Fall 2006

Deborah Roach, Cavaliers’ Distinguished
Teaching Professor

The Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship was established in 1991 to recognize an eminent scholar for outstanding teaching of undergraduates. In addition to receiving a summer salary, Cavaliers’ DTPs teach University Seminars (USEMS) and work with the Teaching Resource Center to promote the general enhancement of teaching at the University. Teaching Concerns highlights this year’s winner, Deborah Roach of the Department of Biology.

Debbie Roach describes her primary teaching goal as infecting students “with an intellectual excitement so that they will have a life-long interest in scientific discoveries.” More than just teaching long-established facts or previously answered questions, Debbie emphasizes the “how-to” of the scientific process of discovery in her classes by including cutting-edge research in her lectures. In so doing, she teaches her students that there are still many questions to be explored and that they can contribute to finding the answers. A colleague writes that Debbie “instills in her students a passion for real science, the way it is done in the real world.” Whether or not her students eventually become scientists themselves, Debbie hopes her classes will help them critically evaluate what they read about science in the newspaper or see on television.

Combined with her enthusiasm, Debbie’s choice to include recent discoveries in her lectures and her conversational lecture style make her classes current, engaging and highly interactive. Students describe her classes as challenging and worth it-as a place where they “did a lot more active learning than passive.” A current undergraduate sums up Debbie’s approach to teaching nicely: “She does not teach at you, but shares with you.”