Derek Allen has been, from the start of his appointment, one of the most energetic, skilled, dedicated and successful teachers in the Department of Philosophy. He has sustained this record of excellence for the past twenty-two years and has been repeatedly praised in course evaluations for exceptional organizational and communication skills. He has been deeply engaged in curricular innovation, has pursued a research programme in informal logic that has directly contributed to his success as a teacher, and has evolved teaching materials which have greatly improved the teaching of informal logic. The two prestigious teaching awards – a University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993, and an OCUFA Teaching Award in 1992 – attest to his record of excellence.

Derek Allen has compiled a list of notable efforts over the past five years to promote effective teaching by means of activities designed to engage graduate students and teaching assistants in reflec tive/effective practice teaching. His course on “Teaching Philosophy” was the first such departmental program at the University of Toronto. The innovative mentor program in Philosophy, which he designed and established, is also serving as a model for similar educational development initiatives now underway at the University of Toronto. In 1990, he became Chair of the Teaching Committee which was established to help maintain high standards of teaching in his Department and to assist with the training of teaching assistants and the development of their teaching skills. He has also consulted with and offered several sessions for university colleagues on teaching/learning topics.

Ron Britton is an exemplary faculty member, highly respected by his colleagues and recognized as a model teacher. He has received numerous honors and awards for teaching, outreach & professional service. Ron has served on numerous curriculum committees over the past 30 years and made significant contributions to the development of several new programs.

Not only is Ron Britton a superb teacher in his own right, but he is also dedicated to helping others improve their teaching. He provides support to colleagues through the University of Manitoba Peer Consultation Service, presentations at workshops, and by representing the University of Manitoba at international conferences. He is actively involved in developing new teaching techniques and materials for use in undergraduate courses and presents and publishes the results of this scholarship at educational conferences. He has been a mentor to several young faculty members in his department and is a strong advocate of mentoring programs for new faculty. He is open to new ideas and ways of teaching, and has been one of the leaders in computer-assisted instruction at the University of Manitoba. In summary, Ron Britton is a gifted teacher and a tireless leader devoted to improving the quality of teaching and learning in his department, faculty, and the university at large. Administration and Professional Activities

During the 1999/2000 academic year, Ron served as Acting Head for the Department of Biosystems Engineering. In the summer of 2000 he was appointed as Associate Dean (Design Education) with responsibilities relating to the development of new courses that enhance student understanding of the engineering design process. In January 2001 he was named to a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Chair in Design Engineering.Ron served for four years on the Executive Committee of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of Manitoba, and as President during 1998/1999. In 2003 he was appointed to the Board of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers representing the Manitoba Association. In addition, he has served as President of the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering and Chair of the North Midwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Teaching Awards

Ron has been recognized with a number of teaching awards including the Certificate of Teaching Excellence sponsored by the University of Manitoba University Teaching Service and University of Manitoba Students’ Union; the Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology Award at the Eighth National Conference on College Teaching Learning and Technology in Jacksonville, Florida; The Dr. & Mrs. H.H. Saunderson Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Manitoba and the Western Electric Fund Award for Excellence in Instruction of Engineering Students (North Midwest Section, American Society for Engineering Education). As well, in 1995 he received both his 3M Teaching Fellowship and the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers Medal for Distinction in Engineering Education.

Other Awards

The Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering has honoured Ron with the Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering – Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute Award, the Maple Leaf Award, and naming him a Fellow of CSAE. He holds two Superior ASAE Paper Awards as well as having being named the Agricultural Engineer of the Year for the North Central Region of ASAE. At the University of Manitoba he has received the Dr. & Mrs. D.R. Campbell Outreach Award. He is also the recipient of the APEGM Outstanding Service Award in 2001 and the APEGM Merit Award on 2002, both from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba.

Even in a class of 500, Avi Cohen creates an atmosphere conducive to learning by stimulating questions and discussion, treating students fairly and with respect, and recognizing students’ varying perspectives and backgrounds. Students, while noting the rigorous demands of his courses, speak enthusiastically about their experiences in his classes. They value the dynamic classroom environment he creates, the meticulous organization, clarity and lucidity of his presentations, and his ability to motivate, challenge and engage them. In his individual dealings with students, he is appreciated for his empathetic understanding of their interests, sensitivity to their needs, and responsiveness to their concerns. He is previously the recipient of the York University-Wide Teaching Award and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contributions in Teaching Economics.

Avi Cohen’s leadership in promoting excellence and innovation among his colleagues at York University and within his academic community is substantial. Through his scholarly articles on teaching, presentations, workshops, and development of course materials, he has influenced the way economics is taught across Canada. His collaboration with John Spencer integrating the teaching of writing into a fourth-year History of Economic Thought seminar has become a model for colleagues interested in developing students’ critical writing and thinking skills in discipline-based courses. In his current role as chair of one of York’s largest undergraduate programs, Professor Cohen continues to promote new initiatives to effect pedagogical improvement and teaching innovations among his colleagues, and to enhance the educational experience of all students.

