HDFS professor receives teaching award for innovative approach toward incorporating research into coursework

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu 

Elliot Friedman, the William and Sally Berner Hanley Professor of Gerontology in the Purdue University Department of Human Development and Family Science (HDFS), is the recipient of the 2025 Jane S. Link Outstanding Teaching Award. 

The award is presented annually to a faculty member in the  College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) who demonstrates outstanding teaching performance across all phases of undergraduate instruction. Award recipients receive a cash award and are recognized at the spring HHS faculty meeting. The award is funded by HHS alumna Jane S. Link. 

Friedman has positively shaped the learning of more than 300 students through his HDFS 31200 (Adult Development) course, which he has taught every fall since 2012. In 2019, Friedman redesigned the course using his experience in Purdue’s Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) program, which helps faculty incorporate novel research into their courses, to familiarize students with research skills through an original research project. Working in groups, the students used a large national dataset, the Mid-Life in the United States series, to generate novel research questions they identified based on gaps in the scientific literature and then to answer them using the data. 

Students have demonstrated the course’s role in improving their understanding of research and preparing them for other research-based courses or graduate school. Beginning in 2022 with support of the Townsend Writing Excellence Fund, Friedman also designed assignments to help students with their comprehension of scientific literature and to bolster their science writing skills.  

In his teaching, Friedman is consistent with the principles of “ungrading” or focusing on student learning rather than rating performance. He has implemented extensive feedback and peer review opportunities throughout the course and negotiates student grades at the end of the semester based on their documentation of their work and the progress they’ve made. This encourages students to take risks in their work without fear of penalty.  

Through Friedman’s approach toward constantly improving the course, students have begun reflecting on the course in more meaningful ways, noting they have become better critical thinkers and have grown as students.  

In efforts to enhance his teaching effectiveness, Friedman participated in the Center for Instructional Excellence’s Instruction Matters Purdue Academic Course Transformation program in 2014. He also was part of the first cohort of faculty to participate in the CURE program in 2019. 

For more information, please contact Elliot Friedman or Tom Berndt. 

• Elliot Friedman, professor, Department of Human Development and Family Science, efriedman@purdue.edu. 

• Tom Berndt, senior associate dean for academic affairs and administration, College of Health and Human Sciences, berndt@purdue.edu. 

2024 recipient: Susan Gordon 

2023 recipient: Scott Lawrance