Call for Proposals: Provost’s Teaching Fellows Program

February 15, 2022

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Faculty,

Throughout the past two years, you have demonstrated flexibility and creativity in adapting your teaching to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic. I wish to continue supporting faculty in their efforts to build on these experiences by adopting new practices and redesigning their courses.

Last year, Rutgers–New Brunswick partnered with the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR) to create the Provost’s Teaching Fellows Program, which supports pedagogical innovation to improve student learning outcomes. 

We are now recruiting faculty to serve as Provost’s Teaching Fellows for the 2022-2023 academic year. The program will include full cohort sessions to share goals and build networks, as well as small group consultations focusing on different elements of course redesign. Fellows will be supported by a $2,000 research stipend. Applications are due March 25, 2022.

We welcome applications from faculty who wish to redesign a course being taught in Fall 2022 in one of the following ways:

• Adopt Flipped Instruction with Active Learning
  • “Flipping a class” refers to the practice of having students complete the introduction of content individually through activities such as readings and recorded lectures at home. Class time is then reserved for collaboration, higher-order thinking, problem solving, practice, and activities that deepen understanding and make connections.
• Developing Personalized Learning
  • Personalized learning looks to align course experience more closely to individual needs of students. This student-centered design prioritizes some student control of pace, path, place, and/or time, and may involve creating differentiated pathways that match students with the resources and practice opportunities needed to best achieve course learning outcomes. 
• Developing Alternative Grading Schemes 
  • Alternative grading schemes include adopting elements of mastery-based grading, specifications grading, ungrading, or other grading approaches that prioritize student learning.

Commitment and Eligibility: We welcome full-time Rutgers University–New Brunswick faculty to apply. Applicants should be prepared to commit to participate in the redesign retreat (May 18-20), schedule consultations and check-ins as necessary to support their projects throughout the summer, present their projects on August 22, implement changes in their course in Fall 2022, and submit an evaluation report by January 31, 2023. 

To learn more, consider attending the Provost Teaching Fellows Spotlight event on Friday, February 25, 2022 from 1:00pm-2:00pm, where we will hear from past fellows including Ines Rauschenbach, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, who rethought the assessment of her large enrollment course; Elin Wicks, School of Engineering, who incorporated study skills and metacognitive aspects to support students in her course; and Maria Venetis, School of Communication & Information, who incorporated active learning activities in her course. This event will be in-person with a virtual attendance option. Please register here. You may also email questions to ctaar@docs.rutgers.edu. 

To apply, please prepare a statement of interest indicating the course you wish to redesign, the changes you would like to make, and an explanation of how they fit with one of the three themes as described above. Your department chair should use this template letter to endorse your statement of interest. Please submit your application here by March 25, 2022.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University–New Brunswick