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Alenka Hlousek-Radojcic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She holds a MSc from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Dr. Hlousek-Radojcic, known to her students as Prof. Alenka, is a science educator whose passion for and excellence in education have been recognized with an Outstanding Teaching Award from the 2015 College of Arts and Sciences, and the 2021 Excellence in Honors Teaching award. She was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer who taught at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Soon after she became a Blue Hen, Prof. Alenka joined the team of preceptors, faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and laboratory coordinators to develop and deliver Introductory Biology curricula integrated with General Chemistry for Life Sciences. The integrated format of the Introductory Biology I and 2 curricula is result of many years of collaborations with chemistry faculty. In particular, the rich and rewarding partnership with Prof. Jacqueline Fajardo, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, resulted in a unique Honors Integrated Introductory Biology and Chemistry course sequence that enables students to develop an understanding of the power of natural laws in shaping living systems. Prof. Alenka also teaches the upper-level Introduction to Microbiology course, and co-teaches the graduate level science communication course, Making Science Make Sense, with Dr. Lydia Timmins, Associate Professor of Communication.
As a pragmatic realist, Prof. Alenka acknowledges the power of behavioral responses to environmental stimuli (affective responses). However, she considers that meaningful learning occurs when it includes the processes of discovery by a learner (cognitive constructivist) in a collaborative environment (social constructivist). It is her student, the learner, who constructs a personal knowledge map, not she, the educator, who presents it. Although Prof. Alenka's own education emphasized didactic styles of instruction, with roots in medieval times, these experiences prompted her to part ways with that tradition. While she understands the historic role educators had in refining, condensing, and transferring knowledge for centuries, she is aware of the profound effects of the technology revolution. Moreover, she recognizes the diverse skill sets required to develop comprehension of biological systems. Thus, drawing on her personal experiences and on the findings from cognitive science and discipline-based education research, she has evolved into an ardent practitioner and a promoter of student-centered active learning pedagogies.