Honeycutt named Varner Educator Laureate for 2017

If ever there was a person who was born to teach, it would be Karen Honeycutt. She loves it so much, it’s probably part of her DNA now.

But, it wasn’t always like that.

“I’m naturally introverted. I never envisioned myself as an educator,” said Honeycutt, the Clarence and Nelle Gilg Professor for Teaching Excellence and Innovation in Allied Health and program director in the UNMC Division of Medical Laboratory Science in the College of Allied Health Professions.

She discovered her life’s calling as a student when she found herself in an environment that was unsafe to ask questions. It was then and there Honeycutt decided to become a teacher and always provide a safe learning environment for her students.

She will be honored today for her excellence in teaching when she receives UNMC’s 2017 Varner Educator Laureate at the Academic Affairs Impact in Education Awards Ceremony at 3 p.m. in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.

“I am humbled to receive this award, but it’s not about me. It’s about my peers, mentors, co-workers and students who helped me grow as an educator,” she said.

Honeycutt, a lifelong learner, is now working on her Ph.D. in education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where her dissertation will focus on the different ways students can practice technical skills in a distance-learning environment via cognitive practice strategies. One way, she theorizes, is to allow students to evaluate technical skill performance by identifying and explaining correct and incorrect procedures via video.

Immersed in the constructivist theory of education, Honeycutt believes that individuals construct knowledge by assimilating information through their own experiences and building on previous knowledge. “Learners must be engaged in their learning process,” she said.

“In my evaluations, students sometimes state that I don’t really teach. Instead, I make them do all the work. What I want is to instill in them a love of learning.”

She’s proud of UNMC’s quantum leap in providing resources for educators to develop innovative teaching tools and for creating such avenues as the Interprofessional Academy of Education where instructors can collaborate.

Honeycutt has long been one of the College of Allied Health Professions’ most decorated teachers, receiving numerous awards from the college, UNMC and the University of Nebraska since she began teaching in 1984.

Her advice: An excellent teacher must embrace individual diversity, yet expect, and help each student to realize and reach his or her potential as an individual, learner, professional and member of society.

“I love to see the immediate impact my teaching has on a student and also know that they will have an impact on their patients and families.”