The Learning through Enquiry Centres of Excellence Award for Outstanding Contributions to Enquiry Learning
2007 is made to Professor Lewis Elton in recognition of your outstanding contributions to the educational values, principles,
practices and spirit of learning through enquiry
One of the things that CETLs have been set up to do is to celebrate and give public recognition to teachers and others who make excellent contributions to the scholarship and practice of higher education teaching and learning. The Learning through Enquiry alliance of CETLs is concerned with recognizing and rewarding excellence in the field of learning through enquiry.
There is an embodied form of excellence which only a few people attain through a lifetime of working, scholarship and the sharing of their learning. And it is this form of embodied excellence that we want to recognize in the life of Professor Lewis Elton.
Lewis, your life story speaks for itself. Your career as a professional educator spans over 60 years. You have worked as a school teacher, a higher education physics teacher and researcher, an innovative educational developer with ground breaking interests in the use of technology to support students’ learning, and a Government Advisor on the
Above all you have been a scholar and an influencer of the way we think about the higher education teacher and teaching in higher education. Your numerous publications and contributions to educational conferences and workshops cover such diverse subjects as: applications of educational technology, assessment, problem based learning, collaborative learning, active learning, motivating learners, creativity, professional development of teachers, quality assessment and quality enhancement, the RAE, EHE, and change management - the list is endless.
Your many contributions to the professional worlds you have inhabited have been widely recognised. You are aFellow of the American Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education, Honorary Life Member of the Staff and Educational Development Association, Doctorates(honoris causa) of the University of Kent at Canterbury and the University of Gloucestershire, recipient of the Times Higher Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and a Festschrift – a book written by your former students and dedicated to you called 'Changing Higher Education', published by Routledge in 2006.
Baroness Kennedy also said of you that ‘There is a polymath quality to this man that points to someone interested in educating the whole person’. We recognise this also but the modest honour we bestow is because we believe you embody the life and spirit of a critical and creative enquirer. You are a remarkable person Lewis. You lead by example and you embody the values, principles, practices and spirit of the critical and creative enquirer that our alliance seeks to promote.
May you have many more adventures in learning.
A picture from the past!
September 1979 Surrey University National Course for New Lecturers
Having got back to New Zealand and written a report on my attendance at the conference, my colleague Sally Hunter said that she had been at this national course for new lecturers with Lewis in 1979 (and even produced the phot to prove it). Furthermore the spirit of enquiry had obviously already been born at the University of Surrey, as the participants in this course were sent off on a treasure trail around Guildford (focus public house names!!) and did a tape slide show the next day recording their learning. I understand Diana Laurillard adn Maureen Pope were also particpating. Who recognises some of the other faces( aside from Lewis of course)? Is that James Wisdom at the right hand end?
Should you want a high resolution copy of this picture just drop me an email. I am signed up on the contacts register.
LEWIS ELTON STORY final.doc