Nancy has taught the large first year Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 1F90) class for the last 10 years. She has recently decided to cycle out of this course to develop a new graduate level course and add to the Department’s specialization in gender and sexualities studies. It is timely to recognize and celebrate Dr. Cook’s dedication, rigour, and excellence in teaching this course.
Sociology 1F90 is one of the largest courses in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Currently offered as two sections of a maximum each of 495 students/990 total (both of which Dr. Cook co-teaches), it employs a high number of teaching assistants, with this year’s total at 16. It services roughly 80-100 incoming Sociology majors, is mandatory for Child and Youth Studies majors, and serves as an elective or social science context credit for a wide range of students across the university. As such, it is both a large class of students, a large complement of teaching assistants to oversee, and a course that serves the needs and academic interests of students from a host of disciplines and backgrounds.
Through her work in Sociology 1F90, Dr. Cook also has made broad contributions to the student retention strategy for the Faculty of Social Sciences by providing a better understanding of the factors that lead students to withdraw and drop large first-year courses.
In her support letter, Dr. Kate Bezanson, Chair, Department of Sociology, writes:
“As the letters from former students, colleagues, and teaching assistants attest, Dr. Cook’s pedagogical approach combines passion for subject matter, deeply engaging content, material that challenges student assumptions about their everyday lives while provided a social and theoretical framework in which to place their experiences, and deep attention to skill development and formation.”
“One of the features of her approach that sets her apart from other instructors in large classes is her commitment to student skill formation. This is achieved via exceptionally thoughtful and structured use of seminars, with explicit emphasis on building student confidence with areas such as deep reading, synthesis, using the library (an entire seminar is devoted to orienting them to its resources), writing, referencing, and developing oral skills.”
Nancy consistently receives glowing teaching evaluations. Here are comments taken from support letters from students and colleagues:
- Dr. Cook is a personable and approachable person, she loves to share her extensive firsthand knowledge with her students.
- She is an enthusiastic instructor, linking theory to practise by providing many real-world examples of how the course material is relevant to our everyday lived experiences.
- She is an engaging and inspiring lecturer
- Assignments for SOCI 1F90 have students working to become critical thinkers and to engage deeply with her lecture content.
- She is an excellent and patient mentor, well organized, sets clear task expectations, and provides positive and consistent feedback.
Examples of Student testimonials
“Dr. Cook’s lecture content is always thoughtful and carefully planned. She is incredibly eloquent and practiced at explicating challenging theoretical ideas in a comprehensible way to first year students. I have appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to observe the language Dr. Cook employs to make dense academic content intelligible while preserving the complexity of the material. I have learned a great deal from watching Dr. Cook lecture, and this knowledge has enabled me to improve the ways in which I make scholarly ideas accessible to my students.”
“… if I have to use one word to describe what drew me to sociology was the passion coming from the front of the lecture hall. There stood a person projecting knowledge with a passion I could not ignore. “
“Her engaging teaching style helped me feel very on-top of the course material and assignments and is ultimately, I believe, why it was in her class I achieved my second highest final grade of first year, despite sociology being an entirely new subject for me.”