Kathryn MacCallum won the award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching.

EIT is delighted to announce that Associate Professor Kathryn MacCallum from EIT’s School of Computing is one of the ten finalists announced for New Zealand’s Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards. Kathryn won the award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching. The awardees were announced yesterday by AKO Aotearoa.

“I am very proud to have received this teaching award especially when I consider the calibre of teachers that have been awarded this honour in the past. I really love what I do, and getting an award for something that I enjoy doing is very fulfilling,” says Kathryn.

“I am also very conscious that at EIT we have a large number of exceptional teachers and that maybe from this experience I can help support others in developing their own portfolios. Sometimes as teachers we are a little insular and that we don’t always recognise the great things we are doing. I think this award is a great way, as teachers, we can get wider recognition.”

Reflective practice is something that all good teachers have in common says Kathryn. “A good teacher is someone that is always looking to improve and explore new ways to make learning more interesting and engaging. A teacher should be learner centric which means that they need to be aware of student’s needs. I love learning so this drives my own teaching, learning something new excites me and this means that my lessons are always evolving.”  

The finalists will celebrate at parliament on the October 30, with guests from across the tertiary sector, at a ceremony hosted by Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister of Education.