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Helgeland Named Wisconsin Teaching
Scholar
July 1, 2003
Catherine Helgeland,
Professor of Geography and Geology at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, has
been named the 2003-2004 Wisconsin Teaching Scholar for the UW Colleges. She
was appointed by the UW System Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of
Professional and Instructional Development (OPID). Fifteen Scholars are chosen
in the UW System each year.
Wisconsin Teaching Scholars are selected from among
outstanding faculty and academic staff within the UW System who have over 10
years of teaching experience. Focusing on the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL), the program gives participants the opportunity to review the
nature of their own teaching and their students’ learning, and develops a
network of gifted teachers from throughout the UW System.
To be selected as a Wisconsin Teaching Scholar, Helgeland
had to demonstrate evidence of outstanding teaching, success in designing and
implementing curricular innovation, evidence of campus leadership on issues of
teaching and learning, willingness to participate in peer-reviewed, public
demonstrations of her work, and knowledge/interest in the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning.
In his nomination letter, Roland Baldwin, recently retired
UW-Manitowoc Dean, indicated that “Professor Helgeland is a teacher of great
creativity and energy who continually seeks new ways to be more effective as a
teacher.” Helgeland admits, “I have been fascinated by the process, craft, art
and science of teaching since well before I first set foot in a classroom as an
instructor.” In fact, she says that one of her greatest joys is when students
have positive responses to changes she’s made in her teaching. “I get a kick
out of it,” she exclaims.
Helgeland will be undertaking a major course revision as
part of the program based on SoTL principles which involve forming questions
about how students learn, and then conducting research to answer the questions.
In order to do this, Helgeland will be collaborating with UW-Stevens Point
Professor of Art, Diane Bywaters. The two professors plan to integrate
Helgeland’s Landform Geography course with Bywaters’ Landscape Painting course.
The joint course revision project will involve Helgeland
and Bywaters developing a means of co-teaching their courses. They plan to link
their courses using technology such as web conferences, compressed video and the
internet, so that students on the UW-Manitowoc and UW-Stevens Point campuses can
work together, collaborating on projects combining art and landform geography.
Helgeland and Bywaters previously worked together in a
collaborative effort combining Helgeland’s Earth Science and Human Environment
class with Bywaters’ Landscape Painting course. During that experience, the two
professors developed many questions about how their students learn using
different styles. Helgeland and Bywaters plan to investigate these issues
further this time around. Unlike the first collaboration, however, this time
students on the two campuses will be exposed to more than just another
discipline - they will actually have a chance to interact with one another.
According to Helgeland, “UW-Manitowoc geography students
will mentor UW-Stevens Point art students in landscape analysis, while Stevens
Point art students will mentor Manitowoc students in landscape painting.” The
culminating project of the combined classes will be an art show in which
geographic analysis of landscapes will accompany students’ landscape paintings.
As part of their undertaking, Helgeland and Bywaters will
carefully examine the effects of their collaboration to see if students’
understanding is enhanced by the presence of another discipline and interaction
with students on another campus in that discipline. Helgeland hopes that by
revising her course to include a significant input of art, students’ ability to
analyze landscapes will be enhanced.
Students on both campuses will also benefit from the
collaboration by being able to fulfill specific graduation requirements.
UW-Manitowoc students will complete their requirement for an interdisciplinary
course, and UW-Stevens Point students will fulfill their Environmental Literacy
requirement.
Helgeland has been a Professor
of Geography and Geology at UW-Manitowoc since 1980 and in 1997 she was awarded
the Regents Teaching Excellence Award. She received her bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from UW-Madison. Helgeland has written numerous publications and made
presentations on the topic of teaching and learning on local, state and national
levels.
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