News releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 1994
1994 DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARDS
MADISON -- The true teacher, observed American philosopher Amos
Bronson Alcott in 1840, "inspires self-trust. He guides the eye from
himself to the spirit that quickens him."
Those sentiments apply equally more than 150 years later, and
the University of Wisconsin-Madison dedicated Tuesday, April 26, to
the celebration of 11 of its finest pedagogues, recipients of the
1994 Distinguished Teaching Awards. Their disciplines -- ranging from
literature to geography, to communications to psychology, to
engineering and beyond -- have in common the ability and generosity
not only to create new knowledge but to share it effectively.
Emily Auerbach
Professor, Associate of English/Liberal Studies; Associate Professor
of English/Liberal Studies; Award, Underkofler, UW System;
Underkofler Award, UW System
Chances are, lovers of literature across Wisconsin have taken in
at least one of Emily Auerbach's courses on, perhaps, Documents of
Freedom or Women Against Slavery or Dickens and the Popular Classic.
They may have attended "Eloquence and Eminence: Emeritus Faculty
Lectures," or taken part in "Percy Shelly: A Bicentennial
Celebration."
Quite possibly, their introduction to her came through the mail,
through a correspondence course on the Victorian Novel or American
Indian Fiction. They may have made her acquaintance at a lecture
given at an area retirement center, public library or as UW-Madison
undergraduates.
Writes one satisfied customer, "Professor Auerbach has the rare
gift of speaking to the sophisticated student and the relatively
unschooled in the same sentence, and triggering love and
understanding of literature in both. Furthermore, she does not
reserve her pedagogy for those who come to our campus, but has
pioneered ways to send the classroom to any student anywhere."
Some of Auerbach's more innovative distribution methods include
producing series broadcast statewide on public radio, and organizing
conferences and workshops. In addition, she has authored
instructional guides and journal articles, ranging in subject from
the relationship between music and literature to African American
English in the classroom to 19th century women novelists.
That last topic, explored in "The Courage to Write" series
released nationally through public radio, earned awards from the
American Council of Higher Education, the National University
Continuing Education Association, and a broadcasting citation
presented at the National Press Club.
A Madison native, Auerbach received a B.A. from UW-Madison, and
her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
James E. Burt
.i.Professor, Associate of Geography;Associate Professor of
Geography; .i.Award, Chancellor's;Chancellor's Award
Achieving popularity for teaching "hard" courses often proves
impossible. However, Jim Burt has managed to earn student applause
and gratitude for such instructional bears as Quantitative Methods,
Climatology, Computer Cartography, and Physical Systems of the
Environment.
According to his department chair, Tom Vale, Burt's secret is
creative use of computer technology. Some of Burt's classroom
innovations include:
o Using timely graphic portrayals of current weather from the
Internet network.
o Writing programs for explaining and demonstrating the Coriolis
force, upper-atmosphere waves and chaos. To do this, he uses a
computer/projector system.
o Developing a global climate model to help students understand
the present climate, climate change and other properties of physical
systems.
o Writing computer programs to demonstrate key cartographic
concepts.
The results of this technical acumen, according to one student,
makes "a rather dry subject fun to learn." According to another, "The
university is very fortunate to have Professor Burt. He is a class
act in and out of the classroom. He is an individual that I would
like to model myself after."
Burt, a native of Los Angeles, earned a B.S. from Northern
Arizona University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of
California-Los Angeles.
Robert E. Clasen
.i.Professor, Extension of Educational Psychology;Extension Professor
of Educational
Psychology; .i.Hise, Van Outreach Award;Van Hise Outreach Award
Specializing in gifted children, teaching and learning, and
school improvement, Bob Clasen is a teacher's teacher.
As coordinator of Education's Independent Study effort, and
director of Madison Education Extension Programs (MEEP), Clasen (see
photo, page 8) coordinates 120 noncredit classes a year. Teachers and
administrators from public and private schools across Wisconsin are
the primary customers.
With enrollments between 1,500 and 2,000 each year, Clasen has
employed a number of innovations to keep the courses fresh. He has
made extensive use of television-based correspondence courses,
purchased by more than 100 colleges and universities throughout the
English-speaking world. Clasen also is one of the university's
pioneers in the interactive one-way video, two-way audio
Instructional Television Fixed Service, which allows students to ask
"live" questions during the televised lecture.
