News releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 1996
CONTACT: Paula Gray, (608) 262-3958
TEN UW FACULTY EARN 1996 DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARDS
MADISON -- The people you will read about here are the keepers of
our intellectual future. They have achieved distinction at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison as master teachers, effectively relaying information and
emerging knowledge to students on all levels, both on and off campus.
Many are acknowledged teachers of teachers, assuring us pedagogical
excellence for years to come. Some have harnessed new instructional
technology. Some have developed new courses or redesigned existing ones to
meet the needs of the 21st century. Some have reached out to new UW-
Madison constituents. Some have become mentors to students or other
faculty, helping them pilot an uncertain future.
Whatever their methods, all have made profound contributions to the
art and science of university teaching. All inspire us by embodying the joy of
learning, demonstrating through their own lives how powerful a force
education can be.
Leonard J. Abbeduto
Professor of Educational Psychology
Emil H. Steiger Award
"Abbeduto's classes function like a jazz ensemble, in which
opportunities to showcase each student's particular talents and interests
carefully are woven into a coherent learning experience," notes fellow
educational psychology professor B. Bradford Brown.
To that pedagogical principle, Abbeduto adds six more. Together, he
says, they point the way to classroom success, both for the teacher and the
student:
* Encourage students to be excited about the material.
* Involve students actively and collaboratively in the educational
process.
* Underscore the real-life usefulness of the material. In his
undergraduate child development class, Abbeduto has found that most of his
students are eager to become good parents. "I therefore work hard to show,
whenever possible, the implications for parenting
of research and theory in child development," he says.
* Present the material in multiple contexts. Explains Abbeduto, "In all
my courses, therefore, I plan alternative experiences and activities for the
students."
* Make goals explicit and regularly inform students of their progress
toward those goals.
* Make sure that students succeed -- that, he says, is the educator's
role.
In addition to his teaching duties, Abbeduto also has obtained funding
for a number of new instructional programs and improvements in
established ones. For example, the UW-Madison Graduate School gave him
$4,000 for a lecture series that will bring to the Waisman Center four
distinguished minority scholars engaged in cutting-edge research on the role
of race, ethnicity and culture in human development.
A Chicago native, Abbeduto has been on UW-Madison's faculty since
1987. He earned his Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. in psychology at the University of
Illinois-Chicago.
Dale M. Bauer
Professor of English and Women's Studies
Chancellor's Award
To inspire students, a teacher must convey a certain enthusiasm for the
material, and also be able to produce pedagogical results.
Dale Bauer has demonstrated ability in both categories. According to
Sargent Bush, an English department colleague, "Dale Bauer is as fully
dedicated to teaching excellence as it is possible to be. There is no
danger that
her students will lose interest if the instructor's absolute love of her
subject is
an issue. They know that she is fully committed to the importance of what
she is doing."
What Bauer is doing, usually, is teaching undergraduate and graduate
courses on American literature, women's writing and feminist literary
theory. UW alumna Morgan Harlow took Bauer's "Survey of American
Literature from Columbus to AIDS" course in 1994.
"Professor Bauer's class turned out to be one of those earth-shaking
experiences where everything clicks and falls into place, revealing thought
and patterns of meaning that somehow had been missed before," Harlow
says. She went on to an M.F.A. program in English at George Mason
University: "I shudder to think what it would have been like to have tried to
go on without the solid background and the sense of coherence and
progression in American literature that Professor Bauer's course offered."
Although Bauer's teaching activities demand a great deal of time and
energy, she is careful to give equal weight to research. She has distinguished
herself nationally as a scholar, publishing a book in 1994 on novelist Edith
Wharton and writing extensively on feminist pedagogy. Bauer also has taken
on several administrative duties, including directorship of the Women's
Studies Research Center since last year.
Bauer hails from Buffalo, N.Y. and Mission Viejo, Calif. She holds her
Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. from the University of California-Irvine, and became a
member of UW-Madison's faculty in 1990.
Michael L. Corradini
Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics
Chancellor's Award
Faculty want to teach well, but have so many demands on their time
that excellence in one area means another must suffer, says John W. Mitchell,
professor of mechanical engineering.
"Mike serves as a role model in demonstrating that good teaching is
compatible with a strong research program," Mitchell says. "His leadership
efforts are serving to raise the standard of teaching in the college."
Brian Huxtable will attest to Corradini's success. Now a nuclear
engineer with Wisconsin Power and Light, Huxtable had the good fortune to
have Corradini as an advisor as well as a professor during Huxtable's
undergraduate and graduate career.
