2006 – Lee Shulman
UPDATE
Samuel C. Stringfield, Director of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education, hosted an official Presidential Session and Reception at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, CA, on April 8th, 2006. This groundbreaking inaugural session featured Elliot Eisner, 2005 Winner, and Lee S. Shulman, 2006 Winner of the Grawemeyer Award.
The session was filmed and is available as a streaming video file.
Dr. Shulman’s official talk and reception were held on Tuesday, April 18th from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the University Club ballrooms. The topic of the talk was: “Pedagogies of Uncertainty: Teaching for Understanding, Judgment and Commitment.”
A streaming digital video of this event is available (high-speed internet connection & Windows Media Player required).
What makes someone a good teacher?
A long-term effort by Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to answer that complex question has earned him the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Education in 2006.
Good teachers are critical to the success of people in every profession, Shulman argues in his 2004 book, a collection of articles called “The Wisdom of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning and Learning to Teach.”
“No microcomputer will replace them, no television system will clone them and distribute them, no scripted lessons will direct and control them, no voucher system will bypass them,” he says.
Researchers have a valuable role in society, but it is teachers who bear the responsibility to make knowledge and skills understandable to others, he says. To get the most from our educational system, we need to do a better job of preparing and assessing the performance of teachers at all levels and giving them the recognition they deserve.
Shulman, winner of the 16th Grawemeyer education prize, was selected from among 35 nominations. The 2005 award went to Elliot Eisner for his work in advocating an arts curriculum in schools.
About Lee Shulman
Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has dedicated his career to issues involving teaching and teacher education.
A former Stanford University professor, he was named to head the Carnegie Foundation, an independent education policy center, in 1996. Previously, he was the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford, arriving there in 1982.
He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago.
Shulman has focused his research and writings on the quality of teaching in elementary and secondary schools and on the college and university level. His other areas of expertise include the psychology of instruction in science, math and medicine; the logic of educational research; and policies aimed at increasing professionalism in teaching.
A Carnegie Corp.-funded research project he led between 1985 and 1990 contributed to the creation of a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
He has conducted research supported by the Spencer Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Pew Trust and Hewlett Foundation on how new and experienced teachers can better understand the subjects they teach, how teachers can create classroom learning communities and how faculty members in higher education can develop the ability to evaluate and support one another’s teaching.
Before joining the faculty at Stanford, Shulman was professor of educational psychology and medical education at Michigan State University, where he also was founding co-director of the Institute for Research on Teaching.
A past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and former president of the National Academy of Education, he has received many awards, including AERA’s award for distinguished contributions to educational research and the American Psychological Association’s E.L. Thorndike Award for distinguished psychological contributions to education.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
