Teaching and Learning News

Gordon Myers will begin his term as associate vice-president, academic, in September.

Jon Driver, vice-president, academic, announced the appointment of a new associate vice-president, academic, today (March 23). Here is the text of his message:

I am very pleased to announce that the Board of Governors has
approved the appointment of Dr. Gordon Myers as associate
vice-president, academic (AVPA), for a five-year term commencing
September 1, 2012. Chair or associate chair of the Department of
Economics for more than half of his 12 years at SFU, and currently
serving on both Senate and the Board of Governors, Gordon Myers
brings to the complex AVPA portfolio an excellent administrative
background and a self-professed passion for the role of universities
in society.

Gordon Myers joined the Department of Economics at SFU in 1999. He received his BA from Queen’s University and his MA and PhD from McMaster University (1990). Before joining SFU, he was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario and an associate professor at the University of Waterloo. He has been an academic visitor at the University of Essex (England) and the University of Bonn (Germany).

Congratulations to the 2009 recipients of the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award:

• Dr. Russell Day, Department of Psychology
• Dr. Peter Liljedahl, Faculty of Education
• Dr. Douglas Allen, Department of Economics

To find out how these exemplary teachers motivate students to love loathed subjects and learn in difficult circumstances, read the SFU News.

Adapting to the demands of teaching larger and larger classes requires a shift in thinking about the instructor’s role. With the new role, one where the tension between efficiency and effectiveness is ever-present, comes the opportunity to explore new ways of engaging students in their learning.

On April 7, 2010, SFU faculty members, instructors, and graduate students joined Dr. Russell Day, Senior Lecturer, Psychology Department, and Dr. Douglas Allen, Professor, Economics Department – recipients of the 2009 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award – to discuss ways they have adapted to the greater diversity, the greater technological skills, and the larger and larger numbers of students while remaining connected to sound pedagogical principles. Some of the questions explored include the use of humour and story-telling, and the use of technology in support of teaching (e.g., web, clickers). 

The session was recorded with the Digital Lecture Recording system. Press play below to listen or download the audio recording (MP3).

Note: there is music at the beginning of the recording.

Dr. Douglas W. Allen received the 2009 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. 

He uses aspects of popular culture, such as songs, movies, novels and even relationships with the opposite sex, to teach students how to apply complicated and mechanical economic techniques to their everyday life.  “I’m their preacher and I’m trying to convert them to the economic way of thinking,” explains Allen. “Microeconomics is a tool of analysis, not an end it itself.”

Email: doug_allen@sfu.ca

Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Link: http://www.sfu.ca/~allen/

http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/news/story_02251013.shtml

Dr. Lawrence Boland received the 1992 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award.

Professor Boland’s primary teaching area is advanced microeconomic theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has been teaching the pre-principles history of thought course (Econ 100 or Econ 110) for more than thirty years. He also teaches a fourth-year seminar in the methodology of economics. His current research concerns the knowledge and learning assumptions commonly used in economic models.

Email: lawrence_boland@sfu.ca

Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Link: http://www.econ.sfu.ca/Contacts/Faculty_Profiles/Professor2.html

Dr. Richard Schwindt received the 1991 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award.

Dr. Richard Schwindt taught and researched in the areas of industrial economics and anti-trust policy.  He is particularly interested in the industrial organization of, and public policy bearing upon renewable resource industries, specifically forests, fish and farming.In 1992, he headed a provincial Commission of Inquiry into compensation for the appropriation of rights to natural resources.

Faculty Profile

Email: schwindt@sfu.ca

Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Link: http://www.econ.sfu.ca/Contacts/Faculty_Profiles/Professor28.html

Dr. Peter E. Kennedy received the 1982 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. In 1987, Dr. Kennedy’s teaching excellence was further recognized when he was awarded the 3M National Teaching Fellowship.

Peter Kennedy received his BA from Queen’s in 1965 and PhD from Wisconsin in 1968. Apart from visiting positions at Cornell, Wisconsin, the London School of Economics, Singapore, Deakin, Cape Town, Canterbury, Curtin, Adelaide, Otago, and EERC (Ukraine) he has been at Simon Fraser University ever since. Recipient of four awards for excellence in teaching, and the Villard award for research in economic education, he is best known for his textbooks A Guide to Econometrics and Macroeconomic Essentials for Media Interpretation. He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Forecasting and of Economics Bulletin, and has since 1989 been associate editor of the Journal of Economic Education with responsibility for editing its research section.

~ SFU Economics

Email: N/A

Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Link: http://www.econ.sfu.ca/Contacts/Faculty_Profiles/PeterKennedy.html