UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 10, Page 7
November 3, 1994
Brian Ackerman: From case files to teaching award

     Brian Ackerman grew up in New York City, earned a bachelor's
degree in English at Rutgers University in New Jersey and became a
case worker in the Suffolk County Department of Social Services on
Long Island, New York.
     In his Wolf Hall office, the professor of psychology and a 1994
recipient of the University's excellence-in-teaching award, recalled
that first full-time job: "I was idealistic. I wanted to make things
better through my case work. Eventually, I saw that, case by case,
nothing ever changes. I couldn't see myself making any impact, or
only, perhaps, occasionally."
     He did psychiatric case work at Columbia University Graduate
School of Social Work and earned a doctorate in psychology from the
University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island.
     Unfortunately, he found that his timing was poor and college
teaching jobs were scare. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the
Centre for Research in Human Development at the University of Toronto,
he came to the University of Delaware in 1979, where he could be
within commuting distance of his wife, who was working as an attorney
in Syracuse, N.Y.
     Now, with more than 15 years of experience in the college
classroom, Ackerman teaches developmental psychology and the "History
and Systems of Psychology" to junior and senior psychology majors, the
latter course satisfying one of the College of Arts and Science
writing requirements.
     His developmental psychology course, which also is taught to
master's and doctoral graduate students, focuses on how children's
constitutional and environmental factors can be identified and then
used to predict later development.
     Due to the high degree of writing in his history and systems
course, enrollment is limited to 40 students. Usually, Ackerman added,
with a slight grin, when the more than 60 students who arrive at the
first class see the syllabus, the number drops to a manageable level
very quickly.
     Ackerman said his research during most of his career focused on
cognitive development in children, with an emphasis on those in
elementary grades. Specifically, he studies discourse comprehension
and memory. During the last two years, he has been investigating
emotional development in children living in adverse environments.
     He entered graduate school because he wanted to teach, but then
realized that for a good college teaching job you get hired and
noticed based upon the success of your research.
     "Research is A through Y and teaching is Z," Ackerman said.
Fortunately, he found he was skilled at research and loved it. "So,
I'm here balancing the two things I love to do," he said.
     Learning more every time he teaches is one thing that Ackerman
enjoys.
     "What goes on in the classroom is almost selfish," he said. "I
probably learn more than the students do. It makes me improve my
organizational skills in order to connect with the students. Also,
it's just this incredible, delightful intellectual activity.
     "I also love the student contact, the interpersonal relationships
I establish with them. There's also the variability among the
students, they are all so different. I find the students here are very
easily motivated, very well intentioned and agreeable, for the most
part."
     A "love-hate relationship" is how Ackerman described his
association with his students.
     "I'm pushing them all the time. I'm pushing them to go much
further than they want to go," he said. "At some level, deep down,
they appreciate it. But," he flashed a smile, "mostly they hate it.
     "Students are idealistic, and I appeal to that. What they are
learning here is how to think and how to analyze, not simply facts. My
goal is to teach them to teach themselves. That's the only thing I can
give them. And they like it. All of them like it. They recognize that
they are never bored in my classes. I challenge them and they respond.
     "I'm not sure this all makes me totally different. I'm sure there
are others in psychology who feel the same way about teaching."
     Ackerman's wife, Elaine Ingulli, teaches business law courses at
Richard Stockton College in New Jersey. Having a spouse who also is
involved in the college classroom is enjoyable and helpful, he said,
since they share their experiences.
     "I'm more likely to discuss what I believe I've failed to do, and
talk about how a class could be better than to be elated with what I
did," Ackerman said.
                                                         -Ed Okonowicz

Editor's note: This story is one of a series of articles featuring the
1994 recipients of the University's excellence-in-teaching and
excellence-in-advising awards.