Dr Konstantina Martzoukou

Tell us something people may not know about you.

I’ll talk about when I was a child in primary school in Greece because it's about inspiring others. Around ten years old, I was very inspired by Alfred Hitchcock to write short stories. He had these unpredictable and mysterious endings that made me want to try and craft my own. It got to a point where my classmates were asking me to produce more and more stories every day. Thinking about it, now, and how hobbies can inspire us to be involved with others, I didn’t realise at the time that it was something quite unique I was doing.

What made you apply?

I wasn’t thinking of applying in the first instance. I always viewed my role as a combination of teaching and research, but then I realised that a Teaching Excellence Fellow can actually do research and the research can be quite inspiring. I applied because I wanted a more formal platform or avenue for developing innovative, creative and collaborative teaching and learning, but also I wanted to develop my academic leadership skills. It’s a good opportunity to not only inspire others but be inspired by others and to learn from specific pockets of innovative practice across the university.

Tell us about your teaching style?

My teaching style is mostly influenced by my teaching philosophy. I aim to stimulate students’ curiosity and their interests in ways which inspire an overall commitment to learning. I always try to produce creative, active learning opportunities while using technology like class voting tools, mind mapping tools and experimenting with connecting the campus learners with the online class. I like using lecture capture technologies to connect with the students. One year I ran a live class. It was here on campus but the distance learners could connect live to the class. I also introduce surprise elements, like using videos of myself at conferences to let students know about current developments within the discipline.

It’s about creating that interactive and student-driven environment with activities that inspire their curiosity of the subject.

What are you most proud of?

I implemented distance learning induction sessions. This was before the university produced what we call the Welcome Areas to let distance learners become familiar with the learning environment, the tools we use and the teaching approaches that we follow. Many years ago, I set up my own welcome areas. I liked being proactive instead of reactive to situations. I’m still proud of my online induction programme, which includes a series of interactive, student-driven induction activities. This has been used as an example across the university. I’m happy that people put more emphasis on distance learners – it’s something I’m really passionate about.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

It’s the creativity and the diversity of the job. I enjoy the opportunities to follow my own intellectual curiosity and that it allows me to debate, challenge and question ideas. I used to have a need to do creative activities outside of my role. When a role doesn’t fulfil my creative needs, I would make opportunities to fulfil that creativity away from the job. Since I got this role, I just didn’t feel that need anymore – my creativity was fulfilled.

I also enjoy the chance to meet inspiring people and to get to know so many different people – especially with the online course. It’s meeting the people from the whole community, whether that’s students or staff, and being inspired by them. It’s a two-way thing: if you are inspired by people, then you have more passion for the things that you do and that passion inspires others in the same way.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I want to highlight the link between teaching and research. I really believe that, as academics, research in teaching and learning can help us understand how we can more effectively teach others and develop an understanding of the things that go beyond teaching but influence teaching. It's things like widening opportunities, cultural differences, wider issues that have to do with the internationalisation of education and what kind of mindsets we’d like our graduates to have, not just in their profession but as citizens.

To that end, I’ve created an open online community called Mindsets: Information, Digital & Media Literacy that aims to engage educators, students, librarians, learning and teaching support professionals and policy-makers in critical discussions and creative collaboration relating to students' lifelong development of information, digital and media literacy.

I just think that even those who don’t teach, if they have the opportunity to so, can get a lot out of teaching others. They can communicate their research to others and they can talk about impact. Likewise, people who are involved in teaching and learning can explore the research path. It’s not something that’s ruled out.

Teaching Excellence Fellow is a Grade 9 role which looks to promote those who have achieved a significant level of activity in the effective enhancement of Teaching & Learning. If you are interested in applying for a Teaching Excellence Fellow position, take a look at the Annual Appointment Process document.