National Teaching Fellows
28 September 2010
Professor Dennis Hayes has been named among 50 National Teaching Fellows announced by the Higher Education Academy.
He was invited to an awards ceremony to celebrate the excellence of academic and learning support staff within higher education.
He has taught in secondary schools, special schools, and in further and adult education institutions. This varied experience, together with his training in philosophy, has produced a unique approach to teaching that is student-centred but builds the intellectual potential of all students through criticism and challenge.
Original
Dennis recognises that his most original ideas are the result of many years of debating education and some, particularly his criticisms of the rise of therapeutic education and the demise of academic freedom, have been, he says, controversial. Wherever there is debate, he argues, there will be controversy.
Part of his vision of teaching extends beyond the University campus and seeks to recreate public debate and to reach a wider audience through the media and the web. Broadcaster and author, Libby Purves, said of Dennis that: "Education needs people like him. Badly!"
Dennis said: "I was honoured to receive this award, equivalent to that of 'Carnegie Scholar' in the USA, which is an international recognition that the University has teachers that are acknowledged as the amongst the most creative and innovative in the world."
