Kip Tobin, Kyle Scott receive UCLA Distinguished Teaching Awards

Sean Brenner | July 26, 2024

Stephen “Kip” Tobin is an associate adjunct professor who leads courses on Spanish conversation and composition, Latin American science fiction and climate fiction, and Mexican cinema.

Kyle Scott is a doctoral student in the philosophy department who has trained fellow teaching assistants, taught an upper-division course on ethics and led another class on the philosophy of work. His dissertation focuses on alienated and unalienated labor, drawing perspectives from sources ranging from Aristotle to Marx.

And while their scholarly interests are very different, Tobin and Scott have at least one thing in common, beyond their shared academic home in the Humanities Division: Both have earned UCLA Distinguished Teaching Awards for 2023–24.

As a faculty member, Tobin will receive a $6,000 award; as a winner in the teaching assistant category, Scott receives $2,500. Both will be recognized along with 11 other honorees from across campus, Oct. 11 at a ceremony hosted by the Academic Senate and the Teaching and Learning Center.

Tobin said “student-centeredness” is one of his core teaching tenets. For example, he asks students to help create course rules and protocols, and he solicits their insights about what qualities define good professors, students and courses. That, he said, gives students both buy-in and accountability.

“In my courses, students are the nexus between the course materials and lectures,” said Tobin, who has taught at UCLA since 2015. “They’re frequently asked for their reactions and opinions, which brings a diversity of voices, perspectives and experiences to the discussion, beyond my own.”

Scott, who began his doctoral work at UCLA in 2018 and started teaching in 2019, said his approach to instruction begins with how he frames the material for himself.

“When I step into the classroom, I’m not primarily thinking, ‘How can I communicate these ideas to my students?’ but rather ‘Why do I care about these ideas, what excites me about them, and what questions do I have?’,” he said. “I try to use my own excitement and interest in the material to engage my students in a similar way that I might try to do with a friend, colleague or even faculty member.”

Both Tobin and Scott said there are some reliable indicators that let them know they’ve really connected with students.

“There are numerous signs,” Tobin said. “Hearing them self-correct in Spanish classes, hearing them laugh, seeing them raise their hands multiple times per class, or when they offer up a critical interpretation of a story, novel or film that we haven’t studied in class.”

Scott said one of the best barometers for student engagement is interaction outside of the classroom.

“When they follow up with me after class about something that excites them, or they come to office hours just to chat about a topic in the course that they’ve been pondering,” he said. “That’s when I know that they are finding some of the beauty of ‘doing philosophy’ that inspired me as an undergrad and that continues to draw me to the discipline.”

The Distinguished Teaching Awards have been presented annually since 1961, when the prizes were presented by the UCLA Alumni Association. The program is intended to recognize those who bring respect and admiration to teaching at UCLA, and to support awareness of the campus’ leadership in teaching and public service. View the full list of 2023–24 honorees.