More than an apple for teaching excellence
Written By: Stephen Osadetz
2002-05-01
With the academic year coming to an end, the University of Alberta honoured its top teachers during a reception today. Five professors and two sessional instructors were awarded the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the William Hardy Alexander Award for Excellence in Sessional Teaching, respectively.Doug Owram, U of A Provost and Vice-President (Academic), recognizes the Rutherford Award, along with the Kaplan Award and the University Cup, as one of the university's top teaching accolades. Awards such as these, he says, are essential at big schools like the U of A: The Rutherford Award "sends a signal to other faculty members and to students that teaching matters," he said. "It's especially important in a big research university such as this that we send that message."
In reflecting on his own favourite teachers from his school days, Owram says: "You remember those teachers forever...It was the enthusiasm that they generated in class that led me to take history as a graduate student."
The Rutherford Award, instituted in 1982, is intended not only to recognize but also to promote teaching excellence at the U of A. To qualify for the prestigious award, professors must have taught at the university for at least five years, and they must have a superior command of their subject matter, their students, and their own teaching abilities.
Of the award recipients, Dr. Terry Daniel, professor of business, has the most teaching experience at the U of A. He joined the faculty in 1971, and has since received the J. D. Muir Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Labatt’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and is a three-time winner of the MBA Professor of the Year award. Despite these accolades, this is the first time he has won the Rutherford Award.
His reaction to being awarded the honour is understated and modest: “I was pleased. It’s always nice to get confirmation of your efforts.” Though he teaches game theory, a field that studies abstract models of rational decisions, Daniel places a lot of importance on empathizing with his students. "Being able to know where (one's students) are at any time, a sensitivity to how they are handling the material is as important a characteristic as any."
But Daniel knows that success in the classroom ironically depends on at least some failure: "I’ve had as many failures as successes, but I pick up on the failures. If something doesn’t work, I always try to come back the next day with a new approach.”
Another recipient of the Rutherford award, Dr. Lynn Gordon Calvert, teaches future teachers. As a math professor in the department of elementary education, Gordon Calvert must do more than just teach well. "Because I'm in the business of teaching, one of the things that's really important is that I need to be a role model of excellence in teaching for my students," she said.
Gordon Calvert was thrilled and surprised to win the award, especially because math is one of the most dreaded, difficult subjects for education students. "Many of my students come to me with extremely negative experiences in math," she said. "My job is to show them that math can make sense, and that can be an overwhelming, amazing experience for a lot of them."
In addition to Dr. Daniel and Dr. Gordon Calvert, the Rutherford Award is going to Dr. Shannon O'Byrne of the Faculty of Law; Dr. David Rayner of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; and Dr. Gail Amort-Larson of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. The two sessional instructors to receive the William Hardy Alexander Award are Dr. Hedy Bach of the Faculty of Education and Dr. Ross Bradford of the Faculty of Business. In addition to the recognition that comes with the award, the seven winners are presented with a plaque and a $3,000 cheque.
Original: ExpressNews