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2021 winners
The Teaching Excellence Award was set up as a way to celebrate and reward exceptional educational scholarship, particularly amongst research intensive universities, across the U21 HSG network. The Award is our way to recognise leaders in this area and share their areas of good practice across the network.
The Award also helps us to nurture international cooperation, one of U21’s key objectives, by offering faculty from different universities, and regions, to work together on exciting, interdisciplinary projects.
We have great pleasure in announcing that this year’s award goes to Dr Leigh Sperka, University of Queensland and Dr Tom Flanagan, University College Dublin.
Dr Leigh Sperka,
University of Queensland
Dr Leigh Sperka is a Lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland. She is currently the Convenor for the Bachelor of Health, Sport and Physical Education (Honours) program. In her courses in this program, she brings curriculum to life through dialogic pedagogical relationships and interactive pedagogical resources.
Leigh became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2020 and was also awarded the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence and a University of Queensland Commendation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. She has started a teaching and learning workshop series in her School where staff from a range of disciplines can share their innovative teaching and learning practices.
Her research focuses on the outsourcing of education as well as dialogic pedagogical relationships in Health and Physical Education Teacher Education programs.
Dr Tom Flanagan, University College Dublin
Dr Tom Flanagan is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Human Anatomy at the School of Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD) and leads the Tissue Engineering Research Group at the School. Tom’s major research focus is the use of tissue engineering and materials science to develop living cardiovascular devices for treating children and adults with heart disease and defects. Tom teaches human anatomy to a diverse range of student groups, including medicine, biomedical science and biomedical engineering students. His teaching focusses on the topics of neuroanatomy, cardiovascular anatomy, histology and embryology, and he is motivated by the challenge of explaining difficult concepts to students using creative strategies underpinned by imagination, invention and innovation. Always striving to enhance his teaching further, he completed the Professional Diploma in University Teaching & Learning at UCD in 2019, and he is currently completing the Professional Diploma in Creativity and Innovation for Education at UCD Innovation Academy. Tom has a keen interest in e-learning technologies and has received several national grants for for learner-educator co-creation of teaching resources. Alongside his passion for teaching and for seeing his students succeed, Tom is focused on addressing disability awareness and inclusivity through his roles on School- and College-level Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committees and working groups. As a recently-appointed University for All Faculty Partner, Tom hopes to combine his passions for teaching and inclusivity by developing universal design for learning (UDL) strategies in his own practice, and assisting with UDL rollout across the University.
Dr Leigh Sperka, Dr Manuel Perez and Dr Tom Flanagan receiving their award at the Gala Dinner, U21 HSG Annual Meeting, University of Auckland - September 2022