The Center for Teaching and Learning has announced the 2021-22 winners of the Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA), including Jennifer Fronc, Professor of History. Since 1961, the University of Massachusetts has presented the Distinguished Teaching Award to instructors who demonstrate exemplary teaching at the highest institutional level. This highly competitive and prestigious campus-wide honor is the only student-initiated award on campus. This year’s review committees, comprised of former DTA winners, noted particularly how difficult their task was given the excellence of the nominees and how exceptional these award winners are.
Faculty Awards
Jennifer Fronc, Professor, Department of History
Professor Jennifer Fronc teaches undergraduate survey courses in history as well as junior year writing seminars on U.S. immigration and the history of policing. Students commented on Fronc’s breadth of knowledge, writing that she was “never without an answer” when it came to student questions. Another student shared, “She taught us how to read better as historians, a skillset rarely explicated yet profoundly necessary for my professional and intellectual development.” After years of observing a shift in class dynamics, particularly around grades and a desire by students for their writing to be perfect before it was handed in for feedback, realized she needed to implement a change. As she wrote in her teaching statement: “I was struck by the inherent contradiction in my position, teaching courses on the history of policing and engaging in “cop pedagogy,” with strict attendance policies and punitive late assignment grading schemes. Was my role as enforcer tainting the learning environment and impeding my students’ willingness to fully and honestly engage with the course content, their classmates, and me?” In response, Fronc implemented labor-based contract grading into her junior writing seminars, where she assumed the role of editor and offered developmental comments on writing. This approach helped Fronc remember “the human attached to the paper I was evaluating.”
Elizabeth (Beth) Jakob, Professor, Department of Biology and Associate Dean for Student Success, Graduate School
Professor Elizabeth Jakob is a previous TIDE Ambassador and Lilly Teaching Fellow as well as a past recipient of the College Outstanding Teaching Award. She has coordinated college-wide the Junior Year Writing in Psychology courses to be taught by graduate students. She created a mentoring teaching experience and designed the core curriculum that instructors used to build courses based on their own areas of expertise. She expanded this teaching model to coach Teaching Fellows in the College of Natural Sciences, who lead their First-Year Seminars. This training model included professional development for the fellows over the summer. One of the fellows commented, “What really made the meetings worthwhile was Beth's warmth and sincere commitment to helping all of us instructors succeed, while giving us permission to try new things and develop our own personal teaching voice.” Jakob also explores innovative pedagogy in in her own courses, recently replacing exams with a creative alternative assessment that asked students to expand upon a topic from the lecture with primary source literature. One of her students shared, “This was an amazing implementation because it allowed students to take charge of their own learning in ways that work best for them.”
Mazen Naous, Associate Professor, Department of English
Professor Naous, a previous winner of the College Outstanding Teaching Award and past Lilly Teaching Fellow, teaches undergraduate and graduate English courses on literatures of conflict, contemporary Arab American fiction and the immigrant experience. Naous noted that he makes a point to listen to his students and develop courses in accordance with their intellectual interests. His course, Contemporary Arab American Fiction, was created because students asked for a course that addressed Islamophobia and the monolithic representation of Arabs in the U.S. Many students commented on how his courses have changed their outlook on the world and have turned “sleep-deprived college students into excited global citizens.” Another student shared that by teaching works that highlight non-traditional or underrepresented experiences, Naous encourages students to “write with a multi-disciplinary and socially aware perspective in mind; a skill which naturally translates well to other courses and beyond college.”
Caleb Rounds, Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology
Professor Rounds, a previous winner of the College Outstanding Teaching Award, and past TIDE Ambassador, teaches large enrollment introductory biology courses and associated labs. To engage his students, he guides them through a series of problems interspersed with explanation and illustration. Using an audience response system to pose questions, Rounds measures student learning in the moment and adapts the lecture to meet students where they are. Rounds’ teaching excellence extends beyond the classroom. He is currently the associate chair for teaching in the biology department, and was involved with co-developing Bio-Prep, a stand-alone Moodle module that a student can take any time to deepen their knowledge of key concepts in Biology. His students have commented that Professor Rounds is “exceptional” at conveying complex material in an understandable manner, and they are amazed “to encounter a professor who truly empowers and gives students the chance to aspire to great academic height.” Another student shared how Professor Rounds “creates an environment in which students feel safe to ask ‘ridiculous’ questions for the mere purpose of satiating curiosity or even discovering the unknown.”
Graduate Student Awards
Jeannine Blake, graduate student, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
Blake is a doctoral student in nursing and the instructor of Undergraduate Advanced Medical Surgical Clinical held at Baystate Hospital and has served as a teaching assistant for Undergraduate Nursing Research. Blake is known for mentoring her students, pushing them to reflect on why certain medical tasks may be needed, what their role is in supporting physicians, what might happen when they give certain medications, and how patients’ diagnoses could affect them. One student commented, “Jeannine ingrained in me a very important nursing concept: Always question why you are doing what you’re doing. I carry this lesson with me every day in my practice.” Many students commented on how it was Blake’s nature to work with them one-on-one, mentor them, and connect them with other faculty who could help them on their learning journey. As one student shared, “She was the first person I heard refer to nurses as professionals. It expanded my vision for my career; not just as a caretaker, but as a credentialed, autonomous individual with a strong comprehension for health sciences.”
Darya Tourzani, graduate student, Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Tourzani is a doctoral student in animal sciences and was the teaching assistant and laboratory instructor for courses in animal science and animal management. Students commented on her ability to create a welcoming classroom atmosphere and how easily she connected with students. One student shared, “Darya has a unique ability to connect with students at an emotional level…I believe this ability, along with her passion for helping new students discover a place within animal sciences is what makes Darya so successful as an instructor.” Tourzani is also known for conducting one-on-one teaching in the research lab demonstrating methods to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-docs. As one student remarked, “Darya demonstrates such a high level of patience, understanding, and compassion, taking the time to listen to and answer any questions or concerns a student may have and creating a comfortable learning environment for the students.”
A version of this article was originally published by the UMass Amherst News & Media Relations Office.