Maria Lorena Cook, Associate Professor, Department of International and Comparative Labor, and one of the 2007 winners of the ILR School MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching, shares her perspectives on the importance of great teaching. She also talks about a recent international field experience at the Mexico border that helped students learn real-life lessons about immigration.

How do you define good teaching?

I used to have this mistaken perception that great teaching was about getting up in front of a class of 100 students, giving a brilliant lecture and telling good jokes. And that's never been me. But I think I've learned that there are other things that make up good teaching. For me, it's providing a setting where an exchange can take place. Instead of being one way – teacher to student – the students give back and participate in the experience.

Talk more about the Mexico border trip as a teaching moment. How valuable is this kind of experiential learning?

This trip really brought the immigration issue to life. The students were asked to keep journals about this experience. I remember one student who said that it's one thing to read about the perils of crossing the Arizona desert, but it's completely different to sit next to a person, who's the same age as you, who has made this trek across the border and faced those dangers.

It's easy to get pre-formed ideas and to put people in categories – to refer to migrants as "those people" – which can be dehumanizing. On this trip, the students got to see the real people involved in this issue, and it helps to get them thinking about how to develop policy that treats people as individuals. I want them to have that kind of "a-ha" moment after an experience like this, and that happened with this trip.

What else do you do to keep your teaching fresh and provide something new in the classroom?

One example is a course I offered for the first time this semester – Crossing Borders: Migrations in Comparative Perspective. The course comes out of research that I did on sabbatical last year. The course is organized around three regional case studies: the Arizona border, African migration to Spain, and the asylum seeker issue in Australia. These are the three cases I focused on in my research.

This was a bit of an experiment, but I think it worked well. I gave them some information in this course that is very new, that isn't even out there yet in published articles or even in the press. I have a real emotional connection to this work, and I think the students could see that. It made going to class – for me and for them – an enjoyable and vibrant experience.

How does it feel to win the MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching?

I'm very happy about winning the award. The student who nominated me is one of our star students, and I've know him since he started here four years ago. He worked with me as a research assistant on my book, and I mentored him pretty much throughout his four years of college. This award is recognition that this kind of individual support and guidance of students is another valued aspect of the teaching that we do.

The ILR School recognizes that there are a variety of creative ways to teach and engage students. Teaching, for me, is one of the most difficult things that I do, and I'm always searching for ways to improve. I see this in my colleagues, too. I don't know of one member of the faculty at ILR who doesn't take teaching seriously.

- Joseph Zappala