Alumni Association Home > Past Distinguished Teaching Award Recipients

Professor
Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development
College of Biological Sciences

“Treat teaching as a collective journey with your students. It’s not about telling them what is important and explaining all of the material. Instead, it’s about exposing them to the material, and allowing them to have fun with it.”

According to Robert Brooker, the key to teaching is: challenge your students, treat teaching as a collective journey, and don’t be afraid to be an inspiration. And, his students continue to validate this philosophy with their overwhelming enthusiasm. Throughout his 17-year teaching career at the University, Brooker’s teaching evaluations have consistently ranked among the highest in his college.

Both distance-learning and classroom-taught students most often praise his interactive teaching approach. “He positioned himself more as a guide than a professor of the material, simply directing our talents,” said one student. Another added, “The structure of his class had a solid balance between guided and independent learning. He always displayed respect and concern for his students and went out of his way to provide any extra support.”

Fun is the word students use to describe Brooker’s classes, which is somewhat surprising given that Brooker is also known for rigorous assignments, numerous pop quizzes, and difficult but fair tests that challenge students to think critically.

One of his former students, now a professor, models Brooker’s teaching methods and uses his highly acclaimed genetics text in her class because it integrates facts with experimentation and methods. She concluded her recommendation by saying, “This has been a difficult letter to write, as I worry that I will not do him justice in the importance I have seen him play in the lives of others and, so importantly, in my own.”