"Mike changed my perspective on problem solving. He stressed that to
solve a problem, you have to concentrate on the method of solution, rather
than just the results," Huxtable says. "This was a valuable lesson that I use
today in my career as I write calculations. With the stress on documentation
in the nuclear industry, you have to make sure the reviewer understands
everything about what you did."
Corradini takes particular pride in demonstrating how engineers solve
problems. A special audience is freshmen. Corradini was instrumental in
establishing the College of Letters and Science's freshman series, "Ways of
Knowing," which introduces beginning
scholars to the methods of different academic disciplines.
Never one to restrict his instruction to the campus, Corradini has
distinguished himself in classrooms spanning the globe from Madison to
Switzerland to Korea. One of the charter members of UW-Madison's
Teaching Academy, he continues to serve on its executive committee. He also
has co-directed a project to enhance teaching in the College of Engineering,
the first such effort at UW-Madison.
An expert in fission reactor design and safety and related issues,
Corradini grew up in Albuquerque, N.M. and joined the UW-Madison
engineering faculty in 1981. Now an associate dean of the College of
Engineering with responsibility for advanced standing students, he earned his
Ph.D. and M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his B.S. from
Marquette University.
Stephen N. Elliott
Professor of Educational Psychology
Van Hise Outreach Award
An expert in his department's school psychology area, Elliott's teaching
touches not only undergraduate and graduate students, but school teachers,
parents and many others.
According to Patrick Kane, director of pupil services in the Monona
Grove School District, "He has had a profound impact on our teachers and
has helped to improve significantly the quality of instruction in the district."
Specifically, in 1995 Elliott conducted 13 workshops on student
assessment that drew audiences of more than 1,000 school professionals from
several states. In addition, during the past few years he has worked with large
school districts in 25 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Australia.
As if this arduous schedule were not enough, Elliott is on the editorial
boards of four academic journals, and reviews articles for seven more. He also
is a member of five national professional organizations and one state
association. His grant-getting prowess also is noteworthy; his research
projects
include, with colleague Thomas Kratochwill, a five-year program which
helps at-risk children, their teachers and parents to circumvent potential
educational problems.
According to Kay E. Davis, director of instruction in the Stoughton
Area School District, Elliott provided her staff with assistance in assessing
students' science and math skills. "From the beginning his commitment was
to set up a system so that teachers became experts rather than relying on an
outside expert."
Seconds Linda Christensen, director of instruction in the Verona Public
Schools,
"Steve listened to divergent ideas and searched for common ground. He was
a strong leader who knew where the group eventually needed to arrive and
an empowering leader who respected the contributions of each team member.
Steve's contributions as a team leader are still being felt across the
district as
teachers use the approaches to assessment outlined in the
action plan."
A native of Hillsdale, Mich., Elliott earned his Ph.D. and M.A.Ed. from
Arizona State University. His M.A. and B.S. are from Michigan State
University. He has been on the faculty since 1987.
Arthur B. Ellis
Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry
UW System Underkofler Award
Every year K-12 and college students across Wisconsin and the nation
are learning about the interdisciplinary field of materials science with
the aid
of innovative demonstration kits developed by Ellis and his colleagues. Since
introduction of the kits in 1987, hundreds of teachers and thousands of
students have been able to explore subjects ranging from high temperature
superconductivity to crystal structure.
Ellis also has extended his instructional innovation to his exams. For
instance, to ease test anxiety -- which can freeze the brain of even the most
brilliant student -- Ellis came up with a new form of "insurance." This
system allows students to "buy" hints in exchange for part of the question's
point value. Test-takers reveal the clue by rubbing it off with a coin, much
like a scratch-off lottery ticket.
Undergraduate Todd Meyer, a self-described "chem-o-phobe," took one
of Ellis' General Chemistry courses. Meyer reports that he found the out-of-
the-ordinary approach an excellent remedy for the chemical terrors that
threatened his chosen field of study.
"If it weren't for the class," Meyer says, "I'm certain I would have given
up on any possibility of pursuing medicine as a career. Now, not only can I do
chemistry, I can master it! The class taught me that, and gave me the
confidence to follow through. Look out Harvard Med!"
Despite his classroom creativity, Ellis has not neglected more
traditional media. For example, he is one of the authors of the
groundbreaking textbook, Teaching General Chemistry: A Materials Science
Companion, published in 1993 and now on CD-ROM. Currently, he is
developing a web site so that students can work cooperatively in the lecture
room to grasp chemical concepts.
Ellis' accomplishments have led to accolades from outside the
university as well as recognition within it. Among his honors are the
Chemical Manufacturers Association National Catalyst Teaching Award, the
Upjohn/Department of Chemistry Teaching Award and a UW-Madison H.I.
