Bristol Community College Professor Wins Big Award in D.C.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18-Bristol Community College professor Howard Tinberg believes he has only taught when he sees that his students have actually listened and learned.
And his drive to constantly engage the classroom is, in part, what prompted the award he received on Thursday, said John Lippincott, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Tinberg was chosen as the 2004 Outstanding Community College Professor of the Year by the council and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, out of a pool of almost 300 nominees.
“Howard Tinberg has been successful as a teacher and role model because of his enthusiasm for his subject–English–and his dedication to community colleges and to community college students,” Lippincott said in a press release. “Dr. Tinberg’s classes are places of humor and compassion.. He brings to the educational process a zest for learning–both his own learning and that of his students.”
Award recipients were chosen through a selection process in which two panels of judges-comprised of educators, deans, and government, foundation and agency representatives-evaluated nominees based on letters of support from students and colleagues, submissions of the teacher’s course curricula, class descriptions, and a personal statement. The Carnegie Foundation chose the final recipients, to which a $5,000 prize was awarded.
Tinberg, an English professor at Bristol, was one of four professors to receive an award. He was joined by another Massachusetts professor, Robert Bell of Williams College, who was chosen as winner in the Outstanding Baccalaureate Professor category.
Speaking at the ceremony, Tinberg said the value of a good teacher should never be underestimated. He urged others to improve their educational practices by challenging themselves, and their teaching methods, daily.
“Learning depends to some degree, on review, reflection and revision.. Good things can happen to us as classroom instructors, when we ask and answer questions such as: What happened in my classroom today? What did I expect to happen? What can I learn?” he said. “Effective teaching depends upon our ability and desire to adapt.”
These methods will yield successful students in any college, whether a two-year, or a four-year university, Tinberg said. He added that there should be no difference between the types of institutions when it comes to effective teaching.
“I call upon colleagues of four-year institutions to meet us two-year college faculty half way,” he said. “Let’s read each other’s work and let’s recognize, on both sides, the quality of that work. Let’s acknowledge in our mutual way, through citation and records, the scholarship and research done on either side of the two-year, four-year divide. We and our students ought to expect no less.”
As editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College and a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, Tinberg said he has learned the value of this, because it has helped him bring new ideas to his classroom, and broadened his perspective.
Tinberg, who has been an English teacher at Bristol College since 1987, teaches courses in composition, literature, and literature and history. In all of his classes, Tinberg places a heavy emphasis on ethnographic research, urging students to discover the way language is bred, and manifested, in their own communities.
“I encouraged students to become observer/participants, and thereby record the use of literacy in their homes and communities,” he wrote in his personal statement to the council.
Tinberg is also director of the college’s writing lab, which employs the help of professors from various disciplines, along with peer tutors, to provide one-on-one guidance to students.
It is where Wellesley College senior Lin Morley Gautie first met Tinberg. She was on her way to becoming an accountant, when his instruction and encouragement propelled her to follow a career in English and teaching.
As she introduced Tinberg at the ceremony in Washington, Gautie reflected on how he has continued to provide counsel to her, even after she graduated and embarked on her own career in education.
“As I learned through Dr. Tinberg’s model, the educational process does not stop at the classroom door,” she said. “He is the very epitome of a teacher, always creating and re-creating a decent and effective environment in which to learn. And he perpetually cares, not only for his students, but also for mankind at large.”
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