Like someone once said: The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

Each year the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching names four truly inspiring professors of the year. “These are not people who are simply standing in front of a classroom and lecturing to students,” says CASE representative, Rae Goldsmith. “These are all people who are letting the students participate in their own learning process

•Robert C. Thomas, professor of geology, University of Montana Western, Dillon.
Thomas helped initiate the “Experience One” program that compresses a standard college course into 18 intensive, learning-filled days, giving students the chance to experience hands-on geology and environmental assessments. Students study the vegetation, wildlife and habitats of Montana’s Upper Big Hole River and evaluate the work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services river restoration project. As for the caliber of students’ work: these undergraduate students deliver work on a par with the professionals.
What is this professor’s philosophy about teaching and education? “Experience, experience, experience. Students need to experience their education; they need to work on real projects,” Thomas says.

•Richard L. Miller, professor of psychology, University of Nebraska-Kearney.
Miller wants his students to expand psychology’s knowledge base. Urging students to follow their passions, Miller allows them to add an optional lab where they investigate unexplored topics in psychology.
“I want students to be willing to sort of venture the work for the sake of the zest,” says. Miller. “I want them to be intrinsically interested in discovery. I think the most important thing for a teacher to do is to focus on and to promote wonder in the students about the why behind the what.”

•Brian P. Coppola, professor of chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
“To me, education is the creation of lifelong partnerships, and that can be the student and the professor or the students with each other, ” state Coppola
Teaching first-year students organic chemistry, a course usually reserved for older students, Coppola also offers a non-credit lab that combines his science training with a passion and background in art. He has also partnered with Detroit and Ypsilanti K-12 science classes, where university students work with teachers to develop and implement cirriculum.
“The theme here is getting students involved as partners in the teaching process,” Coppola says.

•Tracey McKenzie, professor of sociology, Collin Community College, Frisco, Texas.
“It’s important to not assume students know teaching is important to you,” says McKenzie. “You have to show them.”
She engages her students, having them create a budget for a single mother, instead of memorizing statistical data on poverty. Plugging into the nitty-gritty practicalities that face single moms gives students a unique learning experience. In addition to sociology, McKenzie teaches in the college’s interdisciplinary Leaning Communities program, going outside traditional education. Says McKenzie, “We’re all telling one part of the story, we all have one piece of the puzzle.”