Faculty
FacultyTeaching
TeachingExcellence
ExcellenceAwards
Awards
Purposes, Procedures and Criteria
Maintained by:
Created:
Last Updated:
Mike Bell, Secretary to Staff Awards Committee
April 2010
July 2014
PURPOSES
The purposes of Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards are to recognise the contributions of staff to teaching excellence, to
select local teaching excellence award recipients, and to provide a consistent process to determine suitable nominees for
University of Waikato Staff Teaching Excellence Awards which will in turn feed into the national Tertiary Teaching
Excellence Awards process.
For the purposes of this document “Faculty” will denote the six Faculties and the School of Māori and Pacific
Development/ Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao.
NATURE OF AWARDS
Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards will normally comprise a $2000 grant to be paid into the recipients’ research
accounts (or an appropriate account from which the recipient is entitled to spend) to support work related activity. Up
to two awards may be made by each Faculty every year. In exceptional circumstances, such as resignation or retirement
by the staff member before the money can be spent on work related purposes, then the monetary component may be
uplifted as a taxable bonus payment.
An allowance of $4000 for each Faculty will be made from a central budget each year. Faculties should contact the
Secretary of the Staff Awards Committee for details and further information about payment into recipients’ research
accounts.
ELIGIBILITY
All teaching staff are eligible for nomination but there is a stand down period of six years for University nominees
for national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards.
PROCESSES FOR SEEKING NOMINATIONS AND SELECTING RECIPIENTS
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award nomination and selection processes are administered by the Centre for Tertiary Teaching
and Learning (CeTTL) in collaboration with the Pro Vice-Chancellor Education and individual Faculties. Faculties may develop
their own processes around teaching excellence awards, but the following guidelines are recommended.
The process for seeking nominations and selecting recipients for teaching awards at a Faculty level will be as follows:
1.
Communications and External Relations should be advised in December to allow them to produce a
communication plan for promotion of the nomination process in the following year.
2.
Students and staff will be asked to make recommendations for awards throughout the year supported by a
communications plan prepared by Communications and External Relations Division. The deadline for
recommendations will be the first Friday in September.
An online nomination form has been developed to capture nominations from staff and students at
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/pod/nomination/. The form automatically captures the username of the
nominator to ensure that five distinct recommendations are received for each successful nominee.
Note that any WMS students accessing the form will be redirected to a separate WMS nomination form when
they select “Waikato Management School” from the drop down list of School/Faculty.
3.
The data gathered from the online form will be held in an Excel spreadsheet which will be processed by
Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning (CeTTL) staff following the deadline for recommendations. The
spreadsheet will be sorted by teachers’ names to identify individuals suitable for nomination for a teaching award
– i.e. those teachers, or teaching teams, who have received at least five recommendations from individual staff
and students.
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Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards
Purposes, Procedures and Criteria
4.
The spreadsheet data for each eligible teaching excellence nomination will be sent to the relevant Faculty staff contact
and Dean with the expectation the Faculty will inform the nominees as soon as practicable following the deadline.
Note that nominations are subject to the endorsement of the Dean or other relevant senior manager, who confirms
that the individual or team demonstrates relevant key attributes for staff and is suitable for an award.
5. Faculty selection processes will be used to identify up to two recipients of Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards within each
Faculty who may be nominated for University of Waikato Teaching Excellence Awards, based on the criteria outlined
below. The selection process will involve a selection panel of no fewer than three members, one of whom will be the Pro
Vice-Chancellor Education or their representative.
Faculty awards may be awarded to teachers with less than six years teaching experience but they will not be eligible for a
University Teaching Excellence Award. Nominations should be systematically evaluated on each criterion. Portfolios have a
maximum 8,000 word limit; there is no minimum word requirement, but candidates should properly address the criteria
headings below.
The process can be designed to suit local needs. However before selection nominees from each area will be:
6.
a.
Asked if they wish their nomination to proceed;
b.
Advised that they need to prepare a portfolio addressing the criteria listed below (based on the most recent
requirements for the national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards published on the Ako Aotearoa website –
www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz – but which does not need to conform to the 8,000 word expectation) to inform the Faculty
selection process, and that CeTTL assistance is available; and
c.