Romnes Fellowship. He also serves on the National Institute for Science
Education management team.
Originally from Hialeah, Fla. Ellis earned his Ph.D. from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. from Caltech. He joined the
UW-Madison Department of Chemistry in 1977.
Janet Shibley Hyde
Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies
Chancellor's Award
Relations between the sexes -- and particularly women's roles therein
-- inform much of the discussion in Hyde's classroom. And, according to
former students, discussion is seldom in short supply.
According to Bonnie Brusky, who took Hyde's "Psychology of Women"
class as an undergraduate, "Despite being a group of 50, Professor Hyde
facilitated discussions during which the great majority of students
participated. She encouraged questions and comments and has an uncanny
skill of rewording just about any remark so that you feel as if you have just
made a brilliant observation."
Brusky says that part of Hyde's secret was her own candid comments, as
well as her acceptance of opposing views. Agrees former graduate student
Marla Rachel Verson, who also took the course, "In discussing the work role
of women, she told us how, at one point in her life, she needed to support
herself, and was very fortunate to have her own job, not needing to be
dependent on any one. She said, 'I care about you very much, so here is one of
my most important take-home messages: Women must be able to support
themselves, because one never knows what will happen.'"
Hyde's teaching expertise has been recognized off campus as well as on.
Between 1987-1995, she was one of the leaders of the American Psychological
Association's workshop "Teaching the Undergraduate Psychology of Women
Course" at the APA annual convention. During 1991-1994, she conducted a
similar workshop on human sexuality at the annual meeting of the Society
for the Scientific Study of Sex.
The author of two textbooks, Half the Human Experience: The
Psychology of Women and Understanding Human Sexuality, Hyde also has
distinguished herself as a researcher and administrator. During her tenure
(1986-1990) as director of the Women's Studies Research Center, she focused
her attention on curricular issues. Under a Ford Foundation grant, she and
her colleagues conducted a program to help faculty incorporate more fully
into the curriculum scholarship by and about women of color. She also is one
of the country's leaders in the study of gender differences, and recently
carried
out major research on the effects of parental leave on working parents. In
addition, Hyde served as an associate vice chancellor for academic affairs
between 1990-1992.
Having grown up in Ohio and Illinois, Hyde joined the UW-Madison
faculty in 1986. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
California-Berkeley, and her B.A. from Oberlin College.
Yannis E. Ioannidis
Associate Professor of Computer Sciences
Chancellor's Award
What began as a friendly pedagogical rivalry between Ioannidis, his
department chair and two other colleagues has yielded a Distinguished
Teaching award for Ioannidis.
The four were each teaching a section of the course "Introduction to
Data Structures." According to computer sciences department chair Marvin
Solomon, "We were all well aware of Yannis' reputation as an outstanding
teacher, so we were driven to see how close we could come to his
performance. I know that I was inspired to do the best job of teaching I've
done in years, and my teaching evaluations from the students reflected it."
Nevertheless, Solomon points out that amid all this excellence,
students still scored Ioannidis significantly higher than other team members.
One of his students, Sean Mooney, remembers that there was something
almost magical about the class:
"Some classes seem to work; they just click. Somehow there is an
energy of thought, of true learning, passing between the professor and the
students themselves," Mooney says. "Ioannidis may have created this charged
intellectual environment by the care he took to learn students' names by
asking for their photos, and then testing his recall in front of the class."
Mooney adds that Ioannidis also used a variety of visual aids and an
interactive classroom style that made the fundamentals of a difficult subject
easier to grasp.
For these and other contributions, Ioannidis has been cited several
times for teaching excellence and innovation. Recognized nationwide for his
research on topics such as query optimization, scientific databases, deductive
databases, user interfaces and visualization, Ioannidis received the
Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991. He comes from Athens,
Greece and received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. His
M.S. is from Harvard and he holds a diploma from the National Technical
University of Athens. He became a member of the UW-Madison computer
sciences faculty in 1986.
Patricia K. Kokotailo
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Kiekhofer Award
Described as "a consummate scholar" and "a teacher's teacher,"
Kokotailo is building both a national and local reputation for herself through
her work on substance abuse and other health risk behavior among
adolescents and young adults. Her studies on pregnant young women found a
connection between a young mother's binge drinking and a longer hospital
stay -- and related higher costs -- for the newborn.
She also has worked to decrease health risk behaviors among rural
Native American populations and developed a set of health care video tapes
now used throughout Wisconsin.
Kokotailo's research and outreach complement her teaching well.
Working primarily with students in third-year pediatric clerkships, she won
the admiration of Elizabeth Neary, now a pediatric resident.
