For Maureen Connolly, teaching is more than a practice. It’s a rich source of research that has shaped her career for more than three decades.

The Brock University Professor of Kinesiology was recently honoured for her contributions to teaching, learning and educational development in Canadian higher education, receiving the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’ (STLHE) Christopher Knapper Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since joining Brock in 1991, Connolly has prepared future physical education teachers for their careers, worked in adaptive physical activity with community members, and advocated for and with students who require accommodations for successful learning. She also helped to establish several community-based movement initiatives, including the Children’s Movement Program and Supporting Neurodiversity through Adaptive Programming (SNAP).

Along the way, she has not only found success in teaching but also researched and identified best educational practices to help advance the field.

Throughout her career, Connolly has watched educators respond to increasingly diverse student needs, evolving technologies and changing expectations. As technology and global developments, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to reshape classrooms, new approaches to teaching must be implemented, she says.

“My subject matter expertise is no longer enough,” Connolly says. “I have to have other tools in my toolbox.”

And those tools, she says, should be informed by research.

Connolly’s commitment to evidence-based teaching and willingness to keep learning are central to her view of educational leadership.

She believes teaching is a practice that grows through curiosity, evidence and reflection — one that asks educators to keep learning alongside their students.

Connolly was honoured to receive the Christopher Knapper Lifetime Achievement Award, moved by its connection to the Canadian pioneer in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Knapper helped define educational leadership beyond formal administrative roles, she says, making this an especially meaningful accolade.

“He was one of the first people to take research on teaching seriously,” Connolly says. “What makes effective teaching? How do you know students are learning in your classes? What practices are high-impact practices? How do we know?”

The award also holds great significance for Connolly because of her longstanding involvement with the STLHE, which she’s worked with since the early 1990s.

“My nominators are people I really like, admire and trust,” she says. “Whether I had been named or not, the fact that this group decided to nominate me was really special.”