Teaching Awards Recognise PhD Students Commitment to Teaching and Learning

Posted on: 13 May 2014

The Dermot McAleese Teaching Awards were presented recently to teaching assistants in the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy in recognition of their outstanding contribution in the pursuit of teaching excellence.

The recipients from the School's four departments were Alan Walsh of the Economics Department, Zuzanna Gnatek of the Philosophy Department, Laura Schwirz of the Political Science Department and Anna Siuda of the Sociology Department.

Recipients of the 2014 Dermot McAleese Teaching Awards Laura Schwirz, Anna Siuda, Alan Walsh and Zuzanna Gnatek
 

The awards, which are in honour of former Whately Professor of Political Economy Dermot McAleese, were established thanks to the generosity of graduates of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy who donated to Trinity in recent years. Professor McAleese provided further generous financial support to sustain these awards for the decades to come.

Speaking at the awards, Professor Peter Simons, Head of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, commented: "I would like to congratulate this year's winners who have shown such tremendous commitment to their teaching roles in the School. These enthusiastic, talented and inspiring educators have had an immensely positive impact on the education of our undergraduate students."

The winners were selected through a nomination process which involved assessing their creativity in delivering tutorials; the role of their tutorials in stimulating critical thinking amongst the students; their responsiveness and engagement with students; good organisation and problem solving; and the contribution of tutorials to the overall delivery of the course.