In addition to his MEEP duties, Clasen averages two outreach
programs a month. For instance, one effort directed at Milwaukee's
inner city schools, has brought Howard Gardner's multiple
intelligence approach to the Cream City's Brown Street Academy. This
initiative program screens Academy students and provides them with
programming in relation to their strengths.
Clasen holds a 20 percent appointment in the School of
Education, where he directs gifted and talented outreach. Department
of Educational Psychology Chair Frank Baker says Clasen's teaching
excellence grows out of a two-pronged approach: Teaching has not
occurred until the student has learned, and this learning depends
heavily on modeling -- the how of teaching is as important as the
what.
Clasen received a B.S. from Marquette University, an M.S. from
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his Ph.D. from UW-Madison.
Early in his career he taught junior high school, served as Ford
Foundation adviser to the Venezuelan Ministry of Education, and
participated in a Fulbright experience with schools in Galicia,
Spain.
Julie D'Acci
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts; Kiekhofer Award
Upwards of 200 undergraduates enroll in Survey of Radio, TV and
Film (CA 250) each semester; the charge to reach every one of those
students is daunting.
Nonetheless, in the words of one student, Julie D'Acci
consistently "manages to challenge her students while remaining
accessible to their questions and difficulties."
One of the university's first Lilly Fellowship winners for
innovation and excellence in developing new courses or revamping old
ones, D'Acci revised CA 250 to be a required writing-intensive course
for the department's radio-TV-film sequence, transforming a large
lecture course into a large interactive writing course.
The result of her labors, according to one CA 250 student, is
that"the class gets an A+ for interestingness and any other criteria
known to humankind. I've never loved learning so much."
In addition to her work with 250, D'Acci teaches TV Criticism,
and a number of graduate seminars. She also is the author of the
newly published " Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney
and Lacy." Comm arts colleague John Fiske notes that D'Acci expertly
balances her commitment to teaching with research and scholarship; he
notes that "students vote with their feet, and her classes not only
fill rapidly, but her graduate seminars draw students from many other
departments..."
Originally from Braintree, Mass., D'Acci received her B.A. from
Boston University, and both her M.A. and Ph.D. from UW-Madison.
Patricia G. Devine
Associate Professor of Psychology; Underkofler Award, UW System
A seat in one of Patricia Devine's courses is one of the most
coveted locations on campus, according to Peter Spear, chair of the
Department of Psychology. Spear writes that students "often invite
their friends, roommates and visiting family members to sit in on one
of Dr. Devine's classes. So engaging is Dr. Devine's lecturing style
that one often can find a crowd of passersby (including her
colleagues at times) in the back of (her) Introductory Psychology
course who heard her lecturing and stopped by to listen for awhile.
More often than not, these passersby stay for the entire lecture,
and, on occasion, they have become so engrossed in the lecture that
they have asked questions."
Devine's commitment to and talent for undergraduate education
extends from the classroom to the research lab, and often far beyond.
Spear notes that her active and dynamic laboratory regularly attracts
undergraduate students. An expert in the field of intergroup
prejudice, Devine makes a point of involving students in all aspects
of research, from experiment design to data collection and analysis
to interpretation. To date, she has received five Hilldale
Undergraduate/Faculty Fellowships for her collaborations.
One of her Hilldale Fellows, now in graduate school at the
University of California-Los Angeles, observes that "Dr. Devine's
most valuable asset when working with students ... is her ability to
tailor her teaching style to meet the needs of each ... student. She
knows how to accommodate a great variety of personalities and
learning styles when she teaches different types of students."
Back in the classroom, Devine has taught Introductory
Psychology, Attitude Theory, Prejudice and Intergroup Relations,
Class Issues in Social Psychology, and Prejudice and Stereotypes.
Originally from Schenectady, N.Y., her B.A. comes from State
University of New York-Plattsburgh, her M.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio
State University.
Emily W. Kane
Assistant Professor of Sociology; Chancellor's Award
Emily Kane does not stop with mere preparation for a class.
According to fellow professor Joe Elder, she employs detailed
strategies:
"Professor Kane believes that, unless the students become
engaged in the course materials, they will carry precious little away
from the course when the semester ends," he writes.
Always working toward actively involving undergraduates in their
own educations, Kane employs essay exams to measure students'
application of key concepts, small group assignments to bring
classmates together, "real world" applications to help students
recognize the actual implications of abstract knowledge, and
practical exercises to acquaint them with all research phases.
