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Grants

Teaching and Learning Development Grants

To recognize teaching development as a scholarly activity and to stimulate the development, implementation, and investigation of innovative teaching and learning, the Office of the Vice-President, Academic has made funds available to a partnership between the Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD) and the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC). This partnership builds on and enhances the important work that the ISTLD has been accomplishing with small grants over the past three years.

Read the announcement by Dr. Jon Driver, V-P, Academic.

 

Smaller Teaching and Learning Development Grants

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There are two types of Teaching and Learning Development Grants: smaller grants ($3K and under) and larger grants ($3K to $10K). Both types of grants are meant to support faculty-led research and development projects leading to innovations in teaching and learning. Teaching and learning development projects may focus on a single course, a group of courses, a full academic program, an academic support program, or be interdisciplinary.

Teaching and Learning Development Grants are meant to:

  • Provide support for SFU faculty members (including tenured and tenure-track faculty, and lecturers) to investigate the effectiveness of their teaching practice in a systematic way;
  • Provide support for experimenting with and investigating the effectiveness of innovative approaches to teaching and student learning;
  • Create, share and apply evidence-based pedagogical knowledge within the SFU community;
  • Provide recognition that scholarly activity around teaching in one’s discipline is a legitimate activity to be recognized in promotion and tenure decisions;
  • Provide a way to fit with the growing national and international agenda to subscribe to the practices underlying the “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning”.

Eligibility

Anyone holding a continuing faculty appointment (including tenured and tenure-track faculty and lecturers) at Simon Fraser University is eligible to hold a Teaching and Learning Development Grant.

Application Process

Smaller teaching and learning grants ($3K and under) are funded on a continuous basis, with no specific application deadlines and limited only by the allocated funds for each year. (This process will be revised if large numbers of applications are made.) The intent of these grants is to allow faculty members to identify questions about teaching and learning of particular interest to them and to apply the findings of the investigation directly to their teaching. These grants may be used to implement the initial or pilot stage for a larger grant proposal. Proposals may be submitted by one or more faculty members. Faculty interested in these grants are asked to follow these steps in the development of their grant proposal:

  1. Email tl-devgrants@sfu.ca to indicate the question(s) you would like to investigate and confirm your attendance at a proposal development workshop (each workshop involves two 3-hour sessions). Proposal development workshops are offered at least twice each semester and are facilitated by faculty from across the university (associated with the ISTLD) in partnership with staff from the TLC. Please use this form to submit your ideas.

    Word Document .doc

    2. See the top right of this page for the dates of the next scheduled workshops.

     

  2. At the first workshop session be prepared to:
    1. discuss your ideas with other faculty and workshop facilitators;
    2. turn ideas into research questions; and
    3. create a draft budget.
  3. At the second workshop session be prepared to:
    1. present a draft of your teaching development proposal;
    2. receive feedback intended to further strengthen the proposal; and
    3. refine the budget request.
  4. Proposals must adhere to criteria found in the following document.
  5. The last step is to submit the final proposal (with your signature and that of your Department Chair/Dean) and funding to carry out the project will be provided.

Refer to this webpage regularly for future workshop sessions. Contact tl-devgrants@sfu.ca with any questions.

Allowable Expenses for Grants under $3,000

Eligible:

  • RA time
  • Development of data collection instruments
  • Support for data collection and data analysis
  • Teaching materials including software needed to conduct the project
  • Travel for dissemination of findings not to exceed 20% of the total award

Ineligible:

  • Reimbursement to faculty members
  • Commercial services
  • Computer hardware
  • Journal subscriptions, professional memberships, etc.

Expectations of All Grant Recipients (Smaller and Larger Grants)

Recipients of funding will be asked to:

  • Submit project proposals to the SFU Research Ethics office for approval, if necessary.
  • Attend 1-2 meetings each semester while carrying out the teaching and learning development project for the purpose of sharing what is learned with other faculty who are also engaged in these projects and learning from the experiences of others.
  • Disseminate the findings of the project locally (e.g., presentation to colleagues at the departmental or faculty level, presentation at the annual teaching symposium supported by TLC, or a report in the Teaching and Learning Bulletin and website). Dissemination more broadly is also encouraged if this is appropriate, e.g., academic conferences and publications.
  • Submit a final report to the ISTLD upon completion of the inquiry project. This report will be forwarded to the office of the V-P, Academic.
  • Work with a staff member from TLC to provide a description of the project and findings to be shared online with members of the university community.

    • For More Information

    Consult this website for updates.

    You may also send your questions and comments to tl-devgrants@sfu.ca.

Larger Teaching and Learning Development Grants ($3K to$10K)

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There are two types of Teaching and Learning Development Grants: smaller grants ($3K and under) and larger grants ($3K to $10K). Both types of grants are meant to support faculty-led research and development projects leading to innovations in teaching and learning. Teaching and learning development projects may focus on a single course, a group of courses, a full academic program, an academic support program, or be interdisciplinary.

