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Dr Chris Willmott

University of Leicester Lecturer is Honoured with £50,000 National Teaching Fellowship

‘Revision bingo’, plagiarism spotting and teaching ethics in bio-medicine help lecturer gain national accolade.

Jpeg Image of Dr Willmott available on request: email swe4@le.ac.uk

University of Leicester lecturer Chris Willmott is among a select group of academics in the UK to be honoured with a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship worth £50,000.

Dr Willmott, of the Department of Biochemistry, is among 50 higher education teachers and learning support staff to acquire this distinction which recognises and rewards teachers and learning support staff in higher education for their excellence in teaching.

He is the second academic at Leicester to be honoured- last year Dr Derek Raine, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, won a Fellowship.

The winners were selected from 187 nominations submitted by higher education institutions across England and Northern Ireland. Winners were judged on their ability to influence and inspire their students, to inspire their colleagues and to demonstrate a reflective approach to their teaching and to the support of learning. Their awards of £50,000 will be used for projects that will make a significant contribution to learning and teaching.

Dr Willmott is no stranger to awards- in 2003, he was an inaugural winner of a University Teaching Fellowship and he is among the core team of four academics responsible for a multi-million pound award to Leicester to establish a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Genetics Education. He said:

“The Fellowships, and similar awards, are a manifestation of the growing professionalism in University Teaching in the UK and I am therefore both thrilled and honoured to receive an award.

“Universities are key centres for research and the development of ideas, but it is their teaching role which distinguishes them from being research institutes. Today's undergraduates are the future leaders in all manner of key areas, from science and business through to politics.

“The award comes with a project grant which will allow me to further my interests in the development of educational materials and interactive teaching methods, particularly in the area of bioethics.”

Among the numerous examples of Dr Willmott’s commitment to teaching is his invention of a novel activity on plagiarism. The exercise, in which students are presented with an original text and seven derivations in order to learn about appropriate and inappropriate uses of source materials, has had an international impact.

He has also initiated a course on web authoring and bioethics, encouraging students to engage in the ethical issues related with biomedicine. This represents one aspect of his national involvement in the development of teaching resources and methodology in the growing field of bioethics. His work at Leicester has helped students to see that ethics is not an abstract subject, but is rather something in which they are actually engaged on a daily basis.

Another innovation at Leicester is a technique of ‘revision bingo’ for students. He said:

“I have produced revision bingo as a versatile and engaging tool for spicing up end-of-module revision and other contexts in which course content is being reviewed. Instead of numbers being called out, students are given a verbal clue that fits with one of the answers on their playing grid. If they get five correct answers in any straight line (including either of the major diagonals) then they win the game, and often a token prize. This interactive and light-hearted approach can be used in small groups or even as part of lectures.”

Dr Willmott’s nomination was supported by numerous endorsements from students on the quality and commitment to teaching.

Dr Willmott, who hails from Cranleigh, Surrey, is married to Anne, a paediatric doctor and has two sons.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland established the Fellowships. The scheme is operated and managed by the Higher Education Academy.

NOTE TO NEWSDESK:

For more information, pleased contact Dr Willmott on 0116 229 7046 or 07793 196629