Dr Allán Laville named runner up in HE Psychology Teacher of the Year
Thursday, 10 September 2020
Dr Allán Laville, Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Lecturer in Clinical Psychology in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences has been named as a runner-up for the British Psychological Society and Oxford University Press (OUP) ‘Higher Education Psychology Teacher of the Year 2020'.
Allán impressed the judging panel by his commitment to Diversity & Inclusion, student experience, and evidence-based practice as well as the wide dissemination of his work. The competition involved writing short pedagogical essays on his practice, a case study, a presentation and an interview.
Allán's case study, titled ‘Developing sexual diversity teaching for the psychological workforce', has been published by OUP and is available to view on this page. This case study details the importance of creating safe spaces in teaching, so effective and considered discussions can take place. The case study also details approaches to reflective practice, which supports professional development.
This achievement follows Allán being award the RUSU 2019 Diverse & Inclusive Teaching Excellence award and University Teaching Fellowship in 2020.
Allán is passionate about improving the student experience, with previous work exploring best practice approaches for LGBT+ students and students with disabilities. This month, his UROP 2019 project which explored the experiences of LGBT+ students at the University of Reading will be published in the journal, Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education. This article provides key recommendations on how to support the experience of our LGBT+ students as well as reflecting on the benefits of adopting student-staff partnerships within HE research.
If you would like to read more about embedding Diversity & Inclusion within teaching and/or student-staff partnerships, Allán has a series of case studies on CQSD's Teaching and Learning Exchange, which are listed on his staff biography page.