Three UI faculty members
have won a new award in recognition of their years
of outstanding teaching. The recipients of the first-annual
President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence
are:
• Peter Densen, professor and interim head
of internal medicine in the Roy J. and Lucille A.
Carver College of Medicine;
• Michael Finkelstein, professor of oral pathology,
radiology, and medicine in the College of Dentistry;
and
• Teresa Mangum, associate professor of English
in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and interim
associate dean for international programs.
The award, administered by the Council on Teaching,
was created this year as a University-wide recognition
for faculty members who have demonstrated a sustained
high level of teaching. Each college was asked to
nominate one faculty member for the award, which
carries a $3,000 prize. Nominees submitted a statement
of their teaching philosophy, a curriculum vitae
highlighting teaching activities, and letters of
endorsement from current and former students and
colleagues. The Council on Teaching selected three
winners from the pool of nominees.
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| Peter Densen |
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Densen has taught in the Carver College of Medicine
since 1983 and served as associate dean for student
affairs and curriculum from 1992 to 2001. He received
the University’s Collegiate Teaching Award
in 1991 and has won 10 Excellence in Teaching Awards
from the medical college. Beginning in the late 1980s
and continuing through 1994, he led the first thorough
review of the medical curriculum to be completed
in 25 years. Major features of the new curriculum
were enhanced contact between faculty and students
in the form of case-based learning and integration
of material between courses throughout the curriculum.
While working with the team designing the new Medical
Education and Biomedical Research Facility, Densen
introduced the concept of “Learning Communities,” which
group together students who are at different points
in their medical education to encourage peer-to-peer
learning and to emphasize connection, excellence,
learning, leadership, and service.
Colleagues and current and former students cite
Densen’s intellectual rigor and enthusiastic
approach to teaching, his leadership by example,
and his ability to stimulate students to want to
learn and grow.
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| Michael
Finkelstein |
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Finkelstein has taught in the College of Dentistry
since 1982 and holds the only endowed professorship
for teaching in the college. He received the University’s
Collegiate Teaching Award in 1989 and 1993, and dental
students have chosen him as their Teacher of the
Year more than 30 times, the most awards accumulated
by a single professor in the college. Finkelstein
has been the driving force behind updating the dental
curriculum to include problem-based learning and
case-based learning, part of his commitment to helping
students develop skills for solving real-life problems
and analyzing new information.
Colleagues and current and former students cite
Finkelstein’s “willingness to try new
approaches,” which he believes will benefit
students, his “exemplary dedication to students,” and
his “uncanny ability to relate a very difficult
subject to students on a level that is informative,
understandable, and often times funny.”
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| Teresa
Mangum |
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Mangum, a faculty member in the College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences since 1990, won the University’s
Collegiate Teaching Award in 1994. She previously
won a teaching award at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign while still a graduate student.
Her efforts have led to substantial changes and improvements
in both the undergraduate and graduate programs in
English. She led the revision of the English major
and improvements in the department’s advising
system for undergraduates, and she designed an introduction
to graduate studies course and a comprehensive graduate
placement program.
Colleagues and current and former students cite
Mangum’s “great skill in the practicalities
of classroom conduct,” her “innovative
course design,” and her “pragmatic professionalism,” which
they say allow her to communicate to students and
colleagues the real-world applications and implications
of the topic at hand.
by Mary Geraghty Kenyon
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