Micheline Laflamme
The University of Ottawa Excellence in Education Prizes recognize exceptional educators who demonstrate outstanding teaching while maintaining a solid research program.
He has been compared to the conductor of a symphony. With him, even mortgages, securities and covenants are sheer poetry or, a little more in line with the younger generation, like the sounds of rock music (as described in a letter by Maître Paul Larocque in support of Professor Boudreault’s nomination). Marc has been teaching in the Civil Law Section for 31 years with a passion that has never waned. This year, the University of Ottawa granted Marc its Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Marc Boudreault admits that he always wanted to teach, something he had his sights set on already in his third year of law studies. He began his career while doing his masters degree. “I could have been a teacher in any field. I ended up in law, but what interested me first and foremost was being able to teach.”
He likes to synthesize material, structure ideas, pass on knowledge and provide the tools one needs to make analyses in the legal field. He also listens to what his students have to say. Over time, he has learned to anticipate pitfalls his students may face.
“I have learned to guess what might give students problems. When I finish giving a course, I make note of where I had difficulty getting a principle accepted. When I succeed the following year, it is because I chose a different angle, a different approach, so that it was better understood.” Professor Boudreault estimates that it takes five years to be able to teach a subject well, ten years before you master the course. “The first year, we are reacting to the students in the classroom….After 10 years, we can anticipate what will happen. We know where the students will have problems.”
Difficulties are not always related to knowing the answers, but may come up because of personal problems. “There are students who are under a great deal of stress and for whom failure can be absolutely terrible,” he says. Mr. Boudreault thinks that a good teacher must also be sensitive to signs of distress and be able to provide students with guidance. His insight and his ability to listen make him a sought-after professor who is fully deserving of the Award for Excellence in Teaching.
