Just a few years ago, senior lecturer at the SPbGASU Department of Geotechnics, Andrey Boyarintsev, was sure that he would never set foot on the teaching path: he believed that it was a thankless task. Today, he enthusiastically applies his own teaching models, and students consider him not only a professional teacher, but also a talented motivator. We talk with him about how to become successful in educational activities and how the state can help young specialists.

– Andrey Vladimirovich, why did you choose teaching? Where did it start?

– Initially, I did not plan to go to graduate school and then teach. Moreover, during my years at the university I was strongly against teaching because I was helping students who were lagging behind in various disciplines of construction. It was not easy to work with them, I had to talk about the same topic several times, so I reinforced my firm conviction with negative experience.

While studying for a master's degree and working in the North, I came across the problem of piles and began to promote this topic as part of my future master's thesis. The research fascinated me very much, my supervisor and I achieved some success in it, found interesting directions, so I wanted to continue. And then I was offered a place in graduate school on favorable terms: to do research and teach at a quarter rate. The latter, of course, was somewhat frightening, but for the sake of science I overcame myself. And already at the first practical lessons I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback from the students. It turned out that motivated students are energizing and pleasant to work with, so I began to look for different ways to convey educational material to them, to experiment, relying more on the applied direction. I conducted surveys of students about my teaching experiences. The responses confirmed their correctness. This is how the profession I once rejected became my favorite.

– In your opinion, what should a modern teacher be like?

– I believe that a university teacher must perform two main functions. Firstly, to improve the professional competencies of students in the field taught to them. For example, I specialize in fundamentals studies. And in this industry, first of all, he must be a good specialist in order to convey to students all its specifics.

Secondly, the teacher must perform an educational, social function, since students meet him as the first representative of their future professional environment. Therefore, it is he who shapes the image of specialists in their chosen profession, and it largely depends on him how interesting the industry will be to them. Subsequently, they can adopt the role model of a specialist from the teacher. Understanding this, I try to be punctual, careful, and build relationships with students according to the model of interaction between the customer, who I am, and the contractors, i.e. students. At the beginning of the semester, I give them assignments, together we discuss the details of its implementation, deadlines, and rules of interaction. First of all, I adhere to these rules myself. This approach earns students respect, and they are more responsible in completing assignments.

– The President declared 2023 the Year of the Teacher and Mentor. Have you had mentors, what did they teach you, and have you become a mentor?

– In my opinion, a mentor is a person who helped and supported you throughout the thorny path and led you to certain knowledge. I didn't have such a person. But along the way I still met wonderful people to whom I am immensely grateful. They inspired me to gain knowledge. During my school years, this was a physics teacher; at the university - a teacher of soil mechanics, who later became my thesis supervisor and a friend. I want to become like them for the younger generation.

– In your opinion, what does the state need to do today, what working conditions should be created in order to increase the prestige of higher education teachers and attract young teachers into education?

– In the era of a market economy, material values become more of a measure of success and motivation for action, therefore one of the types of state support that would attract young people into teaching and science is monetary incentives. For example, increasing salaries, expanding the social package, including the provision of preferential mortgages, and the provision of office housing. Most universities belong to budgetary institutions, and I would like teachers to become more in-demand specialists, more protected by the state.

The project's other materials

Fedor Perov: “An Architect Must Study Throughout His Entire Life”

Anna Telyatnikova: “Teaching Methodology is the Key to Learning Success”

Elena Kurakina: “Pedagogical Practice Predetermined My Future Profession”