Provided, where appropriate, with the option of formatting their portfolio for an award to recognise teaching in a
kaupapa Māori context. A support group to assist the successful nominee for this award will be organised should the
nominee request such collegial support.
The names of Faculty Teaching Excellence Award recipients will be forwarded to the Pro Vice-Chancellor Education no
later than 31 October as nominees for university awards. Nominations may be for either a Teaching Excellence Award or
a Teaching Excellence in a Kaupapa Māori Context Award and evidence and reflection portfolios of no more than 8,000
words (including attachments) should be accompanied by the relevant nomination form (located at
www.waikato.ac.nz/pod/staffawards). The Pro Vice-Chancellor Education will, where appropriate, forward nominations
suitable for a Teaching Excellence in a Kaupapa Māori Context to the Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori for selection.
By accepting nomination for a University Teaching Excellence Award, candidates acknowledge that they will represent the
University to the best of their ability at national level should they be nominated. If successful they will also undertake to support
colleagues who are subsequently nominated for Teaching Excellence Awards.
Note that at any stage in the process nominees may seek advice in compiling their portfolios and understanding the
requirements of each heading from the Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning (CeTTL).
CRITERIA
Selection criteria will be based on the teaching portfolio headings published on the Ako Aotearoa website
(www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz) for national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards.
Currently for teaching excellence awards these are:
• Design for learning
• Facilitating learning
• Assessing student learning
• Evaluating learning and teaching
• Professional development and leadership
Currently for teaching excellence in a kaupapa Māori context awards these are:
• Mana - Leadership and Professional Development
o Rangatiratanga - leadership
o Kaupapa Māori – Māori concepts
o Mātauranga Māori – Māori knowledge
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Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards
Purposes, Procedures and Criteria
•
•
o Ūkaipōtanga - Loyalty
o Whanaungatanga – Relationships
o Kaitiakitanga – Guardianship/sustainability
Whakaakoranga – Teaching Excellence - Design for Learning, Facilitating Learning
o Kairangi - Excellence
o Pūkengatanga - Skills
o Manaakitanga – Concern for colleagues and learners
o Kotahitanga – Collaboration.
Mātaki – Assessing Student Learning, Evaluation of Learning and Teaching
o Ākonga - Learners
o Kaiako - Teaching
o Taunaki – Evidence
PROCEDURES FOLLOWING NOMINATION
The timeframe for developing evidence and reflection portfolios and the selection of Faculty award recipients will be from as
soon as practicable after nominations have closed and been processed by CeTTL (first Friday in September) until 31 October
(seven to eight weeks) when nominations must be submitted for consideration for University Teaching Excellence Awards.
Nominations should be made on the appropriate university nomination form (located at www.waikato.ac.nz/pod/staffawards)
attached to evidence and reflection portfolios which address the criteria listed above. Teaching excellence nominations should be
made on the Teaching Excellence Awards Nomination Form; kaupapa Māori context nominations should be made on the
Teaching Excellence in a Kaupapa Māori Context Award Nomination Form.
Selection of recipients of University Teaching Excellence awards and nominees for national Tertiary Teaching Excellence awards will
be made in accord with University of Waikato Staff Awards Purposes, Processes and Criteria located at
www.waikato.ac.nz/pod/staffawards. Recipients of Faculty Teaching Excellence awards will be announced at the presentation
ceremony for University staff awards, normally held in early December.
Recipients of national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards are usually announced in July. It is expected that recipients of these
awards will “share, present and promote good practice within their own and other institutions” 1. It is therefore incumbent upon
recipients to support others in the preparation of evidence and reflection portfolios, including publication of their own successful
portfolios to serve as exemplars for future nominees. The Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning (CeTTL) will discuss
opportunities for recipients to assist with the promotion of teaching excellence.
1
Ako Aotearoa Criteria and Guidelines for Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards. http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group4/n3363-criteria-and-guidelines-for-tertiary-teaching-excellence-awards.pdf
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