Chris Whittaker, a dedicated Physics teacher and educational innovator at Dawson College, has been awarded the 2025 SALTISE Lifetime Achievement Award. The honour, announced by SALTISE at their annual conference in June, recognizes Chris’s transformative impact on science education, his leadership in active learning, and his enduring commitment to the teaching community.

A Journey from Social Work to Science Education

Chris Whittaker’s path to teaching was anything but conventional. Originally trained in Engineering Physics at Queen’s University, Chris also holds a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Toronto. Before joining Dawson College in 1999, he worked in emergency mental health and community health settings in Montreal. He has also freelanced for CBC Radio’s Ideas program.

It was the pull of science and physics that eventually brought Chris into the classroom. “I didn’t know that I wanted to be a teacher until I taught,” Chris reflects. “Once I started teaching, I was a little surprised at how much I liked it.” The opportunity to spend summers with his young children helped tip the scales, but it was the joy of working with “young, curious and brilliant minds” that made teaching his calling.

Champion of Active Learning

Chris’s teaching philosophy is rooted in active learning—a student-centred approach that emphasizes engagement, collaboration, and evidence-based practice. “Active Learning is teaching on steroids for someone who loves to help others learn,” he says. “It’s more effective, and it puts the teaching at the heart of the best part of learning—the dynamic construction of knowledge.”

He credits a pivotal moment during a faculty hiring interview for reshaping his approach. When a candidate was asked for evidence that certain teaching qualities improved learning, the candidate relied on personal anecdotes. The dean’s insistence on evidence-based practice made Chris realize he, too, needed to ground his pedagogy in research. “That changed everything for me,” Chris recalls.

Over the past decade, Chris has been instrumental in developing Dawson’s Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), introducing technology-rich environments that foster collaborative, student-driven inquiry. He has also contributed to the design of innovative strategies such as reflective writing and gallery walks, enhancing student engagement and deepening learning outcomes.

Building Community and Capacity

Chris’s influence extends far beyond his own classroom. As a founding member of the Dawson Active Learning Community (DALC) and a core contributor to the SALTISE network since 2010, he has helped bridge research and practice across institutions. His collaborations with initiatives like eLATE have strengthened ties between McGill University and the broader SALTISE community.

Within SALTISE, Chris has served on the executive, acted as a principal liaison to Dawson faculty, and become a familiar presence at annual conferences—often as Master of Ceremonies, always ready to help, whether troubleshooting AV or setting up chairs. “Chris’s steadfast commitment, collaborative spirit, and deep engagement with our mission have been instrumental in shaping the community we are today,” notes the SALTISE website.

Developing pedagogical capacity

Chris is currently co-coordinator of Dawson’s Enriched Science Program and a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the University of Montreal. He has served as Physics Department Chairperson, Science Program Coordinator, and Dawson College Senator. His work has been recognized with awards at the institutional, provincial, and national levels.

When asked what accomplishment he is most proud of, Chris points to “developing pedagogical capacity and resources that have made teaching and learning better for a little over a decade.” He hopes his legacy will be a sense among students that “learning requires risk and that a community of peers provides the best security for knowledge building.”

Receiving the SALTISE Lifetime Achievement Award, Chris says, “means a great deal. I am honoured. It means that I have made a difference in a community of people who want to improve learning and teaching through evidence-based practices.”