Birgit Boogaard is teacher of the year

Birgit Boogaard, a teacher of Knowledge Technology & Innovation, won this year’s election for The Teacher of the Year.

‘Today, we celebrate Wageningen’s education’, rector magnificus Arthur Mol stated at the start of the award ceremony. He awarded the prizes in Impulse with the dean of education, Arnold Bregt, and several members of the jury.

‘This award is an important recognition for including African perspectives at Wageningen University’, Boogaard said in her acceptance speech. She referred to her two principal courses. African Philosophy and Social Justice Technology and Development. She also thanked her African colleagues who assisted her in teaching, her students for their courage in critical self-reflection and their openness to alternative world perspectives, and her colleagues in the Knowledge Technology and Innovation group.

Boogard considers the award a token of appreciation for her creative and liberating teaching methods. Boogerd uses her background as an illustrator to draw illustrations of sociological and philosophical concepts on the board during her classes. At the end of the course, there is a single, all-encompassing illustration. ‘That helps in understanding and memorising abstract concepts.’

A total of 150 teachers were nominated for Teacher of the Year based on course evaluations. Students were then able to vote for their favourite teacher, which led to a top ten. These teachers were interviewed by a student jury. The jury then selected a top five, and the winner was announced on 11 October.

Excellent Education Prizes

The Excellent Education Prizes were also conferred. The names of the nominees were revealed by Resource earlier this year. In the category ‘large courses,’ there were two winners because the jury could not choose between the two. The winners:

Best basic course:

• Philosophy of Science & Ethics in Tourism (coordinator Trista Lin and teachers Emmanuel Adu-Ampong and Maarten Jacobs).

Best advanced course:

• Water, Society & Technology – concepts and debates (coordinator Gert Jan Veldwisch and teachers Rutgerd Boelens, Alex Bolding, Jaime Hoogesteger van Dijk, Esha Shah and Jeroen Vos).

Best specialised course:

• Business, Human Rights & the Environment (coordinator Nadia Bernaz and teacher Chiara Macchi).

Best large course (two winners):

• Evolution and Systematics (coordinator Arjan de Visser and teachers Duur Aanen, Robin van Velzen and Bas Zwaan)
• Water 1 (coordinator Claudia Brauer and teachers Jos van Dam en Jeroen de Klein).

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