2008 Professors of the Year prepare students for lifelong learning

Four professors being recognized today in the 2008 U.S. Professors of the Year awards share a desire to enable young minds to "grow by doing," instead of just listening to lectures in crowded classrooms and taking multiple choice tests.

What sets these professors apart is their unwavering ability to engage their students actively in inquiry in the classroom, says john lippincott, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, which administers the award. It is sponsored by the carnegie foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

These professors give students "the skills to continue to learn and broaden their outlook even after they leave the classroom," Lippincott says.

Winners in four categories — baccalaureate colleges, community colleges, doctoral and research universities, and master's universities and colleges — each receive $5,000. The award also names state professors of the year in 44 states, the district of columbia and Guam.

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This year's top winners:

•baccalaureate colleges: Jerusha detweiler-Bedell, 35, an associate professor of psychology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., says she treats her students as researchers instead of undergraduates. "I put the challenge to my students to not just participate but to create, to become a collaborator in the learning process," detweiler-Bedell says. Students of her clinical psychology course are asked to study an autobiography of a person with a psychological disorder before the semester begins. Throughout the semester, students pair up for a role playing exercise of patient and therapist consisting of two 45-minute sessions weekly outside of class. "They experience the challenge of what it means to prepare each week for a therapy session," detweiler-Bedell says. "You just see students at their very best when they have the opportunity to apply something they learned in the classroom to more real-world situations."

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•Community Colleges: Eugenia Paulus, 48, saw a need for her chemistry students at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minn., to get more hands-on lab skills in order to apply for science-related jobs, transition into four-year colleges and receive scholarships. Paulus spearheaded a new industry skills course at the college, created a web-based tutorial to provide students with the training necessary to use lab instruments and takes time out on weekends to work with undergraduates on science-related research.

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"The students need it in order to be successful and transition. I can't hold myself back. I have to be able to help them," Paulus says. The professor who says she is driven by her passion for teaching also helped raise $65,000, matched by state funding, to buy equipment needed for the new course. "It's a wonderful feeling, almost like an adrenaline rush when they go on and they are successful," Paulus says. "You feel like you are on top of the world."

•Doctoral and research universities: Michael Wesch presents questions to his students that he himself does not know the answer to. The assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., has strayed from traditional teaching methods that he feels forces students to just think about getting A's. "I think ultimately I'm trying not to just teach a bunch of facts but inspire the same kind of awakening in my students," Wesch says. "I don't have the answer but collectively we can work together to solve the problem."

In his introductory anthropology class students work together to design a two-hour simulation of the last 500 years of world history that includes colonization, trade, rebellion and independence. Students record the simulation on digital video cameras and collectively edit the material into a 20-minute video, which has been posted on YouTube.

One of his former students describes Wesch as a great mentor. "There is some quality of wisdom there that he holds that has kept me coming back," Kevin Champion, 24, a reference generalist in the library at KSU, says. "I think he has always challenged me to figure out what I want to do with my life." When Champion was in his junior year and unsure of what to do after college, he says Wesch sat down with him for three-four hours to discuss options. Several meetings on his future followed. This dedication left a lasting impression on Champion of what it means to really care about students. "He has always been willing to set things aside to listen when I needed it. He is the person I would go to if I was in a sort of crisis outside of my family."

•Master's universities and colleges: Wei Chen, 50, took on a leadership role in 2000 to develop the first and only biomedical engineering undergraduate degree program in Oklahoma. The program is now accredited by the American Board of Engineering and Technology and enrolls more than 70 students.

As a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Okla., Chen has worked with a research group to create a new method for treatment of metastatic cancers by using laser immunotherapy, which uses physics, engineering designs, biology and chemistry.

He works with students individually to find their strengths and apply them to their research. Influenced by the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, Chen feels the process of learning is just as important as the knowledge the student takes away from it. "I have a conviction if one person can save a life or change one person's life for the better in his or her lifetime, their life would be complete," Chen says. "That is what I want my students to come back later and tell me they have done in their life. That is my dream."

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Thursday, November 20, 2008 |

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