Each year, UCF’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program, which is housed in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, honors one innovative teacher with the Schell Award for Implementing Innovative Writing Instruction in the Disciplines. The award is given to a faculty member who has demonstrated commitment to and success in improving student learning through sound discipline-specific writing instruction in his or her courses. The award recognizes and encourages the kind of writing instruction that uses writing to achieve deeper student learning.
The award was endowed with a donation to the Writing Across the Curriculum Program by Dr. Rick Schell in 2013, Vice President and Chief of Staff in the Office of the President. Dr. Schell has long been a champion of writing at our university, and has supported the efforts of the WAC program and of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric with very concrete and valuable actions for many years. We thank him for his continued support of our work. Past winners of the award are associate professor of history Dr. Daniel Murphree and professor of chemistry Dr. Cherie Yestrebsky.
This year’s winner is associate professor of psychology Dr. Steven L. Berman. He is an early adopter of WAC at UCF and has been working with the WAC Program since 2011. Among Dr. Berman’s many accomplishments are:
- Substantial revisions of psychology courses to include new and improved writing assignments.
- Several presentations on WAC at FCTL faculty conferences and other events.
- Successful participation in the WAC Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project.
Dr. Berman has received a commemorative award and $500 in professional development funds.
For more information about the Writing Across the Curriculum program at UCF, navigate to their website.