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Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

2007–2008 Grant Recipients

Purposes, Goals and Assumptions:

The Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning is a fund created for the purposes of:

  • Encouraging individuals, departments and programs to develop new approaches to advancing student learning, and
  • Providing assistance to faculty and staff, for designing and implementing these approaches.

Three goals guide the fund:

  • To enhance the quality, while also expanding the range and accessibility, of learning experiences offered to Whitman students.
  • To provide faculty and staff with opportunities, dedicated resources and/or release time to develop improvements in teaching and learning, and
  • To promote greater collaboration across divisions, departments and programs.

The fund’s underlying assumptions are:

  • That supporting innovation requires an appreciation of the differences among disciplines, divisions and departments, and of their approaches to educating Whitman students,
  • That supporting and enabling innovative improvements in one department or program may require steps that are markedly different from those required to support change in another, and
  • That realizing the potential of initiatives for innovation requires the recognition that no set of initiatives will ever be complete; assessment, revision and renewal are expected.

A successful Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning proposal will include:

  • A well-developed idea,
  • Evidence for the likelihood of success,
  • A cogent explanation of the means by which the desired transformation will come about,
  • Funding tailored to specific needs,
  • A time table for expected achievements coupled with a strategy for assessment, and
  • A commitment of the department(s) and division(s) involved.

To illustrate the new emphasis, the following are illustrative examples of possible proposals:

  • A department wants to create a domestic or international field study experience for its majors,
  • A department or division wants to offer a portion of its core educational program or courses in a technologically intensive format in a manner that would build upon and supplement current instruction,
  • Faculty members from different departments wants to create new approaches to involving students more effectively into their scholarly and creative work,
  • Staff members want to develop programs for introducing sophomores to academic majors that will increase second-year retention,
  • Faculty and staff members want to develop new approaches to academic advising,
  • A department wants to design and establish writing portfolios for its majors,
  • Faculty members want to develop and test new approaches for assessing the quality of student learning.

Grant Process

Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning grant applications will be due Monday, September 10, 2007. The program will be administered from the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee established by the Provost and Dean of Faculty in consultation with the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Division Chairs. Funds allocated to the initiative will be separate from ASID funding and come from College surpluses and an allocation from the President’s contingency budget. Grant recipients will be selected on the basis of merit. No discipline or department will receive priority over another.

It is expected that grants will be awarded only to those projects that make major transformations in the learning experiences of Whitman students. Grants will typically range from $500-$15,000 and not exceed $20,000. Grant awards may be expended over a period of up to two years. Because the funds derive from temporary, one-time sources, projects created under the Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning initiative can only be continued beyond the project period with support from external sources (grants or donor gifts) or internal college budgets.

All grant recipients will submit a written report following the completion of the project to the Provost and Dean of Faculty that describes and evaluates the project’s successes (and/or failings). Finally, grant recipients will present the results of their project to the campus community in the Faculty Forum, the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Talks on Teaching, or some other community forum within one semester of its completion.

Applications should not exceed five (5) typed pages and should include the following items:

  1. A description of the project you intend to pursue, linking it to existing courses, curriculum objectives or programs of study.
  2. A rationale for the project that aligns it with the purposes and goals of the Support for Innovation initiative.
  3. A budget detailing projected expenditures and a timeline for completing the project,
  4. A description of the expected results or products of the project (e.g. revised course syllabus, planned off-campus experiences developed for students; applications of technology developed).
  5. A description of the plan for assessing the successfulness of the proposed project.

Six (6) copies of the application should be submitted to the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty. Attached to each should be an updated copy of the CV or resume of the principal investigator.