Jeff Johnston named UCI Lecturer of the Year

The Council on Student Experience and the Division of Undergraduate Education recently selected Jeff Johnston as UCI’s 2015 Lecturer of the Year. Since 2002, Johnston has taught ethics, health, physical education and sports coaching in the School of Education. He poses hypothetical moral dilemmas to stimulate discussion; brings in outside experts and practitioners, including former students; encourages small group interaction; and uses costumes and props to convey the subject matter. In addition, Johnston and fellow lecturer Timothy Tift developed and integrated the Peer Assistant Program, in which select students who have excelled in a course assist in a subsequent offering of the course. “Jeff engages students more than any educator I have known,” Tift said. “He gives students ownership of their learning; he makes them part of the process.” Tift noted that Johnston’s classes engage in quizzes and games that allow Johnston to provide information via highly participatory, well-structured activities. The result? “Students pay attention, critical information is exchanged and absorbed, learning is fun,” Tift said.