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A coordinated, evidence-based approach to teaching awards in higher education at institutional level has developed over the past decade in Ireland. Some research has suggested that teaching awards create substantial benefits in higher education by motivating and recognising excellent teachers. However, not all of the literature favours the existence of teaching award systems. The experience of participating in a teaching award system has rarely been captured or subjected to analysis or reflection. Specifically, there has been very little discussion in the literature about what individual academics derive from participating in an award process. This paper explores the benefits and tensions of participating in a regional teaching award process. The analysis provides insights relating to the expected and unexpected benefits and tensions associated with that experience. It also aims to inform academic developers about the enablers that supported participants through the process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reflects on the challenges of facilitating creativity in teaching and learning. The authors contend that if enabled, creativity has the potential to deliver substantive change to higher education but that its potential often remains unexploited. Our study suggests that creative practice is alive and well amongst teachers in higher education but that it is greatly restricted by a perceived lack of organisational legitimacy, as result, ideas are being lost. Frequently, creative ideas remain unarticulated by the individual academics to whom they occur. We conclude that higher educational institutions need to make a concerted effort to make creative practice legitimate and foster novel approaches to supporting creativity by establishing an organisational culture that enables dialogue and collaboration between creative individuals, within and beyond the traditional academic boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that introducing musical/percussion activities to university classrooms represents an opportunity for innovative teaching that could create positive experiences replete with learning potential. An analysis of 17 students’ written reactions to a ‘drumming circle’ activity demonstrates that the experience created a positive, energised classroom climate. The value of the exercise was demonstrated in the observations that students made about how the experience engaged them emotionally and how it could be linked to insights about specific aspects of their programme of study. With some preliminary guidance provided in advance of the activity, students were able to identify analogies between aspects of the experience and topics within their management curriculum. The paper provides suggestions and ideas that can help teachers to introduce similar learning experiences into their own classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]