-

Giovanni Pagliardi wins recognition for pedagogical innovation

23 May 2022

The lecturer from BI’s Department of Finance is this year’s recipient of the school’s Pedagogical Innovation Award.

Årsmøte og årsfest 2022

Pagliardi receives the award for his exceptional contributions to innovation of teaching and learning activities at BI. The award committee highlights the winner’s efforts to redevelop the learning process of his two master courses Investments and Financial Strategy in a Global Economy. «These pedagogical innovations have been strongly appreciated by the students», the committee adds.

“I am happy and honored to receive this award. This recognition of my work and effort motivates me even more to keep learning, innovating further my pedagogical activities, and serving the institution at my best”, says Pagliardi.

Empowering students

The committee also praises Pagliardi’s work to transform the standard format of guest lectures into a new and more student-centered format called “BI Talks”. In the new format, students were trained by Pagliardi to interview top professional speakers, including NBIM’s CEO Nicolai Tangen, live on stage in front of their fellow students.

“I wanted to develop a format where students were empowered. We have very good students at BI, who are motivated to do their best and take advantage of the opportunities at their disposal. My goal has always been to develop student-centered approaches to maximize active learning”, Pagliardi explains.

Through “BI Talks”, Pagliardi wanted to create a productive learning environment where students would be exposed to prominent scholars and finance professionals, in order to have them learn from and network with some of the brightest minds in the business community.

“At the end of the event with Nicolai Tangen, they also had the possibility to move to another classroom and interact with HR representatives from the Norwegian Oil Fund, to gain further insights on how to succeed in the job market with such famous employers”.

Inspired by Einstein

For Pagliardi, teaching is not a static concept, but rather something that dynamically evolves depending on the technologies available to him and new scientific evidence on how students learn. This is something the BI lecturer also experienced during the pandemic.

“I got inspiration from Albert Einstein’s quote, when he famously remarked that “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”. Teaching during a pandemic was challenging, but I found such a rapidly changing learning environment a great opportunity to take advantage of the new tools made available by innovation in technology in order to spur innovation in higher education”, he says.

Årsmøte og årsfest 2022

In addition to his work benefitting students, the award committee also noted how much time the award winner spends on sharing and presenting his own pedagogical approach with colleagues.

“The institution comes first, and it is my duty and my willingness to serve it at my best. For me, knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied. I have been glad to share my own experiences, and I found these discussions enlightening for me too, as I had the possibility to get inspiration and gather great insights from many colleagues. It is very useful for me to reflect on how I can use their views and experiences to improve my own pedagogical activities”.

About BI Pedagogical Innovation Award:

  • Award handed out annually to faculty or professional staff who have demonstrated outstanding educational development work through developing, planning, conducting, and assessing their subject or course.
  • This year’s award committee members included Sut I. Wong (BI), Håvard Huse (BI), Annette Drangsholt Nilsen (BI) and Ida Rad (BISO).
;
You can also see all news here.