Senior Lecturer, Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago

 "It is important it was to get students to understand where the material they are being asked to learn fits into the ‘big picture".

John has been teaching for 11 years. As a student he frequently felt out of his depth and struggled to ”integrate the constant barrage of new knowledge across many disciplines”. Reflecting on his experiences as a student and his own teaching performance, John aims “to be a teacher who would have helped and inspired the ‘me’ of a few years ago”.

As a neurobiologist, John’s research interests in positive reinforcement mechanisms impact directly on his own approaches to teaching. Leading by “enthusiastic example”, John actively seeks student and colleague evaluation and feedback and uses these to shape his practice, with resulting comments such as “Dr Reynolds has been one of the best lecturers I’ve had. He has made me want to pursue a degree in Anatomy”.

John has recently led the development and launch of a new first-year Human Body Systems paper with enrolments in excess of 1870 students. His Head of Department described this achievement as “inspirational” and “his commitment was total.”