U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

 A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Award Winners Discuss Teaching Challenges

This annual issue of the Teaching Times recognizes faculty who have received awards in the past year for excellence in teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. In particular, this edition provides an in-depth view of teaching approaches used by the seven 2007 winners of the two major teaching awards—the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (CDTA) and the Tina and David Bellet Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award. These faculty members discuss ways they have managed particular challenges in their teaching over the years.

This year’s CDTA winners are Kathleen Blee, Sociology; Marek Druzdzel, Information Sciences; Marilyn Hravnak, Nursing; Jeremy Levy, Physics and Astronomy; and Philip E. Smith, English. Bellet winners are Bryan Hanks, Anthropology; and Carl Bodenschatz, Statistics.

The Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award was established in 1984, and since then 132 faculty members from all schools and regional campuses have been honored with this award. These 132 individuals have excelled because of their sustained commitment, overall excellence in teaching, and unflagging concern about student achievement. They have been instrumental in helping students, both in and outside the classroom, to attain their academic goals. Iain Campbell, one of the winners of the award in its inaugural year, summarized a quality shared by award recipients: “The students don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”

Faculty and students who have served on the selection committees have noted the nominees’ genuine devotion to teaching and their contributions to curricular development. Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, a past winner for his teaching in the School of Law, stresses the importance of this award in his letter to the honorees each year: “The very existence of this award underscores the high institutional priority that we assign to our teaching responsibilities, and your individual efforts stand as an inspiring example of excellence in the role of University teaching.”

The Bellet award recognizes outstanding and innovative teaching in undergraduate studies in the School of Arts and Sciences. “The distinguishing characteristic of the Bellet Award,” according to School of Arts and Sciences Dean John N. Cooper, “is that it recognizes not just individual teachers of excellence, but also the community of faculty and students who are especially dedicated to teaching excellence. It does so through the annual event at which that community is brought together to celebrate the centrality of teaching in our mission as a School of Arts and Sciences, to celebrate the individual contributions of that year’s awardees, and to reinforce the value we place on excellence in teaching as a centerpiece of our vision for the future of the School.”

He added, “We are especially delighted that David and Tina Bellet have been able to join us for each of the celebrations to date.”

Evaluation criteria for the Bellet award are based on:

• How the candidate communicates subject matter to undergraduate students of varied backgrounds and skill levels.
• How the candidate encourages high standards of attainments for all undergraduate students.
• How the candidate advises and mentors students, as well as expands undergraduate students’ intellectual development beyond the classroom.
• How the candidate has influenced undergraduate students, colleagues, and departmental instruction.
• How the candidate has integrated scholarship with teaching.

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh