Eligibility
The purpose of the award is to promote excellence in teaching at Indiana University Kokomo. Only Indiana University part-time Adjuncts are eligible for nomination/self-nomination for this teaching award. Normally an individual will have been teaching at IU Kokomo for at least three academic years with a minimum of one semester per year. An individual who wins the award is only eligible to re-apply 3 years after receiving the award. There are no other restrictions on a nominee's eligibility. Two awards may be bestowed annually, one for $1000.00 (Senior Adjunct Faculty with over 6 years of teaching experience at IU Kokomo) and one for $500.00 (Adjunct Faculty with up to 6 years of teaching experience).
Selection Committee
The Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Awards shall be judged by the Faculty Teaching Award committee. As this committee is drawn up of only faculty members at least two adjuncts shall be co-opted onto this committee for the purpose of judging the Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Award Criteria
Applicants must be judged in terms of their accomplishments as teachers Evidence concerning an applicant’s excellence in community service or in public service is relevant only so far as the information helps explain the candidate's success as a teacher. Similarly, statements concerning an applicant’s personality or popularity are significant only when they help demonstrate or define the precise nature of the individual's excellence in teaching. The criteria for the excellence in teaching award are as follows:
- Effective Teaching: Excellent teachers are effective. Applicants should provide evidence of effective instruction. This evidence should include multiple measures that their students are learning. This might include assessment results, peer reviews, and course evaluations.
- Course Development: Excellent teachers expand and update their courses to keep them relevant by staying current with developments within their academic disciplines. Applicants should provide evidence in areas such as creating new courses, or creating new teaching materials. It is important to not merely list such courses; applicants should provide a description of course development and improvement, explaining the process employed. This does not include course development specifically required in the hiring process.
- Pedagogical Innovation: Excellent teachers improve their instructional techniques and/or creative teaching methods that allow for enhanced student engagement. Applicants should provide evidence of improving the pedagogy of their courses. The examples should be reflective, describing the rationale for the change(s) in a course and evidence of the results of attempted improvements.
- Leadership & Professional Development: Excellent teachers work to improve the teaching of others. Applicants should describe how they have helped improve the teaching of other adjuncts. This can include conducting workshops, SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching & Learning) presentations, SoTL publications, FALCON presentations or similar Adjunct Conference presentations, and mentoring other adjuncts either in person or submissions to the Adjunct Canvas webpage. In addition, supervising undergraduate research projects and mentoring students and colleagues may serve as evidence of excellence in teaching. Other examples would be attending Adjunct Faculty Council or CTLA Adjunct Professional Development training and/or events.
Application Process
Applications are due October 15 and awards will be presented at the Spring Convocation. Adjuncts apply for the award by submitting their application to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Julie Saam, via email jsaam@iuk.edu. Applications must be submitted as a PDF document. Applicants are encouraged to aid navigation of the document by using bookmarks and internal links within the PDF.
The application will have the following items, in the following order:
- Reflective Statement: The reflective statement will consist of no more than 20 single-spaced pages (including tables, charts, and figures) that explicitly address how the application meets the above criteria.
- Up-to-Date CV, including list of courses taught
- Supporting Materials: These are to materials that are referred to in the reflective statement. They should be organized in the order they are first referenced in the document. Ideally, they should be linked within the document or bookmarked in such a fashion that a reader can easily locate them. Note, applicants shall limit the supporting materials to items that are explicitly referenced within the reflective statement. In addition, while unsolicited letters from students can be included (if they are referenced in the reflective statement), solicited letters from students will not be read or considered as evidence by the committee.
- Teaching Evaluations: A summary of the candidate’s student course evaluations for the last three years, and these should be comprehensive rather than selected. Although the committee wishes to see all qualitative comments, it only wants a summary of the quantitative scores. This summary should include an analysis of the results as well as an explanation of how the evaluations were administered. In addition, candidates may provide summary tables that show course-evaluation scores over a longer period of time; they may also provide reflections on how they utilize these evaluations in their own professional growth.
Committee Responsibilities
The selection committee will review applications and select a winner for each category. After winners are selected, the committee chairperson shall send a letter, by November 15th of the year the award is to be given, to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs making a recommendation of who shall win the award. The letter shall discuss each applicant’s case. If the committee feels that no candidate warrants receiving this award it will so inform the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The committee chairperson will send a letter to each candidate who was not selected with suggestions for how their application might be improved. The Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs is responsible for notifying the winner(s).
The committee is also charged to review the Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award guidelines and propose revisions to the Adjunct Faculty Council for approval.
Approved by Faculty Senate, September 10, 2018.