An award such as this merits flowers and pictures. Winner Hannie van der Honing is in the middle. Photo Resource Van der Honing was presented with the award on Tuesday afternoon during the Teacher’s Day wrap-up. In addition to the award for the best teacher, the Excellent Education awards were also presented.
A total of sixteen courses in four separate categories were nominated for the Excellent Education Awards. The awards went to the course History of Food Production (basic courses) coordinated by Guido Sala, Jeroen Vos’ course in Political Ecology of Water (advanced courses), Hanna Schebesta’s Food Law (large courses) and Sustainable Land and Water Management in Spain, coordinated by Jaime Hoogesteger van Dijk (special courses).
Hannie van der Honing, Cell & Development Biology teacher, was nominated for the third time and this year she won the much-coveted title. According to the jury, her tireless efforts for the students are the main reason she won the award. The jury commended her for ‘having exceptional social skills in spite of her scientific background’, a quote that, naturally, caused a bout of laughter in a room full of academics. The gist was clear, however: students perceive Van de Honing as exceptionally accessible and socially apt.
‘Above and beyond’
The jury also commended the other teachers who featured on the shortlist. Debutantes Maartje Bulkens (Consumption & Healthy Lifestyle) and Sjoukje Kingma (Behavioural Ecology), and previous TOTY winners Roel Dijksma (Hydrology & Environmental Hydraulics) and Jessica Duncan (Rural Sociology). Van der Honing took the prize. In the words of Xhonatan Sinaj, the jury chair: ‘Hannie is an excellent teacher who endeavours to create a positive, personal learning environment for everyone. She goes above and beyond for her students. Her passion for teaching and her personal approach make all the difference, both for individual students and for Wageningen education.’
In her acceptance speech, Van der Honing praised the critical support provided by EduHub (‘Thanks to you, we are still able to supervise the huge number of students following the Cell Biology course in groups of twelve’). She concluded with a word of thanks to the executive board on behalf of herself and the other nominees. ‘Personal contact, interaction, lab work and fieldwork, active involvement and the support of teachers. These are the things excellent education requires. But all these things appear to be under increasing pressure. The five of us would like to stress that the board has our full support in their fight against cutbacks on education. Keep fighting for high-quality education!’
Podcast
Resource will publish an extensive interview with Van der Honing shortly. For those wanting to learn more, the interviews the jury conducted with all ten nominees on the longlist have been released as podcasts, which are now available on Spotify via the QR-code or by entering Teacher of the Year Podcast -WUR in the search field.
