Barbara Nodine honored for teaching excellence

Foundation to give award at Boston convention.

By Ted Baroody

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) has honored Barbara Nodine, PhD,with the 1999 APF Award for Distinguished Teaching of Psychology for significant career contributions to the teaching of psychology. Winners are selected by the APF Teaching Subcommittee with the approval of the APF Board of Trustees.

Nodine studied psychology as an undergraduate at Bucknell University and experimental psychology as a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts. Inspired by her undergraduate involvement with hands-on research projects, she sought a teaching career in an academic environment that strongly encouraged undergraduate research. Nodine has taught for the past 30 years at Beaver College, a small academic institution near Philadelphia.

Much of her work has centered on applying cognitive psychology to students' classroom learning--in particular, writing as a teaching and learning tool. For instance, she used writing instead of the traditional memory task to investigate how learning-disabled children form story schemas.

Nodine was a founder and active participant in the national writing-across-the-curriculum movement at Beaver College. She has written and edited several books and numerous articles on how psychologists can better use writing to help students learn. A workshop leader on more than 100 campuses, from California to New York, she informs and persuades faculty to incorporate new techniques in their teaching, and to reconsider what teaching means.

She is also interested in the impact of curriculum content and structure on learning, especially that of the psychology curriculum. She has served the profession as a member of the St. Mary's Conference Steering Committee, as an author and presenter who discusses the ideal form of the curriculum and as a department evaluator.

Nodine will also deliver APF's 1999 Distinguished Teaching of Psychology lecture, "The value of undergraduate research," at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 22 in meeting room 310 of the Hynes Center.

The Teaching Subcommittee adheres to the following guidelines for selection: Nominees must show influence as a teacher of students who become psychologists; development of effective teaching methods and materials; research on teaching; development of innovative curricula and courses; performance as a classroom teacher; training of teachers of psychology; teaching of advanced research methods and practice of psychology; and administrative facilitation of teaching.

Members of the 1999 APF Teaching Subcommittee are Ronald E. Fox, PhD (chair); Charles L. Brewer, PhD, Margaret A. Lloyd, PhD, and Margaret W. Matlin, PhD.



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