Distinguished teachers connect coursework to world events

Whether the discipline is a language or engineering, history or motivational theory, management strategy or human sexuality, this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award winners have risen masterfully to the challenge of preparing students for a world suddenly rendered much more uncertain. Each Distinguished Teaching Award winner will receive $5,000. A free public ceremony to honor the winners will be held Tuesday, April 23, 3:30 p.m., at the Pyle Center. Here are short profiles of each honoree:

Severino Albuquerque, professor, Portuguese, Chancellor’s Award
It might be a samba lesson, a capoeira (a fusion of martial arts and dance) demonstration, a popular song or a bag of fresh fruit that first introduces Severino Albuquerque’s students to Portuguese language and culture. Or it might be an evening at Bate Papo, a weekly gathering where Luso-Brazilian culture comes alive for students and faculty.

In addition to his creative approach to traditional teaching, Albuquerque has tapped the potential of electronic instruction for language study. For the last few years, he has been part of UW System’s Collaborative Language Project, which uses interactive video to offer the opportunity to study less commonly taught languages like Portuguese to students across Wisconsin.

In addition, every other summer Albuquerque directs and teaches the nationally recognized Intensive Portuguese Institute, available not only to students, but to scholars and faculty from other universities, and anyone eager to learn the language and more about the culture.

Albuquerque is passionate about the value of language and culture instruction as instruments of global understanding, more than ever after the events of Sept. 11.

He joined the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in 1983.

James P. Blanchard, associate professor of engineering physics, Chancellor’s Award
Colleagues and students alike agree that James Blanchard has revolutionized the teaching of computer science and problem-solving skills to engineers. He has pioneered the teaching of computing to engineering students so that they can focus more easily on solving problems and applying solutions to the real world. He has been on the frontier of delivering instruction via the Internet, notably in the College of Engineering’s master’s of engineering in professional practice, a degree available to working engineers entirely via distance learning.

However, Blanchard has not forsaken traditional classroom instruction. Since he joined the engineering physics faculty in 1988, he has taught every level from freshmen to Ph.D. students; in addition, he has received three UW System grants to introduce Wisconsin high school and two-year college students to basic engineering.

Grounding all his instruction firmly in practical application is critical to Blanchard’s success as a teacher, he says. An expert in radiation damage and fusion technology, Blanchard has won the Polygon Outstanding Teaching Award from engineering students three times.

Jeanne Boydston, professor, history, Chancellor’s Award
The past is only half of history, according to Jeanne Boydston. The complete perspective “exists at the intersection of then and now. I always try to keep the content of my courses in tension with the world in which my students and I live,” she says.

Helping students see the “now” in the “then” requires rigor and compassion. Susan Zaeske found Boydston a master at making the past come alive. Ultimately, Boydston’s classes inspired Zaeske to pursue an academic career. Now specializing in women’s rhetoric as an assistant professor of communication arts at UW–Madison, Zaeske makes regular use of the techniques she learned from Boydston.

Boydston has achieved the status of a master of the written word in all its guises. She routinely commits herself to her students’ success, and habitually gives them the academic and intellectual tools to achieve it. As a scholar, Boydston is the author of a highly influential study of women’s history. She also is an expert on labor history and the early American republic. She has been on the history faculty since 1988.

Steven M. Cramer, professor, civil and environmental engineering, Chancellor’s Award
When the World Trade Center went down, engineers all over the world began thinking more urgently about how to design buildings that would withstand new sources of stress, in addition to the traditional ones of wind, snow, earthquakes, fire and normal daily use.

Steven Cramer and his students also ponder these issues. “The buildings we live and work in shape our environment and our lives,” Cramer says. “We have been reminded that structures and materials are not inert. After Sept. 11, I think my students have shown a new commitment to preparing themselves for the future responsibility of building design and construction.

“Sept. 11 again reminded students that structures can and do fail for reasons that may or may not be preventable, but when they do fail, human lives will be impacted or even taken. We can design buildings with more stringent structural requirements, but as a society (we) need to consider whether we’re willing to pay the cost to construct buildings for ill-defined threats.”

Mason A. Carpenter, assistant professor, management and human resources, Steiger Award
Tailoring one academic degree to fit the intellectual and professional needs of varied student populations is a challenge that cuts across all disciplines. For example, students who pursue a master’s of business administration in the evening tend to be distinctly different from those who elect to take the regular daytime classes toward the degree.

Consequently, Mason Carpenter refines his teaching to adapt to what his students need. His teaching philosophy has crystallized into a commitment to learning by doing, focusing on a deliverable product and applying what’s learned in class to the real world.

Carpenter is on constant alert for ways to improve the curriculum. For example, he redesigned required strategy courses in the daytime M.B.A. program into two distinct modules, an introductory course for incoming students and a capstone class for those about to graduate. In addition, he has been involved actively in the business school’s Teaching Improvement Program, and has led workshops on motivating students to make the most of their education.

Beyond the classroom, Carpenter has volunteered to coach master’s students in strategy case competitions. In 2000, Business Week magazine named him one of its two top-rated teachers in MBA programs. Carpenter joined the UW–Madison School of Business in 1997.

John DeLamater, professor of sociology, Chancellor’s Award
John DeLamater doesn’t have to mention sex to get his students’ rapt attention. Judging from his course evaluations and colleagues’ commendations, he could make phone book listings utterly compelling.

Actually, DeLamater has taught human sexuality courses since 1976. He also teaches social psychology and a class on deviant behavior. Department of Sociology chair Adam Gamoran says DeLamater is careful to make course content accessible, intellectually stimulating and relevant to students understanding of their world.

“I want my students to understand their social world and the larger society so they can be successful in their relationships with family, friends, employers and others on a daily basis,” DeLamater says. “Following Sept. 11, I was struck by the renewed recognition of the importance of families and lovers or spouses. It was as if people were beginning to recognize the importance of these relationships and were putting more energy into them,” he says.

“Several of the courses I teach include units on personal/intimate relationships, and I am putting greater emphasis on these units than in past semesters.”

DeLamater joined UW–Madison’s sociology faculty in 1969.

Judith M. Harackiewicz, professor of psychology, Chancellor’s Award
The cachet that our recreational activities hold for us is Judith Harackiewicz’s intellectual bread and butter. Her research into intrinsic motivation ? what makes us pursue an activity for its own sake rather than any ancillary reward ? also offers a clue as to the success of her teaching style.

Harackiewicz’s findings, which usually wind up in discipline’s most respected scholarly journals, help her to inspire achievement in her students. For example, she has shown that the best teachers need to “catch” their students’ attention, and manage to “hold” that interest throughout the semester and perhaps beyond. Harackiewicz believes that conducting research is a powerful teaching tool in itself, and she encourages her students to engage in their own research or assist her in the lab. In her 13 years at UW–Madison, she has mentored 27 undergraduate Hilldale Research Fellows, who collaborate with faculty on original research projects. Indeed, many former students have become professors. In addition to teaching and research, Harackiewicz became a member of the Athletic Board last year.