Teaching Assistant Awards Guidelines

The CPI Teaching Assistant Award was established in 1998 to recognize the superior contributions to the university by teaching assistants, seminar leaders and lab demonstrators. Three TA awards are available.

Awards:

SENIOR TA AWARD (Sponsored by The Centre for Pedagogical Innovation)
Presented to an individual TA in recognition of an outstanding contribution to teaching and learning at Brock. Amount of Award: $500.00

GRADUATE TA AWARD (sponsored by the Faculty of Graduate Studies)
Presented to a graduate student TA (less than 3 years experience) who shows promise in the field of teaching. Amount of Award: $400.00

Eligibility: Individuals eligible to receive the award are teaching assistants (seminar leaders and lab demonstrators) who have demonstrated a commitment to assisting others in reaching their educational goals. Eligible candidates must be graduate students with less than three years of experience as TAs. Note: Graduate students with more than 3 years experience as TAs should be nominated in the Senior TA Award category.

TA AWARD (sponsored by CPI)
Presented to an individual TA who shows promise in the field of teaching. Amount of Award: $300.00

Eligibility: Individuals eligible to receive the award are novice teaching assistants (seminar leaders and lab demonstrators) who have less than three years of experience as TAs but who have demonstrated a commitment to assisting others in reaching their educational goals.

Application Guidelines:

The nomination form (download and print, then fill out) must be signed by two nominators. One nominator must be a faculty member. The second nominator may be a student or a peer.
The individual nominated must sign the nomination form to indicate his/her willingness to be considered for the award.
Each nominator must submit a letter outlining
1. his/her relationship to the individual
2. why he/she has nominated this person
One of the two nominators must provide a summary of the supporting documentation (i.e. a summary of the testimonial letters, teaching evaluation data, etc)
Supporting documentation is essential. This should include
1. a statement of teaching philosophy
2. evidence of professional development in teaching (i.e. attendance at the Workshop Series offered by the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation)
3. faculty evaluations of TA performance (if available)
4. a summary of teaching evaluations (if available)
5. testimonial letters (from sources other than the nominators - maximum of 6)
6. A brief Curriculum Vitae

Suggestions:

Letters and supporting documents should address how the person has made a contribution to teaching rather than how great a person he/she is. For the purposes of this award, the following may be considered:

Classroom instruction, lecturing, seminars, tutorials, lab demonstration

Availability to students
Student mentoring
Marking and evaluation
Ability to respond to student needs
Methods of delivering instructional material
Contributions to course development and modification

2. Supporting documentation from a variety of sources is preferred (students, faculty, peers, administrators).

Deadline:

The nomination package (in hard copy) must be received at the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation (TH253B) by the first Friday in March. The successful candidates will receive the Awards at the TA Reception sponsored by the CPI and the VP Academic in April.

The package must include:

A nomination form signed by the two nominators and the candidate (also available from CPI in TH253B).
Complete documentation as outlined in #3, #4 and #5 above. All documentation is subject to verification by the selection committee.

Please note that the selection committee reserves the right not to select an award winner in any given year.

Print TA Awards Guidelines Print TA Awards Nomination Form