Natasha honoured for innovative teaching

Lecturer Natasha Sore’s innovative teaching and a tireless commitment to quality have been honoured with a University of Essex Excellence in Teaching Award.

Natasha, who has been at the University for eight years, is a Lecturer for the MSc Speech and Language Therapy programme as well as Peer Mentor Co-ordinator in the School of Health and Human Sciences.

Her teaching practice is consistently informed by new research and her regular clinical role, and she aims to bring the ‘clinic’ into the classroom and emphasise the real life application of research.

Natasha has been praised for using a range of student feedback techniques including instant posters, world cafes and cross over groups to enhance the student experience. She also gathers student opinion on a new feedback technique at the end of a session to evaluate its effectiveness and whether it is an approach they would like to try again in the future.

The award panel praised Natasha for demonstrating excellent practice and her innovative approach to teaching, her collaborative approach to working with colleagues and her tireless commitment to matters of quality assurance and enhancement.

As part of her research supervision she explores with the student their preferred working style and offers supervision in a range of formats to suit the needs of students.

Natasha also led a project to develop and pilot an e-mentoring scheme for undergraduate students to support new students to settle into University life and develop a sense of community across the department. The project involved close liaison with students, staff and the student engagement team in order to develop a flexible scheme that could account for the non-standard timetable of HHS students, offer support to students from diverse backgrounds and cover both Colchester and Southend campuses.

Commenting on her award, Natasha said: “One of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching is seeing the enthusiasm and dedication of our students shine through. The students are amazing ambassadors for the University and the speech and language therapy profession and I continue to be inspired by them. I feel truly privileged to be able to support students through their professional journey and contribute to the development of the next generation of Speech and Language Therapists.”