After Catherine (Katie) Kendig completed her Ph.D. in Philosophy, she was looking for a position that would allow her to give undergraduate students the kind of research-based learning environment usually only available at the graduate level. She found her match at Missouri Western State University, which has a statewide mission of applied learning and excels at providing those opportunities to undergraduates. Dr. Kendig, assistant professor of philosophy, is Missouri Western’s recipient of the 2014 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education.
“Katie Kendig is an extraordinary classroom instructor and scholar,” said Dr. Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Her main aim in every course is to challenge students and help them have the opportunity to engage as young philosophers.”
Dr. Kendig completed her Ph.D. at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Genomics in Society, which gave her an appreciation for the value of active interdisciplinary research, an approach she has pursued in her own teaching career.
“I combine the active problem-based learning used in the sciences with the interrogatively rigorous Socratic method used in philosophy,” Dr. Kendig said. “Students learn how to use new approaches to understanding the nature of scientific knowledge through active group discussion and exploration.”
Dr. Kendig teaches primary philosophy texts in a seminar format, allowing students to learn from their peers both by listening and attempting to communicate their ideas with each other. She helps negotiate the more treacherous points in the arguments and makes sure they don’t lose their way.
“In this way I feel like a Sherpa. I guide them in their paths of learning – show them the way – but do not carry them,” she said. “I let them make the ascent for themselves.”
One example of her originality as a classroom teacher is her decision to create, develop and integrate unique labs into her upper-level course, History and Philosophy of the Natural Sciences. This is a novel method of teaching the subject which no one else in the state of Missouri has undertaken. Dr. Kendig said her colleagues in various disciplines within both the sciences and humanities have been invaluable allies.
“As a philosophy professor whose research specialization is philosophy of biology, it was important to me to find a position where I could engage in meaningful interdisciplinary work with the faculty of biology as well as other faculties,” she said. “Members of the biology faculty at Missouri Western have supported my research and vision for History and Philosophy of the Natural Sciences from the beginning, and I could not have integrated lab work into that course without their help.”
Dr. Kendig’s students praise her conscientiousness and dedicated manner, often commenting that she “goes the extra mile” to make complex concepts more understandable to them.
Dr. Kendig and other Governor’s Award recipients from Missouri’s public colleges and universities will be honored at a luncheon with Gov. Jay Nixon in Columbia in early April.
Missouri Western State University is a comprehensive regional university providing a blend of traditional liberal arts and professional degree programs. The university offers student-centered, high quality instruction that focuses on experience-based learning, community service, and state-of-the-art technology. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit www.missouriwestern.edu.