2025 ‘Great Teacher’ Matthew Kim puts students at heart of teaching
This March, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association honored six recipients of this year’s Great Teacher Awards.
Launched in 1961, they are the longest-running UK award recognizing accomplished and passionate educators.
In order to receive the honor, teachers must first be nominated by a student. The UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Committee, in cooperation with the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa, then makes the final selection. Recipients receive a commemorative award and stipend.
Matthew Kim, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of this year’s distinguished Great Teacher Award recipients.
Kim says supporting his students is at the heart of his teaching mission.
“My focus, ever since coming to the University of Kentucky, is to think about how in my research and teaching mission, I can put students first, provide them with meaningful experiences, and really enhance as much engagement as possible,” Kim said. “I feel this is kind of a great motivator, a great challenge for me to keep doing what I am passionate about. Part of what excites me about teaching at this university is the ability to teach and inspire future leaders over and over again.”
Kim earned both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 2013 and ’15, respectively. He joined the UK faculty in 2020.
At UK, Kim teaches undergraduates and graduate students, including courses in self-regulation and motivation, open and reproducible research methods, and developmental psychology. As director of the Developing Minds Lab, Kim’s research examines the nature and development of motivation and self-regulation in K-12 and postsecondary students — with a special focus on school transitions — and how these processes relate to student success.
Kim also supports and mentors student researchers. He is a three-time nominee for UK’s Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, which honors faculty who provide exceptional undergraduate research experiences to students.
With a background in the performing arts, Kim says he tries to make each lecture a type of “performance” for his students.
“I want them to be excited about the topic across the 75-minute lecture,” Kim said. “I feel psychology is such an intrinsically interesting and motivating topic, so I think students come primed with this curiosity about how the mind works. So I kind of capitalize on that by ensuring students are active in their learning. They’re not just sitting down, taking notes.”
“[Dr. Kim], more than any teacher I've had in my life, made me feel likely to succeed and excited to go to class,” said Eva Herbert, a UK student who nominated Kim for the award. “He created a course and classroom that were accessible, fun and exciting while giving every student the opportunity to feel heard through completing, welcoming, easy-to-learn and relevant assignments.”
To learn more about what makes Kim a “Great Teacher,” check out the video and “Behind the Blue” podcast episode above.
In the coming months, UKNow will continue to share stories featuring this year’s Great Teacher Award winners.
About “Behind the Blue”
“Behind the Blue” is available via a variety of podcast providers, including iTunes, YouTube and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
“Behind the Blue” is a joint production of the University of Kentucky and UK HealthCare. Transcripts for this or other episodes of “Behind the Blue” can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
