Award winning teaching

2011 ALTC Australian Awards for University Teaching
Deakin Teaching and Learning Awards

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Deakin University fosters an environment in which teaching excellence is recognised and celebrated. The University offers awards for teaching excellence at Faculty and University levels including the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellent Contributions recognising individual teaching excellence and outstanding projects that significantly contribute to student learning and the student experience at Deakin.

Several highly acclaimed external teaching awards are offered nationally through the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), the Australian Awards for University Teaching. The significance of these national awards is recognised through the University providing dedicated support to the nominee and application procedure. The selection criteria for the Vice-Chancellor's Awards have been developed to align with the criteria for the prestigious OLT national teaching awards.

Office for Learning and Teaching Australian Awards for University Teaching

2012 Citation recipients

Dr Lynn Riddell, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health

Citation: For leadership that has made a sustained positive contribution to the development of professional competencies and advancing career outcomes for students in food and nutrition.

'I loved studying nutrition but what can I do with it?' A typical statement reflective of student queries from undergraduate and postgraduate programs in nutrition. Lynn’s leadership has strengthened the connection between the students’ learning activities, expected professional competencies and career outcomes. She has achieved this by developing novel resources to communicate professional competency development through engaging with learning activities and enhancing the capacity of academic staff to link learning activities with graduate expectations.

Dr Tess Knight, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Citation: For empowering self-reflective and independent learning: informing perspectival appreciations on ageing, and future counselling roles.

Tess thinks deeply about her students' learning and how they might best gain experiences in drawing connections within and across their learning contexts. She does this by actively constructing opportunities for them to develop skills, situated around real world problems and in professional and social contexts. Tess designs opportunities for students to join the dots between learning activities and outcome objectives by encouraging students to engage directly with learning tasks, within a supported context.

Ms Bronwyn Kirby, School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education

Citation: For authentic teaching strategies that engage and prepare students to transition with confidence from the public relations classroom to the professional workplace.

Bronwyn's dedication to her students and passion for the public relations industry is demonstrated through her teaching. Bronwyn uses her industry experience to replicate professional practice in the classroom and create rich experiential learning opportunities for her students; their experience is enhanced through collaborations across the university, with alumni and professional practitioners. Ongoing excellent student evaluations and practitioner feedback are evidence that Bronwyn's mentoring and practice-based teaching approach builds rapport, fosters student engagement and enhances learning.

Dr Tony Joel, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Education

Citation: For creating challenging learning environments that motivate and inspire History students to explore how the past continues to shape the world in which we live.

Tony embodies the qualities of a great History educator. Passionate, energetic, engaging, and supportive, Tony is absolutely committed to communicating his enthusiasm for History to students. He creates challenging learning environments by developing interactive media strategies, promoting the teaching-research nexus, and fostering student-driven learning. Tony inspires History students to use their naturally inquisitive minds to make sense of the past as a way of enriching their understanding of the contemporary world around them.

Associate Professor Julie Considine, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health

Citation: For commitment to a teaching-evidence-practice nexus in specialist and advanced nursing courses to develop clinical excellence and enhanced quality and safety of healthcare.

The major strength of Julie's work is integration of theory, practice and research to produce graduates with the highest quality clinical skills. She adopts a rigorous pedagogical approach situated within the teaching-evidence-practice nexus to ensure her students (specialist emergency/critical care nurses and nurse practitioners), achieve clinical excellence with graduate attributes sought by patients and employers. She is a highly respected healthcare leader, evidenced by invited speaking engagements, publications and leadership of national peak healthcare organisations.

Dr Jaclyn Broadbent, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Citation: For the sustained creation of motivating and inspiring learning environments for over 1600 students in a compulsory, multi-modal subject.

Jaclyn is passionate about inspiring and engaging students in a personalized and meaningful learning journey. Her approach to teaching is informed by theories of learning and motivation, and she empowers students with the skills to manage their own health behaviours and develop as health professionals. Jaclyn provides synchronous and asynchronous learning activities that ensure all students can learn in ways that suit them. Jaclyn has developed a model for mentoring casual academic staff that ensures delivery of high-quality learning environments.