SPPS Teacher of the Year (Educator of the Year) Award

The awardee will demonstrate excellence in one or more of the following four educational themes*:

Common characteristics of good teachers include:  Positive student-faculty contact, effective active learning, achievable yet high expectations for learners, respect for diverse talents and ways of learning, effective communication skills, ongoing course improvements, introduction of pedagogical innovations, commitment to teaching well.  These characteristics are typically highlighted in student and peer evaluations and letters of support.

Scholarly teaching involves innovation in course design, development and implementation**; course improvements; enhancements in student learning through pedagogical and active learning approaches.  Scholarly teaching also promotes student engagement and learning using the educational literature and systematically assesses learning outcomes.  The purpose of scholarly teaching is to impact the activity of teaching and the resulting learning.  Scholarly teaching often incorporates:

• observing a teaching-learning problem or opportunity
• consulting literature
• selecting and applying an educational intervention
• conducting systematic observation
• documenting observations
• analyzing results and obtaining peer evaluation

SOTL goes beyond Scholarly Teaching and disseminates the application in the literature through publication or other peer-reviewed avenues.  SOTL builds on the end product of Scholarly Teaching.  It involves identifying key issues from scholarly teaching, analyzing results and putting them into the context of the existing knowledge base.

• educational / academic activities aligned with the school’s mission, vision and values
• community educational activities with SPPS students
• faculty advisor to SPPS student professional organization
• active committee roles in educational organizations at the university, state and/or national levels
• impactful SPPS student advising and mentoring
• volunteer service in SPPS activities (e.g., SPPS Reads, Open House, Summer Institute, Dean’s Alumni Ambassador, etc)
• presentations (poster / podium) of educational activities at regional or national meetings

The Office of Academic Affairs will manage the overall process, with supporting help from other units as needed.

Award Timeline

Award Eligibility

Any SPPS affiliated faculty or staff with an instructional role at the SPPS undergraduate, professional (P1-P3 PharmD) and graduate levels*.  Teacher of the Year (Educator of the Year) awardees from the previous two years are ineligible.

Nominees may submit dossiers for only one award, Teacher of the Year (Educator of the Year) or Educational Innovation of the Year, in any given academic year.

Nominations

Nominations for Teacher of the Year (Educator of the Year) will be solicited from students, faculty, staff and alumni, who have knowledge of the nominee’s educational effectiveness and impact.  Self-nominations will also be accepted.

Nominations should include a brief description of

• How the nominee has demonstrated excellence in any of the educational themes listed above.
• The situation in which the nominator directly observed or experienced excellence in the educational themes.

Nominations must be submitted online.

Nominees will be notified at the beginning of week 7.  In addition, SPPS recognition of all nominees will be promulgated to all SPPS members, irrespective of whether the nominee chooses to submit a dossier.

Late nominations past the deadline will not be accepted.

The Committee Chair notifies the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the awardee. The Associate Dean, in turn, informs the awardee of the recognition. The Committee Chair will compose a brief, one minute statement highlighting the awardee’s accomplishments to be read at commencement.  The awardee will come on stage to receive a plaque.

The award consists of a plaque and $1,000 in an account for professional development and support to attend the AACP Annual meeting and the AACP “Teacher of the Year” Luncheon.