Australian Awards for University Teaching — 2009

Awards for Teaching Excellence — Social Sciences — Recipient

Winthrop Professor Stephen Houghton
The University of Western Australia, Western Australia

Synopsis

Stephen Houghton is a registered psychologist and director of the Centre for Child & Adolescent Related Disorders, in the Graduate School of Education. He began teaching more than 30 years ago in a high school followed by periods in special schools and behaviour referral units. Now in his 20th year of teaching and supervising postgraduate students he brings first-hand real world experiences of current trends in educational psychology and special education to his classrooms and research supervision, particularly in relation to assessment, learning and treatment. Advisory positions on state government committees and membership and chairing of university and faculty committees has over time allowed him to make a sustained and significant contribution to teaching and learning in the university. Such a background, combined with a desire to develop self-respect and respect for others in postgraduate students and to motivate and inspire them to challenge current theoretical understandings of childhood disorders, has been recognised nationally and internationally. Receiving several university and faculty Excellence in Teaching and Research Supervision Awards, being a finalist in the Australian Federal Government’s Inaugural Awards for University Teaching, receiving NHMRC and ARC research grants, and winning a national research award from the Australasian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability are further testament to this. The 6000 students Stephen has taught, and the 110 postgraduate thesis students he has supervised to completion, are employed across the country and globe. Leading by example through a strong research program that includes winning 27 grants, publishing more than 125 papers in internationally refereed journals as well as several books and presenting at over 200 international, national and local conference significantly enhances the positive influence Stephen has on students and peers.