In 1994 I applied for and obtained an Excellence in Teaching award. Looking back I don't know how I even had the cheek to apply. In fact I no longer believe in the concept of a Excellence in Teaching award - perhaps a "Facilitator of Learning" award - or a "He was Lucky to have Good Students" award are worth consideration. (No one teaches people, what happens is that under some circumstances people learn - do you believe that you could write a book that "teaches" someone how to ride a bike?)
The education process is a formal application of the Peter's Principle - "People are promoted to the level of their incompetence". In the worst mode the education system just keeps moving a student up the ladder until he fails. There are a number of possible exits from the education system. A good exit occurs when a student achieves a level and chooses not to proceed to the next level. A poor exit occurs when a student fails between levels, at the second year of a four year course, for example. It does not follow that a student who can achieve a pass in first year subjects will be able to achieve a pass in higher year subjects. I know a bloke who with moderate training ran a marathon in 3 hours 18 minutes. The following year with more intensive training he ran it in 2 hours 56 minutes. Had he trained intensely in an attempt to achieve 2 hours 45 minutes on his third run, he would, most likely, have failed and done himself an injury in the process. It does not follow that a person's capabilities are indefinitely extendible with training. Coping with Pascal in first year does not imply the capacity to cope with C++ and Object Oriented Programming in year 3.
Now that students are encouraged to do double degrees, the failure exit is more likely, the hurdles have been raised, there are more of them and they are of greater diversity. This really is Peter's Principle land!