Leo Yaffe Award for Excellence in Teaching (Faculty of Science)

Prakash Panangaden

School of Computer Science

1) University teaching has to cater to a tremendous variety of students from potential geniuses to the competent. The biggest challenge is keeping everyone interested without losing large segments of the class. Furthermore, at this level, teaching has to be guided discovery. One cannot just load students with information, they have to learn to learn for themselves and to question what their teachers tell them.

2) First the teacher has to be aware of the students as human beings. They must realize that there are no universal explanations and that different students may respond to different types of explanations. The classroom has to be a gateway to a dialogue. One can be a great lecturer and a bad teacher if one makes no contact with the students.