Preparing expressions of interest and applications for awards
Worldwide there is increased emphasis on improving and assessing the quality of teaching in universities. Applying for a teaching award is not only an opportunity for scholarly reflection on your approach to teaching, but also an occasion for you to help set benchmarks and guide good teaching practice throughout your institution and even worldwide.
The parts of the submission
Whether you are preparing a full submission or an expression of interest, the same general principles apply. You must prepare a statement of claim that outlines your philosophy of teaching and your contribution to student learning. The statement is evidence based and must include proof that what you claim about your interaction with students and your expertise in your field can be verified.
Proof does not have to be pages of evaluation results. You should include comments from students and peers about your teaching, a record of awards or other recognition you have received, examples of community outreach or successful programs and activities. Publications and activities in your Discipline will be important if you are claiming expertise in your field.
The statement of claim
Overview. The statement of claim begins with an overview. It is in the overview that you are expected to explain your educational philosophy, to put your teaching in context and describe how your educational philosophy relates to the claims you are making about your teaching effectiveness. For the panel that is going to assess your application, these are important issues that illustrate your ability and willingness to reflect on your teaching practice. The overview provides a guide to your aims, objectives and attitudes as an educator and a framework for the rest of the submission.
Length. There is no required content in the overview, the length of which should reflect the overall page length of the submission. In a ten page submission, you would want up to a one page overview. In a two page expression of interest, you will have to make your philosophy and the context of your teaching clear within about a third of a page at the most.
Language. In terms of the language, avoid using technical terms unless the context makes their meaning clear. Use concepts and vocabulary that can be broadly appreciated by a well-educated audience, but not experts in your discipline. Your aim should be to create a picture of what you do in your classroom or in other contexts with your students, and why you approach your teaching in the ways that you do in terms of educational outcomes.
Narrative, first person, is generally appropriate for the tone of the application, and creative approaches can be quite effective in the right context. At all times try to be straightforward and well-organised. Be reflective and personal, without being casual. The aim is to create a vivid portrait of a person who is intentional about teaching practices and committed to a career that involves helping people learn. (See Examples at the end of the paper.)
Conceptualisation of learning and teaching. The main components of an overview include a statement about how you think learning occurs, how you assist with the learning process, the goals you have for the students and what actions you take to achieve those goals.
For many of you, it is likely that your ideas about learning are intuitive and are based on experience. You may not have studied the literature on student learning in higher education in depth nor learned the vocabulary to describe your thinking. Conceptualisation of learning and teaching may, therefore, be difficult at first for you to articulate. You may benefit from summarising what you have observed in your own practice about different learning styles and rates of learning, about student reactions to success or failure, about effective teaching methods, feedback and assessment or about teacher-student interaction.
Goals for students. In discussing your activities as a teacher, it is important to detail how your teaching helps students learn not just a given body of content, but also process skills, such as critical thinking, writing and problem solving. This should include your attitude to lifelong learning and how you can help students value and nurture their intellectual curiosity, live ethical lives and have productive careers.
Implementation of philosophy. It is very important that you allude to how your learning goals for students are translated into action. You will be going into more detail about this in the statement of claim that follows the overview, but as the overview acts as an introduction to the rest of the document, it is important to mention the teaching methods through which your educational philosophy is realised.
The body of the statement of claim. Once you have established the context of your teaching and your philosophy, you can provide evidence of your expertise and success as an educator. (See examples on the CLPD website.) Some of the questions you should consider when addressing the criteria are:
Students
Who are they? What are their goals?
How do you motivate them to think, articulate, learn?
How often and under what circumstances are you available to them?
How often do you request feedback on your teaching from students? What do you do with the information?
Course content
How do you keep current in your field (reading, research, conferences)?
Is the content that you teach relevant to students’ needs? (do you update regularly?)
How might your colleagues judge your knowledge of the field?
Under what circumstances do you discuss course content with colleagues (form or take part in networks and discussion groups, both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary)?
Course design
Where do you start?
What are you trying to achieve in your teaching?
How do you decide what set of skills students need to master in the program/course?
How do you design the learning opportunities so they can master them?
What are the aims and intended learning outcomes for the courses you teach, and how did you choose them?
Teaching strategies
How do you help students to know what aims and intended outcomes exist for the course?
How do you help students to learn those aims and outcomes? (teaching methods?)
What steps do you take to encourage higher level learning (such as synthesis, analysis, application, problem-solving, etc.)?
What is ‘active learning’ and how do you use it in the classroom and in assignments?
How do you test the learning outcomes? (evaluation of learning)?
How do you help students to learn new attitudes and perspectives?
How do you promote diversity and inclusivity in and beyond the classroom?
Teaching resources
How do you decide which course materials, learning resources or technologies to use?
What are some examples of materials, resources or technologies that you have designed and/or employed?
Assessment of student learning
What range of assessment methods do you use and why?
How have you changed your approach over the years?
How do you know that your assessment methods are effective?
How do you give feedback to your students on their assessment results?
Evaluation of your teaching
How do you monitor and evaluate your own teaching? (e.g. peer feedback, ongoing student feedback, videotaping a class, kept records of changes resulting from feedback?
What does this evidence tell you about your teaching?
Continued study of teaching and learning; leadership in your Faculty, School or Discipline Have you attended seminars and workshops on teaching? How have you implemented what you learned?
Have you taught in any professional development seminars on teaching and learning? Examples?
Have you written about teaching for your department, faculty or beyond? (teaching journal, discipline journal on teaching). If so, on which subjects?
Do you provide guidance in your Faculty, School or Discipline by participating on any committees or taking part in other professional development activities related to teaching?
Awards
Have you won awards or been commended on your teaching?
What do your colleagues say about your teaching?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Teaching Dossier Preparation: A Guide for Faculty Members at the University of British Columbia, available at http://www.utoronto.ca/tatp/handouts/UBC_Teaching_Dossier_Preparation.pdf
Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Saskatchewan
http://www.usask.ca/gmcte/portfolios/parts.php
http://www.usask.ca/gmcte/portfolios/phil_statements/b_phillips.php
http://www.usask.ca/gmcte/portfolios/phil_statements/c_simonot.php
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