Regents Teaching Excellence Awards Nominating Procedures
Universities of Wisconsin Awards are suspended at this time. Information will be updated if these awards resume.
Nominating procedures for UW–Madison nominations.
Every year, the Distinguished Teaching Awards Committee receives nominations for a limited number of awards. The nomination materials should showcase an extraordinary impact on or engagement with students (undergraduate, graduate or professional). While there is no single criterion that determines awardees, outstanding applications often show evidence of inventive ways of teaching, interesting course elements, and other examples above and beyond the expected standard for instruction.
Nomination materials are subject to release under Wisconsin Open Records laws and should be written with the possibility of those materials being made publicly available.
Note: It is essential that the established procedures be followed and page limits respected.
Eligibility
- Must be a previous recipient of a UW–Madison distinguished teaching award.
- Must have a minimum 10 years teaching experience within UW System.
- Nominators should coordinate their nominations with the chair of the nominee’s department. No more than one nominee per department will be accepted.
Criteria
- Critically reflective teaching that represents the nominee’s professional and personal growth as an educator over the past 10 years or more teaching within the Universities of Wisconsin.
- Ongoing sustained engagement with scholarship on pedagogy, student learning, and evidence-based teaching practices.
- Participation in professional development programs, the university’s teaching and learning center, and/or other organizations, or individually designed activities.
- Student-centered, equity-minded, and inclusive pedagogy that encourages all students to achieve academic success.
- Engaging pedagogical approaches which may include high-impact practices, such as community-based learning, internships, undergraduate research, intensive writing, learning communities, etc.
- Positive impact on the professional and personal development of students, as well as documented contributions to the nominee’s department, division, university, and community.
Nomination materials (maximum of 14 pages)
The nomination packet should address effective teaching and learning in the context of the Universities of Wisconsin, referencing relevant teaching initiatives and professional development opportunities that inform the nominee’s teaching performance. You are welcome to include excerpts from your course syllabi, student evaluations, and other documents, as well as summaries of experiences and professional development activities to strengthen the teaching statement and/or annotated CV of teaching.
- Teaching statement by the nominee (two pages maximum) on their teaching and learning philosophy, practices, and approaches, and how these have evolved over time. The teaching statement should address the nominee’s professional and personal growth as a teacher, including engagement with professional development and how these organized or individual activities have enhanced and contributed to their growth and development as an educator. The statement should also address how the assessment of student learning informs their teaching practice, and how the nominee has adopted and implemented equity-minded and innovative pedagogy into their teaching and learning practices.
- Annotated CV of teaching (eight pages maximum). The CV should expand on a mere listing of activities. Briefly describe and contextualize the importance of selected activities to applicant’s teaching and impact on student learning. Emphasize teaching-related information: education, academic employment, professional development and training, teaching-related publications and presentations, SoTL research projects, membership in teaching organizations, awards, teaching-related service and leadership, and other teaching-centered activities.
- Letters of support
- One supporting letter from the department chair (two pages maximum) supporting the nomination, stressing the nominee’s contributions to teaching and addressing the six criteria above. If the chair of a department is nominated, please provide a letter from the associate chair or from an appropriate departmental representative.
- One supporting letter from a current or former student (two pages maximum) that provides specific examples of the impact of the nominee’s teaching on the student’s learning and personal growth.
Eligibility
- Must be a UW–Madison academic department, program, or other academic unit.
Criteria
- Critically reflective teaching that represents the department/program as a cohesive and collective unit.
- Supports the ongoing and sustained growth and professional development of the department/program’s faculty and instructional academic staff through discussions on pedagogy, student learning, participation in professional development programs, the university’s teaching and learning center, and/or other organizations.
- Data-based decision-making, such as analyzing low grade/failure rates of students and strategic ways to improve students’ academic success.
- Active learning approaches, including the integration of high-impact practices, such as community-based learning, internships, undergraduate research, intensive writing, learning communities, etc.
- Equity-minded approach to ensure excellence in teaching and learning for the success of all students
- Recruiting, retaining, graduating, and supporting students after graduation with employment, graduate school, etc.
Nomination materials (maximum of 14 pages)
- Fact sheet (two pages maximum) describing the department/program with details such as degrees and certificates offered, faculty and academic staff short bios, statistics of students recruited, retained, and graduated.
- Annotated teaching statement (eight pages maximum) contextualizing the department/program’s mission, goals, objectives, and strategies, and how these have evolved over time. This annotated teaching statement should expand on a mere listing of activities. Briefly describe and contextualize the importance of selected activities to the unit’s teaching and impact on student learning. You are welcome to include excerpts and summaries of course syllabi, student evaluations, and other documents, experiences, and activities.
- Letters of support
- One supporting letter from the department chair or unit director/administrator (two pages maximum), addressing the six criteria above.
- One supporting letter from a current or former student (two pages maximum), who can speak to unit-level instruction and/or innovations.
The James R. Underkofler Teaching Excellence Award, funded by an endowment from the Alliant Energy Foundation, Inc. recognizes and rewards extraordinary undergraduate teachers at UW System universities within Alliant Energy’s service area. The award pays tribute to the dedication of faculty and staff as teachers and their ability to communicate their subject matter effectively and inspire in their students an enthusiasm for learning.
There is currently not a specific call for this faculty award; UW–Madison faculty recipients are chosen from among the UW–Madison Distinguished Teaching Award nominations.