Awards and Honors

Distinguished Teaching Awards Nominations

DOSSIER NOMINATIONS DUE OCTOBER 16, 2008
Submit printed material to: Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards University Ceremonies, Indiana Memorial Union, M005, Bloomington	For additional information email: disteach@indiana.edu or call 812-855-3761.
Submit electronically to: disteach@indiana.edu	Guideline information: www.indiana.edu/~disteach.

The Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards wishes to bring to your attention the opportunity for submitting nominations for the All University Teaching Awards.

The purpose of these awards is to call attention to the importance of teaching as well as to recognize those who have demonstrated excellence. The faculty awards are made at the Founders Day ceremonies and a cash award goes with the certificate. The amount of the cash award becomes a permanent supplement to the awardee's salary in subsequent fiscal years for as long as the awardee remains employed at Indiana University. The Lieber Associate Instructor Awards are also given at Founders Day and they receive, in addition to the certificate, a one‑time cash award. The awards to be presented in 2008 are listed below:

Sylvia E. Bowman Award
Frederic Bachman Lieber Award
Herman F. Lieber Award
President's Awards
Part-Time Teaching Awards
Lieber Associate Instructor Awards

To view a complete list of previous recipients go here.

Individuals may make nominations directly to the Committee or they may submit nominations through departmental chairpersons or deans. Serious consideration should be given to the nomination of both faculty members and associate instructors. The committee does not consider visiting or emeriti faculty nor former All University Teaching Award recipients for these awards. For the Sylvia E. Bowman, Frederic Bachman Lieber, Herman F. Lieber, and President’s Awards, the committee considers only tenured full-time faculty (or faculty holding an equivalent appointment in a continuing full-time position) who have taught for five or more years at Indiana University. The following suggestions for evidence are presented for use in preparing a dossier.

General Guidelines

The quantity and quality of information submitted in support of a nomination have tended to vary considerably in the past. While there is no wish to demand an artificial uniformity in the documents submitted to it, the Committee believes that some description of what it looks for when evaluating nominations may be helpful.

All the awards are given in recognition of distinguished teaching; a candidate must be judged, therefore, in terms of his or her accomplishments as a teacher. Evidence concerning a candidate's excellence in research, in administrative duties, or in public service is relevant only so far as the information helps explain the candidate's effectiveness as a teacher. Similarly, statements concerning a candidate's personality or popularity are significant only when they help demonstrate or define the precise nature of the individual's excellence in teaching. The Committee naturally is interested in knowing all it can about the individuals it must evaluate, BUT its decisions must rest primarily upon information that is offered to substantiate superiority in teaching.

The more precise such information is, the more likely it is to gain favorable consideration.

The Committee is interested in knowing the particular way in which a candidate has displayed his or her abilities to best advantage:

-- whether he or she is most outstanding as a lecturer,
-- as a leader of small seminars and classes,
-- and/or as a guide for students in their independent projects.

The Committee wishes to learn through the required self‑analysis how the candidate has enlarged the content or elevated the intellectual level of his or her courses, and how his or her teaching activities have contributed to the intellectual growth of both the students and the candidate.
The Committee is concerned with the candidate's rigor as a teacher. It seeks evidence that the candidate has been doing not simply a good job but a distinguished one and that his or her contribution to students, to the department and to the University as a whole testifies to exceptional abilities and efforts.

This evidence may be derived from various sources. While the Committee appreciates the opinions of a candidate's students, as well as those of colleagues and supervisors, it usually values these opinions in direct proportion to their spontaneity. It does not, therefore, recommend deliberate campaigns to solicit student support. It finds the view of students most informative when the students are least aware that these views may affect their teacher's chances of receiving an important award. In general, the Committee is more impressed by the quality than by the number of endorsements that a candidate receives. Student course evaluations submitted as part of a candidate's dossier should be accompanied by an explanation of how the evaluations were administered. An explanation of the methods by which evaluations and endorsements were obtained helps insure that the Committee will weigh them appropriately.

Those professors who do not receive awards in the year when they first are nominated are automatically reconsidered by the Committee for an additional year. New supporting evidence may be submitted in the second year. Because of the constant turnover among associate instructors, the Committee does not carry over their nominations from year to year; but there is no reason why worthy candidates in this category cannot be re-nominated in successive years, so long as the candidates continue to perform teaching duties in a manner to warrant consideration and are active associate instructors during the academic year in which they are nominated.

Outline For Dossier Preparation

In addition to the general guidelines above, an outline of more specific items is given below.

The Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards suggests that supporting documentation be submitted in the following order on as many of the items as appropriate. All material submitted must be placed in a single three‑ring binder. An additional binder may be submitted with supportive evidence, but the case should be made in the main binder. The second binder is for documentation only; the committee cautions against the submission of excess material.

Curriculum vita of the individual being nominated.
Number of years of teaching at Indiana University (include the specific dates) and present position and rank.
Nomination letter or letters. Nominators should substantiate why the person is qualified for the award by references to specific teaching qualities and activities.
Courses taught at Indiana University listed by semester and enrollment. (Be sure to include course number and title). Distinguish between undergraduate (lower-level), undergraduate (upper-level), and graduate courses.
Self‑analysis. The committee considers this statement of self-reflection to be of central importance and gives it much weight in its deliberations. In the statement candidates should discuss their teaching philosophy and how it is put into practice. Included should be an account of any efforts undertaken to analyze teaching, with specific reference to self-improvement and student accomplishment in its broadest sense. The statement should be between 5 and 8 pages, double-spaced.
Student evaluations of teaching: include complete summaries of a sample of courses across the teaching career. Include all student comments for each course selected for evaluation.
Peer evaluations: local and external, solicited and unsolicited.
Administrative evaluations; indicate areas specific to teaching.
Systematic course or program development. Include materials or descriptions and evaluation data if available. Please include samples of recent syllabi.
Research and publications related to teaching. List publications and submit abstracts if possible. Include any public dissemination of teaching materials and methods.
Academic student counseling and mentoring. Describe any unusual activities, such as working with students in special needs areas.

Items 8, 9, 10, and 11 may not be applicable to associate instructors, or to part-time faculty.

All items should be submitted in a paper format. In addition, items 1, 2, 4, and 5 above (and item 3 if possible) should also be submitted electronically. Please see http://www.indiana.edu/~disteach for information on how to submit requested items electronically.

In order to give the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards time to consider nominees and make final selections, materials should be sent to the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards, University Ceremonies, Board of Trustees, IMU M005, IU Bloomington, and submitted electronically, on or before October 16, 2008. If you need additional information, please email disteach@indiana.edu or call 812-855-3761.

For the most current information and guidelines for nominating Distinguished Teachers, please visit www.indiana.edu/~disteach.