DrYvonne Davila

Dr Yvonne Davila is an award-winning educator with over 15 years experience in tertiary education. Yvonne is the Program Director for the following courses: Bachelor of Environmental Biology, Bachelor of Science (Environmental Sciences), and Bachelor of Science Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment. She is passionate about developing science curricula that motivates and enhances student learning through a range of innovative strategies. Yvonne's philosophy of teaching takes a student-centred approach, drawing on transition pedagogy and social constructivism to create supportive, active, collaborative and inclusive learning environments for all students. 

Yvonne coordinates and teaches undergraduate subjects in the School of Life Sciences. Yvonne also supervises Honours, undergraduate internship and postgraduate research students with an interest in pollination ecology and environmental biology.

Yvonne's outstanding contributions to higher education teaching have been recognised through international professional status of Senior Fellow with Advance HE (SFHEA), an Australian Award for University Teaching Citation, and UTS Learning and Teaching Awards.

CURRENT TEACHING:
Dr Yvonne Davila is the subject coordinator and lecturer for 91107 The Biosphere, a core first-year undergraduate environmental sciences subject in the B Environmental Biology, B Marine Biology and Climate Change, and B Sustainability and Environment. 

Yvonne also teaches 91309 Biodiversity Conservation, a third-year undergraduate environmental sciences subject, in the area of plant-pollinator networks for conservation.

Yvonne is the Program Director for Bachelor of Environmental Biology, the Bachelor of Science (Environmental Sciences), and the double degree BSc B Sustainability and Environment.


TEACHING AND LEARNING AWARDS:
Yvonne has been awarded the following international, national and university awards in recognition of excellence in learning and teaching:

2024 Senior Fellowship with Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy, UK) (SFHEA) - In recognition of attainment against the Professional Standards Framework (D3) for teaching and learning support in higher education, for those who lead or influence the learning and teaching practices of others (peers, colleagues, mentees) who teach and /or support high-quality learning.

2024 UTS Learning and Teaching Citation - For equipping students to succeed with The Scientist's Toolkit (with Willa Huston, Scott Chadwick, and James Brown)

2018 UTS Learning and Teaching Citation - Empowering science students with writing skills that improve academic integrity and develop scientific written communication practices (with Maurizio Labbate and Neela Griffiths).

2016 UTS Learning and Teaching Award (learning.futures award) - For an outstanding contribution to developing and supporting academic and professional communication skills in first year Science through an embedded, student-centred, flipped learning approach (with Neela Griffiths).

2016 Australian Award for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (with the UTS First Year Experience Team).

2014 UTS Learning and Teaching Team Award - For Widening Participation (with the UTS First Year Experience Team).


TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTRIBUTIONS:
Yvonne has authored the following blog posts for UTS Education Express Blog:
* Piece it together: ‘jigsaw’ learning to support scientific and sustainable thinking (26 April 2023)
* Elevating Indigenous perspectives on Science for a sustainable future (10 April 2024)