Cherry Award Summit on Great Teaching

Every two years, the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching selects a recipient and that honoree teaches in residence at Baylor University. During that semester at Baylor, the Cherry Award for Great Teaching and the Academy for Teaching and Learning collaborate to present the Cherry Award Summit on Great Teaching.

In honor of our recipient, Dr. Jay Banner, this year's Summit will take the form of a series of invited talks by notable and inspiring dignitaries in the field of higher education.

Next up...

Dr. Robert A. Duke

April 10, 2025   |   4:00-5:00pm
Morrison 100

Download this event to your calendar!

Why students don’t learn what we think we teach

About Robert Duke

Bob Duke is the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professor and Head of Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is a University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System Distinguished Teaching Professor, Elizabeth Shatto Massey Distinguished Fellow in Teacher Education, and Director of the Center for Music Learning. He is also a clinical professor in the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas and was the founding director of the psychology of learning program at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles.

Duke’s research on human learning and behavior spans multiple disciplines, and his most recent work explores the refinement of procedural memories and the analysis of attention allocation in music practice and in teacher-learner interactions. A former studio musician and public school music teacher, he has worked closely with children at-risk, both in the public schools and through the juvenile justice system. He is the author of Scribe 5 behavior analysis software, and his most recent books are Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction, The Habits of Musicianship, which he co-authored with Jim Byo of Louisiana State University, and Brain Briefs, which he co-authored with Art Markman, his co-host on the public radio program and podcast Two Guys on Your Head, produced by KUT Radio in Austin.

Completed...

Dr. Edward Burger 

February 6, 2025   |   4:00-5:00pm
Morrison 100

Transforming individuals and systems through the power of effective thinking: Teaching to uplift lives today and tomorrow

One of the quintessential elements of formal education is that it offers students lessons that can stay with them long after they have forgotten the mechanics they often mimic in our classrooms. The goal of education is to transform lives — to help individuals learn how to grow: to think more wisely and create more imaginatively today so that they can go off and artfully innovate as well as solve the important problems of tomorrow. As we will discuss together, these practices of thought can be taught explicitly throughout the curriculum in every discipline and applied throughout life.

To see an illustration of how these practices can be incorporated within the content matter of a subject, you are invited to a lively colloquium by our speaker. 

About Edward Burger

Dr. Edward Burger is President and CEO of the St. David's Foundation, and President Emeritus of Southwestern University as well as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and a leader on thinking, innovation, and creativity. Previously he was the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics at Williams College. Burger has delivered over 700 addresses worldwide at venues including Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins as well as at the Smithsonian Institution, Microsoft Corporation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the New York Public Library, and the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of over 70 research articles, books, and video series (starring in over 8,000 on-line videos), including the book The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, published by Princeton University Press and translated into over a dozen languages worldwide. His latest book, Making Up Your Mind: Thinking Effectively Through Creative Puzzle-Solving, also published by Princeton University Press, was on several of Amazon's Hot New Releases lists.

In 2006, Reader’s Digest listed Burger in their annual “100 Best of America” as America’s Best Math Teacher. In 2010 he was named the winner of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. The Huffington Post named him one of their "Game Changers" and Microsoft Worldwide Education selected him as one of their “Global Heroes in Education.” In 2013, Burger was inducted as an inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. His program, Higher ED, produced by NPR's Austin affiliate KUT is available at kut.org/topic/higher-ed/ and on iTunes.

Paul Normandin

March 6, 2025  | 4:00-5:00pm
Jones Library 200 (Dennis Campbell Innovative Learning Space)

True Personal Stories: Building Connections in the Classroom

This workshop will encourage educators (and students) to trust the process that allows us access to knowledge that empowers us to pursue our passions. By leveraging Dr. Jay Banner’s story of how he won the Cherry Award, which he shared in his acceptance speech, we will use tools from storytelling and improvisation to create a one-time workshop event. This event will share insight into the many and varied ways we can connect with our students through telling a story of how we became who we are. (We will also discuss the unsaid parts: who we were not when we started our journey.) 

The foundation of this effort will use an ice breaker exercise to bring the simplest story structure into the room. We’ll sooth some potential concerns that often stem from stage fright or fear of participation in group activities by using play and fun. We will add more depth to our foundation with an improvisation and storytelling group exercise that uses a more complex story structure: The Story Spine. We will bind all of this together using “Dr. Banner’s origin story” as the mortar between the bricks. 

By the end of the session, participants will share with each other events from their personal journey to success including some challenges they faced along the way. Participants will learn everything needed to use storytelling as a classroom tool.

Context and Ethical Considerations

By demonstrating passion for their discipline, educators give tacit permission for their students to share their enthusiasm. By sharing their challenges from when they were students or before, professors demystify their often larger than life characters, allowing students to relate and connect. It is important to remind our students that mere humans with passion and discipline can grow into great teachers. Demonstrating that commitment, fueled by their passion, inquisitiveness, and effort are often the difference between a 20 year old student and a 30 plus year old professor. 

A major consideration when facilitating interactive discussions about personal stories is creating a safe and supportive environment where individuals feel respected and empowered to share at their own pace. Meeting people where they are is a core tenet of storytelling. 

About Paul Normandin
Dean Emeritus, The Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation

Paul Normandin is an award-winning storyteller, a producer, writer, and founder of the Improv troupe In Our Prime. Paul is a Moth GrandSlam Champion and winner of the first Texas State StorySlam. He has a BA and MA from Texas A&M University in Speech Communication and retired as a Senior Planning and Project Advisor for the State of Texas. When not on stage