Keele's National Teaching Fellows

In 2009 we were again successful in the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme and congratulate Dr Jonathan Parker on gaining an NTF. Jonathan joins Dr Stephen Bostock and Dr Peter Knight as Keele staff winning an NTF, and Professor Patrick Bailey and Professor Val Wass who won their NTFs at Manchester University before joining Keele.

Jonathan Parker is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Keele.  He earned his B.A., M.A., and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He has taught at Keele since 1996 in American Studies and Politics.

Jonathan specialises in teaching introductory subjects and research methods to students in modules on American politics, mass media, public policy, and student volunteering.  His research speciality is in public policy and higher education.  He received the Keele University Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in 2005.

Jonathan has also been prominent in academic leadership at Keele.  He co-authored Keele’s new learning and teaching strategy, assessment strategy, and the new degree structure.  He has pursued his interest in curriculum design and research methods beyond Keele.  He is active in C-SAP, the politics subject centre of the Higher Education Academy, where he participates in the politics reference group and specialist groups on both e-learning and assessment. 

He is currently leading a project on the shape of the politics curriculum and its approach to assessment for C-SAP and the Political Studies Association.  He also led an ESRC study on international benchmarking of social science research methods in undergraduate degrees, which highlighted the importance of integrating methods training with actually doing research at undergraduate level rather than concentrating upon isolated theoretical training.  He has published articles and presented at conferences and workshops in the U.K. and internationally on the design and teaching of research methods in undergraduate degrees. 

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In 2008 Keele was outstandingly successful in the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme by gaining two National Teaching Fellows: Dr Peter Knight of Physical and Geographical Sciences and Dr Stephen Bostock, Head of the Learning Development Unit.

Dr Peter Knight Peter Knight is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at Keele University. His expertise and enthusiasm in teaching is underpinned by an international research reputation in glaciology, and he has written several well-known textbooks for A-level and undergraduate students that combine scientific rigour with a contagious enthusiasm for learning about the world. One A-level teacher wrote: “At the GA Conference last week I bought a copy of your excellent book - the best book for my AS / A2 teaching I've so far seen in 17 years of teaching A-level Physical Geography.” Peter’s goal is to inspire, motivate, and enthuse students to recognise, aspire to and achieve their fullest potential. He wants to help students to see the world differently, and to allow them to help him to see it differently too. Recognised by the institution for his success in this goal, Peter has won Keele University’s “Individual Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching”, and led the Physical Geography course team to win the “Team Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching”. He also won a Keele “Teaching Innovation Award”, and has published several papers on innovative teaching techniques.  As well as developing innovative course structures, Peter has played a leading role in the application and monitoring of quality assurance processes and in the dissemination of good practice through his work as a quality auditor,  examiner and mentor. After winning the Team Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching one colleague wrote:  “I was really proud yesterday to be part of what has become such an effective teaching team within Physical Geography.”

Dr Stephen Bostock Head of the Learning Development Unit, Academic Services at Keele University, Stephen Bostock’s teaching philosophy is that “fun helps deep learning” and for the last ten years he has concentrated on staff and educational development, passing on his wide teaching experience, and sense of fun, to others.  Throughout his career Stephen has researched the uses of computers for learning, although his interest in e-learning has never been about the technology itself, but how the technology could provide new opportunities for students to engage with their subject, with other students and with teachers. For example, Stephen was one of the first to recognise the educational benefits of using the internet to support and enhance active learning for students on and off campus, teaching web-based and IT postgraduate courses in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. He is equally enthusiastic about technology in the classroom, especially in the use of electronic voting handsets, more commonly called clickers.  These devices can be expensive and inconvenient so Stephen invented a way for teachers to interact with large numbers of students in lectures using paper.  CommuniCubes are printed on card and fold into a cube to support similar interactivity in lectures to clickers for a fraction of the cost, making them affordable for all universities. Feedback from his students regarding CommuniCubes is encouraging, with comments such as “they make the lectures more interesting” and “a more fun way of learning”, underlining Stephen’s philosophy that fun helps deep learning. Since 2000 – 01 Stephen has led the postgraduate course “Teaching and Learning with Technology” and in 2007 he published the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) paper “e-Teaching: engaging students through learning technology”.

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Here is more information about Prof Pat Bailey and Prof Val Wass.