Teaching prize winner engages students with tactile learning

Dr Joanne Tippett, Lecturer in Spatial Planning and Environmental Management at The University of Manchester (@OfficialUoM), wins the 2021 AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) prize for Excellence in Teaching for her module titled: ‘Designing Sustainable Futures’. The core first year module introduces students to issues connected with sustainability challenges and creative responses to them. It has been designed to build key skills in inter-disciplinary and critical thinking, team work and writing.

The AESOP competition recognises and rewards innovation in planning schools and the theme for 2021 was Planning Education in the Digital Space.

Dr Joanne Tippett created a toolkit that allows students to visually develop their arguments and ideas, move them around and share them with other students and teachers. It was an innovation to complement online teaching for inclusive, structured learning in the pandemic, with far-reaching potential for future learning.

“When the pandemic physically disconnected students from their peers and lecturers, I created Ketso Connect to bring engagement and a sense of community back to teaching. Having seen how well this created cohesion amongst students, I am now really looking forward to using this tool in my future dual and face-to-face teaching. It allows me to interject short bursts of active learning and discussion into sessions, no matter what the class size or setting”, said Dr Tippett.

Tippett’s teaching methods were found to encourage teamwork, problem solving, time-management, essay writing, critical analysis and systems thinking skills, all alongside developing knowledge of sustainability concepts.