Anita Blowers, associate professor of criminal justice and criminology, is among the five finalists for the 2014 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence, one of the University’s highest honors.
She and the other finalists – Jonathan Crane, associate professor communications studies; Fumie Kato, associate professor, languages and culture studies; Tracy Rock, associate professor, reading and elementary education; and Debra Smith, associate professor, Africana studies - are being featured in Inside UNC Charlotte in advance of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence ceremony scheduled for Friday, Sept. 5.
According to Blowers, “If we want our students to become productive members in an increasingly complex society, we must move away from focusing exclusively on passively transmitting information and move towards providing an environment where students are co-collaborators of their educational experience.”
Blowers joined the Department of Criminal Justice in 1989, and she has been affiliated with the Gerontology Program and the Ph.D. in Public Policy Program. In 2013, she led the Justice Studies Abroad Program at Kingston University in England. Blowers has taught a wide range of courses at multiple levels: criminal justice policy, prosecution and adjudication, American criminal courts, and crime and justice in film. Her pedagogical approach emphasizes the use of active learning strategies where students are encouraged to solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate or brainstorm during class.
Employing cooperative learning strategies, in which students work in teams on problems and projects to foster more collaborative learning, Blowers argues that the professor coaches students in the skills they need to learn independently and from one another, creating an environment where student and professor are both stakeholders.
This innovative approach is not lost on her students. One senior criminal justice major wrote Blowers “assumes the identity of a ‘coach,’ always pushing and encouraging her students to produce exceptional work. Due to her unwavering devotion to her research and her students’ successes, Dr. Blowers has received my admiration, appreciation, and deepest gratitude. ”
According to colleague Vivian Lord, Blowers has a “footprint on a wide range of University initiatives that have helped to create an environment where students can achieve academic and personal success.” She has served as the director of the Office of Student Success and Retention, as a faculty fellow in the Provost’s Office and as a McNair Program mentor.
Within the Freshman Seminar Program, Blowers helped lead the effort to expand the number and variety of freshman seminar courses; created the faculty development program for faculty teaching freshman seminar courses; assisted in the development of measures and procedures for assessment of the UNC Charlotte Learning Community programs; and developed and taught a course for freshman seminar peer mentors.
For her outstanding contributions to teaching and learning at UNC Charlotte, Blowers was awarded the R. Randy Rice Service Award in 2004 to recognize her contributions to the Learning Community Program at UNC Charlotte. In 2001, she received the UNC Charlotte Student Support Services Award.