2012 Press Releases
Excellence in Teaching and Research at UCC
Awards for ‘Excellence in Teaching’ are based on a combination of student feedback and reflective portfolios created by the staff members concerned. Awards for ‘Research into Innovative Forms of Teaching’ consist of modest monetary grants disbursed on the basis of proposals for innovation in teaching activities. Themes that emerged from the applications were: teaching in the digital age, empowering students to participate more fully in their education; and an increased focus on interdisciplinarity within the sciences and between sciences and the humanities.
Applications were assessed by a selection committee that included the following: the Vice-President for Teaching and Learning, the Vice-President for Research, the Professor of Education, the Chairs of relevant Academic Council Committees for teaching and staff development-related matters, the Directors of Ionad Bairre, the Teaching and Learning Centre, Students’ Union members, as well as an external reviewer from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, NUIG.
The names of the award winners are:
- Mr Daniel Blackshields (who won the two awards), School of Economics
- Dr Kenneth Burns and Ms Caroline Shore (team award), Applied Social Sciences
- Dr Siobhan Wills, Faculty of Law
- Ms Clare O’Sullivan, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
- Dr Clodagh Harris, Government
- Dr Helen Hynes, Dr Robert Gaffney, Dr John McAdoo, Ms Theresa Power and Mr David Power (team award), School of Medicine
- Ms Nicole Kennedy, Dr Robert Fourie, Dr Franc Chamberlain and Ms Nuala Walshe (team award), Speech and Language, Drama & Theatre Studies and School of Nursing and Midwifery
- Dr Bridget Maher, School of Medicine
- Dr Andrew Wheeler, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Dr Pádraig Cantillon-Murphy, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
One of the audience members, Professor Tony Ryan (Paediatrics and Child Health at UCC), a previous recipient of one of these awards, was recently presented with a National Award for Excellence in Teaching by Mr Sean Ó Foglú, Secretary General at the Department of Education and Skills, at Dublin Castle.
President of UCC Dr Michael Murphy presented the awards, and Professor Grace Neville, Vice-President for Teaching and Learning, officiated at the ceremony.