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Center for Teaching and Learning

Pedagogical Inquiry Grants

Center for Teaching and Learning
Pedagogical Inquiry Grants

Purpose:  The Pedagogical Inquiry Grant program, generously funded through a number of endowments, provides special opportunities for faculty to explore new approaches to teaching and for the wider instructional community to learn from those efforts. Grant recipients may share their learning with others by hosting CTL programs, facilitating departmental and cross-departmental conversations, and sharing resources they develop on the CTL Canvas site.

In support of the Environmental Justice, Sustainability and Climate Action strategic priority, and to encourage cross-disciplinary sustainability learning, a portion of available funding will be solely dedicated for sustainability-related pedagogical projects.

Eligibility: Priority is given to instructors in long-term teaching appointments because of the likely longer duration of the benefit to students. However, visiting faculty may apply, particularly when their participation may bring expertise that benefits the teaching of other faculty. We also encourage instructors to invite relevant staff members into their project. If the staff member is providing support that goes beyond their normal job duties, they can receive a stipend for this support with approval of the staff supervisor.

No department may apply more than twice in a single academic year (September 1–August 31). In addition, no faculty member can receive more than $3000 in Pedagogical Inquiry Grant stipends during a single academic year.

Deadlines: Project proposals are reviewed two times per year. The deadline for projects starting in Spring 2026 is November 1, 2025; the deadline for proposals for Summer or Fall 2026 is March 31, 2026.

Applications should be submitted to the Associate Dean for Faculty Development via this form.

Application Requirement:

  1. Cover page including budget details , a list of organizer(s) and participants.
  2. A narrative that directly answers the questions for the project type selected below.
  3. Budget justification (see below for guidelines).
  4. Anything else, as relevant. Feel free to share any questions you had in putting this application together or anything else you'd like us to know.

Grant Deliverables: After the project has concluded, the project member(s) must submit the following to the Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Mary Raschko, in order to receive stipends:

  1. A report to the CTL steering committee that explains how the initial goal of the inquiry project was met, preliminary information on its impact on student learning, and how the grant recipient envisions sharing the results of the project with others on campus. (More instructions on the final report can be found in the award letter.)
  2. Relevant teaching materials, such as course proposals, syllabi, specific assignments, revised learning goals, evaluation rubrics/criteria and/or assessment plans, that emerge from the project and are highlighted in the report.
  3. Cross Department Inquiry grant recipients are expected to present the results of their project in a CTL-sponsored program or other event that facilitates faculty learning.

Project Types

Please note: Fall and/or Spring First Year Seminar course development is encouraged as an indirect outcome of PIG-supported projects, as meaningful results inspired by broader CDI or DI projects, which in turn go beyond regular departmental or program business. The PIGs are not in place for directly funding FYS course development.

A. Cross-Departmental Inquiry (CDI) Project

An interdisciplinary team explores a common area of study. This might include how a particular topic is taught from multiple perspectives, or a particular skill that cuts across disciplines (e.g., writing, oral communication, quantitative skills, intercultural learning). The participants involved will benefit from the experience of learning alongside each other.

The following are questions to consider and address in preparing a CDI application:

  1. What is the common area of inquiry that you want to explore, and why do you think it is important?
  2. Who are your team members, and what does each bring to your inquiry? (1–2 sentences are fine.) Remember that staff can be included in your proposal. The CTL committee strives to make these grants as inclusive as possible. To that end, please mention people you had hoped would participate but who are not available, with a note of how they might be included in work after the grant is completed. Applicants can also consider engaging colleagues with relevant expertise in a limited consulting role if they are not able to participate fully.
  3. What does each participant imagine to be the outcome of their participation in the project that will enhance teaching and learning? Each proposed participant needs to provide 2–3 sentences.
  4. What preliminary texts/sources will guide your work? Some of these might be focused on content (e.g. articles or books about gender, animal studies, graphic novels) but you should also include some pedagogically focused readings about how to teach content.
  5. On what timeline will you conduct your work? (Applicants should include a short syllabus or outline.)
  6. What resources and/or programming do you anticipate sharing with the broader faculty community at Whitman? What format might that information-sharing take? (e.g. interactive workshop, panel presentation and discussion, a short video for asynchronous learning, etc.).

