History buff David Pace studies student learning

Everyone has had it happen: You sit in class trying to grasp a concept, yet for some reason it simply will not click. \nMaybe the professor's intelligence level prevents him or her from explaining it well, or maybe the subject matter is so difficult that it is too much to take in all at once. Whatever the reason, this problem is widespread, and according to history professor David Pace, interesting to study. He is the co-director of the Freshman Learning Project, and he and his colleagues have done extensive research on why different disciplines work for some but not others. They have gone so far as to attend conferences where they learn new topics in new ways and attempt to present the learned information to the group. \n"We have discovered how difficult it is to change disciplines, and we place the faculty in the position of the students," said Pace. \nThis research has given the faculty new insight into the studying habits of their students and has allowed them to discover new ways of teaching. \n"One of our biggest discoveries is that it is best to break down the learning process," said Pace. "Breaking the process into components and learning each one separately can make a huge difference."\nThe FLP is not the only project Pace has taken on. As an associate professor of history, Pace teaches classes about everything from Paris and Berlin in the 1920s to history of the future, which incorporates Star Trek. Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, a previous student of Pace's Paris and Berlin class, remembers the professor as one of her best. \n"David Pace masterfully interwove background mini-lectures, visuals, music, film, literature, history and so on," she said. "It was a tremendous atmosphere." \nPace is also especially interested in researching 20th century French history, and has even published a book about primitive people in France. He enjoys researching the reaction of the French culture to the atomic bomb. \nAll of this hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed, by academia or by the general public. Pace has been presented with several awards over the years, including the Frederic Bachman Lieber Memorial Award in Recognition of Distinguished Teaching in 1994 and the PA Mack award for distinguished service to teaching in 2002. Yet the professor's most recent award, and the one of which he is most proud, is the Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award.\nA former student nominated Pace for this enormous honor, and it was an honor that caught him off-guard. \n"I honestly forgot about the nomination," he said. "Then I got a call from a woman one day, and as soon as she told me where she was from, I knew I had gotten it." Pace sees this as a great reward and also a great experience. "I am still amazed by it," he said.\nThis history buff feels that teaching is another huge reward in his life. His colleague and co-director of the FLP, Joan Middendorf, Ph.D, has observed Pace in action, and she has noticed that Pace's students value him as well. \n"One of the things that make Professor Pace's teaching special is that he stops and really listens to what students say, both in the class and out," she said. "What they say, think and learn is important to him." Past student and senior Aaron Waltke recalled how Pace would make the extra effort to get to know those enrolled in his classes. \n"Professor Pace invited us all out regularly to some of his favorite restaurants, which often proved to be those most unique to Bloomington," he said. "I am still very good friends with many of those classmates, and it was thanks almost solely to the friendly gestures of Professor Pace."\nPace is quick to point out that he has had many great students over the years. It was those students, though, who took an idea learned in class and used it as grounds for "kidnapping" the professor. In the summer of 1978, Pace was teaching a class in Ballantine when the door suddenly opened. A group of his students interrupted his class and proceeded to tie his arms to his sides with neckties. Fliers were posted around campus reading "Save the Professor's Mind," and the kidnappers took Pace to an apartment where they interrogated him until he was able to escape out the bathroom window. While the prank was in good humor, the timing could have been better as Pace was just coming up for tenure. Fortunately, the prank did not affect his job, and Pace continues to admire those students for their "creativity."\nCurrently, Pace is looking forward to traveling to Scotland for a conference. He enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife and two kids, whom he says are "very important to him," and he has spent years improving his Tai Chi. Pace takes pleasure in meditation practices and reading, and of course, teaching. "Really, for me it is not just a job," he said. "I am going to quote my friend Craig Nelson and say, 'Sometimes I think I have woken up and gone home to heaven.'"\n-- Contact Staff Writer Kimberly Laughlin at kmlaughl@indiana.edu.