(ANS - São Paulo)– The physicist, Professor Doctor Eric Mazur, is the first winner of the Minerva Prize for Progress in Higher Education, awarded by the Minerva Academy in the United States of America. Doctor Mazur, Professor of Physics at Harvard University, was honoured for his significant contribution to the improvement of higher education, and in particular, for the development of "Peer Instruction", an innovative teaching method that is widely used by teachers of the Salesian University of Lorena (UNISAL).

The award will be conferred officially on Dr. Mazur in the month of October, at the Minerva Academy, together with a cheque for 500,000 dollars.

UNISAL welcomes the decision to grant this award and the recognition of the Peer Instruction method as a successful and innovative process in the area of teaching and learning. Since 2011, Doctor Mazur has guided the teachers of the Lorena unit of  UNISAL in applying the method, and in March of this year he visited the campus.

During his visit on 19 and 20 March, Professor  Mazur inaugurated the laboratory named in his honour, "Laboratory for Innovative Methodology, the  Eric Mazur room. " He gave a speech at the launch of a Consortium to promote the use of innovative methodologies in teaching Science, Technology, Human Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. It is called the STHEM Brazil-LASPAU Consortium. (LASPAU is a Harvard based Programme for Teaching in Latin American Universities)

He also presented the workshop "Innovation and Academic Peer Instruction" in the International Seminar on Methodology and Technology  Applied to Teaching, sponsored by the Lorena unit of UNISAL in collaboration with LASPAU.

The Peer Instruction method includes an interactive approach in the classroom and is recognized worldwide for its positive results in student learning. This is just one of the innovative methods applied by UNISAL teachers of Lorena. Among other methods used are: Project Based Learning,  Team Based Learning, Cross Discipline Learning and Learning by Case Study.

Published 12/06/2014