Scholarship in Teaching Award

In an effort to recognize exceptional educators at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), the Educational Innovation Institute (EII) will honor one individual on an annual basis who demonstrates their ability and commitment to improving teaching and learning processes in their workplace environment (i.e. classroom, clinic, lab, department, front desk, etc.).

Through external peer-review, the EII’s new Scholarship in Teaching (SIT) Award will recognize a scholarly project that focuses on scholarship in teaching, one of Boyer’s (1990) four types of scholarship, which has potential to be the most transformative within educational institutions. These projects must be completed or close to completion prior to submission. Examples of potential scholarly projects include: a revision of an educational curriculum, development of new materials to teach patients about a particular disease, and deliberate attempts to improve a teaching skill, etc..

The honoree, as an individual or team, will be publically recognized for their work on Education Day in February/March.

To apply for the award, the applicant must use Glassick’s (2000) criteria to frame their work, which includes a description of their scholarly project in the following areas:

  1. Clear Goals and Objectives – Provision of a clear statement of what the educator wanted to accomplish.
  2. Adequate Preparation – Description of the literature that was used to support the educator’s work, including the efforts/resources from research, faculty development courses, etc.
  3. Methods – Description of what was done and how the project was carried out.
  4. Measures of Quality/ Effectiveness – Evidence that the educator accomplished his/her goals. If the project is on-going, then a clearly articulated plan for evaluating the success or impact of the project.
  5. Dissemination – How the project/results were made available to colleagues.
  6. Reflective Critique – Description of how the project has been (or will be) reevaluated/modified based on feedback/results.

Scholarship Application

Complete applications will then be blinded from the review process and sent out to faculty across the country for peer-review. The scholarly project reviewed with the highest score will be selected for the Scholarship in Teaching (SIT) Award. 

Important Dates:

August 1 – Call for Scholarship in Teaching (SIT) Award applications

 January 15 – SIT applications are due 

 February 15 – Deadline given to external peer-reviewers

 Education Day – Announcement of SIT Awardee is made

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. What is scholarship?

While most of us think about scholarship in the traditional academic sense, such as presentations and publications, an expanded definition offered by MCG’s, former Dean, Fincher1 includes “teacher as scholar.” From this perspective, if educators are able to demonstrate that they approached their work on teaching and learning from a scholarly approach to improve performance, the write-up of this process should count as scholarship. These forms of scholarship must follow Glassick’s2 criteria to qualify.

[1] Fincher RE et al. Scholarship in Teaching: An Imperative for the 21st Century. Academic Medicine 2000; 75:887-94.

[2]Glassick, CE, Reconsidering scholarship. Journal of Public Health Management Practice. 2000; 6:4-9.

 

  1. How is the SIT Award different than the MCG Exemplary Teaching Award?

MCG’s Exemplary Teaching Awards are based on ratings from student evaluations in which the top 5% of faculty with the highest evaluation scores are recognized. Comparatively, the SIT Award is granted based on external peer-review of applications. This Award is not based on students’ perceptions of the faculty member’s teaching ability, rather it is based on the intentionality and systematic approach the educator takes in improving his/her teaching.  

 

  1. How is the SIT Award different than the Academy of Health Science Educators’ application?

The Academy of Health Science Educators’ applications require faculty to identity 1 or 2 educational activities that exemplify teaching excellence. The SIT application requires faculty members to go in-depth in their description of one of these or any other project the faculty member is involved in. While the Academy’s application requires that all projects have a “scholarly approach,” the SIT Award application requires faculty to use Glassick’s criteria when evaluating their project.