Rewarding Excellence in Teaching Initiative

What is it? Started in AY 2021-22, this award in teaching excellence is a part of the Evaluating and Rewarding Teaching Initiative. The RETIs are intended to recognize faculty who are working to create learning-centered, inclusive classroom experiences by using evidence/information from their own classrooms to inform instructional design and practice.

Procedure: The Office of Faculty Leadership & Success opens the nominations at the beginning of March via email to faculty and chairs. Faculty that have received a RETI in the previous 3 academic years are ineligible. Once nominations are closed, chairs are asked to confirm that nominees are in good standing. Nominations are then anonymized to the extent possible and randomly assigned to review panels of faculty convened by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. Many of the panelists are former RETI Awardees. Panelists are provided guidelines and criteria. The panels complete two rounds of rankings (3 if needed). Faculty with the highest scores are awarded RETIs.

Nomination deadline: TBA, end of March

Awarding date: Mid-April

Administrating Organization: Office of Faculty Leadership & Success, Center for the Advancement of Teaching

Administrative Point of contact Name: Leanne Wells

Contact email: lwells@fiu.edu

Contact Phone: 305-336-4525

Description: This incentive is, by design, intended to reward and encourage faculty for exploring the effectiveness of their teaching practice and instructional design. And, while documentation of work is part of the application, there is not an expectation that success is necessarily measured by statistically significant data points. While faculty are asked to address each of the mutually reinforcing pillars of excellent teaching, Learning-Centered Teaching, Inclusive Student Learning Experience, and/or Using Data/Information to Inform Teaching, they may choose to focus on one or two of the pillars. Stronger applications make clear the themes of intentionality and transformation.

Guiding criteria:

1. Learning-centered Teaching. A statement that describes how you promote student learning and how you determine (or attempt to determine) whether and the extent to which students are learning as a result of your instructional design/course materials.

Points of discussion might include (but are not restricted to) ONE or more of the following:
• Innovative techniques developed to assess student learning and provide feedback.
• Description of a (re)designed course or revised curriculum with rationale identifying the application of best practices for assessing learning.
• Specific activities and/or steps taken to create meaningful learning experiences for struggling students.
• Steps taken to extend the learning process beyond the classroom.
• Use of multiple approaches to engage students and convey content.

2. Inclusive Student Learning Experience. A statement of the intended learning experience in a class or set of classes (including labs, internships, thesis, etc). Learning experience includes classroom climate, curriculum, teaching strategies, etc. For example, learning experiences can result in how comfortable students feel asking questions or the extent that they feel a part of the discipline.

Points of discussion might include (but are not restricted to) ONE or more of the following:
• Summary of SPOTs, Gateway Survey, or other student survey data and how the results prompted a course or teaching change. Please do not submit entire SPOTs or survey results.
• Description of and rationale for course materials / activities / teaching practice designed using best practices for including marginalized students. (This can be a small tweak with good results or a major course overhaul.)
• Specific activities and/or steps taken to create inclusive learning experiences.
• Work outside the classroom that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom.

3. Using Data/Information to Inform Teaching. A description of how data/information (henceforth referred to as evidence) is used by the nominee to inform instructional decisions. Evidence may be qualitative and/or quantitative. NB: Evidence for this incentive may be collected informally and does not need to be a part of research or be publishable.

Points of discussion might include (but are not restricted to) ONE or more of the following
• Description of and rationale behind evidence collected for a specific teaching goal. (This can be in support of responses to parts 1 and/or 2.)
• Sample(s) of student work and a discussion of its use in modifying a task and/or activity.
• Example of how the nominee uses evidence to improve a particular aspect of a course or set of courses (e.g. an action plan from Inquiry Institute; description of how evidence was used to make an instructional design modification).
• Plan to expand/modify collection activities to include more robust measurements and/or collaborate with colleagues.
• Statistically significant evidence used to inform instructional design / teaching practice (or information that has not been through rigorous analysis but points to something that faculty wish to explore further).

Award Amount: At least Sixteen (16) $2000 awards and up to eight (8) $1000 are available each year. The $1000 awards are intended to recognize emerging work in instructional design or practice.

Eligibility: All faculty and instructors of all ranks, including adjunct faculty, are eligible. This award is to provide faculty the opportunity to build their teaching excellence portfolio and can serve as a foundation for future awards such as the Faculty Senate, Gateway, and/or Adjunct Teaching Awards. Documentation submitted for this award can include nascent work in improving student success as well as established practices. Up to seven (7) awards can be made to adjunct faculty.