Alan Gillmor has had a most successful and distinguished career as a teacher since he joined Carleton University’s then Department of Music in 1971. His student evaluations have been consistently among the highest in his Department resulting in a Faculty of Arts Teaching Award in 1982. He is also the recipient of a University Teaching Achievement Award, bestowed upon him the first year it was offered (1992). Alan Gillmor used this Award to completely re-design the first-year introductory course on world music in the light of his experience and research in pedagogy over the years. He is a teacher who cares deeply about students, deeply about his subject matter, and who has demonstrated an overriding concern not only to communicate effectively with students both inside and outside the classroom, but also to instil in them the same love and appreciation for music that has guided his own career.

Alan Gillmor has committed himself to the improvement of pedagogy within the Faculty of Arts by taking the time to educate himself on pedagogical matters and on the issues and problems currently surrounding the topic of a university education in the liberal arts, by attending conferences, and undertaking considerable research. This background has enabled him to make invaluable contributions to the work of Carleton University’s Teaching and Learning Centre. Large lectures are his special forte and he has developed three workshop/presentations on this theme. He attended a Summer Institute on teaching and learning, and has read widely in the literature in this area. He also played a most important role as a member of the Faculty of Arts Task Force on the First Year Experience. The report of this Task Force has had a profound influence on the development of teaching and learning not only in the Faculty of Arts but also in the Social Sciences Faculty.

Janet Giltrow enjoys very high regard among her students and close colleagues as a teacher, innovator and educational leader. First, she is clearly an exceptional teacher. The remarkably consistent strong student ratings and highly positive student comments validate her reputation as one of the best. She is able to generate enthusiasm, sustain interest and effect learning at all levels of instruction in literature, literary theory and composition. She has introduced innovative and effective ways to teach and improve writing within not only the English Department, but also across different disciplines at Simon Fraser University. She has achieved a national reputation for her expertise in teaching writing and discourse analysis. Janet Giltrow’s books, “Academic Writing: Writing and Reading Across the Disciplines” and the companion anthology, “Academic Reading: Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines” are used in a variety of departments across North America.

Janet Giltrow has shown impressive leadership in the teaching of writing. For over seven years, she has been instrumental in the development and maintenance of the English Department Writing Centre which assists students with writing reports and essays. Student feedback from this program has been very positive and very appreciative. As a consequence, she has initiated research and instructional enhancements to the Writing Program in the English Department, working with faculty and teaching assistants in other departments in analyzing student writing and its contexts. As Vice-President and President of the Canadian Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, she has worked towards developing a professional forum in Canada within which the teaching of writing can be studied in a rigorous and scholarly way.

Tom Haffie’s personal success as a teacher is supported by his excellent numerical ratings from undergraduates. These ratings are consistent with the comments from current and former students who praise his dynamic lecturing, emphasis on critical thinking, fairness in grading, and individual attention. As one student puts it, Tom Haffie is an A+ teacher. Tom also mentors students on a frequent basis. He is honest in dealing with technical enquiries and compassionate in dealing with other issues. He is an effective course chairman offering support, consideration and leadership to his colleagues and teaching assistants. Tom was also one of three faculty members selected this year to work on course development projects which are intended to improve the delivery of specific courses and to raise the University’s level of expertise in multi-media instruction. His achievements were recognized earlier this year when he was selected as a winner of the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in University Teaching.

Beyond his own classes, Tom Haffie has made a significant contribution to the improvement of teaching both at the University of Western Ontario and at other universities. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Affairs in the Faculty of Science where he displays his deep and abiding concern for students and the problems they encounter in the process of learning. He has been recruited by the Educational Development Office to share his expertise in teaching with instructors from across the campus. He has presented sessions during the Perspectives on Teaching Workshop Series, attended primarily by faculty, as well as during the annual Graduate Student Conference on Teaching. He was invited to participate in developing and training leaders for the University of Western Ontario’s new TA Training Program. His willingness to share new teaching methods in genetics has also led to five publications in the past five years.

Since his appointment to the Psychology Department in 1977, Brian Little has distinguished himself as an exceptional teacher at all levels of instruction. His students speak eloquently of their experiences in his classroom and they remember his teaching with gratitude and joy. Students are unabashedly enthusiastic about this “superb teacher both in terms of preparation and content, and in terms of his distinctively engaging teaching style.” Student evaluation scores are consistently high for undergraduate and graduate courses alike and are accompanied by superlative comments: “He made this course exceptionally interesting. He’s an incredible professor!”; “His lecturing skills and enthusiasm are rivalled by none.” The University recognized his exemplary teaching talents with the 1993 University Teaching Achievement Award and with three nominations for the CASE Teacher of the Year Award.

