A team of two academics from the School of the Environment has been awarded the 2011 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Associate Professor Gour Dasvarma (right) and Dr Udoy Saikia (left), who also have an extensive publication record in the area of demography and population studies, received their award from Professor Michael Barber as part of the annual Vice-Chancellor’s Celebration of Excellence in Innovation and Teaching on November 29.
The Awards for Excellence in Teaching recognise exceptional teaching practice by individuals across all four faculties. Associate Professor Dasvarma and Dr Saikia’s teaching practice was cited for its demonstration of a “sustained commitment to effective and policy-relevant teaching through constructivist curriculum design” through which they have been able “to foster independent learning and empower students to achieve their goals in life.”
The event also showcased a wide range of teaching initiatives and achievements by University staff. In his opening speech Professor Barber commended all the recipients of awards and certificates as “exemplars for what the University should aspire to”.
Presentations by the 2011 Academic Interns were a highlight of the event. The Interns presented ‘skits’ that demonstrated the skills and knowledge they had acquired through the year-long program of workshops and peer-review.
Certificates were presented to graduates of Centre for University Teaching programs including the Flinders Foundations of University Teaching, Postgraduate Research Supervision, Managing Work-Integrated Learning, and Leading Teaching and Learning for Course and Topic Coordinators.
The recipients of Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning were celebrated along with the achievements of the ALTC Discipline Scholar for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Flinders geographer Professor Iain Hay. There were also poster presentations by the 2011 Faculty Scholars and the recipients of 2010 Innovation Grants; the 2011 Innovation Grants will be announced later this week.
Excellent! Congratulation sir. You are our symbol of aspiration. May God give you more sucess.
Hearty congratulations to both of you!
Dears Pak Gour and Udoy,
CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement! Sorry for my late response as I’ve just found out that the two of you were awarded with the 2011 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. I hope that receiving the award will not stop you from continuing giving your students their best learning experience and thus inspiring them for achievement.
Greetings and best wishes from Jakarta, Indonesia,
AAS TEJASMARA
(BKKBN)
Thank you all for your kind words of congratulations. Aas, please rest assured we will not stop continuing to give our students the best learning experience possible and inspire them to greater heights of achievement. In fact, this award has inspired us to continue to give our best to students.