Arriving at the UW as a newly minted assistant professor of political science, Anthony Gill tried to emulate “the traditional Oxford professor —solemn, formal”—while teaching his Latin American politics class. It didn’t work. Attendance dropped and his teaching evaluations were dismal.

Lisa Coutu

Gill decided to visit undergraduate classes taught by professors known for their high attendance, hoping to adopt their approach. “I looked at professors who had charisma in class,” he recalls. “But it became clear that I shouldn’t try to copy them. Instead I needed to feel comfortable with my own style.”

In a stunning turnaround, Gill soon found his own voice and became one of the University’s most respected teachers, receiving a coveted UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999.

Gill describes his style as “informal and sarcastic.” He says, “I like to have fun in class. Having fun does not mean students aren’t learning.”

He also likes to surprise his students. “I lead students down one path so they think I’m heading toward one conclusion, and then I change midstream,” he says. “Students have told me, ‘I come to class because I never know what you’re going to say next. I’m always wondering whether we will come to conclusion A or a completely different conclusion.’”

Since his early misfire, Gill also has changed the format of his class—several times. First, realizing that he was trying to cover too much in one 10-week course, he split the material into two courses. Then he integrated Catalyst, a UW computer program to assist teaching and learning, into his courses.

Using Catalyst, Gill has his students run mock political campaigns. The students, working in groups that represent various Latin American countries and their political parties, post campaign literature and platforms online and use Catalyst to do public opinion polls.

“The students have a lot of fun with it, even taking the initiative to give campaign speeches before class and bringing in cam-paign posters and buttons,” Gill says. “But they also learn about intractable problems in these countries. They really get a feel for the difficulties each country faces.”

Although he is pleased with how the course has developed, Gill plans to revise it again soon. “My classes are constantly changing,” he says. “I don’t want to be satisfied with teaching them the same way, because I will become intellectually bored and then so will my students. Changing a class that is working well entails some risk, but I think it’s important to take that risk.”

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Through the Curriculum Transformation Project, faculty and students work together to incorporate the study of race, class, gender, and ethnicity into UW courses.

[Winter/Spring 2001 - Table of Contents]