UNSW Teaching Fellowships Information for Applicants Professor Stephen J. Marsha Director, Learning and Teaching @ UN
Jan 06, 2016
UNSW Teaching Fellowships
Information for Applicants
Professor Stephen J. Marshall
Director, Learning and Teaching @ UNSW
Nature of UNSW’s Teaching Fellowship Grants
• Applicants for Teaching Fellowship Grants will be individuals seeking to develop their leadership capabilities in relation to learning and teaching by leading and managing a major educational change project, aligned with the priorities outlined in UNSW’s L&T Strategy 2014 – 2018, across the schools in one or more of UNSW’s faculties, including their own.
• The successful outcomes of a UNSW Teaching Fellowship grant can be used as evidence of effective leadership in future promotion applications and/or applications for external Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) research and development funding, including OLT National Teaching Fellowship funding.
• A maximum of $100,000 per grant is available each semester for TWO semesters.
Funding Priority Areas
In 2014 – 2016 UNSW’s Teaching Fellowship Grant funding priorities include projects directed at:
• sustainably enhancing the quality of large scale stage 1 and 2 courses
• delivering improved, personalised large scale assessment and feedback
• utilising innovative educational technologies to implement/facilitate high quality blended learning
• enhancing the student experience through the considered use of the “flipped classroom”.
Project Deliverables• Submission of a Progress Report in the required format (1-2 pages) to the
DVC(A) at the end of each semester
• A Final Project Report in the required format (8-10 pages) to the DVC(A) at the end of the project
• Evidence of sustained change in policy and/or practice in one or more of UNSW’s priority areas for educational change, in one or more UNSW faculties
• Evidence of greater capability for effective leadership of learning and teaching having been developed within the applicant, the applicant’s faculty/school and/or UNSW as a whole
• Open sharing throughout the University of any insights, developments or materials (including educational technology, software, and/or resources) that have resulted from the project, including those related to the processes of leading and managing the change.
Application Process
The primary process of application is through a written project proposal that addresses each of the following on the required Application Form
• Project Outcomes and Rationale for how the project will address one or
more of UNSW’s current priorities for Teaching Fellowships.
• Approach – a description of what will be done to ensure that the proposed Fellowship will deliver its stated outcomes including a description of the Fellowship’s proposed governance, management, and work packages.
• Value/Need for the Project – a description of the potential usefulness of the Fellowship and its outcomes to the development of policy and/or practice in learning and teaching in the applicant’s faculty/school or UNSW as a whole.
• Budget - A fully justified description of how the total costs associated with the project will be met, including a description of how funding received via the Teaching Fellowship Grant will be deployed to develop, deliver, assess/ evaluate and report on the outcomes of the learning and/or teaching development that is the focus of the project.
Endorsements
Since it is intended that the outcomes of UNSW Teaching Fellowship
funded projects/initiatives be sustainable, it will be necessary for applicants
to secure the endorsement of their faculty Dean, HOS, or anyone else with
responsibility for approving any on-going budget, resources or organisational
changes that may be necessary to sustain these outcomes
Teaching
• Since it is intended that the holders of these prestigious grants will exercise
leadership in teaching within and beyond their school/faculty throughout the
period of their Fellowship, it is expected that the recipients of these awards
will continue to teach.
• However, funding provided via these Teaching Fellowship Grants may be
used to fund teaching support (e.g., assistance with marking and /or
content/resource development).
Selection Criteria
• The clarity of the articulated outcomes and arguments to demonstrate how the project will address one of UNSW Learning and Teaching Priorities for 2014-2018.
• The potential usefulness of the project and its outcomes in developing:– policy and/or practice in learning and teaching, AND– capability for leadership of learning and teaching in the applicant, the applicant’s
faculty/school, and/or UNSW as a whole.
• The strength of the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that underpin the proposed approach.
• The appropriateness and coherence of the proposed approach with the project’s stated outcomes.
• The appropriateness of the project’s proposed governance and management arrangements.
• The appropriateness of the project’s plans for the evaluation, dissemination and embedding of project outcomes in the policies/practices of the applicant’s faculty/school or UNSW as a whole.
• The appropriateness of the Project’s proposed budget and the strength of its justification.
Timelines and Closing Dates for Applications
Proposals for projects to be funded by a UNSW Teaching Fellowship Grant will be called for ONCE in 2014 for commencement in January 2015.
• Call for Proposals 1
Sep 2014
• Close for Endorsed Applications3 Oct 2014
• Assessment and Ranking of Endorsed Applications
TBC
• Notification of Outcomes to Applicants 1 Nov 2014
• Successful Round Projects Commence 6 Jan 2015
Preparing Your Application
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
1. Failure to adequately describe the NEED for educational change
– What is the educational issue that the project seeks to address?
– Why is this an issue?
o What is /are the educational contexts in which this issue arises?
o Why/how does this issue arise in these contexts?
o What is/are the impact(s) on learning/teaching when this issue arises?
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
2. Failure to adequately describe and justify the PROPOSED educational change
– What do you propose needs to change to address this issue? – Why do you believe such a change will address this issue?– What is the conceptual and theoretical justification for this approach?
