Call for Scholarly Teaching Grants launched again by Faculty Development Committee
In 2009, Dr. Erin Austin, chair of StFX’s Faculty Development Committee, met with Academic Vice President & Provost Dr. Mary McGillivray to discuss the possibility of offering three Scholarly Teaching Grants valued at $500 each to assist faculty members in developing an innovative teaching idea.
The first round of grants was launched in March 2009, with awards presented to Dr. Doris Gillis, human nutrition; Dr. Riley Olstead, sociology; and Dr. Donna Trembinski, history.
On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the three recipients presented to an interested group of faculty in the Teaching and Learning Centre, Room 202, in the Angus L. Macdonald Library. The Brown Bag Lunch, facilitated by the Faculty Development Committee, was an opportunity for faculty to hear how all three used their grants to help them develop a new teaching/learning concept.
Dr. Trembinski’s work was entitled Teaching Strategies of Containment and Strategies of Resistance in Medieval Inquisitions. She explained how she used the grant money to gather and organize materials that her students could use to develop a variety of role-play characters relevant to medieval inquisitions. Her class will participate in the role-play later in the term.
Dr. Gillis’s work was entitled Health Literacy in Dietetic/Nutrition Curriculum. She explained how health literacy is appearing as a priority for the practice of health professionals in Canada, and her project focuses on the integration of this new concept into the academic preparation of health professionals at StFX.
Dr. Olstead used the funds to help develop an online journal in undergraduate sociology, written and edited entirely by and for students. The money was mainly used to create a website for the journal.
On February 2nd, 2010, the Faculty Development Committee launched a call for applications for a second round of Scholarly Teaching Grants. Once again, three grants of $500 will be available to faculty to help develop an innovative teaching idea or learning approach.
The deadline for submission of applications is March 4, 2010. Interested faculty members can find an application form on the StFX Teaching website. (http://www.mystfx.ca/academic/facdev/).