Teaching Award categories

Nominees must select the relevant program category below. The seven categories for the AAUT Awards for Teaching Excellence are:

1. Biological sciences, Health and related studies

• Including Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Medical Sciences and Nursing

2. Early Career

• For teachers with less than five years cumulative experience teaching in higher education institutions.

3. Humanities and the Arts

4. Law, Economics, Business and related studies

5. Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education

• Individuals must demonstrate their contribution to Indigenous education. Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers may nominate.

6. Physical Sciences and related studies

• Including Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, COmputing, and Information Science.

7. Social and Behavioural

• Including Psychology and Education.

Preparing an application

1. Teaching Award Nomination Form

5 pages

The Nomination Form reports administrative information, includes a declaration from the nominee and institution and acts as a cover sheet for the nomination.

The completed nomination must have all boxes ticked and be signed by the following:

• Nominee
• Head of School/Faculty
• Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) or their nominated delegate
• Institutional Contact Officer

2. Claims against Assessment Criteria

8 pages max.

This component describes the nominee’s teaching activities and achievements and must address all four assessment criteria, providing evidence to support claims. It is to be comprised of the following elements:

• Synopsis: 200 words max., which includes a description of the nominee’s teaching area or discipline, teaching experience and teaching focus and methods. The synopsis must be written in the third person, avoid jargon and use plain English, and inform the broadest possible audience about the nominee’s teaching.
• Overview of the nominee's teaching and its context.
• Statement addressing the assessment criteria, including criterion headings, providing supporting evidence including impact on student learning.
• Reference list: nominees should use their preferred recognised reference style throughout and include a reference list within the eight pages. Links to reference lists online will not be reviewed by assessors.

Assessment Criteria

All nominations will be assessed on the evidence provided in response to the following four criteria which will be given equal consideration by the assessors:

1. Approaches to teaching and the support of learning that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn.

This may include:

• Fostering student development by stimulating curiosity and independence in learning.
• Participating in effective and empathetic guidance and advice for students.
• Assisting students from equity and other demographic subgroups to participate and achieve success in their courses.
• Encouraging student engagement through the enthusiasm shown for learning and teaching.
• Inspiring and motivating students through effective communication, presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Enabling others to enhance their approaches to learning and teaching.
• Developing and/or integrating assessment strategies to enhance student learning.

2. Development of curricula, resources or services that reflect a command of the field.

This 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.
• Providing support to those involved in the development of curricula and resources.
• Contributing professional expertise to enhance curriculum or resources.

3. Evaluation practices that bring about improvements in teaching and learning.

Evaluation comprises making judgements about the quality of programs and activities that are part of the academic, cultural and social experience of higher education. For the purposes of the AAUT application, evaluation practices so not include student assessment.

This may include:

• Showing advanced skills in evaluation and reflective practice.
• Using a variety of evaluation strategies to bring about change.
• Adapting evaluation methods to different contexts and diverse student needs and learning styles.
• Contributing professional expertise to the field of evaluation in order to improve program design and delivery.
• Dissemination and embedding of good practice identified through evaluation.

4. Innovation, leadership or scholarship that has influenced and enhanced learning and teaching and/or the student experience.

This may include:

• Participating in and contributing to professional activities related to learning and teaching.
• Innovations in service and support for students; coordination, management and leadership of courses and studentlearning.
• Conducting and publishing research related toteaching.
• Demonstrating leadership through activities that have broad influence on the profession.
• Providing innovative learning and teaching for different contexts, including technology enhanced environments, for large and small class sizes and/or to meet the needs of a diverse student cohort.
• Influencing the overall academic, social and cultural experience of higher education.

3. Curriculum Vitae (CV)

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

For individual nominations the curriculum vitae should be no longer than three A4 pages.

For team nominations:

• The team leader’s curriculum vitae should be no longer than three A4 pages.
• Curriculum vitae of up to one A4 page in length can be included for each team member. This means a team of three may have up to five pages (three + one + one).

4. Statement of contribution

1 page max,. teams only

Team nominations must complete one A4 page that consists of the following:

• Name and indication of the percentage contribution of each team members (in order from highest to lowest). Note that team members are required to a contribution of 10 per cent or higher.
• An explanation of the role of each team member
• The maximum number of team members is 10 either from same institution or different institutions.

Team nomination requirements are as follows:

• A team lead is to be identified for the purposes of the nomination
• Team must have a team name as listed in the nomination form
• For publication purposes, titles and names stated in the team statement must be the same as listed on the nomination form
• If the team consists of members from different institutions, clearly state the representative institution on the nomination form and the team lead’s institution will submit the entire nomination on behalf of the team.

5. Letters of reference

1 page each

Two letters of reference, of no more than one A4 page each, are to be provided by referees able to comment on the contribution to student learning against the assessment criteria. References should demonstrate familiarity with the contribution and context, providing endorsement of the claims and additional evidence relating to context, merit and impact on students. Where possible, at least one referee should be qualified to comment on the broader impact of program’s contribution based on relevant professional or personal expertise and standing.

References should:

• Include one referee who is the head of the Team Leader’s faculty, department, school or administrative unit or higher level.
• For team nominations, apply to the team not individual team members
• Include a statement acknowledging the referee’s acceptance of the Privacy Notice in the nomination form, e.g. ‘I accept the Privacy Notice provided by the nominee.’
• Be signed – electronic signatures are accepted
• Be on institutional letterhead
• Body text – Font must be Arial or Calibri regular 11 (narrow fonts must not be used)

6. Supporting materials

Supporting materials should illustrate and provide evidence of claims made against the selection criteria. Please do not include any additional information or use as an extension of the page limit.

Nominees can choose to submit up to two of the following supporting materials:

• A three-minute video, which could include footage of the program in action, team members talking about the program and its vision or interviews with students.
• One website URL – include web address in your PDF submission.
• 10 pages of supporting material in PDF format.

The relevance of all material must be made clear in the statement addressing the selection criteria. Supporting materials should be clearly titled and are the last component of the combined nomination file. Supporting materials (including websites) should remain accessible throughout the assessment process, beyond the submission date. Supporting materials should not require a login and password to access the material.

7. Photograph

An up-to-date, formal digital photograph of the individual nominee or team (group photo) must be submitted with each nomination, in line with the following specifications:

• Background colour:White
• Image definition parameters: Head and shouldersonly
• Image resolution: 300dpi at 10cm by 10cm or 1200px by1200px
• File Format:JPEG
• File size: 1MB - 10MB

If the nomination is successful, the submitted digital photographs will be used for publication purposes, including awards booklets, the Universities Australia website and other promotional materials. The photographs should therefore be of the best possible quality and include all members of a team nomination within the one photo.

Submission

Applications will be submitted to the Awards Portal by the AAUT Institutional Contact Officer between 2 - 13 September 2019.