Glenn
Ellis, U.S. Professor of the Year
When I was in college,
I recall speaking to my advisor, Professor Fang—a good man and mentor to me—about
my interest in becoming a professor. He told me that
I had potential in research, but he had grave concerns about
my prospects for becoming a good teacher. So I would
like to thank the Carnegie Foundation for The Advancement
of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education both for granting me this wonderful honor and also
for perhaps easing Professor Fang’s mind a bit. I
am certainly grateful for the opportunity to participate
in this celebration of teaching and learning.
Given that engineers literally
shape our surroundings and the way we live our lives, it
is critical that all members of our society are represented
in the profession. To
quote Dr. Wulf from the National Academy of Engineering, “If
all are not involved in creating engineering solutions, needs
are unstated and, therefore, unmet…This has gone beyond
an equity issue.” I am pleased that I am being
honored today not so much as an individual, but more for
what I have been able to accomplish as a member of a team
creating the first engineering program at a women’s
college—an endeavor that has been highly successful
by a variety of measures. I have been privileged to work
with a community of faculty and students that is attempting
to change the way engineers are educated—and, beyond
that, the nature of the profession itself, its relationship
to the liberal arts, and the role of women in it. For us
this means changing what we teach—by emphasizing
the interaction of engineering with society and its role
in serving humanity and sustaining our planet. It also
means changing how we teach—by empowering
the learner, and by making the climate welcoming and supportive
for all students. Because nationally only about one
in five engineering students is a woman, this also means
reaching out with our vision to girls much younger than college
age.
Receiving an honor such
as this inevitably leads one to reflect—an activity for which I wish there was more
time in education and in our lives in general. As I reflect
upon teaching and education, the point that is most clear
to me is the importance of respecting our students. They
often surprise and sometimes amaze us when given a chance,
particularly when we attend to their needs as learners. While
we do owe it to them to be scholars in our own subject areas,
it is to me a contradiction to value our own scholarship
and at the same time disregard the research on learning.
It is just not good enough to teach the way that we were
taught. We know that doing so in engineering will surely
exclude many of the young people we need to attract.
For me a transformative
moment came about ten years ago when I taught an electrical
circuits lab. Each
year on the first day of the lab the room would fill with
the smell of fried resistors and blown fuses. To prevent
this I added a perfectly crafted pre-lab lecture and demonstration
on how to build a circuit. Students regularly nodded
their heads, indicating their understanding, and then went
to the lab tables where they promptly filled the room with
the smell of fried resistors and blown fuses. What
I said and what they learned were only loosely connected. A
lecture was the wrong pedagogical tool—as if I had
used a hammer when my task was to cut a piece of wood! Maybe
frying resistors and blowing fuses is a valuable part of
the learning process and my job is to understand and manage
the experience and maximize the learning that results?
I have many people to
thank. Provost Borque and President
Christ, you have not only supported me directly, you have
also instilled Smith with ideals that make me proud to be
on the faculty. To my friends at the Ford Motor Company,
thank you for all of your generous support. To my colleagues
on the engineering faculty, I am always learning from each
of you and I am touched by your friendship every day. In
particular, thank you Dr. Jones, for sharing this special
day with me. I also want to thank my friends and collaborators
at Smith and elsewhere—particularly Dr. Rudnitsky,
Dr. Scordilis and Dr. Turner. To the students at Smith,
I can imagine no better way to live my life than to work
and learn with you. We have fun together and I rejoice
in your successes. In particular, thank you Linda for
your kind remarks today. Finally, I would like to thank
my family. To my parents, you have raised me with love and
sacrifice and have been my most important teachers. To
my wife, Sonia, and to my sons, Andrew and Jamie—you
bring happiness and meaning to my life each day.
Teaching Statement
I remember my straightforward focus when I began teaching
was to deliver clear, informative and-I hoped-interesting
lectures about engineering. It never occurred to me that
I might have a hand in shaping the nature of how engineering
is taught. But gradually my focus shifted. I became an ardent
scholar of learning and along the way came to believe that
better teaching could actually guide students to create a
better world.
Prompted by globalization and rapid changes in technology,
today's engineering leaders are calling for major change
in how engineering is taught. They also want to boost women's
persistently low numbers (representing just 9 percent) in
the engineering field.
I joined Smith College, a women's college, because I had
the opportunity to help create from the ground up the first
engineering program specifically designed for women. This
revamping is an enormous undertaking, one that redefines
both what is taught and how it is taught. Since it took hold
at Smith, three consecutive classes have produced retention
rates far exceeding the national average. Our program has
received accreditation and has been nationally recognized
as a model of engineering education reform.
My biggest challenge was to design instruction based on
research about how people learn, and then implement it systematically
throughout the curriculum. I've led teaching workshops and
developed tools such as engineering concept maps. An example
is using the concept of a horse and rider to illustrate key
concepts of continuum mechanics such as loading and stress
distribution. Scaling up these approaches to a program-wide
and national level may have the greatest impact on the profession.
However, what inspires me on a daily basis are the personal
relationships I develop with my students as we learn together.
My classroom approach is to engage by focusing on each learner's
need. I use concept questions, hands-on discovery learning,
group problem-solving, investigative case studies and project-based
learning. Peer teaching, self-reflective narratives, and
student-directed projects are some of the metacognitive approaches
I use to help students take control of their own learning.
I also strive to integrate
engineering with the liberal arts. My goal is to replace
engineering training with a more holistic experience that
inspires meaningful learning, reflection, personal growth
and enlightenment. For example, I teach
the concept of artificial intelligence within a philosophy
of the mind conceptual framework. Students thereby think
more broadly about AI and the nature of their own existence.
In continuum mechanics, students work on project teams to
produce their own educational videos.
Reforming undergraduate engineering education is only part
of the story. It is well known that to really impact the
profession we must reach younger ages. I have begun working
with K-12 teachers using a program that shows how engineering
serves people and can support a sustainable future. I am
also co-leading a project to write novels for middle-school
girls that integrate stories with engineering activities.
The fundamental ideas of teaching and learning also support
better community, relationships, dialogue--the things that
bring the most joy to the classroom. We can see that the
ideas are working in rising retention rates and consistently
positive student feedback. But there is another more personal
measure: the e-mails I receive from alumni years later, still
seeking advice and connection. There is also the shared delight
over classroom jokes and discoveries, and-music that will
ring for a long time-the sound of a dozen students lined
up at my office door, singing a song about engineering they
composed just for me.
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