University Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning (Collaborative) 2016

Thursday, 28 April 2016

Dr Graham Schafer, Dr Juliane Honisch, Ms Karin Whiteside and Dr Rachel Pye were recognised for their contributions to Psychology.

Professor Gavin Brooks, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, is delighted to announce the three recipients of the 2016 University Collaborative Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning. This is a highly competitive scheme that recognises and rewards select groups of staff that have made significant and ongoing contributions to the student learning experience and also who have demonstrated an integrated team approach to enhance teaching and learning.

From a field of 15 applications, the winning three cross-disciplinary teams are:

Development of the THRIVE Career Mentoring Scheme

Mrs Tania Lyden (Careers)
Dr Karen Ayres (Maths and Statistics)
Dr Orla Kennedy (Faculty of Life Sciences)
Dr Becky Thomas (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Miss Natalie Tarling (Careers)
Dr Philip Dash (Biomedical Sciences)
Ms Guja Bandini (has now left the University)

This scheme supports student transition from university into the world of work through a team of dedicated and trained University alumni. Since becoming firmly established within the School of Biological Sciences and Department of Maths and Statistics in 2014/15, the programme has been adopted in a further four Departments resulting in a total of 185 mentor/mentee pairings. The benefits the scheme brings to students include an increased self-belief in their ability to undertake graduate level work, the development of sector knowledge and the ability to more easily secure work experience/shadowing.

GRASS - Generating Resources and Access to Screencapture Software

Dr Cindy Becker (English Literature)
Dr David Nutt (Chemistry)
Dr Emma Mayhew (Politics and International Relations)

This project enables and supports the use of screen capture technology to underpin innovative teaching and learning projects. It directly addresses high demand from staff and students to increase the use of screen capture technology as a fundamental strand of the University’s commitment to Technology Enhanced Learning. The venture has had a significant impact on the student learning experience through a variety of initiatives including: the development of numerous student support screencasts across several Schools and Services; a suite of skills-based screencasts to replace standard lectures in English; a highly successful video feedback trial for a Part Three module and the introduction of ‘flipped learning’ into advanced Chemistry modules.

Developing subject-specific academic language and literacy skills for Psychology

Dr Graham Schafer (Psychology)
Ms Karin Whiteside (International Study and Language Institute)
Dr Rachel Pye (Psychology)
Dr Juliane Honisch (Psychology)

This collaboration has resulted in a unique module facilitating assimilation of both international and national students with weaker writing skills to the subject-specific expectations of academic writing at university level. By embedding academic English classes into the curriculum, the perceived status of this provision, as well as students’ academic performance, has been greatly enhanced. At every stage in developing the Part One module, constructive collaboration and knowledge-sharing between Psychology and ISLI ensured the course married appropriately discipline-specific content with best practice in terms of academic literacy development.