Kane teaches Survey of Sociology; Sociological Enterprise;
Introduction to Survey Research; Gender, Society and Politics; and a
graduate seminar, Recent Developments in Social Psychology.
The recipient of her department's Excellence in Teaching
Citation in 1991, her work also has won her students' unqualified
praise: "She created an environment ... that allowed everyone to
express their ideas and opinions whether they supported what the
group as a whole was feeling, or if they had an opinion that
completely opposed the majority. ... This way of conducting the class
was especially important because the material focused on many social
inequities with which many of us had personal experience."
Concurs a graduate student, "Emily has always pushed me toward
excellence that I might further my own career. She helped me to turn
my master's thesis into a paper that has recently been submitted for
publication. This is an experience few graduate students in our
department are lucky enough to have, and it is all due to the time
and energy that Emily has been willing to invest in my career."
Her leaving her hometown of Concord, Mass., Kane graduated with
a B.A. from Oberlin College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan.
Peter S. MacWilliams
Associate Professor of Pathobiological Sciences; Chancellor's Award
Distinguished achievement and multifaceted pedagogical talents
characterize Peter MacWilliams' teaching, according to his department
chair Ronald Schultz.
"Dr. MacWilliams is unique among educators in veterinary
medicine in his ability to teach with excellence at all levels of our
curriculum, in diverse subject areas, and in the classroom,
laboratory, and clinical rotation format," Schultz testifies.
MacWilliams' duties, specifically, range from histology,
clinical pathology, hematology and cytology, regulatory veterinary
medicine and public health, food animal ambulatory practice, and
clinical applications of hematology and cytology.
Students consistently cheer MacWilliams' positive attitude,
enthusiasm, organization, conciseness, relevance, concern and
sincerity. He is able to lavish these qualities on the whole
community of veterinary medical students through his work as adviser
to the student chapter of the American Veterinary Medical
Association.
Since he became that group's adviser in 1986, he has nurtured
its growth to a dynamic, vital organization with an operating budget
of $26,000. To support the association, MacWilliams has established a
relationship between the School of Veterinary Medicine and Hill's Pet
Food Company.
However, MacWilliams' care for his students does not stop with
their intellectual well-being -- he also has demonstrated unusual
concern for his students' emotional lives. With Susan Hyland, SVM's
dean of academic affairs, he established Drug and Alcohol Impairment
Programs for the School and for the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical
Association.
MacWilliams grew up in Pough-keepsie, N.Y. He received his pre-
veterinary training at Cornell University. His DVM is from New York
State College of Veterinary Medicine; he also holds a postgraduate
diploma and Ph.D. in veterinary clinical pathology from the
University of Saskatchewan, and a diplomate from American College of
Veterinary Pathologists.
James G. Nelson
Professor of English; Chancellor's Award
This 32-year veteran of the campus "should be deified,"
according to one emphatic undergraduate fan. Having taught basic
courses in composition, modern literature and creative writing;
courses for majors on William Blake and John Keats; Advanced
Expository and Critical Writing; 19th century Victorian and Romantic
literature; and graduate seminars, Nelson has worked the gamut of
levels in his classroom.
According to English Department Chair Thomas Schaub, Nelson's
considerable pedagogical success is due to his ability to "enable"
his students, "developing self-confidence rather than 'dispensing'
knowledge," guiding students to find their own answers.
Nelson also has helped the department train new teachers, both
as a model for and inspiration to teaching assistants. In addition,
more formal efforts include TA class visitations.
However, his contributions to his department have not been
limited to teaching. Nelson also has proved a willing and able
administrator by serving as director of the department's
undergraduate majors division for 14 years, undergraduate majors
adviser for 24 years, departmental honors coordinator for 18 years, a
10-year veteran of the Undergraduate Student-Faculty Committee, and
many other assignments in service to undergraduates.
During his three decades at Wisconsin, Nelson somehow managed to
pry loose time to accrue solid research credentials. He has authored
four books: The Sublime Puritan: Milton and the Victorians, Sir
William Watson: A Biographical and Critical Study, The Early 90s: A
View from the Bodely Head, and Elkin Mathews: Publisher to Yeats,
Joyce, Pound.
A Blue Grass native, Nelson earned his B.A. at the University of
Kentucky-Lexington, his M.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University in New
York.
