Health Sciences salutes teaching acumen
At the Faculty Board Meeting, the Awards Committee announced its decisions on the three categories of Teaching Awards made available by the Faculty in 2015.
This is the first year in which these awards are being offered. The Faculty initially approved their introduction in September 2014, subject to certain changes, and accepted a revised proposal on 10 March 2015. The process of inviting and evaluating applications for the awards has been based on the Dean’s letter of invitation dated 24 March 2015, which was sent to all Faculty members.
The Awards Committee has understood the essential purpose of the awards as being to encourage continuing strengthening of the quality and effectiveness of the educational process in the Faculty by acknowledging and rewarding outstanding performance in teaching, in all its manifestations, among all staff with teaching roles. In order to recognise different roles, opportunities and levels of experience within the teaching staff, the awards have been offered in three categories this year:
The Early Career Teaching Award: for staff who have a limited teaching role or who are still in a phase of rapid evolution of their teaching and assessment practices. The focus of this award is on reflective teaching practice: on the efforts of staff to grow their knowledge of learning, teaching and assessment; on how what is learned is applied in practice; and on how and why practice is adapted over time.
The Dean’s Award for Expertise in Health Sciences Education: recognising outstanding teaching expertise – that is, the application of systematic knowledge of teaching and learning – in teachers with a wide scope of educational practice. The focus of this award is on scholarly teaching practice: on the engagement of staff with best-practice principles informing various dimensions of teaching and assessment; the application of those principles; the evaluation of practice; and the sharing of experience.
The Scholarship in Health Sciences Education Award: recognising ‘the scholarship of teaching and learning’ as it is widely understood internationally, with a strong emphasis on peer-reviewed scholarly publications in the area of Health Sciences Education, and the substance, quality, standing and influence of the candidate’s work in this area.
Conscious that the FHS awards are in their first phase of development, the Committee has discussed various matters apart from the evaluation of the applications, such as: the possibility (as evident from experience internationally) that offering teaching awards can have unforeseen outcomes, and the consequent importance of ensuring that they have a developmental role; the names of the awards and their implications; possible gaps in the staff categories covered by the current awards; and the need for elaboration and refinement of the criteria. A report on these matters, as well as the evaluation process, will be submitted to the Faculty for consideration at a future Board meeting.
The Committee’s decisions on the 2015 awards are as follows:
- The Dean’s Award for Expertise in Health Sciences Education
- No award in this category has been made.
- The Early Career Teaching Award
- The award goes to Dr Chivaugn Gordon of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
In addition, a Highly Commended award goes to Associate Professor Hanna-Andrea Rother of the School of Public Health and Family Medicine.
- The Scholarship in Health Sciences Education Award
- The award goes to Professor Vanessa Burch of the Department of Medicine.
The Awards Committee congratulates the awardees on their outstanding work. An Awards Ceremony, at which the awardees’ citations will be presented, will be held in November.
Emeritus Professor Ian Scott, on behalf of the Awards Committee