For Maureen Connolly, teaching is more than a practice. It\u2019s a rich source of research that has shaped her career for more than three decades.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 (STLHE) Christopher Knapper Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n
Since joining Brock in 1991, Connolly has prepared future physical education teachers for their careers, worked in adaptive physical activity with\u00a0community\u00a0members, and advocated for and with\u00a0students who require accommodations for successful learning.\u00a0She also helped to\u00a0establish\u00a0several community-based movement initiatives, including the\u00a0Children\u2019s Movement Program<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Supporting Neurodiversity through Adaptive Programming<\/a> (SNAP).<\/p>\n Along the way, she has not only found success in teaching but also researched and identified best educational practices to help advance the field.<\/p>\n Throughout her career, Connolly has watched educators respond to increasingly diverse student needs, evolving\u00a0technologies\u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMy subject matter expertise is no longer enough,\u201d Connolly says. \u201cI have to have other tools in my toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n And those tools, she says, should be informed by research.<\/p>\n Connolly\u2019s commitment to evidence-based teaching and willingness to keep learning are central to her view of educational leadership.<\/p>\n She believes teaching is a practice that grows through curiosity, evidence and\u00a0reflection\u00a0\u2014 one that asks educators to keep learning alongside their students.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was one of the first people to take research\u00a0on\u00a0teaching seriously,\u201d Connolly says. \u201cWhat makes effective teaching? How do you know students are learning in your classes? What practices are high-impact practices? How do we know?\u201d<\/p>\n The award also holds great significance for Connolly because of her longstanding involvement with the STLHE, which she\u2019s worked with since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cMy nominators are people I really like, admire and trust,\u201d she says. \u201cWhether I had been named or not, the fact that this group decided to nominate me was really special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Maureen Connolly, teaching is more than a practice. It\u2019s a rich source of research that has shaped her career for more than three decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":110767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,1],"tags":[28,703,7488,5541,5505,15,3928,14,1752,9047],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110768,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110765\/revisions\/110768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}