The world's largest educational organization has honored a UNL exchange program for its innovation.
The New York-based Institute of International Education has recognized the Harold E. Spencer Exchange Program in Teacher Education with a 2011 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education. The program's award recognizes best practices in international partnerships among cooperating U.S-Spain academic programs. Harriet Turner, a professor of modern languages and literatures and director of the exchange program, accepted the award at a recent IIE conference. She shares the honor with Maria Gomez Ortueta from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, UNL's partner in the exchange program. Thomas McGowan, chairman of the Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education department, and Thomas Farrell, associate vice president for international affairs at the University of Nebraska, also were present at the awards ceremony.
Turner, who holds the Harold E. Spencer endowed professorship, established the exchange program in 2004 and named it for this distinguished alumnus. The program combines intensive immersion in the language and culture of the host country with a practicum in teaching in the local public school system. In Spain, UNL students live in the imperial city of Toledo, take courses, participate in tutorials and engage in a supervised teaching experience. In Lincoln, UCLM students live on campus and participate in tutorials and a course on teaching methods. They also engage in a supervised teaching experience provided by Sheridan, Kahoa, Holmes, and Prescott elementary schools.
At both universities, the shared goal is to refine a student's understanding of pedagogy and second language acquisition as these disciplines are applied cross-culturally between the United States and Spain. Students earn appropriate credits for the semester, fall or spring, and are eligible for financial aid and scholarships.