Sylviane Duval
The University of Ottawa Excellence in Education Prizes honour exceptional educators who provide instruction of incomparable quality while conducting solid research programs. A profile of each of the nine 2007 recipients will appear in the Gazette in the coming months.
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From the time he arrived at the University of Ottawa as a student in 1986, Denis Boivin knew he wanted to be a professor. He was drawn not only by the lifestyle, the work hours, the dialogue between professors and students and the chance to conduct research, but by the passion for teaching his own professors instilled in him.
“I have tried to learn from the best of them – their ability to integrate their own research into lectures, and to not present material without asking for student feedback. When I gave my first lecture, I knew it was the profession for me.”
Professor Boivin has learned this lesson so well that the Common Law Student Society has conferred the Award for Excellence in Teaching upon him numerous times. He attributes this success to the hours of preparation he devotes to each course, and to the examples he draws from newspaper headlines. This fall, the University will in turn honour Denis Boivin by awarding him the Excellence in Education Prize.
Through his courses, Professor Boivin strives to highlight the relevance of law in everyday life, its volatility, the role of public policy considerations in shaping it, as well as its omnipresence. He gives his students a chance to discuss and explore current issues and topics (e.g., native affairs, tobacco smoking, pit bull dogs) for which there are countless opinions and views -- thus providing them a source of stimulation and challenge.
Professor Boivin has authored three books, an achievement in which he takes great satisfaction. “I am extremely proud of them,” he says. “They are the product of both my personal reflection and classroom teaching, and an achievement that will represent me in society and ensure me a certain place, however humble, in the annals of legal history.”
Professor Boivin relies on his students to tie together his research, his books and his teaching. “The classroom is a laboratory,” he says. He believes the law is so ingrained in society that it would be absurd to have no contact with the people who will enter the profession. By basing his lectures on his books and keeping a record of student feedback, Professor Boivin is able to identify flaws in his work and improve future editions. He often tests hypotheses in class, eliciting valuable feedback he can then use in his articles. By engaging in these exercises, Professor Boivin encourages students to think and reflect while obtaining constructive feedback on given topics.
“My courses aren’t learned by rote,” he says. “The important thing isn’t to assimilate or retain the material, since it is always changing. The most important quality of a good jurist is his or her ability to reflect and analyze, and that is my ultimate goal.”
