ALTC Award for Teaching Excellence

Teaching Awards celebrate a group of the nation’s most outstanding university teachers in their fields. Teaching Awards give recognition to teachers (individuals and teams) renowned for the excellence of their teaching, who have outstanding presentation skills and who have made a broad and deep contribution to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in higher education. The ALTC confers up to 27 Awards for Teaching Excellence.

Categories

There are eight categories of Teaching Awards:

1. Biological Sciences, Health and Related Studies (including Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Medicine, Nursing etc)
2. Early Career
3. Humanities and the Arts
4. Law, Economics, Business and Related Studies
5. Neville Bonner Award/s for Indigenous Education
6. Physical Sciences and Related Studies (including Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, Computing and Information Science)
7. Social Sciences (including Education)
8. Work integrated learning (Priority Area for 2009). This should be interpreted broadly and includes situated learning, practicum, clinical education, work placement, cooperative education etc.

Selection Criteria

All nominees for Teaching Awards will be assessed on the evidence they provide in relation to the following five criteria. Nominees should not feel limited by these illustrative examples:

1. Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn, which may include 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 high-level communication, presentation and interpersonal skills

2. Development of curricula and resources that reflect a command of the field, which may include: 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

3. Approaches to assessment and feedback that foster independent learning, which may include 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 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. Scholarly activities that have influenced and enhanced learning and teaching, which may include 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

In assessing nominations against the five selection criteria, the Standing Committee will take into account the:

1. extent to which the claims for excellence are supported by formal and informal evaluation
2. extent of creativity, imagination or innovation, irrespective of whether the approach involves traditional learning environments or technology-based developments
3. information contained in Student Feedback Questionnaires, references and selected teaching materials submitted by the nominee

The five criteria will be given equal consideration by the Standing Committee.

Written Statement

The core element of a nomination for a Teaching Award is a written statement in which nominees describe their teaching activities and achievements, and specifically address each of the five selection criteria.

The written statement should be presented under the following six headings, in order:

1. Synopsis (150 – 200 words, in third person)
2. Overview
3. Selection criteria:
   
   1. Approaches to learning and teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn
   2. Development of curricula and resources that reflect a command of the field
   3. Approaches to assessment and feedback that foster independent learning
   4. Respect and support for the development of students as individuals
   5. Scholarly activities that have influenced and enhanced learning and teaching

The synopsis must cover the nominee’s teaching area or discipline, teaching experience, the particular focus of their teaching and teaching methods, and their research/ teaching interests.

The synopsis must be written in the third person and is a requirement of the nomination. The word limit is strictly 150-200 words. Should the nomination be successful, the synopsis will be used in communications regarding the recipient’s success, for instance in the Awards ceremony program, on the ALTC website and in archival information.

The remainder of the written statement should be devoted to addressing the category in which it is nominated and each of the five criteria in turn. Evidence in support of the claims against these criteria must be provided. The views of students, collaborators and/or colleagues, as appropriate, will be a key element in the assessment of the nominations.

The written statement is limited to eight A4 pages in total and should include all information that might be referred to in the submission. The eight page limit is strictly enforced; all pages in excess of eight will be removed before being sent to Assessors.

Curriculum Vitae

The curriculum vitae should outline the nominee’s educational qualifications, employment history, teaching positions held and teaching experience.

The curriculum vitae is limited to three A4 pages for nominations from individuals. Teams may allow for one additional page per team member, i.e. a team of three may have five pages (three + two).

References

Two references, of no more than one A4 page each, must be provided by people who are able to comment on the nominee’s teaching against the selection criteria. One of the referees must be the Head of the nominee’s Faculty, Department or School. If the nomination is from a team, the references should apply to the team. References in excess of one page will be recopied with only the first page provided to the Assessors

Student Feedback Questionnaires

Institutional Contact Officers are required to collect student comments using the Student Feedback Questionnaire and to submit 30 with each nomination. The questionnaires assist the Standing Committee to gauge student perspectives on the nominee’s teaching. Advice regarding use of the questionnaire is published with the form. The Institutional Contact Officer at the nominee’s institution coordinates and supervises this process to ensure that it is conducted with probity.

Photograph

Applicants are asked to provide a high quality colour digital photo, with specifications for a colour head and shoulders photograph with a white background, JPEG with image resolution of 300dpi.

Supporting Teaching Materials

Selection is based primarily on the written statement addressing the selection criteria. However, nominees may include selected teaching materials supporting their claims against the selection criteria. The relevance of any such material must be made clear in the written statement.

Supporting teaching materials are limited to a maximum of two of:

• website (URL)
• CD ROM or DVD (preferably by a single URL)
• 10 pages of printed material (additional pages will be removed)