The ease in Jan Řiháček's office at the Institute of Manufacturing Technology is watched over by Vinnetou, the Apache chief. In the lectures and exercises that Jan Řiháček leads, he tries to establish ease himself. And he is probably successful, because in this year's survey among students, he became the most popular teacher at FME in master's studies. What makes a good teacher, according to him? And how much does he bridge the gap between the teacher and the students?

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

Smiling faces of my students. Because the worst thing is when you look around the classroom and see that half of the students are scrolling through their mobile phones and the other half are looking at you like some kind of a fool, they don't understand at all. On the contrary, when I see students having smiles on their faces at the end of a lecture, it is a signal to me that they are interested. That always warms my soul.

In this context, how much does the award for the best teacher according to students mean to you?

To be honest, I still wonder where the mistake was. (laughs) There are teachers in our department alone who I look up to or who are my role models and would deserve it more than I do. But I have to say that I take it as a great honor and a sign that I am not doing all of this in vain.

Do you have a recipe for successful teaching? Is it empathy for the atmosphere in the classroom or is it something else...?

Empathy is definitely good. And most importantly, it worked for me not to keep too big a distance from the students, to close the gap between the teacher’s desk and the students a bit. To get off the podium and be a partner to the students. Which is not to say that students should tell me what to teach them, that I would go out for a beer with them, or talk to them, not at all. There still must be a healthy distance, but it has always paid off for me when students understand that they can ask anything. A question can never be stupid; only an answer can be. If they understand that they are free to ask, it's part of creating a certain ease in the lesson, which is important to me. When the atmosphere stops being cool, it's a sign of trouble.

Being a teacher at a university is a bit specific because, unlike school teachers, you do not have special education, didactics, andragogy... Often, as a PhD student, someone “throws you right into the water” and you have to figure it out yourself. How do you actually "learn to teach"? Where do you look for inspiration for your teaching style?

You're right, this is exactly what happened to me when I started my doctoral studies. Unfortunately, a colleague who taught numerical simulations in engineering technology had been ill for a long time, and they were looking for someone to stand in for him, at least for the seminars. I knew almost nothing about it, and they told me: "You have two months of vacation to prepare yourself to lead the seminars." It was a difficult self-study, but on the other hand, it worked for me, and I do the same with my students today. Because no one can ever take away from them what they find out on their own. If you overwhelm students with too much information, they stop perceiving it. I prefer to communicate the basics and then push the students in the right direction so that they can find out or ask the rest themselves, if they are interested.

By the way, numerical simulations are a great subject for doing this. I always tell students in seminars that they are on the playground, and so I let them play: either they enter it wrong and receive an error, or it will be good and they will be shown on the screen – simply put, – a color picture with the results they need. I let them do what they enjoy and are interested in, so they learn it best.

Do you have any pedagogical role models?

In elementary school, it was a teacher of the Czech language, a noble lady, a kind of an old-school teacher. She gave me the most in life; we looked up to her throughout elementary school. Well, here at the university, there were several teachers in their freshman year. For example, I hated mathematics. But it's all about people, and here I met a teacher who made me enjoy maths. She didn't force us anything, she just explained everything, everyone could ask, and she didn't turn anyone down. And that, in my opinion, is the basis.

And later, there were also colleagues in our department whom we looked up to. I remember one professor with whom we had three-hour lectures until the evening. One would think it would be crazy. But he always took a break in the middle, unwrapped his bread for a snack, and started talking about life. And we sat as if chained and listened, and no one thought of going home...

What do you like to teach the most? Those aforementioned numerical simulations?

Basically, yes, I teach them the most and I also focus on them in terms of research. Numerical simulations are nice in that they teach you the essence of technology. You don't have to learn formulas; no one wants you to come up with a quick theory, but thanks to the resulting "color pictures", you will understand how the technology works. "Ah, this is where the most stress is exerted, the force is too big because this and that happens...". You're actually going deep inside those technologies. And you often understand more than when you talk about it at length theoretically.

The main thing, however, is what kind of group I have in the class. If it's a good group that knows how to make fun of each other and it's cool, then I like to come back there, even if it's a "eight to eight" class.

It is said that in order to understand something well, one must start teaching it. Do you have the same experience?

This is true, especially when the questions "and why" or "I found it on the Internet and they say something completely different there" start to multiply. I was also cornered a few times and had to say: "I don't know, I'll study next time or ask colleagues who know better". At university, teaching is really about students asking why it is so, whether it is wrong or otherwise, and so on. This forces you to constantly improve and learn.

Do you remember a moment when students really surprised you?

I remember, and it happened relatively recently. One of the subjects I teach is special production technologies, and the students there are already asked to derive the relationships or parameters for the technology in a more complicated way to better understand the essence. During the preparation, I copied the derivation from the scripts and began to explain it. And suddenly a hand is raised and the student says: "You are missing a minus there". That's when I said to myself: "Wow, it's great that someone thinks about it like that."

I see that you have native American decorations here, even a headband. Have you ever taught a lecture dressed like an Indian chief?

No, I haven’t. (laughs) It's a gift from colleagues from the Department, they know that I like the books of Karl May. I keep mentioning the ease; I have it as my life motto. That's why I feel so good at our Department, because it's cool here. And similar gifts and birthday or anniversary celebrations are part of it.