Dr. Deborah Banker Honored for Exemplary Faculty Practices

Dr. Deborah Banker of Angelo State University’s teacher education faculty has been recognized for “Exemplary Faculty Practices” by the Quest for Quality: Teacher Preparation in Texas program.

An assistant professor of special education, Banker is one of only seven faculty honored from colleges and universities throughout Texas.  She was recognized for her use of technology and the creation of experiential learning.  She uses the Second Life program to create assignments using avatars and immersive technology that allow her students to experience some of what it is like to be impaired with schizophrenia and Autism to better understand the behaviors they may encounter in their future classrooms.

The “Exemplary Faculty Practices” recognition, launched in the fall of 2012, identifies innovative methods of conveying both knowledge and experience to teacher candidates to prepare them to excel as leaders in the classroom.  Such practices may be the work of one faculty member, a group of faculty members or a department in a teacher preparation program.  Banker is the first ASU faculty member to be recognized for the technology and experiential learning categories.  All the honorees will receive certificates and will be featured on the Quest for Quality website, www.questforquality.org/.

A native of Philadelphia, Banker earned a Bachelor of Science in physics at the University of Houston and spent 20 years working in industry and co-owned an environmental/industrial laboratory.  After adopting a child with special needs, she returned to school, earning a master’s degree in special education from the University of Texas at Brownsville and a doctorate in teacher education from the University of Houston.  She taught at UT-Brownsville and the University of North Carolina-Pembroke before joining the ASU faculty in 2010.           

The Quest for Quality initiative, based in The Woodlands, is designed to highlight exceptional quality in university-based teacher preparation in Texas.  The Center for Research, Evaluation and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board collaborate on the program that is funded through a grant from the Sid W. Richardson Foundation to the College for All Texans Foundation.

For more information, call the ASU College of Education at 325-942-2212.