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Dalton: Award-winning professor goes beyond lectures

By: Chloé Morrison
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Christy Price

Dalton State psychology professor Christy Price said she pushes beyond traditional college lectures and aims to transform her students’ minds.

“I don’t want to attack the lecture,” Dr. Price said. “But, my research suggests that students want a variety.”

She credits her research, some of which focuses on engaging the millennium generation, with her successes in the classroom.

Her ability was noted recently when she was presented the 2008 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Georgia Board of Regents. College officials announced the award Tuesday.

Dr. Price teaches an array of psychology classes and said the discipline has helped her connect with students and better understand their needs.

“There is a lot of literature that really focuses on effective teaching and learning,” she said. “I’m really in touch with those principles and that research, and that helps.”

Younger generations — accustomed to easily accessing information from virtually anywhere — want active learning, Dr. Price said. In her classes she strives to evoke emotions, make topics relevant and encourage students to ask questions and think critically, she said.

“Learning is supposed to be a mystery,” she said.

Dr. Price was one of three faculty members in the University System of Georgia to receive the Regents’ Excellence in Teaching Award this year. She was honored in the system’s sector that includes the 16 institutions that make up the state’s public two-year and four-year state colleges, officials said.

Her colleagues and students recommended her for the honor in written statements. One of her students, Jason Everts, wrote that Dr. Price commands respect and attention from her students and goes beyond the traditional teaching methods.

“Polarizing herself from the typical college professor stereotype of long, drawn-out monotone lectures, Dr. Price engages the classroom with questions and suggestions, forcing independent and critical thinking from her eager audience,” Mr. Everts wrote.

John Hutcheson, vice president for academic affairs at Dalton State, said Dr. Price prepares more thoroughly than anyone he has met during his 34 years in education.

“She has an acute awareness that teaching is meaningless without reliable assurances of learning, and no one on our faculty is more sensitive to variations in students’ learning styles and the necessity for diverse modes of pedagogy,” Dr. Hutcheson said in a prepared statement.

Despite the praise from co-workers and students, Dr. Price said the most important factor in receiving the recognition was the help she received along the way. From colleagues to fellow church members, she said she has been influenced and motivated by people around her.

And she hopes to provide the same positive influence on her students, she said.

“This is not about just getting a grade. ... this is about transforming us and preparing us,” she said. “I try to encourage the big ideas that will live beyond the class.”

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