| Rachel Spronken-Smith | |
| Thesis1 Title: | Energetics and cooling in urban parks |
| Thesis1 Url: | http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7168 |
| Thesis1 Year: | 1994 |
Rachel A. Spronken-Smith (born 1965) is a New Zealand professor of higher education and geographer at the University of Otago. She has won a number of awards for her teaching, and consults on curriculum design in higher education.
Spronken-Smith completed a PhD titled Energetics and cooling in urban parks at the University of British Columbia.[1] Spronken-Smith then joined the faculty of the University of Canterbury, where she taught for nine years. She then transferred to the University of Otago, rising to full professor in 2013.[2] [3] Spronken-Smith completed a postgraduate diploma in higher education at Otago, and became more interested in higher education. She consults on curriculum design and inquiry learning in higher education, and has a special interest in doctoral education.[4]
In 2013 the university launched a Graduate Research School, of which Spronken-Smith was dean for nearly ten years.[5] [6]
Spronken-Smith has won a number of awards for her teaching, including a University of Canterbury Teaching Award in 2002, an OUSA Supervision Award in 2012, and a University of Otago Teaching Excellence Award in 2013.[7] In 2015 she was awarded one of ten New Zealand National Awards for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching (also known as Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards).[8] [9] In 2016 she won the TERNZ-HERDSA medal for Sustained Contribution to the Research Environment in New Zealand.
Spronken-Smith has received a Fulbright scholar award in 2017 to compare doctoral education in New Zealand and the US, by visiting the University of California, Berkeley.[10] [11]