Student perspectives discussed, award granted

Scott Burns, geology professor, and the Center for Academic Excellence jointly held a Carnegie Conversation called “A Decade of Student Perspectives on Outstanding Teaching in CLAS” on campus yesterday afternoon.

The event was a forerunner to the annual John Eliot Allen Outstanding Teaching Awards ceremony, held at the end of spring term. Burns created the award nearly 13 years ago as a way to honor exemplary teachers and to involve students in the nomination and award process.

Burns was surprised with his own certificate of appreciation, presented by Marvin Kaiser, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Leslie McBride, director of the Center for Academic Excellence.

In his presentation speech, Kaiser noted that Burns had 12 years’ worth of performance reviews for most of the faculty at the conversation in his possession, joking that CLAS faculty should be careful about what they say in front of him.

“Scott knows more about each of us in this room than we might think,” Kaiser said.

Burns conducts interviews with 350 graduate and senior undergraduate students each year to determine which professor is most deserving of the Allen Award. Each student is asked to list the characteristics that they feel best describes their nominated faculty member.

“This award tells faculty that their approach to teaching is important, and students that their input is valuable,” Burns said.

Burns’ data from past student reviews, which was passed around to event attendees, showed that students considered challenging class material to be most important.

“[The data] shows that we are challenging students, and that this is important to them,” Burns said.