Brenda Skoczelas, LSSC Physics instructor, was chosen as Professor of the Year at the Association of Florida Colleges’ annual conference held in Orlando.
In a world where information literacy is becoming increasingly important, learning how to identify logical fallacies is crucial. Since students now get much of their news from tweets and memes, showing them how to recognize these fallacies in a relevant format is essential.
That’s the premise of Amber Karlins’ teaching demonstration for the Professor of the Year competition hosted by the Association of Florida Colleges (AFC).
At the Annual AFC Conference in early November, Karlins, an English instructor, was chosen as Professor of the Year after competing against 4 other finalists for the top spot in this year’s competition.
“Amber is a dedicated and engaging teacher who consistently works to inspire her students,” says Dr. Douglas Wymer, Vice President of Academic Affairs. “She is an excellent representation of the innovation and energy that our faculty bring to the classroom every day. We are proud to have her as a colleague.”
Karlins’ lesson introduced students to a variety of logical fallacies and then asks them to identify those fallacies in a number of popular memes.
“A big part of my teaching philosophy is that it’s important to use innovative methods and techniques to meet students where they are and give the material real-world relevance,” said Amber Karlins. “When my students encounter persuasive writing, it’s almost never in the form of thorough, thoughtful, researched articles; it’s usually in the form of short, viral arguments they see on social media. Since those are the arguments they’ll see in real life, those are the arguments I want to teach them to analyze.”
LSSC faculty members previously won this award in 2009 and 2013, and an LSSC faculty member has been named a finalist for Professor of the Year each year since 2009.
The Association of Florida Colleges is a professional organization of Florida’s colleges to promote, represent, and support employees of Florida colleges and their institutions.