AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching Purpose, Eligibility, and Procedure

A.Purpose

The purpose of the Teaching Award is to honor and recognize individuals who have achieved excellence as teachers at the American University of Beirut . By recognizing such individuals, the University demonstrates its commitment to teaching as a scholarly endeavor, emphasizes the importance of outstanding teaching, and provides incentives for faculty members to pursue activities that enhance their abilities as teachers. A teaching award is recommended to a faculty member who has a sustained record of high standard teaching based on evidence of continued outstanding contributions to the academic development of students or who develop innovative techniques to enhance students learning using variety of tools including modern technology, online resources, audiovisuals, virtual and real experiments or any other courseware tools.  The award will be based on evidence of teaching effectiveness and contributions to advancement of AUB’s educational programs as implied by the teaching mission of AUB.

B.Eligibility

Full-Time Faculty members who have taught regularly scheduled courses for the last six semesters in residence (not including the spring semester of the year of nomination) are eligible to be nominated.  If a nominee is away on leave or sabbatical for the spring semester of the year of nomination, the nomination should be postponed until such time that the candidate is in residence. Previous awardees are not eligible to apply until five years pass after the last Teaching Award receipt. Faculty members who were nominated in previous years may be nominated again.

C.Ingredients for Excellence in Teaching

Teaching and research are both essential duties of AUB full-time faculty members, and excellence in teaching and excellence in creative and scholarly work go hand in hand. The AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching acknowledges the efforts of faculty members and their contributions to the teaching mission of the University. The award is intended to recognize distinguished teaching accomplishments of the faculty, which may be exhibited at any time during a faculty member's career. Evidence of accomplishment does not necessarily require long years of service.  Length of service, in itself, would not be considered sufficient grounds for recognition. The AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching Committee has prepared a list of ingredients contributing to good teaching based on the extensive literature on teaching effectiveness. The criteria listed below are intended as a guideline for what is expected from potential applicants. The score sheet forms should be filled by each candidate and will facilitate identification and evaluation of evidence for excellence in teaching in the following areas:  instruction, mentoring, services and professional development, and innovation (please see attached document entitled “Evidence for Excellence in Teaching”). Although all of these areas are important, no candidate is expected or required to demonstrate equal excellence in each one of them:

·          Instruction:  This item refers to the actions of teachers that result in effective learning in the teacher-class setting. Evidence to demonstrate such effectiveness should be presented.  Instruction is foremost in the selection process.

·          Mentoring: This item refers both to working with students on their development and with faculty colleagues as a master teacher. Typically, mentoring refers to one-on-one or small group interactions.

·         Services and Professional Development: This refers to activities teachers engage in to develop their own teaching and to share their teaching expertise broadly. For professional development to be considered exemplary, evidence should be presented to demonstrate the positive impact such activities have had on teaching and learning.

·         Innovation: This refers to taking risks with new ideas, demonstrating success and/or failure, and systematically reflecting on the innovation and its effectiveness for teaching and learning.

D.Nomination Procedures:

An individual or group, including students, alumni, fellow faculty members, deans, or department chairs, may initiate the nomination. However, the candidate is ultimately responsible for compiling the nomination file, excluding the letters of recommendation which should be directly solicited by the office of the Provost. The file should be complete no later than April 22, 2009.  The candidate should, however, identify three reference persons who are acquainted with his/her teaching activities (faculty, alumni, students).  Regardless of who initiates the nomination, consultation with other relevant parties, including the AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching Committee, is strongly advised. All candidates are advised to document the scope and quality of their teaching by preparing and submitting a teaching portfolio. This is to encourage candidates not only to include teaching materials in their portfolios, but also to use the portfolio to demonstrate the effectiveness of their teaching. The Nomination Portfolio file should include the following items that are detailed in the documents entitled “Checklist of documents” and “Components of a teaching portfolio”.

1.      Letter from Primary Nominator: A letter from at least one primary nominator will initiate the file.  The letter should identify, in some descriptive detail, the nominee's particular contributions in teaching. This letter will not be considered in the deliberations. However, if the nominator is chosen by the nominee as one of his/her three choice referees, this letter would then be considered as a letter from a referee.

2.      Curriculum vitae of the nominee

3.      A chronological list of all graduate and undergraduate courses taught during the last six semesters of residence, noting the semester in which each course was taught and the approximate number of students enrolled, the number of student's withdrawals, and the final grade distributions.

4.      Teaching evaluations (not to exceed 10 pages): a separate summary (either qualitative or numerical or both) of the nominee's teaching evaluations for all the courses taught during the last six semesters of residence.

5.      Teaching materials: Should include a statement of the candidate’s teaching philosophy, objectives and experiences.  It can also include a sample of courses' syllabi, tests, grading practices, teaching practices, handouts, instructional material developed, a sample of detailed assessment chart, and learning assessment techniques for a couple of courses of which student evaluations have been submitted.

6.      Evaluation forms for the past six semesters.

7.      Letters from Peers or Colleagues or Students (not to exceed a total of ten pages): Such letters can provide valuable information about commitment to teaching, upholding academic standards and enjoying a good reputation among colleagues and students. At least one letter should come from a colleague who has recently visited the nominee class. Three referees are suggested by the nominee and referees evaluation forms will be solicited by the Office of the Provost. All letters, however, should be directly addressed to the Acting Provost.

8.      Letters of support from department Chair and Dean: solicited by the Office of the Provost. 

9.      A count of graduate and undergraduate advisees by semester

10.  List of research projects /theses supervised.

11.  Teaching portfolio (please refer to the document entitled “Components of a teaching portfolio” for possible items to include in a portfolio).

12.  Additional material, though optional, may include (but are not limited to) the following:

·         Honors, awards, or other forms of recognition received for excellence in teaching.

·         Evidence of professional development activities undertaken in regard to teaching.

·         Evidence of activities undertaken to assist colleagues with their teaching. Activities include participating in seminars or professional meetings on teaching and assisting colleagues by conducting seminars or facilitating workshops on effective instructional methods.

·         Evidence of student achievement as a direct result of the candidate’s teaching.

·         A list of the candidate's teaching responsibilities outside the classroom.

E.  Judging Panel

The AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching Committee is chaired by the Provost, and has the following members:

·         The Acting Provost, chair (ex-officio, non-voting)

·         The Acting Associate Provost (ex-officio, non-voting)

·         Seven members who are full-time faculty (maximum two from the FAS and one from each of the remaining five faculties appointed by the respective dean).  It is recommended that these members come from different ranks including the rank of full professor.

·         Two former recipients of the AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching.

·         One person as appropriate on the nomination of the Provost. The person may be an AUB alumni or an academic from another higher education institution.

·         A current AUB student in good academic standing who has been at AUB for no less than four semesters.  

The committee follows an established evaluation process consistent with the guidelines in this report and decides on qualitative and quantitative measures useful in assessing candidates.  The committee will also consider different teaching tools and philosophies among different disciplines.

F.Award Winners

The AUB Award for Excellence in Teaching Committee conducts its review, makes its selections, and informs the president who then informs the awardees, and later the public.  The winners of teaching awards will:

1.      Receive a medal and a financial award of $5000 to be spent for academic purposes at the discretion of the award winner. Funds must be expended by the end of the fiscal year in which the award is granted.

2.      Be honored in a public ceremony.

3.      The winner of the award will be expected to contribute to teaching and learning activities sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning at AUB.

 

List of faculty who won this award.