National tertiary teaching excellence awards
massey-university
Wed Jul 22 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
National tertiary teaching excellence awards
Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 10:31 am
Press Release: Massey University
National tertiary teaching excellence awards for two more Massey staff
Jazz musician Norman Meehan and communication specialist Heather Kavan have won national tertiary teaching excellence awards.
Dr Kavan, from the Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, and Mr Meehan, from the New Zealand School of Music, were among nine recipients of this year's awards from tertiary institutions throughout New Zealand at a function in Parliament tonight.
They each received certificates of sustained excellence and a cheque for $20,000.
The citation for Mr Meehan, who is based at the University's Wellington campus, says that during his 11 years in jazz education he has become increasingly committed to life-long learning, something he wants to encourage in others. “Through staff seminars, journal articles, published textbooks, radio interviews and music reviews, he reaches a wide audience in an accessible, user-friendly way.”
Mr Meehan, a senior lecturer who teaches jazz history and analysis along with jazz composition and arranging, says teaching is something he has always loved doing. “My job is to play music to my students and then talk about it. How bad can that be?” He is also very clear about his own approach to teaching: He wants to “help students really understand music and develop their own ideas about it'. The confidence to express their ideas is the “greatest gift I can give them".
Dr Kavan has taught a wide range of subjects, including religious studies and communications methods, over the past eight years. “There are two types of people – those who are fired up with a single passion and those who enjoy the sparkle of different experiences," she says. "I’m in the latter group, and Massey has given me the flexibility to teach subjects as diverse as Zen Buddhism and media law.”
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Established by the Government in 2001, the annual Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards recognise and encourage excellence in tertiary teaching while also providing an opportunity for teachers to further their careers and share their good practice with others. The awards are coordinated by Ako Aotearoa – the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.
Thirteen Massey staff have now won 13 national awards.
ENDS
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