Acceptance Speech foe the Best Theacher Award

Acceptance Speech foe the Best Theacher Award Angus(2011-10-5) Governors,Award Recipients,and Guests: It’s my pleasure to nake this acceptance speech on behalf of all 16 recipients of this year’s Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching. I would like to thank the Governors for their continuing support of teaching excellence in the University of North Carolina system.I believe that the Board of Governors’support of recently established teaching awards,including the Excellence oin Teaching Award,has greatly energized interest in and local support of excellence in teaching.And for that, both our teachers and students owe the Board of Governors a big THANK YOU. Now I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on the nature of excellence in teaching. It is my belief that there are two essential components to effective teaching. First,the material to be learned must be presented in a conpetent fashion.I shall refer to such a presentation as the lecture. But teaching involves in more than lecturing. Learning requres that the students be actively involved. Wiile I do not have tine here today to adress the details of the techniques usefull in encouraging student involvement,I would like to point out that the techniques I have found most effective have one common elemeent—scholarly conversation among all in the classroom. In using the term “conversation’’,I do mean that to imply that this intercourse is social and often informal. Humans are social creatures,and they learn best in a social context. To illustrate the importance of conversation in the classroom,I would like to tell you a tale of two freshmen. The first freshmen is majoring in biology. In his fist year,he took an introductory chemistry class. This student had been interested in chemistry in high school,but his first college experience with a class in chemistry in killing that interest. Each student is assigned to a particular seat in the large lecture hall.Students who accumulate three absences fail the course. Some students pay others to attend for them. A student in this class can easily feel like he is just a number,not a person. The students are not active participants in this class. There is no conversation,just a lecture. The material is presented as if the students will just passively assimlate it,much as dry,dead sponges soak up water,not like living,social creatures learn. This first freshmen was me,Karl Wuensch,35 years ago.I did not learn much chemistry that year,but,in retrospect,I did learn something valuable---how not to teach effectively.My freshan year experience was not what I had expected college to be.I expected college to be a community of scholars,where both faculty and students engage in intellectual exchanges from which all participants learn. Our seond studet is also majoring in biology,in his fist semester at a small,private college.As he sits in his required general chemistry class on the fist day of classes,he has a dreadful feeling.Yes, our second student is also me,six years later. As the semester progressd,my feeling of dread was replaced with one of joyful excitement.This class was nothing like my ealier chemistry class. The professor soon came to know each student’s interests,strenths and weaknesses,and use this knowledge wisely to maximize the learning experience for each student. Hands-on demonstrations were employed in the classroom and hands-on activities in the aboratory. Students asked questions in class,volunteered comments,and stayed after classto continue discussions with 1 the professor and other students.In this learning environment I thrived. Please note that my examples involved students in their first year of studyat a new institution.It is my belief that the first year is an especially critical year.If students’first year classes do not encourage them to participate activiely in their learning,then they are likely to developed habits and attitudes not conductive to effective learning. It may be difficult to change these bad habits and attitudes after that fiet year—if the student survives the first year. I have lectured you long enough.If you would like to join me in a conversation on the topic of effective teaching,feel free to contact me later, electronically or otherwise.In closing,let once again thank the Board of Governors for their support of excellence in teaching. 2