Innovations in motivating students featured in Teaching Academy video series

Strategies for motivating students are among the topics discussed by two recent Teaching Academy honorees in a new video series.

Christopher Lukasik, associate professor of English, and Suzanne Nielsen, professor of food science, are among 11 faculty members and graduate teaching assistants recently honored by the Purdue Teaching Academy. Lukasik and Nielsen share their innovative ideas on engaging students and facilitating learning in a series of videos posted on the Teaching Academy website.

In each short video interview, an honoree discusses the teaching philosophies, strategies, and tools used to engage students in ways that facilitate learning.

Christopher Lukasik

In his video, Lukasik discusses his philosophy of working with each person to develop his or her intrinsic motivation, rather than just the extrinsic motivation of earning a grade. He offers opportunities for students to develop their own projects related to the subjects, topics and methods of the source. Lukasik also explains his work in the emerging field of visual studies, in which undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines explore theories and questions related to the impact of images on their lives. These courses allow students to exchange ideas on how they think differently and critically.

"I will push you as far as you want to be pushed, but you have to push back. You have to take ownership of your education. You have to take initiative in it," Lukasik tells his students. "You have to tell me what motivates you, what will get you to spend the extra two to three hours on a project as opposed to the ... obligatory relationship that a lot of students have with writing papers and doing assignments because they know they need to do them or they're required to do them in order to pass the class."

Lukasik's video is available here.

Suzanne Nielsen

Nielsen, a 2014 Murphy Award recipient, discusses her Food Analysis course as an example of motivating students by linking what is covered in class to what students' jobs likely will be in the future. Many food science students eventually go to work for food companies, often in evaluating the quality and safety of food products. The course individual project, therefore, puts each student in contact with a resource person -- often a Purdue alumni who works in the industry -- to create a product report that is based in the reality of the field.

"It seems to be the best thing I can do in my particular class to help students connect what we're covering in class, which is a lot of analytical techniques, to the reality in the food industry," Nielsen says.

Nielsen's video is available here.

The entire series of video interviews is available on the Teaching Academy website.