The College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM) would like to congratulate Jill Kawalec, Ph.D. on her recent receipt of a Gold Teaching Recognition Award from Kent State University!
The purpose of the teaching development award program is to recognize and reward faculty effort in enhancing teaching and learning in their courses. Faculty can earn tiered awards based on efforts to learn about, implement, evaluate and investigate evidence-based instructional practices. At the Gold level, Dr. Kawalec is recognized for her scholarly assessment and revision of innovative course components and sharing results with colleagues.
Dr. Kawalec’s award centered around teaching innovation in her Principles of Medical Research class. Over time, she noted that students consistently struggled to learn commonly-used statistical tests and when to use them. In order to enhance student understanding and retention, she implemented a method of collaborative learning known as the jigsaw technique. Specific to the Medical Research class, each student was instructed to become an “expert” in one of six commonly-used statistical tests prior to class. During class, the students broke into “expert” groups, all of which were assigned the same test, in order to reinforce their understanding of the material. The students then broke into “jigsaw” groups, consisting of at least one “expert” for each statistical test. After teaching their test to the others in the group, the students studied various research design scenarios and then determined the appropriate statistical tests to use in the described studies. Research conducted by Dr. Kawalec along with Viveka Jenks (CPM Education Innovation and Learning Design Manager) and Donna Perzeski (CPM Library Director) demonstrated that the jigsaw technique significantly enhanced student understanding of all of the statistical tests, and that students perceived the method to be an effective and preferred way to learn.
Congratulations, Dr. Kawalec! The College thanks you for your continued passion for teaching, research and service to the CPM students and medical community as a whole.