Engaging students earns Long top teaching award

CONTACT: Lia Unrau

PHONE:
(713) 348-6778

EMAIL: unrau@rice.edu

ENGAGING STUDENTS EARNS LONG TOP
TEACHING AWARD

Associate Professor of Sociology Elizabeth Long has won the 2000 George R. Brown
Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Rice’s most prestigious award.

Alumni who graduated two
and five years ago vote on the $6,000 prize.

Long, who has previously
won three George R. Brown Awards for Superior Teaching, wants to see her
students inspired by powerful ideas. She was in graduate school when she first
became aware of “how transformative ideas could be in the lives of students.
Seeing how they use these ideas to make sense of their lives is very exciting,” she says.

One of the things Long
says she loves about teaching “is watching students confront ideas and realize
that those ideas are there for them to use, examine, sometimes to reject, in
order to know more about the world and themselves.”

Chandler Davidson,
professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, observed Long as a teacher
when they co-taught a course: “She’s smart, knowledgeable and, above all,
thoughtful and open to different points of view,” Davidson says. “It’s a
pleasure to watch her engage the students in dialogue.”

Long’s “Craft of
Sociology” course, which she created, is a historical overview of the great
works in sociology. Davidson says that many students who take the course come
away thrilled about the field of sociology.

Long’s approach to
teaching has evolved in her 21 years at Rice. Early on, she says, “I thought of
teaching more as transmitting ideas and knowledge. Over the years, I’ve seen
that what’s equally important is enabling students to think critically for
themselves.”

She says she has come to
rely less on standardized tests and more on critical journals because they allow
students to be more creative.

Among the teaching
techniques she has found to be effective is having her students comment on each
other’s paper drafts. “It’s empowering for students to know they can read a
peer’s work and have suggestions and ideas,” she says.

Long describes the
Department of Sociology as a very nurturing environment for teachers. “We
certainly have a culture promoting excellence in teaching,” she says. “One of
the ways I’ve grown as a teacher is by working with dedicated and exceptional
teachers.”

Rice University, she
believes, is an institution concerned about teaching and is very supportive.

Long also credits the
caliber of students at Rice. “They’re wonderful,” she says, “and a pleasure to
teach.”