2006 winners of the Distinguished Academics Awards

Kerry Jang has an international reputation as a researcher into the genetic and environmental factors underlying mental illness, but it is his work in his own neighbourhood for which he is being recognized.

A resident of the Collingwood area of Vancouver, Jang has long been involved in community affairs. His volunteer work in educating parents about the mental health issues facing young people lead to his joining the Board of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House. It was while on this Board that Jang had the opportunity to apply his research to the needs of his community.

As part of Vancouver’s “Four Pillars” approach to dealing with the consequences of drug abuse, Jang engaged his community in a discussion of how the Neighbourhood House could constructively contribute to this city-wide effort through the use of harm reduction.

Rather than adopting a “father knows best” approach to the creation of social programs, Jang employed his skills as an educator to bring together residents, the police, politicians, and potential clients to discuss the causes of the problems and possible solutions. This resulted in the creation of a support program for homeless people that is not only effective, but also is accepted by the community.

Jang’s use of evidence-based medicine in the design of Collingwood’s “Breakfast and Shower” program resulted in increased referrals to other agencies and programs. In the first year of operation, more than a dozen homeless people were helped to obtain proper care and now qualify for entry into transition housing, and many more were put on the road to recovery by entering detox programs.

An elementary school teacher early in his career, Roland Case has since made it his life’s work to study how reasoning is taught in elementary and secondary school classrooms and to provide teachers with the tools to integrate critical thinking skills into all subject areas.

One of the founders of The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2), Case is the driving intellectual and organizational force behind the group. Over the past 10 years, he has authored or co-authored 19 teacher resource guides, and made over 300 academic, professional and community presentations in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India.

Rather than viewing critical thinking as a stand alone skill, Case seeks to develop students’ abilities to make sound judgments within the context of the subject matter being taught. In this way, critical thinking becomes more than a learning objective in and of itself-it becomes a “way of life” in the classroom.

Over the last four years, the Consortium, under Case’s leadership, has focused on publishing and disseminating teaching resources for British Columbia’s elementary and secondary social studies curriculum. Twenty-three teams of teachers drafted, tested, and refined the equivalent of a lesson plan in social studies for every day of the year from Kindergarten to Grade 11.

The power of Case’s vision is evident in the enthusiasm expressed by academics and practitioners alike. Although his work has strong theoretical roots, its practical application has had an immeasurable effect on student learning and broadened the approaches to teaching of literally thousands of educators.