Each year the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) selects up to ten recipients from Canadian universities for the 3M Teaching Fellowship Awards.

Recipients are recognized at a banquet, at the annual STLHE conference, and invited to attend a three-day retreat, all expenses paid, at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello, where they have the opportunity to share experiences and ideas with many other outstanding teachers.

When reviewing nomination packages, the selection committee is looking for:

• Independent evidence of excellence in teaching over a number of years, principally (but not exclusively) at the undergraduate level.
• Independent evidence of commitment to the improvement of university teaching within the candidate’s own institution and beyond.

Beginning in 2003, UNBC has supported the submission of at least one UNBC teacher, each year. Heather Smith was awarded UNBC’s first 3M Award in 2006.

For more information on the 3M Award, please contact the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology.

UNBC Recipients

2011: Lisa Dickson

UNBC English professor Lisa Dickson was named to one of ten 3M National Teaching Fellowships by 3M Canada and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

“I have to say that I was stunned when I got the news,” says Dr. Dickson, who specializes in Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare, and Literary Theory. “There are a great many amazing teachers out there so I’m really glad that this award can shine some light on the fantastic instructors we have here at UNBC.”
The 26 year-old 3M National Teaching Fellowship recognizes exceptional achievements by teacher-scholars across Canada and is meant to “build and enhance personal and institutional reputations as the most prestigious recognition of teaching excellence in Canada.”

“My teaching philosophy is based on helping students to engage in active dialogue, among themselves and with critics, artists, teachers, in order to see themselves as participants in the creation of knowledge.  We learn to make connections, to understand contexts, to see how we all fit into a larger, shared conversation,” says Dr. Dickson, who has been on UNBC’s faculty for about ten years. “All too often, students get caught in a ‘bucket line’ of information, not knowing where the fire is, or where the water is coming from. My job is to help them to see the big picture. It’s not about my teaching, but about the students’ learning.”

“My teaching philosophy is based on helping students to engage in active dialogue, among themselves and with critics, artists, teachers, in order to see themselves as participants in the creation of knowledge.  We learn to make connections, to understand contexts, to see how we all fit into a larger, shared conversation,” says Dr. Dickson, who has been on UNBC’s faculty for about ten years. “All too often, students get caught in a ‘bucket line’ of information, not knowing where the fire is, or where the water is coming from. My job is to help them to see the big picture. It’s not about my teaching, but about the students’ learning.”
2006: Heather Smith
Acting Director, Teaching, Learning and Technology
Coordinator Centre for Teaching and Learning
Heather A. Smith is the Coordinator of Professional Development for the Centre of Teaching and Learning. She is also the Chair of the International Studies Program. She received her PhD from Queen’s University and is a UNBC founding faculty member. She teaches Canadian foreign policy, gender and international studies, Canada and the world and International Studies theory. She is UNBC’s first 3M Teaching Fellow having received the award in 2006. She received the UNBC Excellence in Teaching Award in 2003. She is also a member of 3M Council of Teaching Fellows, was a member of the Vice President Academic’s Visioning Initiative and now chair of the Pedagogy Subcommittee of the Academic Visioning Initiative and has completed both the Instructional Skills Workshop and the Facilitator's Development Workshop. Teaching related publications include: “Engaging in the Possibilities of Magic: Feminist Pedagogy and Canadian Foreign Policy” with Claire Turenne Sjolander and Deborah Stienstra in Claire Turenne Sjolander, Heather A. Smith and Deborah Stienstra (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy (OUP, 2003), 12-21; “How Has Our Teaching Changed” as part of a roundtable on Canadian foreign policy post 9/11, with David Black, Claire Sjolander, Andrew F. Cooper, Louis Belanger and Robert Wolfe moderator, “Most safely on the fence? A roundtable on the possibility of a “Canadian” foreign policy after 9/11”Canadian Foreign Policy, (Fall 2004), pp. 97-116; and she is the Editor of the UNBC Teaching Manual.