[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Butler_Richardcrop.jpg” caption=”Professor Richard Butler”]Colleagues and educators across the country have honoured a McMaster professor for his contributions to teaching and learning.

Professor Richard Butler, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades from McMaster's students and administration. On June 13 in Hamilton, he was honoured again, this time by colleagues and educators nationwide.

Butler is the recipient of one of this year's prestigious 3M Teaching Fellowships.

The 3M Teaching Fellowships were created through a partnership between 3M Canada Inc and the Society for Teaching Learning and Higher Education (STLHE). Since the program began in 1986, more than 160 educators across Canada have been recognized.

These awards are given to individuals who not only excel in the teaching of their own courses, but also demonstrate an exceptionally high degree of leadership and commitment to the improvement of university teaching across disciplines.

Butler does just that.

In the classroom, Butler's aim is to make students think. One of McMaster's pioneers in problem-based teaching, he incorporates a problem-based, self-directed approach to all of the courses he teaches. As an instructor in both the Faculties of Health Sciences and Science, he helps students develop their knowledge and understanding, and stimulates them to strive to reach their potential.

In the field of education, Butler's influence extends beyond his students to other professors and other institutions. He has developed over 15 self-teaching modules and eight videotapes, which have been widely disseminated to universities in seven different countries.

What motivates him in his teaching?
“It's fun!,” he says. He most enjoys trying to simplify the complicated: “In my main area (anatomy), there's an awful lot of stuff that can be learned…You have to be ready to teach pretty much everything, and there's ways to simplify it to make it comprehensible.”

Making the complicated comprehensible is what keeps students signing up for his courses. The two larger courses that he teaches for the Faculty of Science are not required in any program and they are always fully subscribed, with waiting lists.

Nominations for the fellowships are submitted by teachers on their own behalf, or by their colleagues. Mathematics and statistics professor Miroslav Lovric, in his letter nominating Butler, wrote, “Although students know when they have been through his hands, the benefits he has laid upon two Faculties usually go unacknowledged in spite of the impact they have had. I believe that a 3M Teaching Fellowship Award would recognize his longstanding commitment to his students and the extent of educational leadership that has benefited so many aspects of undergraduate education here at McMaster.”