Samford’s Stephen Chew named US Professor of the Year

Samford University psychology professor and department chair Stephen Chew has been named the 2011 U.S. Professor of the Year for Outstanding Master’s Universities and Colleges by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Chew was recognized by the foundation at the annual U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17. The Carnegie program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country and is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

Samford President Andrew Westmoreland described the award as “the most prestigious teaching designation in American higher education.”

The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education began the program in 1981.

“Once you adopt the attitude that the measure of teaching effectiveness is student learning, a lot of teaching’s most difficult conundrums become solvable,” Chew said during his comments at the awards ceremony held at the Newseum in Washington.

“You learn the difference between teaching that makes it easy for students to learn and teaching that makes it easy for students to make a good grade; you give up moving from teaching fad to teaching fad and start to develop knowledge that will move the whole teaching enterprise forward; you give up the idea that good students make for good classes; and you realize that great teachers can create great students and great students, like Amy Fineburg (a former Chew student), can inspire and create great teachers.

“Finally,” Chew said, “you realize that great teaching is a selfless act. Student learning comes before your own ego and convenience, and you rely heavily on the support of family, colleagues and the school’s administration.”

“After a few years of teaching,” he said, “I confronted the question that I think all faculty face at some point — a question that marks a critical juncture in their career — ‘I wonder what my students are learning?’”

From Dallas, Chew has been at Samford since 1993. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and doctorate from the University of Minnesota. (SU)