Teaching Excellence Award winners for 2024 announced

Congratulations to the following 2024 award winners:

Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award (General category) - School of Accountancy Dr Hedy Huang.

Dr Huang’s application demonstrated real-world relevance in her teaching approaches, evidenced through her strong leadership and connection with communities, which has a flow-on benefit for the university. The selection panel commended her for her commitment to addressing the loneliness and isolation experienced by international students noting her work to set up different spaces that promote a sense of belonging with the university.

Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Awards (General category) – School of Psychology Professor Sarah Riley.

Professor Riley’s portfolio showcased her student-centred approach to teaching that focussed on creating communities of scholars, building whanaungatanga, using feedback and feed forward strategies, and modelling these approaches to colleagues. Her teaching demonstrates that Māori knowledge and values systems are valued, and her understanding of the distance student experience was a particular strength. 

Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Awards (General category) – Nursing Team. The Nursing team consists of Ms Jenny Green and Ms Marla Burrow.

The Nursing team’s portfolio emphasised carefully planned active and collaborative learning pedagogies and environments across a range of modes, rethinking the way traditional clinical nursing skills teaching has been done. It showcases the work of two highly engaged educators whose own practice is built on Te Whare Tapa Wha, and foregrounds culturally safe learning and nurse-patient relationships. The panel also commended the impressive amount of authored scholarship produced by this team who are making a significant contribution to nursing pedagogy. 

Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Awards (General category) – Education Team. The Education team consists of Associate Professor Tara McLaughlin, Dr Generosa Leach, and Ms Vicki Gifkins.

The Education team’s application showcased a  course that is well designed and taught. It makes strong connections to pedagogical principles, and there is evidence of excellent practice in the intentional scaffolding of assessments, the emphasis on ongoing reflection and revision, and the design and content of the online learning environment. Student voice provides glowing feedback on all aspects of the course design, and the evidence of impact is compelling, with high student satisfaction levels evident.