Ensign and Wen Earn Academic Innovation Awards

Julene Ensign, assistant professor of exercise science, MAE physical education, and Zhijun Wen, assistant professor of Chinese, were the Spring 2022 winners of the Truman Academic Innovation Award.

Ensign was recognized for aligning sections of ES 530G/531G with HLTH 198L. This collaboration among peers evolved into symbiotic relationships that allowed physical education candidates in ES 530G/531G to build pedagogical skills and affords students enrolled in HLTH 198L opportunities to provide valuable feedback on their experiences as learners. Both sets of students are challenged to learn from each other through active engagement during the instructional process.

Wen was recognized for incorporating the latest research findings from second language studies and learning sciences. This method promotes the creative use of the target language as the goal of learning. Learning a second language in this way leads to integrated and dynamic knowledge of the language, which is easy to apply to new contexts. Applying this method in his Chinese language teaching, he is able to offer students a whole new experience and help them build strong skills in Chinese.