Lecturer Sònia Casillas receives the UAB Teaching Excellence Award

The innovative profile of lecturer Sònia Casillas in the field of biosciences has made her a leading figure in teaching innovation within her faculty.

Sònia Casillas Viladerrams, lecturer in the Department of Genetics and Microbiology of the Faculty of Biosciences, received the 5th Teaching Excellence Award from the UAB on Wednesday 10 May, during the UAB Teaching Innovation Day, held at the Rectorat building. The award was presented by the Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching Innovation of the UAB, María Valdés, and the president of the UAB Social Council, Tania Nadal.

The award panel highlighted the profile and career of Dr Casillas for her high institutional involvement in the search for improvement and teaching innovation, her methodology used in class to enhance collective intelligence and intercreativity, the favorable results in student satisfaction surveys and evaluation of teaching sections, and her involvement in the work of the SDGs and the internationalisation of teaching. Her innovative profile in the field has become a benchmark for teaching innovation in her faculty.

In this fifth edition, 12 nominations were submitted from the faculties of Engineering, Law, Veterinary Medicine, Communication, Economics, Translation and Interpreting, Arts & Humanities, Biosciences and Science. The award, which aims to value and publicly recognize the trajectory, involvement and innovation of the teaching staff, has an economic endowment of €5,000, destined to the improvement and development of teaching.

Wind in favor of teaching innovation

Prior to the award ceremony, the Teaching Innovation Day began with a few words from Vice Rector Valdés, who accompanied at the table by the coordinator for the Professional Development of the PDI, Carmen Ruíz Bueno, highlighted teaching innovation as a value on the rise, and mentioned the articles where the new LOSU (Organic Law of the University System) places value on it. In addition, "there is a wind blowing in favor of educational innovation: GTP chat and artificial intelligence represent a challenge for teaching methodologies".

Next, the director of the International Science Teaching Foundation, Héctor Ruíz Martín, gave a lecture on teaching innovation based on scientific evidence. "There is certain scientific knowledge that can be very useful for teaching practice," he said. Héctor Ruíz detailed different issues related to teaching and learning, and their relationship with cognitive psychology. "Teaching should be synonymous with helping to learn; studying to pass exams is not the same as studying to learn", he explained.

This was followed by a discussion on "challenge-based learning, a learning methodology based on real experience" by members of the ECIU. The Vice Rector for International Relations, Màrius Martínez, said that "we want to work on challenges: how to capture challenges of the

Next, the director of the International Science Teaching Foundation, Hèctor Ruíz Martín, gave a lecture on teaching innovation based on scientific evidence. "There is certain scientific knowledge that can be very useful for teaching practice," he said. Héctor Ruíz has been shelling out different issues related to teaching and learning, and their relationship with cognitive psychology. "Teaching should be synonymous with helping to learn; studying to pass exams is not the same as studying to learn", he explained.

This was followed by a discussion on "challenge-based learning, a learning methodology based on real experience" by members of the ECIU. The Vice Rector for International Relations, Màrius Martínez, said that "we want to work on challenges: how to capture challenges in society, how to transform them; we want to plan the subjects according to the challenges; we want to become an institution capable of capturing challenges in the territory, working together with the people and transforming them into training activities that provide valuable solutions".

After the presentation of the 5th Teaching Excellence Award to lecturer Sònia Casillas there was a break, and in the afternoon, to end the day, there were three communications by theme: service learning, gender perspective and evaluation and teaching strategies. These three communications took place at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, moderated by lecturers Anna Cros, Anna Ortíz and Carmen Ruíz, respectively.

More information: 5th Teaching Excellence Award