Full details on how to apply for the award can be found on the IDUB website.
Translated by Darya Tserashkevich (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Read about other winners of the IDUB teaching award:
Prof. dr hab. Dagmara Jakimowicz, Faculty of Biotechnology
Dr hab. Maciej Matyka, prof. UWr, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy
Prof. Paweł Gawrychowski, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dr Regina Solova on translation didactics
Dr Katarzyna Majbroda on teaching anthropology
Added by: E.K.
Date of publication: 29.08.2025
