Professor Joe Shapter

I believe these are exceptionally challenging times for university educators.  Both students and staff seem to have less time for education.  Given this there are several roles I play to make education a rewarding and worthwhile experience for both student and teacher.

In my own teaching, I try to do two things.  The first is to make the experience enjoyable and even entertaining.  My second effort in teaching is to always relate topic material to real-world examples that people can understand.

The energy required to ensure a chemical reaction occurs might be a difficult concept for some but everyone understands what happens when cars collide and the effect of speed on this process.  Ultimately, I don't think I, or any other teacher, can make people learn. The role of educators must be in the facilitation of learning through guiding and stimulating interest and motivation such that students learn because they want to learn.

The most important outcome for any educator is that students enjoy learning and thus progress to become complete, independent life-long learners. As associate dean (teaching) my role is to help present everyone with new approaches to teaching with an eye to improving teaching for both students and teachers. This might mean the use of new technology, new approaches or simply different methods of presentation.