Join us in congratulating Dr Diane Hughes from the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, and Dr Jane Messer from the Department of English for receiving Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
Announced last week by the Minister for Education, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, the awards recognise our country’s best educators.
Diane, who was been teaching vocal studies and contemporary singing at Macquarie since 2008 is thrilled by the news, and says it’s wonderful to have the development of contemporary music curricula validated at a national level.
“Students learn most effectively when singing is taught as a developmental process, and my practices challenge the tradition of the one-to-one model of instrumental learning,” she said.
Jane’s Citation is for her capstone unit for students majoring in writing.
“Much of the unit’s design focuses on professional graduate capabilities,” said Jane. “The core principal for my approach to the students’ learning experience is that their learning is experiential.”
Jane explains the big issue for arts and humanities students is they don’t readily recognise how relevant their learning is to work beyond university.
“Students are tasked with evaluating their capacity for imaginative and critical thinking, and this leads them to see the value of these skills and attributes to the media and arts industries,” said Jane. “It really brings a lot of focus to their creative and reflective work during the unit.”