Faculty Receives 2026 Leon Jaworski Award for Teaching Excellence

Dr. Jaime Coyne was selected by the Law Focused Education Committee and the Law Focused Education, Inc. Board of Directors as a recipient of the 2026 Honorary Leon Jaworski Award for Teaching Excellence in Law Focused Education.

This prestigious award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to law focused education by fostering understanding of the values of our legal and judicial systems, promoting civic engagement and civic knowledge, and strengthening connections between students, educators, and legal professionals. Through her social studies methods courses and field-based experiences, Dr. Coyne prepares preservice teachers to foster civic literacy, constitutional understanding, and meaningful participation in democratic processes.

For more than 12 years, she has supported Law Related Education (LRE) professional development for teacher candidates, equipping future educators with the tools and resources to teach constitutional principles, civic responsibility, and the role of the legal system in today’s society. The award was presented during the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting Bar Leaders Luncheon on June 11, 2026.Emily Lalor and Olivia Tabor, teaching candidates in the Yearlong Clinical Teaching program, presented at the Texas Association of Teacher Educators (TXATE) summer conference on May 19th with their site coordinator, Dr. Jennifer D. Morrison. The presentation, "Self-Regulation, Motivation, and Digital Devices: A Teacher Candidate Inquiry," represented the inquiry they and other cohort members - Alex Alanis, Lilly Powell, Isabel Rodriguez, Madi Todd, Madison Morgan, and Mariah Wilt - explored throughout their internships. Their problem of practice addressed the question: Why are so many students struggling with motivation and engagement in the classroom, a concern that was raised by the teaching candidates in an early seminar session and that spanned the candidates' field placements from 1st grade to high school.

Each candidate shared actions they had taken through the year to address the problem of practice including: building options and choice into assignments, fostering positive relationships with students, providing opportunities for students to share their thinking, ensuring relevancy of curriculum and instruction, gamifying learning, and closely monitoring the impact of technology use on student behavior and performance.

The presentation yielded excellent feedback from other conference participants and suggestions on how the teaching candidates can frame their inquiry for future research and publication.