By Leslie Mason
By Leslie Mason
As an international scholar in learning styles and multicultural education, Judy Reiff has successfully integrated research with instruction to bring a seamless quality to her teaching.
Over the past 24 years, she has been preparing students to teach in classrooms that are becoming increasingly diverse. Her research focuses on how teachers can personalize instruction to complement various learning styles and to maximize students' achievement.
In 1982, Reiff introduced a course called Teaching and Learning Styles in the Elementary Classroom to the College of Education curriculum. According to Brenda Manning, chair of elementary education, the popular course provides schoolteachers with a practical model they can use to promote the intellectual, aesthetic and physical development of each child.
She "helped us learn many ways to reach the individual student," wrote Angela Aiken, a former graduate student. "I cannot begin to tell you how many of my second-grade students have profited from her class."
Reiff's research prompted the Association of Teacher Educators to form a special interest group to study learning styles, and her 1992 monograph on the same subject is one of the National Education Association's best-selling publications. She has twice been honored with the Phi Delta Kappa Warren F. Findley Research Award.
Beyond explicit instruction, Reiff is a caring mentor and motivator. For 18 years she was a supervising teacher and spent hundreds of hours patiently observing and helping to mold high-quality classroom teachers. Lola Finn, a retired principal, described Reiff's influence as a "domino effect"--extending to the programs, the teachers and the children in the schools she served.
Reiff earned a doctorate in elementary education from UGA in 1979 and master's and bachelor's degrees from Stetson University. After teaching in elementary and pre-schools in Florida and working as a reading specialist in Athens, she joined UGA's faculty in 1974. In 1992, she was named a UGA Senior Faculty Teaching Fellow, and she received the college's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1996.
In 1992, Reiff co-founded the Interdisciplinary Multicultural Education Committee, the precursor to an ongoing college-wide initiative. She also developed the Multicultural Living Classroom, which is used in teacher training. In 1997, she received the college's service award for her commitment to multicultural education.
