UM-Western professor among the best

Rob Thomas named Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year

University of Montana Western environmental sciences Professor Rob Thomas has been named Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

The two groups chose Thomas as the recipient of the prestigious award from a field of more than 300 professors from baccalaureate colleges and universities across the United States.

Judges selected national winners based on four criteria: impact on and involvement with undergraduate students; scholarly approach to teaching and learning; contributions to undergraduate education in the institution, community and profession; and support from colleagues and current and former undergraduate students.

“I can think of only a select few faculty members I have known in my four decades in higher education on several campuses who have had the kind of impact Professor Rob Thomas has had on undergraduate teaching,” said UM President George M. Dennison. “He has set the bar very high for his colleagues in the state and the nation. It bears noting that no other Montana faculty member has earned this award during its existence.”

Thomas has been a faculty member at UM-Western for 16 years. In that time he helped transform the institution into the first and only public university in the United States to offer block scheduling. Under the scheduling system, students take one class at a time, three hours per day for 18 days, earning the same credits over a year as students do in traditional multiple-course scheduling models.

Experience One, or X1 as the scheduling program is known at UM-Western, is in its fifth full year at the Dillon campus.

For Thomas, the award is as much about the entire university’s innovations as it is one professor’s accomplishments.

“The facts are impressive,” Thomas said. “This university had two degrees and was dying. A small group of committed, visionary people turned this campus around. The award itself is recognition of what we have done to make this campus one of the most unique undergraduate experiences in the country. If this award is being given to me in any way, shape or form because of my role with X1, my role was one of many important roles to make this happen. This happened because of the courage of the faculty to change everything they know about how to teach undergraduate students.”

Thomas said by replacing the “sage on the stage” education model, professors at UM-Western regularly are able to engage their students in the field and in real-world situations they will encounter as graduate students and professionals. Small class sizes also foster more intimate, mentorship-like relationships between professors and students. Thomas calls this “aboriginal learning,” and it is at the core of his teaching.

Thomas takes full advantage of the large blocks of time he is able to spend with his students in the field. In November 2008, he and his environmental field studies students performed an unprecedented analysis of stream restoration on Montana’s upper Big Hole River. In 18 days (one block), the students conducted their analysis and drafted a 150-page assessment report on their collaborative effort with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local ranchers to help preserve the endangered fluvial Arctic grayling fish.

Such work is all part of what Thomas calls “teaching the salient concepts of a particular discipline.” He said the results are greater engagement in the classroom and better student retention both in knowledge and enrollment.

“There’s no falling through the cracks here, and it’s not coddling,” Thomas said. “The block takes the highest level of commitment and passion and enthusiasm.”

Thomas insists his award is a reflection of collective efforts taken by his fellow faculty at this small but innovative university in remote Montana.

“My role in this historic change is best left to others to determine,” Thomas said. “However, I know that change of this magnitude requires shared vision, hard work by many people and the courage to take a risk and try something new. I thank my colleagues for caring enough about the students to take this bold step forward. They have made my working life so much more interesting and worthwhile.”