Cottrell Scholar Awards
News
Cottrell Scholar Impact
by Michael Dennin, University of California, Irvine | September 28th, 2008
A consistent theme at Cottrell Scholar meetings is how one achieves lasting educational reforms.
One factor is the Cottrell Scholar awards themselves, and the long time-frame associated with support given to the Scholars.
For example, I recently reached the point in my career where I’m in a position (as director of undergraduate education) to direct change in my department. In fact, this year, we’re implementing two key components to all our lower division courses: online homework and studio-style discussion sections led by the TAs. These changes are being accepted by 15 different faculty responsible for teaching these courses.
How were we successful in receiving such a large scale acceptance of these changes? I firmly believe that two key elements were involved:
One is the dedication of another faculty member for providing the training for the teaching assistants.The other is my involvement in the Cottrell Scholar program. I believe this has played a role in two important, but difficult to quantify, ways.
First, the award itself came at a timely point in my career for funding in general and provided a stepping stone for much of my success as a researcher. This has played an important role in earning the respect of my colleagues, a necessary piece in their acceptance of the educational reforms.
Second, the Cottrell Scholar Award has provided constant support for my teaching interest through periodic involvement in the annual meetings. This has helped keep me engaged, informed, and in contact with a community of top-researchers who are also interested in education. This allowed me regularly to return to my department and have ongoing conversations of educational issues with my colleagues that were both informed and relevant to a research university. I believe that this ongoing dialogue laid an important foundation for our current changes.
As has so often been discussed at the Cottrell Scholar meetings, it’s not enough for one person to do things differently. However, when that one person suddenly finds themselves in charge, is respected by the department, and has spent years discussing the possibilities, it’s amazing what can be achieved.