A member of Memorial’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been recognized for her leadership in teaching.
Dr. Janna Rosales, associate professor (teaching), is one of two recipients of the Association of Atlantic Universities Distinguished Teaching Award for 2024.
The annual award recognizes excellence in university teaching over several years, particularly at the undergraduate level.
The association represents 16 universities in Atlantic Canada, including Memorial University.
“The Association of Atlantic Universities Teaching Awards Program represents core values of our universities: student success, innovation and leadership,” said Dr. Rob Summerby-Murray, president of St. Mary’s University and chair of the association.
The award honourees are “innovators in their classrooms, labs and communities,” he said.
Importance of innovation
Dr. Rosales’ work focuses on engineering’s social and ethical aspects, including the values, needs and motivations that affect our decisions about technology.
Her current research focuses on methods to ensure engineering graduates have both solid technical competencies and strong transferrable professional skills.
“I teach in engineering, but it’s not just thinking about engineering,” she said. “It’s thinking about the bigger questions of our society and where we’re headed.”
She also teaches complementary studies courses in professionalism, communication and ethics in the faculty, where she has worked for a dozen years.
“There’s always something to learn from other people.”
As well, she has lectured in graduate programs in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and taught courses in the departments of Sociology and Religious Studies.
“We were thrilled to learn of Dr. Rosales’ selection for this prestigious teaching award,” said Dr. Kim Myrick and Bonnie Simmons, co-directors of the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Memorial. “Her work truly embodies the power of innovation in teaching and learning, and she is more than deserving of this honour.”
In addition to teaching, Dr. Rosales has been a member of the Student-Centred Learning Committee for the Teaching and Learning Framework and the Expert Working Group for the Office of Public Engagement.
She previously chaired the Faculty Learning Community for Contemplative Education Committee and was the teaching and learning chair for her faculty.
This year, she was faculty chair of CITL’s Teaching and Learning Conference.
Building community
“I’ve always been interested in teaching and learning more broadly,” Dr. Rosales said. “Any time I can plug into a community of university educators who are thinking about hard, complex questions, it’s great to be able to do that. There’s always something to learn from other people.”
Teaching is not just essential to the operations of the university, but central to them, she says.
“It’s more so, who do you want to be in the world.”
As daunting as it can be to decide what you want to do as a career, she says it’s vital to engage students in even bigger questions.
“It’s more so, who do you want to be in the world?” she said. “It’s really important to me to think about how the university serves that role of discovering who you want to be in the world, beyond any discipline you’re studying. How do you carve your own path?”
She says responsiveness plays a major role in innovation and that it’s necessary to determine what the times require, that educational innovation goes beyond jumping on the latest technological trend.
“For me, I think innovation really is more, what do students need now? How do you meet them where they are?”
As an example, a regular part of engineering education and practice is group work.
She encourages practices like creating equitable teams, which innovate the classroom environment but don’t require any particular tool or setting.
For newer post-secondary educators, Dr. Rosales suggests building reflective skills, inquiring into one’s own teaching practice and fostering a cross-disciplinary community of like-minded educators.
She acknowledges the importance of her mentors and collaborators and aims to support others coming up behind her.
“That’s a big advantage of building that community for yourself early on. You find those mentors and then also, as you move along, you can become that for other people.”
