Posted May 29: Ajzenstat, Coleman, Weerasekera win honours
One is described as a walking university. One already holds several awards for educational leadership. Another is a leading figure in developing educational programs for outpatient psychiatry.
They are this year's winners of the President's teaching awards and each has made a significant contribution to educational excellence at McMaster. Philosophy professor Sam Ajzenstat, political scientist William Coleman and psychiatry professor Priyanthy Weerasekera take home this year's awards for Excellence in Instruction, Excellence in Educational Leadership and Excellence in Course or Resources Design.
Established in 1993, the award provides the opportunity for McMaster to recognize outstanding contributions to education. Each winner receives a citation and memento at Convocation and a $5,000 honorarium. Their names and photographs will be included on McMaster's Wall of Recognition in Gilmour Hall.
“I am delighted to extend my congratulations to each of you for this well-deserved honour,” says University President Peter George. “McMaster has been well served by your continuing efforts on behalf of teaching and learning, and our University is very fortunate to number you among our most celebrated colleagues.”
Sam Ajzenstat, President's Award for Excellence in Instruction
A “walking university” is one description of Sam Ajzenstat, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and winner of this year's President's Award for Excellence in Instruction.
An expert in Kant scholarship and a fixture at McMaster for nearly four decades, Ajzenstat earns praise for his ability to bring his subject to life for students. Says former student Anne Leavitt, now a college instructor in British Columbia: “He has been for thousands of students the gadfly that has stung them into thought and the midwife who has aided them in giving birth to beautiful and new ideas. He is a teacher of teachers.”
Demonstrating his belief in the value of interdisciplinary studies, Ajzenstat has participated in McMaster's Theme School on International Justice and Human Rights, the Social Sciences Experimental Program, and the Social and Political Thought Program. Closer to his own faculty, he co-designed and co-taught an introductory humanities course that integrated material from a variety of disciplines and periods. That course eventually became the introductory offering under McMaster's then-new Humanities program.
Beyond his department, he has been a sought-after lecturer for student clubs and other classes. As an associate member of Department of Music, he has been involved in teaching aesthetics as part of a course
in music criticism. Prof. Ajzenstat has been a leader for more than a decade in the McMaster Stratford Seminars on Shakespeare and the Theatre.
Says Min Hun Fong, a fifth-year philosophy honours student, “A class on Kant with Ajzenstat is not just a class on what Kant said: it is instead a comprehensive reflection on humanity as a whole.” Those
sentiments echo what other students said earlier this year when they presented Ajzenstat with the McMaster Students Union Lifetime Achievement Award.
William Coleman, President's Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership
Demonstrated leadership in numerous aspects of teaching and learning at McMaster will be recognized when William Coleman, Department of Political Science, receives the 2002 President's Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership.
Speaking of his colleague, Richard Stubbs, chair of the department, says, “He has provided leadership in education both by energetic example and through enthusiastic contributions to the teaching
and learning environment at McMaster.”
Since the late 1980s, he has become an innovator in developing self-directed learning methods and materials. He has also provided guidance to colleagues in his department and as director of the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition.
Coleman chaired the Senate Task Force on Educational Quality Assurance, whose report helped guide the development of the University's strategic plan and, more recently, the McMaster University Academic Plan.
He served as chair of the Theme School Co-ordinating Committee, which developed the theme school approach to undergraduate education at McMaster. He also established and became director of the Theme
School on Globalization, Social Change and the Human Experience. Coleman helped to create the Indigenous Studies Program and develop the articulation agreement linking five universities with Six
Nations.
His work on the University Committee on Teaching and Learning led to the Policy on the Encouragement of Teaching Excellence. Coleman also chaired the committee that established the first President's
Awards for Teaching in 1992-93.
His leadership extends beyond the university, including his role in assembling international scholars under a $2.5-million federal award for a research project on Globalization and Autonomy.
Among the awards for courses in politics, public policy and globalization that he has taught at McMaster since 1977, Coleman has received the 3M Teaching Fellowship, the Ontario Confederation of
University Faculty Associations Teaching Award and several McMaster Students Union Teaching Awards.
Priyanthy Weerasekera
President's Award for Excellence in Course or Resources Design
Psychiatry residents at McMaster gain unusual scope and breadth in psychotherapy training thanks to an innovative program developed by Priyanthy Weerasekera, an assistant professor of psychiatry & behavioral neurosciences. The program has earned Weerasekera the 2002 President's Teaching Award for Excellence in Course or Resources Design.
The Postgraduate Psychotherapy Program at McMaster differs significantly from traditional psychotherapy training programs across the country. First introduced seven years ago, this program trains residents in a variety of psychotherapies that are considered relevant for the treatment of psychiatric disorders rather than in the traditional single form.
The McMaster curriculum teaches residents specific psychotherapies for psychiatric disorders such as client-centred therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (for anxiety and depressive disorders), psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy, couple and family and group therapy.
What makes the program unique, says its co-ordinator, Weerasekera, is the teaching methods that are utilized. The program is mandatory for all residents and therapy is guided by the use of treatment manuals in order to standardize teaching methods. Audio and videotapes are used in all sessions so supervisors can listen to actual material and provide appropriate feedback and support to residents. Resident competency is assessed and evaluated using rating scales and audiotapes from treatment sessions.
The goal of the program is to train psychiatrists how to be more empathic with their patients, so they develop a therapeutic alliance and become more skilled and better able to offer their patients a wider range of treatment options. Program results indicate it is doing just that. Data collected shows resident satisfaction with the overall program, improvements in resident therapeutic ability across the different modules (therapies) and significant improvement in the ability of residents to encourage patient self-exploration.
External examiners have identified the program as one of the University's strengths. One examiner declared it to be the “best psychotherapy training program in the country.”
Since developing the program, Weerasekera, a graduate of Harvard University, has been invited to share the program design with other Canadian universities and one institution, the University of British Columbia, now uses a similar approach.
Weerasekera has also introduced a similar program at McMaster for fellows and faculty. A leading figure in developing educational programs for outpatient psychiatry at McMaster. In 2001 she received the Association of Psychiatry's Teacher of the Year Award for all of Canada and in 2000 she received the Association of Academic Chairs of Canada Award for Excellence in Education.
