2024 Social Sciences Teaching Award
Deadline: June 15, 2024
The Social Sciences Teaching Award is an annual award that recognizes teaching excellence within the social sciences at Mount Allison University. Nominations are invited from any member of the University community, especially students.
The award is for non-tenured teachers (including part-time and limited-term faculty) who are members of one of Mount Allison University’s Social Sciences departments (commerce, economics, geography and environment, politics and international relations and sociology). Students from any university department can nominate a teacher. To be eligible for the award, a nominee cannot have received the award within the last five years.
Deadline: Nominations for the Social Sciences Teaching Award should be submitted by e-mail to Toni Roberts, Director of PCTC, at troberts@mta.ca, by May 15, 2024.
Please use Social Sciences Teaching Award Nomination as your subject line. The e-mail becomes part of the official dossier and should explain why the faculty member is deserving of the award. It should be persuasive and provide details and concrete examples of their teaching excellence (one page max).
Selection criteria for the Social Sciences Teaching Award
The selection criteria include:
- Evidence of excellence in teaching including:
- assessment, innovation, use of technology, decolonization practices, UDL, accessibility activities, inclusion practices, and so on
- Evidence of participation in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning activities such as:
- academic papers and primary research, participation in Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre programmes and activities, attendance and presentations at local, regional, or national teaching conferences.
Nominees will be contacted and asked to provide a teaching dossier (see below) as evidence of teaching excellence to the adjudication committee. Teaching dossiers submitted by nominees will be due by June 15th.
A three-person adjudication committee made up of the Director of the Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre, in addition to two full-time Social Sciences faculty members, at least one of whom is a teaching award winner, will select the winner and present the award. The adjudication committee will meet and determine the award winner. The winner will be presented the award at Convocation or another suitable event. The award winner is informed via letter from the Dean and will be presented a certificate and an engraved medallion.
Teaching Dossier
The Teaching Dossier is to be prepared by nominees and must not exceed 20 pages. It is due June 15, 2024. The Teaching Dossier will include as follows:
1. Table of Contents
2. The original letter of nomination (clearly marked as such)
3. A summary of activities related to teaching: list of all courses taught, teaching innovations, teaching-related committees, academic advising, etc.
4. A one- or two-page teaching philosophy statement, signed and dated, including details of how this philosophy has been implemented and how it is evidenced by the other materials in the dossier.
5. A summary of teaching feedback, including self-reflection, peer feedback and student feedback. How these forms of feedback have led to changes in teaching may be included. A brief statement of the context of the feedback may also be included (e.g., class sizes and levels, required or elective).
6. Material evidence to support the case for teaching excellence, such as course syllabi, sample assignments or handouts, descriptions of innovative assignments, participation in academic advising, and so on.
7. Any other material you feel would be helpful to demonstrate teaching excellence.
8. Current letters of support (preferably not more than 18 months old):
- Two (but no more than four) letters from present or former students
- Two (but no more than four) letters from colleagues or peers
Nominees may solicit these letters themselves, or their nominator or Dean may do so on their behalf. The letters should be evidence-based, containing concrete examples of the nominee’s noteworthy characteristics, activities, and contributions to teaching and learning. Though the Committee prefers up-to-date letters of support, the Committee recognizes this is not always possible for nominees; therefore, they will accept letters up to 18 months old.