Professor William Buskist is to be presented with a lifetime achievement accolade. It's called the Charles Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award.
"In addition to a free trip for two to Canada," Buskist said, "it includes a $2,000 check and a plaque."
The American Psychological Association said recipients are required to exhibit an excellent record in teaching. Buskist's colleagues feel he is worthy of the honor.
"Bill has established one of the premier training programs for graduate students interested in becoming academic professors and teaching psychology," said Daniel Svyantek, chair of the department of psychology. "The Brewer award is the latest in a long line of things that have come to the department through Bill's efforts."
Buskist teaches grad students in two classes: teaching of psychology and advanced teaching of psychology. Svyantek said six out of the last seven years Auburn's graduate students have won the teaching of psychology division's award from the APA.
"The typical complaint is (undergraduates) would rather have the grad assistant trained by Bill," Svyantek said.
Students of Buskist's are trained to effectively convey information to larger psychology courses.
"He connects with every class that he teaches," said Brennan Cox, a psychology graduate student who has worked with Buskist for five years. "He studies teaching. He knows what works, and he knows how to apply it."
Buskist was nominated by a group of people led by Victor Benassi of the University of New Hampshire.
"They collect information like your teaching evaluations, letters from students and data on the kinds of courses taught," Buskist said.
The award is primarily being presented because of Buskist's advancements in the teaching of psychology. However, the staff and Buskist realize he isn't the only one who benefits.
"We get known because of these awards," Svyantek said. "It increases our ranking, it gets publicity -- gets our name in the papers, I guess I'd say."
Buskist said anytime professors receive awards or are invited to give a lecture somewhere, it brings attention to the University and helps attract other faculty.
"Anytime a professor publishes a paper in a prestigious journal, he's invited to serve as an editor of the journal," Buskist said.
Buskist said achievements such as these increase the University's prestige.
"It says we have good faculty here," Buskist said. "They're winning awards, writing books, publishing important research articles. We want you to come here and be just like them."
This won't be the first time for Buskist to be given such a prestigious honor. In 2005, he was a co-recipient of Auburn University's highest teaching honor, The Gerald and Emily Leischuck Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also is a recipient of the 2000 Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award from the Society of the Teaching of Psychology.
"Most of us who take teaching seriously, plan on spending our lifetimes getting better at it," Buskist said, "It's a craft. In an essence it's no different from wood-working."
The APA honors one person with the award annually. This year's conference will be held during August in Toronto.
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