"Her experiential curriculum to teach residents and medical students
about adolescent drug and alcohol use required continual coordination with
counselors in a community-based intervention program for adolescents,"
Neary says. "In addition, she coordinated a research project to test the
effectiveness of this new curriculum. Her well-designed, comprehensive
evaluation demonstrated that residents who participated in the curriculum
increased both their knowledge and interest in assessment, evaluation, and
treatment of adolescent drug and alcohol use."
Having grown up in Woodbury, N.J., Kokotailo earned her M.D. at
Northwestern University Medical School, and her B.A. in psychology at
Johns Hopkins University. In addition, she holds an M.P.H. in Maternal and
Child Health from the University of Illinois-Chicago. She completed her
residency in pediatrics and fellowship in adolescent medicine at the Johns
Hopkins Hospital. She has been on the UW Medical School faculty since 1989.
Robert L. Wardrop
Professor of Statistics
Chancellor's Award
An extremely innovative and effective teacher of introductory
statistics, Wardrop has employed his pedagogical know-how both in the
classroom and behind the scenes.
Wardrop incorporates active learning into his "Introduction to
Statistical Methods" course by requiring students to complete two statistical
studies of their own. The student must plan each project, design an
experiment, collect and analyze data, and submit a written report.
Former Wardrop student Nichole Hoover found this a pesky
requirement, but one that ultimately ensured her statistical success:
"While performing the studies caused me great frustration at times, I
know that I learned a lot more about statistics for it and will retain my
understanding past the usual few weeks when the facts simply memorized
fade away."
According to fellow statistics professor Erik Nordheim, Wardrop
effectively captured this hands-on teaching style in his innovative textbook,
Statistics: Learning in the Presence of Variation. Nordheim reports that
Wardrop exercised his pedagogical creativity beginning in the opening
chapter.
"Most books start out with a discussion of descriptive statistics followed
by some probability and discussion of statistical models and distribution.
It is
usually near the end that any emphasis is placed on actual experiments and
their design. This approach requires the presentations of a fair amount of
mathematical machinery before students get to material that is both truly
statistical and practical. Bob begins with a discussion of design. Thus,
students
are able, at the very beginning of the course, to design their own randomized
study and to test hypothesis based on the data from the study."
In addition, Wardrop has been active in enhancing education through
his participation on a number of teaching-related committees. For example,
he helped develop the Department of Statistics' tutorial program, which
provides more than 500 hours of help to students each semester. He also has
served on the panel that established the College of Letters and Science
teaching assistant training program in 1990. Wardrop says he is particularly
proud of his association with the TA training initiative because faculty and
teaching assistant fellows from across the college came together to improve
the quality of education.
Wardrop joined the statistics faculty in 1974. Originally from Detroit,
he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and his B.S. from
Oakland University.
John G. Webster
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Chancellor's Award
There is no substitute for experience, in Webster's educational
philosophy.
Consequently, students in his "Medical Instrumental" course
experiment with actual electrocardiogram machines and defibrillators.
Graduate students taking "Biomedical Instrumentation" solve real-world
problems and are able to publish their findings.
This practical approach also extends to exams, which in Webster's
courses are open-book tests. "This is meant to prepare students for the real
world, where one is able to use any source available, but must know how to
use given information in order to solve a problem or create new designs,"
says Webster student Dean Skuldt. "I found this approach instructive and
sensible. Once out of school, people need to be able to teach themselves in
order to stay in touch with new technologies."
Webster put his own problem-solving ability to the test when he
volunteered to redesign four of five laboratory courses in his department to
provide uniform laboratory experience for all students. He responded to the
challenge by organizing the courses around learning goals, which were
evaluated by practical bench tests rather than written exams. He also produced
introductory videotapes to assist new TAs and assure continuity of
instruction. As part of a team, he also designed an "Introduction to
Engineering" course for freshmen to acquaint students with engineering
faculty early in the student's undergraduate career.
However, Webster does not limit his instruction to the classroom.
According to department chair Willis Tompkins, Webster is the world's most
prolific author of textbooks and reference materials in the area of biomedical
engineering. In addition to his 13 books and many journal articles, he also has
developed and marketed a home study package consisting of a textbook,
videotapes, notes and quizzes.
After growing up in Plainfield, N.J., Webster received his Ph.D. and
M.S.E.E from the University of Rochester. He earned his B.E.E. from Cornell
University. He joined the engineering faculty in 1967.
-- Barbara Wolff, (608) 262-8696
###
Barbara Wolff, 608/262-8292, bjwolff@wisc.edu