Each year, the Parkland College Teaching Excellence Award is presented to a full- or part-time faculty member who is doing an exceptional job delivering their course content, engaging students in learning, and continuing to grow through professional development activities.
The recipient of the Parkland Teaching Excellence Award is named each fall. The awarding process involves being nominated for the award, department chair endorsement, the submission of materials that address the established criteria, and the evaluation of the materials by the PCA Professional Development Subcommittee for Faculty.
The benefits for the award recipient include:
- $1,000 for professional development
- registration to a national teaching and learning conference (to be determined by the College)
- recognition at commencement and at a Parkland College Board of Trustees meeting
2024 Parkland Teaching Excellence Award Recipient
Dr. Sarah Grison
Sarah has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience and thinks of herself as a teacher-scholar. She is a Professor of Psychology at Parkland College where she has also taught First Year Experience courses to undergraduates. Sarah conducts action research in her classroom to help improve students' abilities to pay attention, remember, and learn material, as well as improve their study skills.
Sarah is the advisor of two psychology clubs at Parkland, the Psychology Club and the Parkland chapter of Psi Beta, which is the national honor society in psychology for community college students. Sarah is a Champion for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, where she provides workshops and discussion groups about the skills students need to succeed in college and where she also helps teachers develop evidence-based teaching skills.
Sarah puts psychology into practice when writing introductory psychology textbooks, creating evidence-based instructors’ resources, writing articles and book chapters about the cognitive science of teaching and learning, and giving presentations on this topic at national conferences and colleges.
She is a member of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 3 and 15); the Society for the Teaching of Psychology; the Association for Psychological Science; the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society; the American Educational Research Association; the American Association of Community Colleges; and the Illinois Community College Faculty Association.
Sarah and her husband are parents to four teenagers (plus three cats and a dog), so they use psychology in their lives every day.