Massey staff win two new teaching awards

Massey College of Sciences staff members won two of the 12 national tertiary teaching excellence awards presented at Parliament in Wellington last night.

Liz Norman, a senior lecturer and director of the Master of Veterinary Medicine programme, and Dr Zoe Jordens, a lecturer at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences, received awards of $20,000 each for sustained excellence in tertiary teaching.

Ms Norman has been at Massey since 2001 and has developed the veterinary medicine master's degree as a distance-learning programme for practicing veterinarians from throughout the world. It has grown from 13 students in 2004 to 92 enrolled this year.

She strives to go “beyond the textbook” and has developed innovative strategies to engage with students, including online tools that mimic real steps in case investigation and “replay” exercises and tutorials to provide feedback. “It is one of my great joys to see students gain the confidence and practical insights from teaching that helps them no only to do their work but to enjoy their work more,” she says.

Dr Jordens is a lecturer at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences and sees her teaching role as facilitator, or “tour guide”. She uses a student-centred, inquiry-led approach to teaching. Dr Jordens worked as a researcher in medical microbiology in Britain before joining Massey in 2002. As well as a Bachelor of Science with honours, she has a PhD in microbiology, a postgraduate certificate in tertiary teaching, a postgraduate diploma in education and is now completing a Master of Education.

Ako Aotearoa – the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, which runs the awards, aims to celebrate excellence in tertiary teaching and share good practices that have proven to benefits for learners. Its director, Dr Peter Coolbear, said there were a record number of nominations this year and the general standard was extraordinarily high.

“There is some fantastic work being done in our tertiary sector and each of these awardees is truly inspiring," Dr Coolbear said. "Each has made an enormous contribution to the successes of their learners over many years. It is a great privilege to be part of the selection process.”

Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards Committee chairwoman Professor Noeline Alcorn was particularly impressed with the diversity of finalists. “The award winners cover a range of fields and work in very different contexts. All are committed to helping their students develop knowledge and skills for both life and work and to fostering critical thinking and initiative."

The awards dinner was jointly hosted by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce and Parliament's education and science select committee chairwoman, Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye.