Steve W. Edison, Associate Professor of Marketing and Advertising
In Steve Edison’s classes, 60 seconds can be critical for teacher and student. In “one minute papers,” Dr. Edison asks students to communicate their understanding of a case, point, or problem so he can determine if an essential lesson has been learned. This and other assessment tools combined with his teaching style and philosophies prompt colleagues to call him “the most innovative classroom instructor in our department” and students to applaud him because he “encouraged me and my classmates to do the unthinkable – THINK!”
After a successful career in the private sector, Professor Edison’s colleagues acknowledge that he knows what it takes to be a successful marketing practitioner. The professor also wants his students to know what it takes to be successful on the job – through lectures, reading, case analysis, and problem solving. He asks his students to create marketing plans that feature new and not-yet-commercialized products so their focus is entirely on planning for marketing, not production. Throughout it all, Dr. Edison emphasizes the value of technology, beginning with the CD-ROM he has created for each class he’s taught in his six years at UALR. On it, students find their syllabus, lectures, additional readings, tips for studying, videos, even financial calculators that compute such things as the time value of money. It all combines to make a teacher who in one student’s mind “is not only instructional, but inspirational.”
Melissa A. Hardeman, Instructor of Mathematics and Statistics
Melissa Hardeman is actively engaged in the battle to improve student math skills, and she’s become a recognized leader in that crusade. Equipped with the latest high-tech developmental program and a conviction that her students can comprehend the formulas and principles they initially find confusing, this instructor has seen student pass rates increase by almost 40 percent. As her department’s Core Assessment Coordinator, she’s earned praise for helping fellow faculty more accurately determine which skills and knowledge students need for success.
She is helping the UALR Math Department pioneer the computer-driven developmental program known as ALEKS, which helps the teacher assess the student’s skill level, progress, and path to higher learning. The traditional classroom, which hasn’t always worked well in developmental settings, is replaced with a program that allows students to progress at their own pace while the teacher guides them by providing targeting lectures and individual help. They leave the course only after they have demonstrated an absolute mastery of the skills needed to move to the next level.
This teacher knows the requirements students need for success, not only through her work as her department’s Core Assessment Coordinator, but also through the research that culminated in a recent presentation to a national mathematics educators’ conference. After more than 18 years in UALR classrooms, her best recognition may come from students who contend “all algebra teachers should be like her.”
IT Minor Faculty, Donaghey College of Information Science and Systems Engineering – Catherine Lowry, Suzann Barr, Kaay Burris, Wayne Chapman, James Hendren, David Luneau
This six-member, interdisciplinary faculty is a collaborative team of teachers from four departments in two colleges that creates a synergy to power a highly successful program addressing a critical, statewide shortage of technically competent workers.
“Acxiom has benefited greatly from the program’s graduates who have joined our workforce,” said Acxiom Corp. Company Leader Charles Morgan. “We remain very impressed by the curriculum and its relevance to the workplace issues we face every day.”
Very little lecture goes on in the three-semester program, and what little lecture there is becomes an interactive event. Technology is incorporated in every aspect of the program and, despite the differences in the backgrounds of teachers and students, everyone connects the classroom knowledge to their own disciplines and workplaces.
“Our grade level has benefited from my ability to make PowerPoint presentations for Open House, on topics such as Playground Safety, and for preparing Language Art lessons. Each member of this team is an expert and a master teacher in the field of instructional technology and behavioral communications,” said Susan Daniel, who is using techniques acquired in her IT Certificate class at Little Rock’s Carver Magnet School. “This team teaching is an innovative approach which really works!”
This is the first time a team has been recognized for Faculty Excellence in teaching at UALR which seems especially fitting for this first-of-a-kind program. IT Minor students say the team concept works well because “this faculty not only teaches teamwork, they are teamwork” with the common goal of ensuring each student’s success.
Linda M. Pledger, Professor of Speech Communication
Colleagues and students use an extensive list of adjectives to describe Linda Pledger as a teacher, not the least of which are motivator and innovator. She earns high marks for the innovations she brings to the classroom, including a grading system that links student progress to student interest and has been embraced by her entire department; teaching strategies that earned her a top presenter spot at a recent national communication convention; and a “classroom wizardry” that prompts students to promote her classes as “required courses.”
As a “tireless promoter” of new technologies in speech communication, Dr. Pledger was able to put a cutting-edge family communication program on line when others said it couldn’t be done. She was convinced that there were communication skills every student needed, whatever their chosen discipline, so she helped create workshops for faculty across campus. She also accepted the roles of creator, editor, and co-writer for a communications textbook described as a “tool that enhanced the learning experience of all our students.” And throughout her 17 years at UALR, Professor Pledger has worked to make sure that what her students learn in the classroom works in the real world, including an electronic alumni newsletter she uses as an assessment tool. These innovations are just a few of the contributions colleagues label Dr. Pledger’s “aspects of excellence.”
L. Scott Stafford, Professor of Law
When your subject matter is Internal Revenue Code and Uniform Commercial Code, capturing a student’s attention is likely a trial for any teacher. According to the students of Professor Scott Stafford, he is “one of those one-in-a-million” teachers who not only captures attention, but moves it to understanding. Whether through case study, technological tools, or open debate, this teacher brings a climate of energy and challenge to subjects that may, at first glance, seem less than exciting, his students and colleagues say.
Professor Stafford’s commitment to his students also extends beyond the classroom, as a publications committee chair and advisor for the law review and through his pro bono experience that inspires a dedication to public service. As a 23-year veteran of the UALR Bowen School of Law, he has acquired an impressive inventory of honors and accomplishments, in addition to a resume of service outside the classroom – Arkansas Public Service commissioner, chief legal counsel to the governor, and assistant attorney general. But it is his students’ words that capture the essence of his teaching: “Professor Stafford accomplishes his teacher’s charge with great skill…” “…he stands out as one who consistently demonstrates a commitment to student learning…” “…he draws out the most important of the facts and reasoning with dazzling efficiency…” While students praise Professor Stafford’s brilliance, they consistently say he meets the greater charge of leading students to understanding and contributes to their sense of accomplishment and confidence.
Betty K. Wood, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Dr. Betty Wood was in the first of her five years at UALR when she was asked to lead the College’s Middle Childhood Education program, which meant she also advised all graduate and undergraduate students in the program. She hasn’t slowed since, assisting the UALR Summer Laureate University for Youth (SLUFY) program to help ensure that future teachers are getting the most from the experience; helping secure a half-million-dollar Javits Grant to evaluate state gifted programs; mentoring colleagues and students in the use of cutting-edge teaching technologies, and working with Pulaski Technical College – and soon other community colleges statewide – to develop an Associate of Arts in Teaching degree.
Her research skills are obviously strong given the number of times she’s been asked to present at national and international conferences. She also has a book in review.
Her colleagues judge her exceptional, praising “her good judgment and skillful coaching.” But it’s the student evaluations that reveal her talents as a teacher. They commend her ability to make mathematics appealing and creative. Words such as knowledgeable, prepared, thorough, and student-friendly consistently appear in her student evaluations. If one evaluation could be selected to characterize them all, it might be this one: “Dr. Wood is an excellent example of what a teacher should be.”
C. Earl Ramsey, Professor of English
His academic credentials are in 18th century British literature, but as director of UALR’s Donaghey Scholars Program, Dr. Earl Ramsey must command a variety of fields. That he has done so impresses many and surprises few. Whether from colleagues or students, the adjectives used to characterize Dr. Ramsey the teacher routinely reach the superlative. Read letters from former students and you’ll find they each have a common claim – that their own success can be credited to Earl Ramsey.
One of his former students, Rutgers Professor Louise Barnett, even included it in her book on the poetry of Jonathan Swift. It was Dr. Ramsey’s inspiration, she said, “that made the rest possible.” There seems to be a variety of reasons for this devotion, including Dr. Ramsey’s “extraordinary facility for awakening both the rigor and love of scholarship,” that his teaching stretches his students, bringing them to “an accomplished level of learning.” As director of the Donaghey Scholars Program, he gets special recognition from colleagues for refining the curriculum at every level, and for his supervision “at the uber-level” of every senior project. Those same colleagues also applaud his dedication to assessment, pointing out that he used the latest student monitoring techniques long before those techniques became accepted among the broad academic community. It is a 1999 honor, however, that may surpass the other accolades during his 32 years at UALR. That’s when he was recognized for intellect, methodology, motivation, and mentoring not by faculty or administration, but by the students themselves, who selected him for the campuswide Students’ Choice award.