The University of Oklahoma
College of Liberal Studies
Brock International Prize in Education
Summaries of Brock Prize Nominees
2007 Nominees
Steve Curwood
Executive Producer and Host
NPR’s Living on Earth
In recent years, Living on Earth has engaged inner city and rural schools across the country in its Ecological Literacy Project, which provides opportunities for science-based radio journalism to middle and high school students. Exploring the local community, students produce their own radio shows about the environmental issues that surround them.
M.B. “Flip” Flippen
President
M.B. Flippen and Associates
Flip Flippen has been leading teachers, principals, school executives and board members to help them accelerate personal growth, performance, and productivity for twenty years. School teachers, administrators and students from across the nation say his processes increase productivity and improve culture. Students say his curricula teach them critical leadership and life skills. Teachers say his processes promote student-teacher trust, which, in turn, creates self-managing classrooms and greatly improves student performance.
Alan E. Guskin
Distinguished University Professor
University President Emeritus
Antioch University
Dr. Alan Guskin is a widely cited author, sought-after speaker and consultant for his important work on the future of higher education. His publications and presentations have challenged and stimulated numerous higher education leaders and faculty members throughout the country to think about new ways to enhance student learning and faculty work-life in a period of reduced resources by transforming their institutions. In addition, Guskin led a three-year series of think tanks on the future of higher education which had a profound impact on the purpose, restructuring, and role of higher education in America.
David W. and Roger T. Johnson
Co-Directors and Founders
Cooperative Learning Center
The Cooperative Learning Center is a Research and Training Center focusing on how students should interact with each other as they learn and the skills needed to interact effectively. Cooperative Learning is a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence (a sense of sink or swim together), individual accountability (each of us has to contribute and learn), interpersonal skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution), face-to-face promotive interaction, and processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better).
Mel Levine
Professor of Pediatrics and Director
Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Dr. Melvin Levine has devoted his life to the understanding and support of children and adolescents with learning differences and attention issues. For over 25 years, he has worked to change the “one-size-fits-all” approach to education and believes that if we pay more attention to individual learning patterns, we can make all children successful in school. Throughout his career, Dr. Levine has been actively involved in the design and validation of new diagnostic instruments and training programs that integrate neurological, behavioral, developmental, and health findings in children with learning difficulties.
Frances H. Rauscher
John McNaughton Rosebush Professor of Psychology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Dr. Frances Rauscher studies the effects of music instruction on children’s cognitive development. She has found that early music instruction can increase children’s abstract reasoning and arithmetic scores. These findings have had a strong impact on educational practice in the US and overseas, with several public elementary schools implementing instrumental instruction to improve spatial intelligence. Her vision is to teach all children, regardless of musical or economic background, how to think and reason creatively.
Graham B. Spanier
President
The Pennsylvania State University
As head of Penn State since 1995, Dr. Spanier has been identified nationally as a president who is making a difference. During his tenure, Dr. Spanier has launched a number of historic initiatives, including the creation of an honors college, a College of Information Sciences and Technology, and Penn State’s World Campus. He has also overseen the establishment of several new programs, including Forensic Sciences and Security and Risk Analysis.
