Illinois Medicine

fruit W i l l i n O i S M e d i C i n e | 25 Hen MedI- CaL COLLege InstruCtOrs receive a golden apple award for teaching, they find out what College of Medicine students value. and students from the M1 to M4 years—who vote on the teaching awards—keep their descriptions of award-winning professors fairly simple. the common element they treasure is passion. and from that passion springs a highly developed and steadfast pattern of mindfulness toward students' learning, whatever the instructor's personal style. Kathleen Kashima, Phd, senior associate dean of students and interim senior associate dean for under- graduate medical education, has long observed the impact excellent teachers have on medical students and sees common characteristics. "they all are inspiring role models and mentors," she says. "they provide memorable teaching mo- ments, which is so important because what a student remembers in a classroom on a given day is less important than what that student remembers 10 or 20 years from now. to do all that they must be experts in their fields, with the ability to build relationships with students and earn respect from their colleagues and collaborators." all have a passion for teaching, Kashima adds. and that passion "is the root of the additional efforts they make to improve their course/rotation, their approachability and availability to students and their clear commitment to their students' professional development and success. some have won an incred- ible number of awards. yet all of them remain down to earth, humanistic and caring." the golden apple honorees make what they do—keeping students engaged in long-term learn- Students value dedication to teaching among COM Golden Apple winners ing on complex topics—sound straightforward, yet their abiding love of teaching and keeping up with developments in their fields makes it seem that way. Making it "look easy" in any field usually stems from years of hard work, focus, determination, learning from mistakes and the drive for improvement. these golden apple recipients also must master the changes in pedagogy. the College of Medicine has in the past two years reduced the number of lectures in favor of active learning. It has encouraged team learning, which makes the whole more effec- tive than the sum of the parts. and with all the new technology available—and the possibilities it pres- ents in diagnostics and treatment—students of the 21st century need approaches that help them learn in a memorable way. following are several short profiles of golden apple recipients, one for each medical school year, that serve as examples of what teaching at the high- est level is about. (see page 27 for a complete list of the 2013 golden apple recipients.) M1— the WhIte coAt And A neW leVel of focUs And tIMe MAnAgeMent aLtHOugH M1 students face a new environ- ment that is more challenging than anything they've ever faced, these are highly poised and carefully screened young people who are already disciplined and know how to step it up. still, they are always affectionately yet bluntly told by College of Medicine administrators at the White Coat Ceremony every year to prepare themselves for demands on their time and intellect they have never before faced. norman Lieska, Phd, an instructor in M1 anat- omy and embryology, takes them under his wing at the Chicago campus. the recipient of 16 golden apple awards, Lieska simply says he is honored by the respect medical students have expressed. for 21 years he has been director for the gross anatomy and embryology course. now emeritus, Lieska just completed a transition year in which he n o r m a n l i e s k a C h i c a g o "enthusiasm is a sine qua non for an instructor. If you're not tuned into the audience, you lose them. You have to establish a conduit between the students and yourself."

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