Mr Will Katene

National Teaching Fellow 2011 Will Katene began teaching in the mid 1980s and has extensive experience in teaching physical education (PE) to secondary school pupils and lecturing in PE, Sport Sciences and education to students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. "Will Katene is an inspiring and innovative teacher who enjoys the respect of his students, his peers and the senior management of the university; it is Will's insistence on critical reflection and his emphasis on how research can enrich teaching that is particularly noteworthy" (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Exeter). Will's teaching is significant in shaping the excellence which he exemplifies. His teaching is genuinely research-informed and his teaching programmes are founded on Vygotskian principles of social and collaborative learning, from the day-to-day leadership of interactive seminars to the innovative use of collaborative teaching in schools. The content of his teaching is informed by the latest thinking in the fields of education and PE. Will is driven by a desire for improvement and excellence which leads to constant re-shaping and re-framing of his teaching, and a willingness to innovate. Will has made a significant impact on developing excellence within and beyond his own teaching responsibilities and the university. His initiatives have had a major influence on the PGCE programmes, with other subjects embedding his initiatives within their own courses such as the collaborative peer teaching framework, his research conference idea, and his practice and thinking on cultural diversity and internationalisation. He is a highly-regarded national leader in his field, as evidenced by his external examining roles and his invitations to speak at other universities. His initiatives and understanding of learning to teach PE have been recorded in both professional and academic journals and his influence reaches directly into schools. Will embodies research-led teaching, where research shapes both how he teaches and what he teaches. He is passionately committed to excellence and has high expectations of himself and his students. In the seminar room and in his professional activities, Will acts as a role model for others - he lives what he teaches.