The school is delighted to share the news that Dr Natalie Martin and Dr Louise Kettle have jointly received the university's prestigious Lord Dearing award for their outstanding contribution to enhancing the student experience.
The award was granted in recognition of their innovative approach to teaching taken on the popular third-year undergraduate module 'The Middle East and the World'. As part of efforts to improve student engagement and attainment rates, they successfully incorporated a simulation activity into the module's taught content based on the model of UN-led peace talks.
Simulations encourage students to proactively teach themselves by representing a move from being 'passive recipients of knowledge to active participants in the production of it'. By recreating real-world situations, they offer more practice-based learning opportunities which, in turn, support greater retention of knowledge when compared with conventional teaching methods.
Natalie and Louise go on to say that these opportunities 'could be the recreation of institutional decision-making processes such as the EU, UN etc. or military focused wargame activities ... What simulations have in common across varied practices is highlighting both process and content by recreating a real-world scenario and enabling students to learn by doing. This is also useful when teaching controversial materials.'
More widely, simulations comprise one method of 'active-learning', a pedagogical approach that 'includes the use of audio-visuals in lectures, debates, group presentations and, at the other end of the spectrum, problem-based learning and flipped classrooms.' Significantly, research conducted elsewhere demonstrates that simulations can increase student attainment rates in humanities and social sciences subjects.
Running since 1999, the Lord Dearing Awards recognise and celebrate the world-class contributions of University colleagues who enhance the student learning experience. The awards are open to those directly involved in teaching and learning, as well as colleagues in roles that support learning or the student experience, including professional services, technical, and support staff.
The school extends its warmest congratulations to Natalie and Louise.
Posted on Friday 3rd July 2026