Teaching Fellows Program

Call for Proposals (2024)

Up to five Fellowships will be awarded for a 3-year term beginning May 1, 2024.

The goal of the Teaching Fellows Program is to enhance teaching innovation and teaching quality at Western by bringing together a cohort of outstanding educators. Teaching Fellows are educational leaders who (1) develop teaching innovation projects, (2) perform research to assesses the impact of these projects, and (3) support educational excellence within their own Faculties by mentoring colleagues, coordinating workshops, facilitating learning communities, and providing other instructional development opportunities. To achieve these outcomes, Fellows receive a three-year secondment, funding to conduct their teaching innovations, and support from educational developers in the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

One Teaching Fellow is appointed in each Faculty for a 3-year term. Five Teaching Fellow positions are open starting May 1, 2024, and we invite educational innovation projects focusing on undergraduate or graduate education in all areas, including but not limited to, the following themes:

  • Accessibility;
  • Anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion;
  • Assessment;
  • Teaching through technology, including innovative course redesign, generative AI, supporting student success through data analytics;
  • Experiential learning;
  • Indigenization and decolonization;
  • Interdisciplinary learning;
  • Lifelong learning;
  • Mental health and wellbeing;
  • Supporting international students;
  • Professional/workplace competencies; or
  • Sustainability or climate change education.

Information Session

Information sessions for interested candidates will be held in December and January. These sessions are intended to provide details on the Teaching Fellows Program, give an overview of the application process, and answer questions from attendees.

When:
December 6, 2023, 10:30am – 11:30am

January 11, 2024, 1:30pm – 2:30pm

Eligibility

Full-time Western faculty members are invited to apply. One Teaching Fellow position is open in each of the following Faculties:

  • Arts & Humanities
  • Health Sciences
  • Information and Media Studies
  • Science
  • Social Science

Faculty members from the Don Wright Faculty of Music, Education, Engineering, Law, and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry are ineligible to apply to the current call because these Faculties already have Teaching Fellows. Applications for new Fellows from these Faculties will be invited when the terms of the current Fellows are completed.

Important Dates

  • Deadline for applications: February 1, 2024
  • Applicants will be informed of results by mid-April, 2024
  • Fellowships will begin on May 1, 2024

Appointment of Teaching Fellows

  • Faculty-specific Teaching Fellows applications will be adjudicated by a panel of peers comprised of former Teaching Fellows and teaching award-winning faculty.
  • Teaching Fellows receive up to a 40% secondment from their Department/Faculty to the CTL for a three-year term, starting May 1, 2024. Only one Teaching Fellowship will be awarded per participating Faculty.
  • Teaching Fellows will develop and implement a teaching innovation project.
  • Teaching Fellows will conduct research on their projects to determine their impact on student learning (and/or other relevant outcomes).
  • Teaching Fellows will engage their Faculty colleagues in professional development activities in teaching each term (at least two each academic year; e.g., consultations, workshops, communities of practice, guest speakers).
  • Teaching Fellows are eligible for up to $10,000 in funding per year for three years to conduct their teaching innovation projects, research those projects, and support their professional development activities within their Faculties. Monies may be used, for example, to fund graduate student research assistants, to support professional development activities within their home Faculty, or to present projects at teaching and learning conferences.
  • Teaching Fellows will receive support for their activities from CTL staff including eLearning and Curriculum Specialists and the Educational Developer (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Faculty Programs), as well as staff from the Instructional Technology Resource Centre.
  • Teaching Fellows can disseminate the results of their work in a variety of ways, such as through workshops in their home Faculties; presentations to the university community; consultations with faculty members; articles in academic publications; or presentations at conferences on teaching, such as the CTL’s Spring and Fall Perspectives on Teaching conferences, the Western Conference on Science Education, or the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference.

Requirements of Recipients

  • Recipients participate in a three-day Great Teachers Seminar (retreat) during their tenure as a Teaching Fellow to further develop their skills as educational leaders. During their term, recipients will be part of the research on teaching and learning community and will meet on a monthly basis to discuss their project.
  • Fellows will share their advances in teaching with the rest of the University, through promotion or distribution by the Centre for Teaching and Learning; as well as beyond Western – through either publication or presentation at academic conferences (e.g. conferences on teaching in their discipline or national and international conferences on university teaching such as the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, or Western Conference on Science Education).
  • Teaching Fellows should be willing to provide peer consultations on teaching to at least three colleagues over the three-year term and serve on selection committees for teaching and learning awards and grants.
  • With the support of CTL staff, Teaching Fellows will initiate other professional development activities around teaching and learning within their home Faculty.
  • Teaching Fellows will submit an interim report after each year of their appointment, in which they summarize their successes and provide a detailed breakdown of the use of funds during that year. Interim reports are due by the end of year 1 and year 2.
  • Teaching Fellows will submit a final report outlining the outcomes of their project, the results of their research, and the impact of their professional development activities on teaching and learning in their Faculties by the end of their three-year Fellowship term.

Submission Guidelines

Application should be submitted, in a single PDF file, by email to ctl@uwo.ca by Thursday, February 1, 2024, and include the following components:

  1. Executive Summary of the Project (1 page maximum)
  2. The Proposal (6 pages maximum)
    Proposals should include:
    1. a rationale and goals for the teaching innovation project;
    2. a description of what will be in place as a result of the project;
    3. an outline of how you will research the impact of your project;
    4. a plan outlining possible professional development activities in teaching you will provide in your Faculty (e.g., consultations, workshops, community of practice);
    5. a detailed budget;
    6. a knowledge mobilization plan;
    7. timelines;
    8. the anticipated number of students/faculty impacted by the project and your professional development activities.
  3. Short Curriculum Vitae (4 pages maximum)
  4. Teaching Philosophy Statement (2 pages maximum)
  5. Evidence of Leadership in Teaching and Learning (i.e., offering regular workshops on teaching and learning; services to an educational development centre; support of a teaching and learning committee; grants for teaching and learning projects; research or publications on teaching and learning) (2 pages maximum)
  6. Letter of Support from the Dean of the Faculty (confirming the percentage of time the candidate will be seconded from their home Faculty)
  7. Application Cover Sheet (pdf) with the signature of the applicant’s Chair/Director and Dean

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  1. An established commitment to excellence in university teaching
  2. A demonstrated interest in the development of transformative teaching and learning practices and initiatives
  3. A rationale and goals for a teaching innovation project that enhances student learning
  4. An outline of the impact of the proposed project on the quality of instruction at Western
  5. A viable plan for researching the impact of the teaching innovation project on student learning (and/or other relevant outcomes)
  6. Clarity of plan for possible professional development activities in teaching that will be provided in the home Faculty
  7. A detailed budget outline
  8. A plan for the dissemination of the project/innovation within and beyond Western

Questions?

Contact:

Aisha Haque
Director, Centre for Teaching and Learning
ahaque23@uwo.ca

Ken N. Meadows
Educational Developer (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning & Faculty Programs), Centre for Teaching and Learning
kmeadow2@uwo.ca