B. Departmental Inquiry Project

Members of a department want to go beyond their regular departmental business to focus on an area or program identified as a high priority for rethinking and innovation.

The following are questions to consider and address in preparing a departmental application:

  1. What specific aspect of student learning has sparked the department's decision to work together? What pedagogical challenges or structural inequities does the department seek to address? What source of information led the department to identify this as an issue (e.g. external review results, assessment in the major, alumni feedback, etc.)?
  2. What will success look like after your project ends? What do you envision will have changed in terms of what students can do? When relevant, please explain how the project will increase inclusivity in the learning environment.
  3. What specific collaborative work is necessary and which department members are participating? For example, a department might undertake curricular mapping to see where specific skills are being taught to ensure students are getting repeated opportunities to build their performance on that skill.
  4. What scholarly research or expertise will inform your inquiry? This could include general scholarship on teaching and learning, or it could entail something specific to your field. It might also include consultation with Whtiman colleagues beyond your department or someone beyond campus with qualified expertise in particular pedagogical approaches. In your application, please give the committee a clear explanation of your use(s) of such scholarship and expertise.
  5. On what timeline will you conduct your work? (Applicants should include a short syllabus or outline.)

C. Pedagogical Enhancement Project

An individual instructor seeks to address some challenges in student learning by changing a pedagogical approach in their course. The changes sought to go beyond the “what” of content to the “how” of engaging students with that content. Just a few examples include developing collaborative assignments or activities, learning new technologies that facilitate student engagement, developing new ways of grading student work, and developing assignments or activities in collaboration with a local community organization to facilitate community-engaged learning. 

The following are questions to consider and address in preparing an individual application:

  1. What is it about your students’ learning that you would like to improve and why? What sources of information helped you identify this as an issue?
  2. What will success look like after your project ends? What do you envision will have changed in terms of what students can do? When relevant, please explain how the project will increase inclusivity in the learning environment.
  3. What scholarly research or expertise will inform your inquiry? This could include general scholarship on teaching and learning, or it could entail something specific to your field. It might also include consultation with someone beyond campus with qualified expertise in particular pedagogical approaches. In your application, please give the committee a clear explanation of your use(s) of such scholarship and expertise.
  4. On what timeline will you conduct your work? (Applicants should include a short syllabus or outline.)
  5. What resource(s) might you develop that could be helpful to your colleagues’ teaching? Resources might be shared on the CTL Canvas site or in related CTL programming.

Budget Guidelines

Stipends. Requested stipends should reflect the duration and intensity of work across the granting period, and applicants should provide a justification for the amount requested. Up to $1500 in compensation may be requested for each faculty or staff participant. For cross-departmental and departmental grants, an additional $500 may be requested for a person acting as coordinator. Stipends are paid upon receipt of the final project report.

The maximum stipend usually corresponds to substantive work taking place throughout the full semester or summer. Although the CTL committee recognizes the potential benefits of working collaboratively at a retreat, applicants should not seek the maximum stipend for working in this compressed timeframe, since it allows less time for reflection and extended learning.

Please explicitly indicate whether staff participants should receive a stipend as agreed by their supervisor and indicate whether they are “exempt” or “non-exempt” employees.

Consultants. A consultant with expertise can be brought to campus, ideally to meet with a group of faculty to help with assignment design or some other pedagogical aspect of the project. Their travel expenses, plus a stipend of $500, can be requested.

Readings. There are many books and online resources already available via Penrose Library and the CTL can order titles we do not yet own. Each participant may request up to $100 in books or other research-related fees.

Equipment and Supplies: Any equipment purchased with PIG funds will become the property of Whitman College. For requests involving technology, please consult with David Sprunger, Director of Instructional and Learning Technology, prior to submitting your application.

Depending on the availability of grant funds, the CTL committee may ask about sharing the costs of specific line items in the budget proposal (i.e. materials books, journal subscriptions, etc.) with department budgets and/or endowments dedicated to such purposes.

Student Assistants. Students often offer valuable perspectives on the classroom or curriculum, when engaged as pedagogical partners. During the semester, up to 80 hours of student assistance can be requested (at the same rate as the Abshire awards). For summer grants, up to 160 hours of student assistance can be requested. Applicants should explain why the student's assistance is especially valuable to the project and provide an outline of their anticipated work.

Grant Recipients

Provost and Dean of the Faculty