Brian Little’s educational leadership skills have been brought to bear at several different levels of the university community. In the Psychology Department, he has been consistently involved with curriculum and course development, personally developing four new courses. His work at the institutional level involves the development of a model for faculty development which summarizes and critiques current approaches to the enhancement of faculty effectiveness and identifies new and emerging areas that are particularly promising for adoption by teaching and learning centres. He has also been active as an educational leader outside Carleton. Since 1979, he has given well over 300 presentations to university, college, high school and professional groups on aspects of teaching, learning and communication. He recently capped an outstanding history as an educational leader by being named as the inaugural recipient of McGill University’s Royal Bank Faculty Fellowship in university teaching.

Michael Roeder stands out in the Department of Music as a dedicated teacher who achieves excellent results in the field of music history and related subjects. He takes the time and expends the energy to know the particular characteristics and educational needs of his students and he shapes his teaching to accommodate these needs. He gives freely of himself to those students who seek consultation outside the classroom. In 1992, Michael Roeder was the recipient of two teaching awards: the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the University of Alberta’s highest teaching honour.

From 1991 to 1995, he served as Chair of the Music Department’s Curriculum Committee. During this time, he facilitated a complete and thorough review of the undergraduate curriculum which resulted in both major and minor revisions to the degree programs and to individual courses. He is an active peer consultant with a passion for the process. He not only works hard at this process on his own campus but recently co-led an all-day workshop for new consultants at the University of Saskatchewan. He enjoys sharing his understanding of, and enthusiasm for, music with a wide variety of audiences ranging from concert previews to full-scale lectures with slides and musical illustrations. He has participated on the Board of the Edmonton Jazz Society and the Edmonton Chamber Music Society.

Ivan Silver represents a model for committed and excellent teachers in the Faculty of Medicine. In addition to being directly involved in the design and planning of curricula at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels, he planned workshops on how to improve teaching skills, co-developed the geriatric undergraduate curriculum, led a working group to produce a first year inter-departmental course on the doctor-patient relationship, and initiated a journal club for the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. He has an impressive record of awards and formal recognition from his own Department of Psychiatry, the University’s Faculty of Medicine, and the Province’s interns and residents. The Aikins Award for excellence in innovation in teaching recognized his work in developing a “game format” for teaching Psychiatry to undergraduate medical students.

Ivan Silver has a consistent record of helping colleagues refine their teaching. He helped develop a series of workshops on teaching skills for residents and worked on a manual for colleagues on teaching dossiers. He is currently involved in the design of a workshop for teachers of small groups. The goal is to ensure a high degree of transfer of training from the workshop to the actual teaching setting. As an individual supervisor, Ivan Silver is highly sought-after by both medical students and psychiatry residents; he is warm, caring, dedicated, humorous and intelligent, all characteristics that are essential for a “mentor.” He consistently receives outstanding evaluations from residents for his educational contributions to their training. Specifically, he is noted for his interest and enthusiasm for teaching, his extensive knowledge base and capacity to transmit that in a friendly and congenial manner.

Mark Weisberg is an exceptional teacher who has made a positive difference in the Faculty of Law and at Queen’s University during the past 25 years. A pioneer in developing courses such as Legal Imagination, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and Images of Nurses, Doctors, and Lawyers, he has encouraged students to look at the law in new ways and has developed their analytic and writing skills to a very high level. He is a conscientious teacher who imposes high standards on himself and is rewarded by the quality of work that his students produce. Perhaps most important, he is prepared to spend the time to provide the feedback that inspires students to stretch their creative boundaries to bring their personal voices to their academic and professional work. Mark is inspirational in his teaching and extremely devoted to what he does. For his commitment to teaching and the outstanding nature of his work, he was selected to be a recipient of a 1994 OCUFA Teaching Award.

At the most personal level, helping colleagues improve their teaching is an important dimension to Mark Weisberg’s work. He unselfishly helps colleagues, both within and outside the Faculty of Law, improve their teaching and enhance their students’ learning experiences. In 1985, he became involved with an informal group of Queen’s faculty members who organized and presented a major faculty development event each year. Today, this Cross-Faculty Teaching Forum collaborates regularly with the Instructional Development Centre in developing an on-going series of innovative workshops and annual events on teaching and learning. Mark Weisberg played a leading role in the organization of these sessions and was the first faculty member to be seconded to the Instructional Development Centre as a Faculty Associate, a position he has held for three years. His publications and presentations on the themes of learning, teaching and professionalism are well received both at the University and internationally.