Photo by Chris Meyer
 “You have taught me more than you’ll ever realize. You taught me how to free my mind and to find answers that are important to me.” — Philip Collins, former student |
Students enrolled in a course taught by Neil Sabine may not hear a single lecture in an entire semester.
What happens instead is active learning: with each reading assignment, students are given a set of questions designed to help them identify and understand important concepts. Class time is devoted to a process of engagement—first in small groups and then with the entire class—to clarify answers to questions. Students are then tested both individually and as groups to determine the level of mastery they have achieved.
Sabine started using the “no-lecture format” in the fall semester of 2001 with just one section of a required introductory course for biology majors. During subsequent semesters, the “no-lecture” section students outscored students in the lecture-based section by an average of 12 to 20 points (out of 100) on the comprehensive final.
Faculty colleagues at IU East as well as those at other campuses are impressed by the enthusiasm and effectiveness of Sabine’s teaching. Tom Morrell, professor of biology at Ball State University, served as a formal observer of a biology class for non-majors and was struck by the level of student participation and engagement. “Although he did not provide a ‘lecture’ per se, he still provided outstanding tutelage and guidance,” said Morrell.
Sabine’s innovative teaching methods have been recognized with several awards. In addition to winning the 2002 IU East Student Choice Award for Teacher of the Year, he has received IU’s Teaching Excellence Recognition Awards in six out of the past seven years. He was a recipient of IU Research and the University Graduate School Research Awards in 1997, 1998 and 2001. In 1998, he also won the Helen Lees Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In addition to transforming learning in the classroom, Sabine has transformed the classroom itself by establishing field study courses in Belize and the Great Smoky Mountains. Blakefield noted that the “amount of time required to plan, organize and implement U.S. and international field courses speaks to his dedication to enriching the lives of our students.”
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