- Offer graduate students formal recognition of accomplishments in practicing and learning about teaching during the period of their doctoral studies.
- Heighten the awareness of key components of successful college teaching.
Candidates for this award nominate themselves. From educational research we know that good teaching produces tangible evidence that is measurable not only by students in the course but by the instructor him/herself and other evaluators.
Accordingly, we require graduate student candidates for the award to submit a dossier (in hard copy only) comprised of the following course documents:
- Syllabus. A complete syllabus for a course taught in the past two academic years, including all assignments, policies, reading lists and other course information.
- Assignments. Descriptions of all graded and ungraded assignments (readings, class preparation exercises of all kinds, etc) should be included either within the body of the syllabus or in the form of a handout accompanying the assignment. If there were further directions given orally, but not distributed to students on paper, please summarize these remarks in an addendum.
- Student Work (e.g. a single sample of a paper, test, report) and the feedback provided by the instructor in the form of both comments and grades.
- Student Evaluations. A single sheet presenting the tallied results of all quantitative evaluations submitted by students in the course, plus all individual comments listed together.
- Self-Assessment. A brief written argument (no more than 500 words) making a claim for how the sequence of assignments in the course demonstrates tangible evidence of intended learning goals. This argument should explicitly connect the work produced by students in the graded assignments with the learning goals established by the award candidate in the syllabus. This essay gives candidates an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned about college teaching by explaining the relation between teaching methods and teaching goals, as evidenced in the documents related to a particular course.
Suggested but not required:
Seeking Improvements/Feedback from Third Parties. Any document capturing feedback provided by any outside observer of the candidate's classroom (from the home department, either peer or mentor, or staff from the Center for Teaching and Learning, including Individual Teaching Consultations and/or Mid-Course Reviews).
*If the course in question is staff taught where a common syllabus is used, applications will be considered from those who revised some portion of the course readings and/or assignments in that syllabus. All changes introduced by the candidate should be graphically noted and explained in notes. Further, the case for how such revisions affected learning in the course should be addressed in the written argument portion of the application.
Submission:
- The dossier should have a cover sheet with the candidate's basic and contact information: name; department; email address; phone number; title and number of the course.
- Candidates should submit the dossier and cover sheet in hard copy only by May 16 to Jeanelle Hayner at the Center for Teaching and Learning, Gates-Blake 102. If award candidates are not in residence, please contact jeanelle@uchicago.edu to make arrangements to submit your materials.
All applications will be reviewed by a committee comprised of CTL professional staff and advanced graduate students in the Teaching Consultants Program.
Award winners will be contacted prior to the Awards Ceremony, which will be held the week of June 2, 2008.