Teaching and Learning Development Grants are meant to:

  • Provide support for SFU faculty members (including tenured and tenure-track faculty, and lecturers) to investigate the effectiveness of their teaching practice in a systematic way;
  • Provide support for experimenting with and investigating the effectiveness of innovative approaches to teaching and student learning;
  • Create, share and apply evidence-based pedagogical knowledge within the SFU community;
  • Provide recognition that scholarly activity around teaching in one’s discipline is a legitimate activity to be recognized in promotion and tenure decisions;
  • Provide a way to fit with the growing national and international agenda to subscribe to the practices underlying the “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning”.

Eligibility

Anyone holding a continuing faculty appointment (including tenured and tenure-track faculty and lecturers) at Simon Fraser University is eligible to hold a grant.

Application Process

Larger grants are awarded on a competitive basis and adhere to bi-annual application deadlines. The spring 2012 deadline for Deans' offices to submit applications for these larger grants is April 1; check with your Faculty for internal deadlines. The intent is to distribute funds as effectively as possible across meritorious proposals in order to maximize direct benefit to a wide range of student learners and inquiry across a diversity of disciplines. Please follow these steps:

  1. Download and review the agreement and proposal criteria. (Larger Grants - Agreement Word Document.doc PDF Document.pdf | Larger Grants - Proposal criteria Word Document.doc PDF Document .pdf)
  2. Refer to internal faculty deadlines and the process for submitting your proposal to your Dean. The applicant’s Chair (or Dean if the applicant is a Chair or Director) will be asked to indicate support for the project by a signature on the application.
    1. All grant proposals are to be submitted to the Dean to rank within the context of the department or faculty strategic plan.
    2. Applications may be submitted on behalf of grant applicants by Deans' offices. Check with your faculty.
  3. Proposals submitted by the deadline will be reviewed by the adjudication committee within the month.

Note that optional workshops are now available to assist faculty members wishing to develop and submit applications for larger grants. Each workshop consists of two three-hour sessions. To participate, please complete the workshop registration form (see the Forms section in the right sidebar) and email it to tl-devgrants@sfu.ca to indicate the question(s) you would like to investigate and to confirm your attendance at one of the workshops (see the top right of this page for the dates of the next scheduled workshops).

In addition to the quality and completeness of the formal application, particular attention will be paid to the following in weighting proposals:

  • Project goals that address student learning outcomes;
  • Involvement of two or more faculty members;
  • The potential for other faculty or students to benefit from the project;
  • Plans for dissemination of results;
  • Repurposing of a product;
  • Fit with departmental/faculty strategic plan or the 2010-13 Academic Plan.

Faculty members interested in applying for these funds are encouraged to seek support in the development of the proposal from TLC staff. Optional proposal development workshops will be held in the spring semester (dates to be announced).

Contact tl-devgrants@sfu.ca for assistance.

Adjudication (applies to grant proposals of $3,000 to $10,000 only)

Each Dean will be asked to recommend one faculty member to preside on the adjudication committee to the V-P, Academic. The V-P, Academic will then appoint five members: two from SSHRC fields, two from NSERC fields, and one from a CIHR field. The ISTLD and TLC Directors will be facilitators of the process and non-voting members of the committee.

Allowable Expenses for Grants $3,000 to $10,000

Eligible:

  • RA time
  • Development of data collection instruments
  • Support with data collection and analysis
  • Teaching materials including software needed to conduct the project
  • Course release
  • Travel for dissemination of findings not to exceed 20% of the total award

Ineligible:

  • Reimbursement for faculty members
  • Computer hardware
  • Commercial services
  • Journal subscriptions, professional memberships, etc.

Expectations of All Grant Recipients (both smaller and larger grants)

Recipients of funding will be asked to:

  1. Submit project proposals to the SFU Research Ethics office for approval, if necessary.
  2. Attend 1-2 meetings each semester while carrying out the teaching and learning development project for the purpose of sharing what is learned with other faculty who are also engaged in these projects and learning from the experiences of others.
  3. Disseminate the findings of the project locally (e.g., presentation to colleagues at the departmental or faculty level, presentation at the annual teaching symposium supported by TLC, or a report in the Teaching and Learning Bulletin and website). Dissemination more broadly is also encouraged if this is appropriate, e.g., academic conferences and publications.
  4. Submit a final report to the ISTLD upon completion of the inquiry project. This report will be forwarded to the office of the V-P, Academic.
  5. Work with a staff member from TLC to provide a description of the project and findings to be shared online with members of the university community.

For More Information

Consult this website for updates.

You may also send your questions and comments to tl-devgrants@sfu.ca.