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UD honors excellence in teaching and advising
2:25 p.m., May 5, 2006--Seven University of Delaware faculty members received awards in recognition of their outstanding work in teaching and advising during the Honors Day celebration on Friday, May 5. Two teaching assistants also received awards for excellence. Excellence-in-teaching awards Four faculty members won the excellence-in-teaching awards, which are based primarily on student evaluations. Each winner will receive $5,000 and have his or her name inscribed on a brick honoring them in UD's Mentors' Circle. Excellence-in-teaching awards were presented to Brian P. Ackerman, professor of psychology; Robert A. Denemark, associate professor of political science and international relations; Alan D. Fox, associate professor of philosophy; and Carol E. Henderson, associate professor of English. Mohsen Badiey, the marine studies professor who led the awards selection committee, said a record number of students cast online ballots for their favorite professors. Brian P. Ackerman
Ackerman, who holds a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is one of three co-researchers involved in a longitudinal study of the emotional development of disadvantaged children. The children, all from New Castle County, were recruited from Head Start programs at ages 4 and 5 and are currently completing the ninth grade. Robert A. Denemark
When Denemark first set foot on a college campus as a freshman, he knew he would never leave. “It was simply the best of all possible worlds,” Denemark said. “I like all aspects of the pursuit of knowledge.” He came to Delaware as an assistant professor in 1988 and was selected for a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1992. Denemark, who earned a doctorate at the University of Minnesota, is currently researching multilateral cooperation among governments. Denemark patterns his research teams on the model used by researchers in the natural sciences--teams that include faculty, graduate students and undergraduates as full participants. “As soon as you convince them that you really do want their input, the undergraduates are very vibrant, helpful and productive members of research groups,” Denemark said. Alan D. Fox
Fox, associate professor of philosophy, is a magician in the classroom. Literally. A former Fulbright-Hays Taiwan scholar who studies Daoism and Huayan Buddhism, Fox is a trained magician, tap dancer and former professional folk singer who said a lot of teaching is being a showman. His first teaching experience was teaching taijiquan, a Chinese martial art. He said he still uses some of the techniques he learned in his classroom today. Fox, who joined UD's faculty in 1990, said one of the greatest joys he gets from his job is seeing the thrill students experience from learning. “One student once said, 'I can feel the neurons growing in my brain during class,'” Fox said. “Another said, 'You can feel the learning going on as if it were palpable.'” Carol E. Henderson
About midnight last Thanksgiving, Henderson received an e-mail from a former student. The student, now a journalist, was writing to tell Henderson that he still reflects upon things she said in her class years before. She saved the e-mail--along with many similar ones. Henderson, author of Scarring the Black Body: Race and Representation in African American Literature and editor of the upcoming Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical and Critical Essays, has been teaching at UD for 10 years.“People forget that language is a breathing, living entity. I remind students that there's power in language and how you use it,” Henderson, who teaches Bible study at her Wilmington church and conducts seminars on language in hip-hop and in literature at area high schools, said. Still in e-mail contact with students she taught when she first came to campus, Henderson said she has realized teaching is a career when you don't always see immediate returns. The long-term returns are great, including a recent request from a former student, now a teacher, who sought to use Henderson's class syllabus as a reference. Excellence-in-advising
Three faculty members received UD's excellence-in-undergraduate-academic-advising awards, also based primarily on student evaluations. Each will receive a check for $2,500 and be honored with a brick on Mentors' Circle. The awards go to Norma L. Gaines-Hanks, assistant professor of individual and family studies; Georgia B. Pyrros, instructor in mathematical sciences; and Todd D. Royer, assistant professor of health and exercise sciences. Norma L. Gaines-Hanks Gaines-Hanks has been on the other side of the advisement table, as a student earning her bachelor's and doctorate in education at UD. “I try to take a team approach to advising, letting the student know that while I'm available and willing to help, that they also have to take some responsibility,” Gaines-Hanks said. “If we're working on this as a team, then we're both invested in their success.”She joined the faculty in 1989 as an assistant dean, and currently serves as an assistant professor of individual and family studies and coordinator of undergraduate programs. In addition to extensive community outreach, Gaines-Hanks currently is researching student reaction to working in culturally diverse environments. Georgia B. Pyrros Pyrros, who holds a master's degree from McMaster University, is a two-time past winner of UD's excellence-in-teaching award. Pyrros uses Socratic dialogue and interactive teaching to motivate her students in large calculus classes.
Her research interests include applied calculus for business and economics and for life and health sciences. Todd D. Royer Royer said meeting with students to plan their futures reminds him that teaching courses and leading research creates stepping stones for students en route to their goals.Royer, who earned his master's degree at UD before heading to Arizona State University for his doctorate, is an assistant professor in health and exercises sciences and a co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health grant researching the effectiveness of in-shoe orthoses. His current research interests include biomechanics and energetics of gait and amputee locomotion. Teaching assistant excellence-in teaching awards
Two graduate assistants, Kainoa K. Harbottle and Alondra R. Pacheco, will win $1,500 awards for their work as teaching assistants. Kainoa K. Harbottle Kainoa Harbottle, a teaching assistant in the English department, plans to pursing a career in academia, preferably teaching English at a small liberal arts college, maybe in his home state of Hawaii. Alondra R. Pacheco Alondra R. Pacheco, a teaching assistant in Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, plans to pursue a doctorate in colonial literature, specializing in colonial Mexico.For more information about the awards, visit [www.udel.edu/teachingawards/flash_index.html]. Article by Kathy Canavan
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