June 12, 2009
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
anne.russell@ufv.ca
Humour, humility, and love of sharing knowledge key to
teaching success for Teaching Excellence winner
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Dr. Sven van de Wetering |
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Perhaps the best teachers never stop thinking of themselves as students... and never stop thinking of students as fellow human beings.
Those are two of the teaching secrets of Dr. Sven van de Wetering of Port Coquitlam, a University of the Fraser Valley psychology professor who is this year’s recipient of the UFV Teaching Excellence award.
Van de Wetering, who admits to being pleasantly surprised as well as intimidated by the honour, says the fact that he spent so many years as a student helps him still feel like one of their peers in many ways.
“Even though it’s now seven years since I earned my PhD, I was a student for so long that I still have a self-conscious view of myself as a freshly graduated student, and I think that helps keep me genuine and approachable,” he speculates.
Recalling that one of UFV’s earlier teaching excellence recipients, physicist George McGuire, would bring props to class to illustrate concepts, van de Wetering says that he views himself as a human prop, or psychology’s equivalent of a medical school anatomy dummy.
“I often use myself as an example in a humble, self-deprecating way, and admit to my own faults,” he says. “I don’t bring a box of props or tricks, but I stand before them as a complete person, and a model of what an educated person can be, reflecting both strengths and weaknesses. I do hear that my students like me, and I like them too. I think it’s important to have good rapport and to see them as people with full lives outside the classroom.”
Van de Wetering teaches many introductory psychology courses, as well as specialized upper-level courses in social psychology, cultural psychology, the psychology of language, political psychology, the history of psychology, and social cognition. He also supervises senior students in directed studies projects.
“Sven is an incredible mentor who spends many hours supporting our growth and learning though weekly discussions, and who knows how to prepare us for graduate school and supports us in that goal,” notes Claire Richardson, one of his directed studies students.
Psychology major Mark Jaholkowski who instigated Van de Wetering’s nomination for the teaching excellence award, also has high praise for the psychology professor.
“Sven’s approach to learning and sharing knowledge is what I believe makes him exceptional. His soft-spoken nature is not intimidating, his ability to relate personal experiences with his teaching is inviting, and his humour - both subtle and overt - is entertaining. Sven’s ability to take scholarly knowledge and make it understandable to his academic audience is a welcoming experience for any student who has struggled in classroom learning.”
Psychology department head Wayne Podrouzek echoed the students’ support for van de Wetering.
“He is one of those rare souls who excels in all aspects of education. As an active researcher who publishes regularly, he is able to engage students in cutting-edge theory and empirical work both in and out of the classroom.”
While he was still a PhD student, van de Wetering wrote an essay on the topic of The University After the Year 2000 that won him the first prize of a trip to Prague for Charles University’s 650th anniversary. In it, he discusses his belief that universities shouldn’t just prepare students to be workers and consumers of material goods, but should also help them to understand more about our world and society in order to prepare them to be informed and engaged citizens.
“Upon re-reading that essay almost 10 years later, I see that it’s even more relevant these days,” he notes. “It’s not hard at all to get information these days. With the internet you can find almost any information you need. But you get it in tiny unconnected pieces. A big part of education should be to not just provide information, but to help students integrate it into a coherent framework, so that they can make sense of it.”
After being an academic nomad for much of his adult life, with degrees from UBC, Concordia, and Simon Fraser, a visiting year at a German university, and sessional teaching at several lower mainland institutions, van de Wetering is happy to have found an academic home at UFV.
“After teaching here for several years I was offered a full-time position and I was extremely happy about that. Some people are afraid of commitment but I found it very energizing and liberating. I started the Linguistics Circle discussion group, played more of a role in meetings, and designed courses because I knew I had a future here.”
As he prepared to accept the Teaching Excellence award at UFV’s Convocation ceremony, van de Wetering noted that it will “up the ante” for him a bit this fall.
“I accept that I’m a fairly good and popular teacher, but getting this award means that there are those that think I’m the best, for this year, out of several hundred peers. I won’t be able to go into the classroom with the same anonymity as I did before now that I have this to live up to.”
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