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WTF / WTS Program Details

This program was awarded the prestigious 2005 TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence for the development of innovative and diverse communities of teacher-scholars across the UW System.

The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows group will include outstanding early-career, untenured faculty and teaching academic staff.  The Wisconsin Teaching Scholars group will include outstanding tenured faculty and experienced academic staff. Candidates must be exceptional teachers who publicly share their expertise and demonstrate leadership. Participants in the WTFS Program should be familiar with Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. Each participant undertakes a significant SoTL project, records the project’s progress on an electronic poster, and disseminates the results in public forums. Teaching Fellows and Scholars are expected to serve as leaders and mentors in campus and UW System SoTL work.

Each UW Institution may name two participants to the 2013-14 WTFS Program. Each participant will receive $4,000 in financial support from their institution and a $500 S&E grant from OPID.

To Apply:  Contact your Provost's office for application forms and your campus deadline. The UW System/OPID deadline for receiving campus selections for the 2013-14 WTFS Program is November 16, 2012. For additional information, please contact La Vonne J. Cornell-Swanson, OPID Director, 608.263.2722 or lcornell-swanson@uwsa.edu
 

   

2012-13 
Program 
Requirements 

  • Attendance at five OPID-sponsored events throughout the year:
    • Faculty College - May 29-June 1, 2012, UW-Richland
    • Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) Summer Institute - June 11-15, 2012, UW-Madison
    • WTFS Fall Seminar - September 27-28, 2012, UW-Green Bay
    • WTFS Winter Seminar - January 14-15, 2013, Concourse Hotel, Madison
    • 2013 Final WTFS Spring Meeting and Public Poster Session - April 18-19, 2013, Concourse Hotel, Madison
  • Completion of a SoTL project with dissemination of results in a professional forum
  • Recording of SoTL project's progress on electronic poster throughout the Program year
     
   

Selection 
Criteria 

  • Evidence of excellent teaching
  • Knowledge of and interest in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
  • Demonstrated success in disseminating teaching and learning innovations
  • A record of campus leadership on issues of teaching and learning
  • The one difference between Fellows and Scholars is career stage:
  • Fellows: Full-time, untenured faculty or teaching academic staff with at least one year teaching at their current campus
  • Scholars: Tenured faculty or teaching academic staff with at least ten years of teaching experience
     
   

Value to 
Institutions 

 
The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program benefits the institutions in the following ways:

  • Raises the profile of teaching on the campuses;
  • Calls campus attention to the importance of student learning and excellent teaching;
  • Identifies and rewards a cadre of quality teachers who model and publicly demonstrate outstanding teaching, share their knowledge and expertise, and become leaders at their institutions and throughout the System;
  • Invests in the creation of long-term, productive relationships between instructors and their institutions, thus helping to retain the best and the brightest;
  • Builds Scholarship of Teaching and Learning involvement on each campus; and
  • Responds to requests made over the years to OPID from administrators and faculty to find ways to reward and to address the needs of faculty and instructional staff who are at the mid-point of their careers.

Surveys reveal that a significant number of former Fellows have received outstanding teaching awards. Many have become leaders in faculty development efforts on their own campuses, and have been instrumental in connecting their institutions to national efforts to support excellent teaching and the national SOTL initiative.