Two Members Win Teaching Awards
Congratulations to our members Dr David McKee and Lynette Pivac for winning teaching awards. David, a staff member at the School of Linguistcs and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, has won a Teaching Excellence Award at Victoria University of Wellington. Lynette teaches the sign language interpreting course at AUT University and has won the Distinguished Teaching Award at the university.
Below is a media release from VicNews, a staff publication at the university:
David McKee is an inspirational, pioneering teacher who has opened up the world of Deaf language and culture to Deaf and hearing students and staff at Victoria University. As the first Deaf person to hold a university teaching position in New Zealand, David serves as a role model for other Deaf people. Through his teaching, he has inspired Deaf and hearing students alike to become sign language interpreters and teachers.
David has developed curricula and materials for and teaches courses in two Victoria University programmes. The first is a programme that prepares Deaf people across New Zealand to be NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) teachers. The second offers NZSL as a foreign language at beginning and intermediate levels. David also provides guest lectures (delivered with an interpreter) on topics such as psycholinguistic research and the sociolinguistic aspects of NZSL. David's teaching evaluations are among the highest ever achieved at Victoria. He typically receives a perfect rating of 1.0 - on the scale of 1.0 to 5.0 - for his overall teaching effectiveness. His consistency is also unparalleled: In 9 years of teaching at Victoria, David has never received a teaching effectiveness rating lower than 1.2.
His students - including many Victoria staff who voluntarily enrol in his sign language course for their own development - are unequivocal in their appreciation and praise of David's teaching. They describe him as a "compelling communicator," "clear, patient, understanding and encouraging," and "an academic role model for [all Deaf New Zealanders]." His colleagues, many of them language educators themselves, describe his teaching as innovative, engaging and inspiring. One colleague wrote that no second language lesson he ever observed "equalled the skill, and, I dare say it, gifting that I saw exemplified in David's teaching." David's consistent effectiveness as a teacher and his commitment to and success in providing students a "completely new and life-changing experience" - as one of his Deaf students described his course - have earned him this award for sustained excellence in teaching.
