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From the issue dated November 29, 2002
4 Professors Win National Teaching Awards
By THOMAS BARTLETT
Each winner of the 2002 U.S. Professor of the Year awards
stresses the importance of encouraging students to take what
they've learned in the classroom and apply it in their local
communities. They also lament that many institutions do not
value teaching as highly as research.
The four national winners -- selected from a community
college, a baccalaureate college, a master's institution, and
a Ph.D.-granting university -- were chosen out of nearly 400
nominees for their commitment to students and innovative
classroom methods.
The awards, which were announced last week, are given annually
by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Each
winner receives a $5,000 prize.
Francisco Jimenez, a professor of modern languages and
literatures at Santa Clara University, was honored in the
master's-institution category for creating a program with a
local high school that encourages minority students to become
teachers. In addition, students in his advanced-Spanish course
participate in organizations that serve the local Latino
community.
His recently published memoir, Breaking Through (Houghton
Mifflin), is a tribute to the teachers who inspired him. "I
want students to see teachers as human beings, too," he says.
"One of the joys of teaching is that I am a student as well."
Mr. Jimenez believes that colleges must do more to reward good
teaching. At Santa Clara, teaching and research are equally
valued, he says, but the same is not true at other colleges.
"I think it's a tragedy," says Mr. Jimenez. "It's being
dishonest about what the public expects from us."
Dennis Jacobs agrees that more attention should be paid to
what goes on in the classroom. Mr. Jacobs, a professor of
chemistry at the University of Notre Dame, was selected from
among doctoral-university professors for designing peer-led
curriculums and for creating a Web site that allows students
to comment on textbooks.
He also designed a course in which students help homeowners
deal with lead contamination -- an exercise that allows
students to "see themselves as detectives," he says.
He emphasizes the importance of allowing fellow faculty
members to offer feedback on a professor's teaching and
curriculum. "The element of peer review is critical in
evaluating teaching," Mr. Jacobs says.
One of his students explains why Mr. Jacobs is such a
top-notch teacher: "He is willing to invest the time," says
Todd Engstrom, a senior chemistry major at Notre Dame. "It's
neat to see someone who demonstrates a passion for
chemistry... .He doesn't just teach chemistry; he teaches
life.
The same might be said of Alicia Juarrero. Ms. Juarrero, a
professor of philosophy at Prince George's Community College,
in Largo, Md., was honored for her rigorous approach to
teaching courses in ethics, symbolic logic, and philosophy in
literature. Her students read Socrates, Plato, and Kant, she
says, and she gets "fed up" with the condescending attitude
some scholars have about community colleges.
Ms. Juarrero thinks the best way to evaluate teachers is to
see what happens to their students down the road. But she
admits that attempting to quantify good teaching is tricky.
"That was the question Socrates asked: What is a good
teacher?" she says.
Ms. Juarrero also points out that teaching is the key
criterion for advancement at community colleges, unlike many
four-year institutions. But she believes that scholarship and
keeping up in a discipline are also important for
community-college professors.
James Adams says there is no one way to be a good teacher. Mr.
Adams, a professor of art at Manchester College, in Indiana,
was honored in the baccalaureate-college category for his
interdisciplinary approach to teaching and his integration of
service and learning.
Mr. Adams, a 42-year veteran of the college, has also taught
in the English, music, and Spanish departments.
His students have been involved in a variety of community
projects, including restoring old buildings to their original
splendor. "What struck me was the change you could see in the
students' eyes," he says. "They couldn't believe they were
really going to do this. It wasn't simply an exercise."
Also honored were 46 state professors of the year. The
complete list of winners is available at CASE's Web site
(http://www.case.org/poy).
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Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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