Have you considered applying for a UTS or national teaching citation or award? Whether you’re planning to apply for one of this year’s awards, or are just keen to develop your academic profile, it’s important to tell your story and evidence your case for teaching and learning.
Earlier this year, we profiled A/Professor Carmel Foley and Meg Hibbins from the UTS Business School and Helen Benson (Faculty of Health) as part of our award-winning women series. Carmel and Meg took home the Contribution to Social Impact and Learning and Teaching Award for the innovative design of a WIL capstone subject that enhanced social justice and employability. Helen picked up the Individual Teaching Award for empowering the pharmacists of the future to become medication experts in multidisciplinary teams.
Also successful with his application was FEIT’s Nic Surawski, who won the Early Career Teaching Award for achieving excellence in civil and environmental engineering student outcomes.
I reached out to these past winners for some tips for others who may be considering applying for a learning and teaching award.
Tell your story
Being clear and direct with what you’ve achieved can cut through and connect to others quickly, and with impact. Successes are important to communicate – but these often stem from the challenges, so make sure you provide context on the challenge you faced and how it presented an opportunity for innovation. Additionally, you should avoid using buzzwords or getting overly complex with your language.
Carmel and Meg told a compelling story about the impact of their initiatives. Their main tip for communicating your achievements was:
Don’t underestimate the power of good storytelling. It helps if your submission is readable and interesting.
Carmel Foley and Meg Hibbins
Nic agrees that getting the ‘story’ right is important.
Think about the motivations and passions that drive your teaching and learning, since this quite often directly feeds into where your best contribution sits. Reflect upon what type of role you have at UTS since this will inform the type of narrative you write.
Nic Surawski
Helen suggests making your point of difference clear:
When telling your story, I would focus on the aspects of your teaching and career history that make you unique. For myself, this was the fact that I came to academia after almost 20 years practicing in a variety of roles in my profession – this gave me real insight into what skills and knowledge students need to gain from the course. I was also able to leverage this experience to use real cases and insights to improve the relevance and authenticity of the student experience.
Helen Benson
Show your impact with evidence
Did what you do work the first time? If not, how did you tweak it? The journey should be as interesting as the destination; therefore, providing a range of responses and feedback can help add dimensions to your story. Nic explains further:
Some unsuccessful experiences lead into future successful approaches. If everything was perfect and ‘just worked’ there would be nothing to work on in the future after receiving an award.
Nic Surawski
Evidence sources can go well beyond SFS results, as Carmel and Meg illustrate:
We drew on feedback from students, NFP and industry partners to demonstrate how students grew confidence in their professional skills and ability to make a difference, and the impacts this had on our community partners.
Carmel Foley and Meg Hibbins
Nic also advises against relying solely on SFS results:
Student success stories presented as mini-case studies can work well. Also consider searching your ‘thanks’ inbox for unsolicited emails from students – this is often a rich source of data that SFS won’t necessarily capture. Quite often it’s useful to research your LinkedIn contacts to look at student outcomes in terms of their career progression in industry after graduation. Another point to consider is that teaching during COVID times quite often leaves a pretty detailed chat/audio/video evidence trail that could potentially support your application too.
Nic Surawski
Take the plunge!
Getting started can be the hardest part. Carmel and Meg highlight the importance of managing your time and choosing your referees wisely:
Get started early. It is a big process and the more time you give yourselves, the better. Approach your champions (referees) early too – this gives them plenty of time to consider your strengths and put pen to paper.
Carmel Foley and Meg Hibbins
You should also take some time to read the guidelines so you’re clear on what’s required to move forward. Nic suggests getting a broad view of the categories so you can see your story in context.
Discuss a potential application early on with a colleague and share an application draft with them. There are many award categories, eg. team versus individual and award versus citation. Knowing early on where your application sits helps with preparation.
Nic Surawski
Helen encourages everyone who is interested in an award to develop an application:
Even just the process alone of reflecting on your teaching is valuable and rewarding. Reach out to past award winners for advice and support – I did this, and the constructive feedback I received really made a difference.
Helen Benson
Nominations are now open for this year’s awards, with a deadline of Friday 21 October. Want some more tips on applying? Attend this upcoming interactive session on Monday 12 September: