Source: University of Otago
Dr Rob Wass
An Otago researcher is the first from the University to join the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Fellowship Scheme.
Dr Rob Wass, a Senior Lecturer in the Higher Education Development Centre, completed the Fellowship, which seeks to improve the quality of educational practice.
“The HERDSA Fellowship is a way of getting recognised for your teaching but it is also very developmental. So it’s a way of thinking about your current practices, reflecting deeply on it and identifying future developments,” he says.
“It’s an opportunity to step back and to think about your teaching in a prolonged and reflective manner.”
The Fellowship scheme requires participants to develop a portfolio under the guidance of a mentor which reflects their significant personal commitment to the improvement of teaching and learning in a tertiary education context.
He says the Fellowship has given him the opportunity to establish networks, especially with those who he completed his portfolio alongside.
“The way we did it was a little bit different from how it was done in the past. Usually you did it one-on-one with a mentor. For us there was four of us and we decided we would do it online together with our two mentors This gave us an opportunity to give each other constructive feedback and to provide advice, share practice and problems. We sent links to literature, benchmarked polices, and frameworks, and suggested solutions.”
HEDC Head of Department Associate Professor Ben Daniel says getting this fellowship is significant not only for HEDC but also for the University, as the HERDSA fellowship firmly focuses on the development of teachers through critical reflection.
“It emphasises the importance of the scholarship of teaching and learning and HEDC plays in promoting research-led teaching.
“Rob being the first one to be awarded the fellowship means that he will put together an academic development mentorship programme to grow the number of Fellows in the University. Since Rob is the first one at Otago, Otago joins Auckland, Waikato, and Massey universities. Currently, HERDSA Fellowships are dominated by Australian universities.”
He says above all it is about time Otago claims and maintains its regional and global position, whether through participation or leadership in organisations such as HERDSA, or sharing our research or international academic development.
“There is no time to play small, so such fellowships enable us to keep up with turbulent times of academic development.”
The HERDSA Fellowship Scheme is available to members who are academics or leaders.
