Richard Spencer uses techniques such as experiments, videos, models, role-play, games, poems, songs and dance to make lessons interesting.
A British science teacher is among the final 10 candidates for a million-dollar Nobel prize-style award for teaching. Richard Spencer, of Middlesbrough College, Teesside, is in line to win the first ever Varkey Foundation Global Teacher prize, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.
The winner is due to be revealed at a ceremony held at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai next month. The biology teacher said he was honoured to have been shortlisted.
It was announced at the end of last year that Spencer was one of two UK teachers to make the longlist of 50 potential winners. The other was Tom Bennett, of Jo Richardson community school in east London.
“I read all 50 profiles and with each one I thought, ‘That’s amazing,’” said Spencer. “I really don’t know how they got it down from 50 to 10.”
Spencer learned that he had made the final 10 during a visit with two other finalists to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican last week. The three had been invited to meet the Pope to tell him about their experiences in teaching.
He said he had been with fellow prize candidate Stephen Ritz from the Bronx, New York, when they were informed they were both in the final 10. “We looked at each other and our jaws hit the ground,” Spencer said. “It was a real ’wow’ moment.”
He added: “I felt like I’d won a prize going to the Vatican, especially because I’m Catholic as well.”
Spencer trained as a secondary school biology teacher after completing a PhD in molecular biology and becoming a post-doctoral researcher. He has won a number of awards for science teaching, trains science teachers internationally, and takes part in conferences and workshops. He uses techniques such as experiments, videos, models, role play, games, poems, songs and dance to make lessons interesting and memorable for pupils.
The other nine finalists are drawn from around the world, including the US, Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Kenya, Cambodia and Malaysia.
The winner of the Global Teacher prize will get $1m (£630,000) paid over 10 years, and will be asked to serve as a global ambassador for the Varkey Foundation, attending events and speaking about their work. But they will also be required to remain working as a classroom teacher for at least five years as a condition of winning the award.
The foundation said it had set up the award as part of a bid to improve the status of the teaching profession. The Varkey Foundation’s founder, Sunny Varkey, said: “The huge global support we have received for this prize is testimony to the achievements of teachers and the enormous impact they have on all of our lives.”
Former US president Bill Clinton, honorary chairman of the foundation, said: “Attracting the best people to teaching, developing and supporting their skills, and holding our teachers in high regard – all are critically important to achieve excellence, both in teaching and learning.”
