Congratulations to Professor Jayne Baker, recipient of a U of T Early Career Teaching Award

Congratulations to Professor Jayne Baker, recently awarded an Early Career Teaching Award. The University of Toronto has been awarding this prize since 2015 with up to four early career faculty members honoured each year. The award recognizes "faculty members who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to student learning, pedagogical engagement, and teaching innovation." Professor Baker is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in Sociology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. There, she teaching the large introductory sociology courses and courses in the sociology of education. We have pasted the award citation below from the full notice of awards on the Provost's announcement page here. UTM News has also profiled Professor Baker's teaching here.

Jayne Baker
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga

Professor Baker has been an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga since 2012. Her research centres on hierarchies among university institutions (Sociology of Education) to increasing student learning in core concepts and competencies including research and writing (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning). With a colleague, she is also investigating effective strategies for preparing first year students for testing in the context of a large course that lacks face-to-face opportunities structured into the course. Professor Baker teaches courses at all levels and sizes, from 12 to 1,000. In addition to teaching required courses in research methods and introductory sociology, she also teaches courses in education and a course on masculinities. She has also spearheaded the integration of writing instruction and support in the research methods course required for all Sociology and Criminology, and Law and Society majors and specialists. As part of her interest in supporting student learning and engaging students outside of the traditional classroom, Professor Baker frequently works with undergraduates and graduate students within her own research. She has also mentored graduate students in their teaching through a Teaching Fellowship model developed by her Criminology, Law & Society teaching-stream colleague, Professor Nathan Innocente. Professor Baker has also worked actively on the curriculum of the Department of Sociology’s five programs, including design and implementation of curriculum mapping.