Willis J. Tompkins
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Chancellor's Award
Applying computer technology to medicine is Willis Tompkins'
specialty. 1994 marks the 20th anniversary of his course, Computers
in Medicine, a pioneering effort which also has resulted in four
textbooks he edited or co-edited, now considered the gold standards
for the field. In fact, some of Tompkins' Computers in Medicine
students wrote chapters in those texts at his urging.
According to departmental chair Bahaa E.A. Saleh, this sort of
active participation has been one of the department's curricular
goals. To that end, Tompkins has proved quite an instructional asset.
In his project-based laboratory course, for example, he arranges for
companies to offer awards to students with the best designs. A much-
anticipated demonstration of winning projects concludes the semester.
He also has developed software creating a virtual laboratory in which
students can run experiments analyzing real biomedical signals.
Tompkins' accomplishments have been well-recognized off-campus
as well as on. In 1992 he was appointed Fellow of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers for contributions to biomedical
engineering education. In 1989, the University of Maine awarded him
its Distinguished Engineering and Technology Award for outstanding
technical, educational and administrative contributions to biomedical
engineering. Last year, he received the American Society for
Engineering Education's Centennial Certificate for exceptional
contributions to the society and to the profession of engineering.
Tompkins' classroom often extends far beyond the Engineering
Building through his engineering short courses, videocassette
lectures, and National Technological University satellite
instruction. Originally from Presque Isle, Maine, Tompkins earned a
B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maine, and a Ph.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania.
Julie K. Underwood
Associate Professor of Educational Administration; Steiger Award
One of the country's leading scholars of education law, Julie
Underwood also has distinguished herself in the classroom by
inspiring her students -- many of whom are school administrators -- to
apply critical legal concepts to issues challenging contemporary
education. Cited recurrently for her ability to adapt to individual
styles of learning, Underwood also makes regular and creative use of
instructional technologies such as televised distance learning and
computer-assisted instruction.
Witnesses to her technique observe that she begins and ends each
class with an overview of key concepts and issues, and how they fit
into the whole course. Notes one enthusiastic student, "Highly
organized and nice balance between principles of law and applications
to practical 'real life' school issues..."
In addition, Underwood's own research nourishes her instruction,
keeping it cutting-edge and relevant. Her specific concentrations
include students' constitutional rights, the rights of disabled
students, and the rights of students to equal educational
opportunities through equitable school finance. Her work in those
areas frequently finds its way into her Legal Aspects of Elementary
and Secondary Education, Legal Aspects of Higher Education, Legal
Aspects of Special Ed and Pupil Services, or seminar classrooms.
The past decade has seen her author or co-edit five books, 13
book chapters, 25 articles, four book reviews and more. In 1992 she
became co-director of the Wisconsin Center for Educational Policy,
affiliated with the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public
Affairs.
DePauw University awarded her a B.A. She received her M.A. at
Indiana University and her Ph.D. at the University of Florida-
Gainesville.
John C. Wright
Professor of Chemistry; Chancellor's Award
Developing innovative ways to involve students in the learning
process has been John Wright's obsession for the past several years.
With teaching assignments ranging from basic analytical chemistry for
both majors and nonmajors to graduate studies in experimental laser
spectroscopy, Wright has introduced chemistry students on all levels
to cooperative learning.
In small groups, Wright's students tackle authentic, original,
open-ended chemical problems. The students are responsible for all
aspects of the experiment: design, implementation, trouble-shooting,
redesign, data analysis and evaluation.
According to one of these undergraduates, "Professor Wright
wanted us to learn to be scientists. ... I'll never forget what he
said when our lab group came to see him on the verge of breakdown
after testing three hypotheses and finding them all to be incorrect.
He said, 'This is real science. You are never right on the first try,
rarely on the second, infrequently on the third, occasionally on the
fourth, etc.' He was right.
"I can pay no higher complement to Dr. Wright than to say he
taught me to question, investigate and analyze -- as a scientist does
-- and I will carry those skills with me always."
In addition to this year's Chancellor's Award, Wright also has
been recognized for excellence in teaching by the Upjohn Company in
1992. His research in analytical science and laser spectroscopy has
won him the American Chemical Society Award in Spectrochemical
Analysis, a UW-Madison A.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, a William F.
Meggars Award from the Applied Spectroscopy Society, and more. He
currently holds his department's Evan Helfaer Chair of Chemistry.
A native of Lubbock, Tex., Wright earned a B.S. from Union
College and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
-- Barbara Wolff, (608) 262-8292
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