Educational Leadership Award

All sessional instructors, lecturers, term and tenure-track faculty members at any rank in the Faculty of Science are eligible for this award. Specifically, the nomination must have the support of at least one individual who benefited from the educational leadership activities of the nominee in the last 12 months. To demonstrate impact beyond one’s classroom, the nomination cannot come from an individual who was a student in the class where those educational activities occurred.

Note that a faculty member who won the award previously will be ineligible for the same award for two years. For example, an instructor who won in 2024 is not eligible in 2025 and 2026.

• Nominations may be submitted by individual or groups of students, alumni, and faculty members (including Department Heads, Associate Deans, and Dean) in the Faculty of Science. Self-nominations will not be considered.
• Only nominations pertaining to activities carried out within the last 12 months will be considered.
• A nomination form must be submitted through the link provided on this page. Submitted nomination forms will be sent directly to the Dean’s Office.
• Eligible nominees will be contacted by the Dean’s Office to submit a nomination package.
• The Faculty of Science Awards Adjudication Committee will review the nomination packages.
• The Dean’s Office will contact the award winner and release the results.
• The award will be presented at the Annual Faculty of Science Awards Ceremony.

All nominees will be contacted and asked to submit a statement that provides evidence of educational leadership impact. The statement should address the following points in a maximum 5-page document written in 12-point font with 1-inch margins:

• Nominee’s statement of educational leadership goals, activities, and evidence of achievements (maximum 1 page).
• Letter(s) of support (maximum 1 page each) from individuals beyond the nominee’s classroom who can attest to the impact of the educational leadership activities.
• Sample of the educational leadership activity (e.g., assessment, publication, website, pictures), with accompanying description, that demonstrates the work being done (maximum 1 page).
• External reviews of the educational leadership work, if any; examples include journal reviewer comments, Senate approvals of curriculum changes, application of the work in a new context published by someone else (maximum 1 page).

Educational leadership activities that enhance teaching and learning beyond one’s classroom. Specifically, the criteria for this award include:

1. Teaching and Learning Literature

   Contribute to the practice and theory of teaching and learning literature, including published works in peer-reviewed and professional journals, conference publications, book chapters, and books. Develop teaching material that is widely disseminated and receives broad adoption, including assessments, textbooks, and open education repositories.

2. Teaching and Learning Events

   Create, organize, or otherwise contribute significantly to activities that advance interdisciplinary, inter-professional, and inter-institutional collaborations in teaching and learning, including conferences, programs, symposia, colloquia, and workshops to a local, provincial, national, and international audience.

3. Innovative Pedagogical Practice

   Innovate and enhance teaching, learning, and assessment with demonstrated impact beyond one’s classroom, department, discipline, or institution; this includes leading activities that implement funded initiatives and grant proposals.

4. Significant Curriculum Development

   Contribute to curriculum development and renewal beyond single courses; examples include changes that impact the program learning outcomes, the creation of mandatory or supplementary modules that have been adopted by multiple programs, curriculum mapping of course learning outcomes to program learning outcomes, the evaluation of the quality of assessments, and the implementation of quality control strategies in student learning in the program.

5. Undergraduate Research Supervision and Dissemination

   Mentor and supervise undergraduate students in science education research, co-author academic publications with students about teaching and learning, organize events to support and promote undergraduate student research, and generally, increase capacity for undergraduate students to conduct research in science education that promotes better teaching and student learning experiences.

Nominations will be accepted throughout the academic year.

• Annual deadline for nominations is May 15th.
• Nominated faculty will be notified no later than May 31st and will be asked to complete their package by June 30th.
• Nominations will be adjudicated in July and award presentations will be made in September.