Teaching Excellence Awards Profiles
Our annual Teaching Excellence Awards are made to colleagues who have demonstrated that they support innovation and articulate aspects of excellence in learning and teaching. The awards recognise their contribution to L&T within their departments but across the University and often nationally.
Selection is through a panel who use the same criteria as the National Teaching Fellowship Awards (NTFS) made by the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
The Christ Church Award is a pre-requisite of being considered as a University nominee for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme.
The Awards for 2011 were made to:
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Dr Alison Ekins
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Dr Peter Watts
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Mr Paul Skinner
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Ms Marian McCormick
Dr Alison Ekins
Alison is a member of the Faculty of Education based in the Department for Professional Development. Amongst other responsibilities she is Course Director for the National Award for School Special Educational Needs (SEN) Coordinators. Engagement with this Award is compulsory and many school-based coordinators have not ‘chosen’ to undertake Masters level study and are anxious about returning to study, often lacking confidence in their skills and abilities.
Alison’s holds that teaching is not delivering a set curriculum of key information. It is much more: it is about providing opportunities and reflective spaces to stop and reconsider existing practices and to reconnect with values.
The distinctive structure of Alison’s sessions ensure that all teaching uses the experiences and understandings that the students bring to the course and effectively develops this through taught input and collaborative group discussion to enable re-evaluation, review and action planning to further develop practices for the school. The impact that these approaches have had is significant. The SENCOs have reported that the clear expectations of the role, provided through the contact with the school based mentor and an audit of skills, has helped to raise the status of their role within the school, with some SENCOs immediately being promoted to positions on the Senior Leadership Team in school.
As a result of Alison’s programmes many students are now motivated to continue with Masters level study. "I had never really thought about doing Masters level study. I could not see the value in it for me as a school teacher. However, the opportunities to really reflect about issues, and to consider the importance of values through links to evidence and research have been really powerful. I am looking forward to starting Stage 2!"
Dr Peter Watts
Peter is a lecturer in sociology within the Department of Social and Applied Sciences. His approach regards learning as essentially a social, collective, collaborative process and as such he seeks to promote ‘learning communities’ or ‘communities of practice’ is central to the students’ experience. Building on Bourdieu’s work Peter believes universities should reflect on, and reconfigure, their institutional ‘habituses’, to ensure they are inclusive and promote persistence and success within a diverse student body.
The award recognises Peter’s use of a range of initiatives that can support Level 4 transitions: they are a vehicle for extended induction which combine the acquisition of subject knowledge and learning skills with a relatively structured learning experience to match students’ prior experiences. Simultaneously these activities stimulate and support independent learning and peer assisted learning, embracing assessment for learning by offering early, low stakes formative assessment with quick, regular feedback which create spaces for social engagement over learning tasks. Termly Personal Development Planning tutorials for each Level 4 student helping the students reflect on their work, set personal goals, and begin to develop as autonomous learners.
His students describe Peter’s approach to teaching as being "at the level of normal human interaction which facilitates their learning by giving them the confidence to explore tentative ideas, to challenge his interpretations, and to be open about discussing areas they do not understand".
Paul Skinner
Paul is a member of the Faculty of Education and is Subject Leader for PGCE English. His successful Research-Informed Teaching project NoManzLand, epitomises his belief in encouraging original, imaginative, inclusive, inter-active, transformative teaching and learning. This award particularly recognises the ways in which he has engaged and enthused students and colleagues through the use of creative theatre.
NoManzLand was a framework for a play, created with a colleague, which tragic-comically presents a highly disruptive Year 10 GCSE English class in ’the lesson from hell’. Characters are built around recognisable pupils in archetypal classroom roles and realistic incidents. PGCE English students play all the pupils, the poor harangued student teacher, and the observing PGCE tutor, incorporating their observations from school and improvisation. The audience both debates the issues, post-performance, and seeks resolutions through then acting out possible solutions. Students say it inspires a commitment to further learn about such difficult issues.
Paul has been active and successful in seeking colleagues in other disciplines who are keen to extend their use of these creative approaches to teaching difficult issues.
Marian McCormick
Marian is a member of the Faculty Health and Social Care, who’s professional area is Speech and Language Therapy. The award particularly recognised Marian’s approach to engaging students who come from a wide range of social, cultural, professional and educational backgrounds, who, although they are all graduates, many have not studied for a considerable length of time. The Learning and Teaching strategies she deploys progressively move students towards taking responsibility for their own learning through harnessing the learning opportunities for increasingly personalised learning, often supported by technology.
One approach used clinical data collected by lecturers in a variety of multi-media formats. Edited clips were selected on the basis of their potential to engage students with the data at a number of levels. Sequences presented clients within clinical settings, interacting with or being assessed by qualified therapists.
One of her students comments on the strategy: "I was surprised that our group were able to get so much out of just two minutes of data. Our discussion today was really a great example of peer support and collaborative working".