Three Queensland University of Technology (QUT) staff received Teaching Excellence Awards in the recently announced Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT), joining the further seven QUT staff who received AAUT citations last month for their outstanding contributions to student learning.
The Teaching Excellence Awards, worth $25,000 each, will be presented during a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday August 16 to Dr Abby Cathcart and Tommy Tang from the QUT Business School and Sharyn Pearce from the Creative Industries Faculty.
Lecturer Dr Cathcart has received the rare accolade of both an AAUT Teaching Excellence Award in the priority area large classes and a citation in the same year.
Dr Cathcart, who coordinates units with more than 1000 students each semester and manages teaching teams of 25 tutors in each unit, has been working on ways to make the first-year learning experience easier for students who often feel alienated and overwhelmed by large lecture groups.
Her use of an interactive teaching approach encourages collaboration between students and includes the introduction of new technologies such as using keepad response cards or smart phones to respond instantly to power point presentations during lectures.
"The benefits are two-fold: students know immediately if they understand core concepts, and I am able to proactively respond to any apparent gaps in their learning by adjusting my lecture," she said.
Discipline Leader Professor Pearce received a Teaching Excellence Award for her work in revitalising the teaching program in literary studies to capture future workforce needs and offer students advanced learning opportunities.
Coordinator of the Economics Program and chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee in the School of Economics and Finance, Dr Tang received a Teaching Excellence Award for his work in designing innovative curricula in large class contexts to help students develop the ability to think like economists and statisticians.
The awards come only a month after fellow staff Graeme Baguley, Associate Professor Fiona Coyer, Dr Julie Davis, Professor Helen MacGillivray, Shannon Satherley and Dr Bouchera Senadji also received citations.
QUT's AAUT achievements have been complemented by QUT securing Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funding to establish three of the 16 national Discipline Learning and Networks.
- Associate Professor Dann Mallett, who leads the Fledgling Tertiary Mathematics Education Research Group, which has seen the production of four textbooks used across seven courses in first year mathematics at QUT, leads the establishment of the Mathematical Sciences Discipline Learning and Teaching Network.
- Professor Susan Savage, Assistant Dean of Teaching and Learning and ALTC Discipline Scholar from the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering leads the establishment of the Architecture and Building Discipline Learning and Teaching Network.
- Dr Madeline Schultz from the Faculty of Science and Technology leads the establishment of Chemistry Learning and Teaching Network.
"To get to this level once is pretty good, to do it a couple of times is better, but to achieve success continually at this level is quite an achievement,'' QUT's Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Learning and Teaching, Professor Suzi Vaughan said of the accolades.
"Our roots have always been to offer quality teaching and our sustained, significant success is tribute to that.''
ALTC's CEO Dr Carol Nicoll said she was delighted with the strength of this year's nominations.
"These awards are given to truly outstanding individuals and teams who have made a lasting impression on the quality of Australian higher education,'' she said.
At next month's ALTC ceremony, the nation's premier teaching award, the Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year, will be presented to one of the 22 teachers receiving an award for Teaching Excellence.
The winner will be announced on the night and receive an additional $50,000.
*High-res images are available for media use.
Media contact:
Alita Pashley, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or alita.pashley@qut.edu.au
