Indiana University Northwest announced that Mark Hoyert, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and a professor of psychology, received the 2019 P.A. Mack Award.
Presented by IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET), the award recognizes distinguished service to teaching that significantly and demonstrably advances the goals and ideas of FACET.
In their nomination of Hoyert for the award, IU Northwest colleagues Charles Gallmeier, Kristin Huysken, Christopher Young, and David Malik, former Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said that Hoyert “fosters a culture of pedagogical innovation that reinforces the teacher-scholar model throughout his local and external communities and both illustrate a commitment uncommon for a dean.”
The colleagues noted Hoyert’s extensive work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and his work in developing many pedagogical initiatives. Hoyert’s research career boasts a total of 75 published journal articles and conference presentations, 31 articles and presentations with student co-authors, 16 SoTL Conference presentations, and over $200,000 in funds to support SoTL research.
Pedagogically, Hoyert's first contribution was his "GoFar" project that yielded strong results in goal-oriented learning. GoFar consisted of a brief intervention that introduced students to adaptive ways of thinking about coursework, success, failure, and goals. The project involved about 600 students at IU Northwest and would later extend to five other universities. Hoyert sought to find a way to improve disappointing student outcomes at the completion of the course. Students, who had gone through the intervention of GoFar, found final grades and graduation rates to be higher than students who did not receive the intervention.
More recently, GoFar was selected to participate in Re-Imagining the First Year Experience (RFY) with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and in February 2019 the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and AASCU collaborated to publish a special issue devoted to RFY. Of the ten articles chosen for publication, Hoyert co-authored two of them.
Another pedagogical intiative Hoyert developed is Pedagogical Innovative Group (PIGs). PIGs began when he invited a geologist, a historian, a sociologist, and a biologist together to discuss pedagogical innovations. The group met weekly and from the readings and discussions emerged articles steeped in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The PIGs encourage faculty to work together as a learning community to develop pedagogical techniques and innovations that foster student learning and engagement.
Lastly, Hoyert's commitment to service in teaching goes beyond the interventions of GoFar and the PIGs. In his current role as dean, COAS supported FACET members travel to the annual retreat and he encouraged faculty to take on leadership roles in FACET.
