TTEA 2007: Chair's Comment

"What are the qualities of outstanding teachers, the people who have the most profound effect on our learning? I believe it is their enthusiasm that would stand out. Indeed, more than enthusiasm, it is their passion and commitment to their subject, an ability to stimulate their students’ thinking and interests, and to do so irrespective of the varying abilities of those students. They are ever alert to the teachable moment and have a profound commitment to enhancing the achievement of their students – not as objects to be stuffed with information, but as creative learners who are exploring their horizons. These are the attributes epitomised by the awardees."

The portfolios they submit in support of their nominations are remarkable documents: demanding to read, but richly rewarding. Each is clearly the product of hard work and creative thinking; the distillate of years spent striving to develop a student- centred design for active learning- a process of learning from failure and building on success. Each demonstrates the multifaceted nature of the teaching- learning process.

My warm congratulations to all the winners of the 2007 Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards especially to the winner of the supreme award, the Prime Minister’s Award: Selena Chan, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.

As always it is an honour to be a member of a committee that chooses the people who appear in this publication. And, as always, the depth and breadth of the commitment, experience and creativity of the nominees meant that the task of deciding who were to be the recipients of the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards for 2007 was, once again, a difficult one.

As in previous years, we have looked for unequivocal evidence of the response of students to their teachers. Student testimonials, the results over time of the nominees’ institutions procedures for obtaining systematic student evaluation of teaching performance are the “voices” of their students and were a critical factor in the decision making of the Awards Committee. They revealed a consistent pattern of students being tested to their limits and of achieving things they never thought possible; of students recounting life-changing experiences because a teacher cared about them, often not just as students, but also as people. It is their dedication to striving to ensure that people of diverse abilities, ages and backgrounds are able to participate inclusively in tertiary education that sets the teachers in this publication apart: the distinctive honour of excellence.