3. Failure to clearly articulate the purpose and intended outcomes of the proposed project
– What role will the proposed project play in addressing this issue?– What will the project facilitate and/or deliver that will help to realise the
proposed educational change and address this issue?
A Framework for Identifying and Justifying the Need for Educational Change
MAP and DESCRIBE Current Practice
Determine the assumptions, values
and beliefs that INFORM Current
Practice
CONFRONT the appropriateness of these assumptions,
values and beliefs for future practice
IDENTIFY Strengths and Weaknesses of
current practice
Determine how these assumptions, values and beliefs NEED TO
CHANGE for the future
RECONCEPTUALISE current practice
based on these new assumptions, values
and beliefs
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
4. Failure to adequately describe and justify the approach to be taken to effect the change
– What dimensions of current practice need to change?
– How do each of these dimensions of current practice need to change?
– What needs be done to realise the changes required to each of these dimensions of current practice?
A Framework for Identifying Foci for Educational Change
A Framework for Planning Educational Change
IDENTIFY the work packages and
deliverables that will need to be realised to
effect the proposed change
IMPLEMENT and Monitor each work package to ensure that they deliver as
required
Resolve any outstanding or
emerging issues in order to
INSTITUTIONALISE desired change
INITIATE the change by accessing and
aligning the necessary resources to each
work package
ESTABLISH the governance,
management and organisational
arrangements necessary to oversee and effect the
change
Monitor and EVALUATE the effectiveness of combined work
packages to realise the desired change
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
5. Failure to adequately describe and justify the approach to be taken to managing and effecting the educational change
– Who will be responsible for the overall governance of the project – i.e., for ensuring the project is appropriately planned and managed, and that it delivers what is required in time and in budget?
– Who will be responsible for the overall management of the project and the coordination of the various work packages and teams to ensure that the project utilises its available resources effectively and efficiently to deliver what is required in time and in budget?
– Who will contribute to the realisation of each work package?
Typical Project Governance and Management Structure
Project Governing Board
Project Manager
Project Leader Project Advisory
Group
Project Team
Work Package
1
Work Package
2
Work Package
3
Work Package
4
?
?
?
?
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
6. Failure to adequately describe how the proposed project will build your own and others’ leadership capability in relation to educational change
– How will your role(s) in the project assist you to develop your own leadership capability in relation to learning and teaching?o What are the affordances of your role(s) in the proposed project for
developing your leadership capability?o How will you leverage these affordances for this purpose?
– How will the project assist you to develop others’ leadership capabilities in relation to learning and teaching?o What are the affordances of the proposed project for developing
others’ leadership capabilities?o How will you leverage these affordances for this purpose?
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
7. Failure to adequately describe and justify the approach to monitoring and evaluating the educational change
– How will the progress of each work package be monitored?o Who will be responsible/involved?o What will be the indicators of successful progress/completion of
each work package?
– How will the project’s overall success be monitored and evaluated?o Who will be responsible/involved in monitoring the project’s
progress? o What will be the indicators of appropriate progress?o Who will be responsible for evaluating the overall success of the
project?o What will be the indicators of the project’s overall success?
A Framework for Planning the Evaluation of Educational Change
Purpose of the Evaluation
Formative? Summative?
Foci of the Evaluation ? ?
Timing of the Evaluation ? ?
Stakeholders interests in the evaluation
? ?
Indicators and measures of success
? ?
Process of the evaluation
? ?
Dissemination and reporting of the findings of the evaluation
? ?
Avoid Common Conceptual Weaknesses
8. Failure to adequately describe your underlying theory of “leadership” and “management”
– What do you understand leadership to be in relation to learning and teaching?
– How do you differentiate it from the management and/or administration of learning and teaching?
– What do you understand to be the indicators of “leadership”, particularly in relation to learning and teaching?
Differentiating Leadership From Management (Kotter 1990)
Leadership Management
Establishing Direction Planning and Budgeting
Aligning People Organising and Staffing
Motivating and Inspiring Monitoring and Problem-Solving
Purpose: To define and effect change
Purpose:To maintain predictability and order
Avoid Common Technical Weaknesses
9. Project is not appropriate for the particular type of grant – The scope of the project is too great for the funds available– The project does not address any or all of the required priorities for
funding– The project neither addresses a particular educational need, nor is it
particularly innovative in either its design or proposed outcome(s)
10. Applicants do not meet the eligibility criteria for the grant– Inexperienced / inappropriate experience
11. Project description does not effectively address all required selection criteria– Too much time spent on one criterion over another or one or more
criteria are not addressed at all
Avoid Common Technical Weaknesses
12. Project budget is inappropriate
– Seeks funding for categories of expenditure that are not approved– Budget expenses do not align with proposed project method/approach– Budget expenses are distributed inappropriately throughout the life-
cycle of the project– Budget expenses are excessive given the nature and scope of the
project– Budget comprises a series of ambit claims– Derivation of budget expenses not articulated– Justifications for budget expenses not provided
Project Planning Template
Avoid Common Technical Weaknesses
13. Grant Application not submitted in the required format
– NOT on the correct form– NOT structured in the required manner (uses all required headings)– NOT in the correct font or font size– Does NOT contain all of the endorsements required– etc