'We need
to value our teachers'
Lewis' work in the classroom and
in programs for teaching
all ages earn him a universitywide
honor
Note: This is the second in a three-part series
about the
UNL winners of the 2003 University of Nebraska
Outstanding Research
and Creative Activity and Outstanding Teaching
and Instructional
Creativity awards.
By Kim Hachiya,
University Communications
Jim Lewis turned what was once
merely a personal passion about
good teaching into a mission that
informs nearly all his activities.
A professor of mathematics and
statistics, Lewis received an
Outstanding Teaching and
Instructional Creativity Award from
the University of Nebraska this
spring. And he was inducted into
the Academy of Distinguished
Teachers at UNL.
Lewis joined the UNL faculty in 1971 as an
assistant professor.
He'd just earned his bachelor's and doctoral
degrees from Louisiana
State University, and he found himself in a
department where
"quite a few individuals believed teaching
was important
and who took enormous pride in their teaching."
Lewis was
of like mind, and for the next 17 years, his approach to
teaching
was "intensely personal," in that it was
motivated
by personal pride, he said, rather than codified rewards
and
promotions based on good teaching.
In 1988, he
was appointed department chair and began to look
at the
department's goals and values. He came to a simple conclusion:
"Teaching is a learned activity. Bright people can learn
to
teach when the value system says good teaching is important.
We
teach indirectly by helping to create a culture and climate
in our
department that values good teaching," he said.
Lewis
is proud that half of the tenured faculty in the department
have
won college distinguished teaching awards. Five of its graduate
students have been honored by the Alumni Association for outstanding
teaching. And the department received the universitywide departmental
teaching award in 1998, the same year it received a national
Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and
Engineering Mentoring.
"We share a collective pride in
the department that we
offer high quality teaching," he said.
"It's one of
the things we look for in teaching candidates.
And we try to
extend this philosophy to our graduate students. They
teach a
lot of people here, and everybody deserves high quality
instruction."
Lewis clearly has thought a lot about
what goes into good
teaching. His father, a high school science
teacher, is one of
his teaching heroes.
"My
father had the capacity to just stare at a class
and command
respect and get cooperation. To some degree, I worked
on developing
'the stare,'" Lewis said.
"The stare,"
however, led to Lewis developing a
reputation as being
intimidating. He also has high expectations
for his students, and
he teaches challenging courses, such as
honors calculus. But he
also has a great belief in his students'
abilities to excel given
encouragement and leadership.
"We know we give the
lowest grades, on average, on campus,"
Lewis said of his
department. "Lots of kids are not in our
classes voluntarily.
We have a hard task. When you hold people
accountable, you are not
always loved. But to me, it's rewarding
how many students will rise
to the occasion if you communicate
your expectations, and
demonstrate a genuine belief in their
capabilities to
achieve."
Recently, Lewis has been working directly
with future teachers.
He has several times in his career been
involved in national
efforts to improve mathematics education.
"It struck me that I had an obligation to get into the
trenches and learn the issues of teaching teachers," he
said.
In 1999, he and Ruth Heaton and Patience Fisher, both
of Teachers
College, received a $199,911 grant from the National
Science
Foundation to create "Math Matters," an 18-hour
cohort
block for elementary education students. The intensive
course
is designed to better prepare future teachers by combining
practicum,
pedagogy and mathematics courses, and encouraging the
students
to see the connections between the math they are studying
and
what they observe in their practicum at Lincoln's Roper
Elementary
School.
"Interest in mathematics is
not the primary reason people
go into el ed," Lewis said.
"They have a lot of math
fear and math disinterest. But they
do have an intensely strong
desire to be good teachers."
Lewis said his approach to teaching - high expectations, challenging
students to think deeply, and lots of support and encouragement
-
has worked with this group. It also helps, he said, that Heaton's
gentler teaching style reduces the anxiety that Lewis might inspire.
"We are thrilled with their response. We help them rediscover
their own ability to learn math and they really do learn it.
And
they make enormous progress and show an amazing ability to
teach
mathematics well."
Lewis said graduates of the
program, which is voluntary, show
a higher degree of
professionalism after graduation. They are
getting good jobs and
good job reviews based on their strong
preparation.
This is the fourth pilot year for Math Matters. Next fall,
it
will be fully implemented.
Lewis concedes it's rare for a
math department work closely
with an education department, but he's
committed to the project.
"Good teachers matter. The
real key to better K-12 education
is better teachers. We need to
value our teachers," he said.
Lewis' department is
working not only to improving the teaching
of mathematics at the
elementary school level, but also at the
doctoral level. His
department is one of eight chosen to participate
in the national
Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, a project
designed to improve
doctoral education.
One of the reasons UNL was chosen, he
believes, is the department's
success in attracting, mentoring and
graduating female doctoral
candidates.
When Lewis
became department chair, he said, he was dismayed
by the
department's sorry record of graduating doctoral candidates,
particularly women. His work in improving the climate for all
graduate students by creating an environment of expecting and
encouraging success has paid off. About 45 percent of the department's
graduate students are female, and the total number of doctoral
students has jumped.
Lewis is stepping down as chair this
summer. But he's not
dropping out of his role as agent of change.
He'll help spearhead
the Carnegie initiative and continue to work
with Math Matters.
He laughs as he remembers a piece of
advice his dad gave him
years ago.
"My dad said
that if I was going to go into teaching,
I should teach at a
university because the pay and the hours
are better. Ironically, my
sister, who taught third grade in
Texas, for years made more money
than I, and she had better hours."
But for Lewis it's
about pride and seeing his students excel.
Undergrad trend
numbers improve
Data being prepared for a September report
on Institutional
Indicators of Quality show positive trends in
several areas that
reflect the educational experience of UNL
undergraduate students.
Rita Kean, interim associate vice
chancellor for academic
affairs, said the data indicate UNL is
doing an increasingly
better job attracting and retaining students,
and preparing students
for success.
"These
numbers suggest many of the programs we have in
place are working
well," Kean said. "All indications
are that our
undergraduate students are getting more out of their
experience at
UNL."
On May 1, Kean will become UNL's first dean of
undergraduate
studies, a new position created by funds reallocated
from downsizing
in the Office of Academic Affairs. Adding the new
dean is part
of a multifaceted strategy toward continued
improvement of the
undergraduate experience. The effort also
includes programs such
as Undergraduate Creative Activity and
Research Experiences,
Academic Learning Communities, the Honors
Program and University
Foundations Program.
Highlights of the Institutional Indicators of Quality report
data:
- Graduation rates and retention rates
have increased, meaning
higher proportions of first-year students
are returning to UNL
for a second year and eventually graduating.
These data indicate
that UNL is doing a better job at offering
the classes and services
students need to succeed. The six-year
graduation rate has climbed
from 47.1 percent in 1996-97 to 54.3
percent in 2002-03. The
first- to second-year retention rate has
climbed from 74.1 percent
in 1996-97 to 81.7 percent in 2002-03.
- In surveys of more than 2,500 graduating students in the
past
two years, more than one-third report having had a significant
research or creative activity experience and having participated
in an internship, co-op or service-learning experience.
- The
proportion of students who graduate from Nebraska high
schools in
the top 10 percent of their class who matriculate
to UNL
continues to grow. For fall 2002, UNL attracted three
out of 10
of Nebraska's most highly qualified high school graduates.
In
1999-2000, 28.7 percent of top students came to UNL. In 2002-03,
30.7 percent matriculated.
- Both the undergraduate student
population and the tenured
and tenure-track faculty have become
more diverse. In 1996-97,
5.53 percent of UNL undergraduates were
people of color. In 2002-03,
6.8 percent were people of color.
Over the same period, the number
of faculty who are female or
faculty of color rose from 29.7
percent to 34.5 percent.
Water expert to give Thompson
lecture April
30
Peter Gleick, an
internationally known expert on global freshwater
resources and
issues, will give the final lecture for the 2002-2003
in the E.N.
Thompson Forum on World Issues.
Gleick's lecture,
"Water and War: Issues for the 21st
Century," will begin
at 3:30 p.m. April 30 in the Lied Center
for Performing Arts. It is
free and open to the public and will
be broadcast live online at
<www.unl.edu>,
on Lincoln
cable channel 21, KRNU radio station (90.3 FM) and
UNL campus
TV.
Gleick is co-founder and president of the Pacific
Institute
for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in
Oakland,
Calif., and is an expert on the impacts of climate change,
sustainable
water use and international conflicts on water
resources. He
serves on the boards of many organizations and is an
Academician
of the International Water Academy in Oslo, Norway.
Gleick has warned in an interview with the BBC that "the
future we're heading for is a world in which billions of people
do
not have access to basic clean drinking water." In November
2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights declared that there is a human right to water, although
millions of people, mostly children, die each year from preventable,
water-related diseases.
This lecture is co-sponsored by The
Groundwater Foundation.
|
