Teaching context and philosophy

Teaching context and philosophy

Teaching context

I teach postgraduate health management and public health students. About three quarters already work in health services, from early-career staff to senior managers and clinicians, and around one in five are international students. Most study online around full-time work and caring commitments: roughly 60% asynchronously, 25% in live online sessions and 15% in person.

I convene PHCM9391 Health Organisations, Strategy and Change, a core course in the Master of Health Leadership and Management with around 400 students a year. I convened PHCM9615 Principles and Practice of Primary Health Care from 2018 to 2024. Since 2023 I have been the School's first Director of Double Degrees, a role covering around 600 students. I moved into a teaching and research role in the School in 2021 after many years in health services research, consulting and evaluation, and my teaching draws on that experience. Across my career I have taught more than 3,000 students.

Teaching philosophy

My approach draws on self-determined learning (heutagogy) and Kolb's experiential learning theory. Students who work in health services learn most when they can decide where to focus and connect their learning to organisations they know, so my assessments ask them to analyse real issues in real organisations of their choosing. My students often know more than I do about those organisations. I treat them as co-investigators and make that knowledge part of what we examine together, while taking responsibility for introducing the skills, theory and evidence they need.

My courses ask students to change how they think (adopting an organisational and strategic perspective), what they value (listening to stakeholders and staff) and what they can do (using analytic tools and writing reports), three of the kinds of learning Lewin originally described. Learning on all three fronts at once is uncomfortable for adult learners after years in practice, and much of the discomfort comes from not knowing what is expected. I reduce it with clear guidance, scaffolded tasks aligned to rubrics, worked examples, and assessment sequenced so that students receive most of their marks and feedback before the final task.

I evaluate the changes I make and share what I learn, including where things don't work as intended. My current focus is helping health managers judge what AI produces, and securing assessment for online cohorts of working professionals.

Evidence for the 2026 Educational Excellence Award

Please consider the summary for each dimension:

Recognition

  • 2026 Jan Ritchie Excellence in HDR Mentoring Award, School of Population Health
  • 2026 Alan Hodgkinson Award for Teaching Excellence, School of Population Health
  • 2024 Alan Hodgkinson Award for Teaching Excellence, School of Population Health
  • 2022 School of Population Health Higher Degree by Research Supervisor Award
  • 2021 Honourable mention, Scientia Education Academy Exemplary Teaching Awards