Faculty Of Social Sciences Teaching And Learning Committee Faculty Teaching

Faculty of Social Sciences Teaching and Learning Committee Faculty Teaching Award The Faculty of Social Sciences Teaching Award is designed to recognise and award staff for excellence in teaching within the Faculty, and to encourage winners to prepare an application for the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the following year. Up to four awards will be made each year. Award winners will receive a prize of $2,500 which may be used for such purposes as conference attendance, purchase of resources to assist in preparation and delivery of teaching and learning materials, or purchase of books, journals, etc. Applicants should send two copies of their application to the Chair, Teaching and Learning Committee, Faculty of Social Sciences. Eligibility The award is available for both individuals and team applications. All members of the academic staff, who have been employed at Flinders concurrently for at least 12 months duration, and with full-time equivalence of at least 0.4, are eligible for an award. Teams would normally consist of at least 3 members and be headed by an academic member of staff. Teams may include casual or part-time academic staff, and non-academic and support staff. Team applicants will be responsible for a project, achievement, change or development in a module, strand, topic, year level program, or course judged to be outstanding. Applications from groups of two people will also be accepted, provided they demonstrate the reasons for making a joint application (e.g. that they undertake team teaching). Award winners will not be eligible for re-nomination for a Faculty Teaching Award for 5 years. Nominations Applicants may apply themselves, or may be nominated by another staff member. If nominated, the nominator and nominee should complete the ‘nomination form’ (see ‘Attachments’, p 3 below). Once a nominated applicant has agreed to apply he or she must prepare his or her application according to the guidelines outlined below.

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Award Criteria Applicants must address each of the following five criteria. This section of the application should not exceed three pages in total (see presentation guidelines below). 1. Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn This may include, but is not limited to: fostering student development by stimulating curiosity and independence in learning; contributing to the development of students’ critical thinking skills, analytical skills and scholarly values; encouraging student engagement through the enthusiasm shown for learning and teaching; inspiring and motivating students through highlevel communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. 2. Development of curricula and resources This may include, but is not limited to: developing and presenting coherent and imaginative resources for student learning; implementing research-led approaches to learning and teaching; demonstrating up-to-date knowledge of the field of study in the design of the curriculum and the creation of resources for learning; communicating clear objectives and expectations for student learning; providing innovative and flexible approaches to learning and teaching. 3. Approaches to assessment and feedback that foster independent learning This may include, but is not limited to: integrating assessment strategies with the specific aims and objectives for student learning; providing timely, worthwhile feedback to students on their learning; using a variety of assessment and feedback strategies; implementing both formative and summative assessment; adapting assessment methods to different contexts and diverse student needs. 4. Respect and support for the development of students as individuals Which may include, but is not limited to: participating in the effective and empathetic guidance and advising of students; assisting students from equity and other demographic subgroups to participate and achieve success in their courses; influencing the overall academic, social and cultural experience of higher education. 5. Any other activities that have influenced and/or enhanced learning and teaching This may include, but is not limited to: showing advanced skills in evaluation and reflective practice; participating in and contributing to professional activities related to learning and teaching; coordination, management and leadership of courses and student learning; conducting and publishing research related to teaching; demonstrating leadership through activities that have broad influence on the profession; examples of particular teaching challenges that you confronted during the year and the way in which you chose to tackle these challenges. Application Content and Presentation Guidelines 

Applicants must complete and sign the application form and checklist attached.

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Applications should be typewritten and the statement addressing the selection criteria should not exceed three A4 pages in total (single spaced, minimum 11 point font). It is vital that applicants specifically address the selection criteria and provide evidence to support their claims against these criteria.

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Preceding the responses to the selection criteria, provide a contextual statement (limited to one A4 page) that includes the articulation of a coherent teaching philosophy that reflects interest and enthusiasm for undertaking teaching and for promoting student learning. It may 2

also include, but is not limited to, information on courses and topics taught, student numbers and mode of delivery. 

Mean teaching scores from student evaluations of topics in which you have been involved, including teaching and topic evaluations (limited to two A4 pages).

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One reference from someone able to comment on your achievements in teaching.

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A half page personal biography. This will be used to promote the teaching success of the winners of the Awards within the Faculty, and should be written accordingly.

In addition, applicants may include the following: 

Selected teaching material supporting the claims against the selection criteria. These may include but are not limited to, materials such as evidence of contributions to curriculum or program design, student evaluation of teaching scores, material prepared for students such as audiovisual material, CD ROMs, course handouts and study guides.  Please send only one copy of any supporting material, labelled as Supportive Teaching Material.  Supportive Teaching Materials are to be limited to a maximum of one CD ROM and/or one video or audio tape, plus 5 pages of printed material.

Assessment of Applications Applications will be assessed by the Faculty Teaching and Learning Committee and should be submitted to The Chair, Teaching and Learning Committee, Faculty of Social Sciences, by the advertised deadline (normally 30 September – see Faculty website (below) for confirmation). All of the criteria above will have potentially equal weighting in the judges’ consideration. Allowance will be made for differential duties related to different academic profiles of applicants. Attachments (can be downloaded from www.flinders.edu.au/socsci/about/committees/t&l.cfm). • •

Nomination form Application form and checklist

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