We are proud to announce that CREST.BD Deputy Lead and Co-Director Dr. Steven Barnes has been awarded Canada’s most prestigious recognition of excellence in educational leadership and teaching at the university and college level – the 3M National Teaching Fellow award.

Dr. Barnes was among ten winners selected for the award in 2019, and he joins over 300 3M National Teaching Fellows in Canada representing a broad range of academic disciplines from more than 80 Canadian institutions.

Top: Steven Barnes, Emin Civi, Sue Dawson, Sheri Fabian, Brett McCollum. Lower: Joanne O’Meara, Wendy Pearson, Anne Marie Ryan, Helga Thorson, Sarah Todd.

Recipients of the 3M National Teaching Fellow Award become lifetime members of STLHE and attend the society’s annual conference, this year at the University of Manitoba. They also participate in a four-day teaching and learning retreat in Montebello, Que.

Here’s the citation for Dr. Barnes from the official press release by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and 3M Canada:

Steven Barnes cares: he cares about what students learn, about how they learn, and most importantly, about the students themselves. That concern for the student as a whole person extends to their wellness, and with the growing appreciation that stress and mental illness are major problems for undergraduates, Steven took action. Along with others on campus, he established a peer-run support group – Kaleidoscope — for students facing mental health issues. Steven’s active concern is born of his own struggles with mental illness, a story that he has the courage to share with both his students and his community.

 

Steven’s leadership is innovative and extensive, especially in curriculum design, open access online resources, and innovative technology. He designed six massive open online courses (MOOCs) and helped design a first-year course for students with low English language proficiency. He created a large body of stop-motion animations that deal with challenging topics for students of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, and since they are all freely accessible on YouTube, they have been used by instructors around the world. And as an early adopter of the free-to-use and free-to-modify OpenStax Psychology textbook for his MOOCs and his introductory psychology courses, Steven has championed open source materials that help alleviate financial pressure on students.

Congratulations, Dr. Barnes!

Dr. Barnes is Senior Instructor and Associate Head of Undergraduate Affairs in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.

Learn more about his work at his CREST.BD profile page, and follow him on Twitter @sj_barnes.